Vagabonds

Chapter 1

Bridget didn't know how much longer she could survive the grueling math lesson. She had already completed the notes while others snailed their way along. This was take two of precalculus for her since she was notorious for snoozing during take one the year before. She'd found that teachers would rather you at least stay alert than actually retain any information, so willed herself to keep awake. A difficult task indeed. Seconds were closer to hours than even minutes. The clock just told lies about time, that had to be it. There was no possible way that the second hand could move that slow. Ten minutes, rather forever, until the bell would ring. Bridget could only hope that she could survive that long, just long enough to make it to the driver's seat of the orange Rav4 waiting for her at the front of the parking lot. She figured if it could, the Tangerine Terror would've left without her long ago, but there it was, plainly visible from the window beside her. She glanced at the clock once again, but to no avail. Only one minute had passed.

Beside her, Asher's pencil scratched as quickly as he could force it, yet it still dragged along slowly. His glances were quick and sharp at the clock, watching the minute hand move faster than he could. Eight minutes left of class, and his pace was still a full page behind the teacher's. He just couldn't keep up, no matter how he willed his pencil to match the speed of his thoughts. Another peek at the clock warned him that he had six more minutes. By this point the teacher had started passing out the homework, the screen projecting nothing useful. That was when Asher finally gave up, dropping his pencil with exasperation twinging like bile in the back of his throat. With a stretch, the joints in his back crackled. That earned a quiet snicker from Bridget. He raised his eyes to the clock once more, the minute hand three digits away from its destination. He shook his head with the decision that he'd just have to copy Bridget's notes later.

The bell finally buzzed, releasing the students from their personal hell. Bridget tapped her foot faster than the second hand on the stupid clock could keep up with, waiting for Asher to scramble his crumpled notebook and dulled pencil into his backpack. By the time he'd finished, even the teacher had already left. Asher stood quite a bit taller than Bridget, but struggled to match her pace as they walked out of the school building.

"Are you sure you aren't secretly an old man?"

Asher scowled at her for that comment, before adding in his own snide response, "You know, for someone who doesn't talk a lot in class, you sure do have a lot to say afterwards."

"First of all, if I ever tried to talk to you during class we both know you would probably just collapse from being overwhelmed," she earned yet another glower from her friend.

They had reached the orange Rav4 at this point. Asher grumbled something about time being the bane of his existence as he stalked around the Tangerine Terror, smacking the orange cover of the spare tire on the door of the trunk as he passed it, to the passenger side. Bridget shook her head, short azure curls swinging into her face, at his reaction as she settled herself into the grey cloth of the driver's seat. Asher continued his nonsensical muttering as he found his place in the seat next to her.

She continued her statement as she turned the key in the ignition, "Second of all, why say something when you have nothing to say?"

"How philosophical of you."

The Tangerine Terror clanked beneath her as she urged it out of the parking spot. She could tell that the twelve year old car wasn't the biggest fan of her, the way it sputtered and leaked and only caused trouble. It probably hated her for messing with its clock, not that she could control that. The flaming orange car also despised Asher for the same reason, making the trips to and from school somewhat aggravating for all of those involved. Whether it was the breaks being troublesome or the heating system refusing to turn on even in the dead of winter, the Tangerine Terror lived up to its name.