Learning to Swim

Chapter 11

Not even my mother has been able to bring me down lately. Sure, she has been up to the same things as always, but I find it easier to deal with now that I have Liam. It’s like I finally realized that I won’t be here forever and I just need to deal with her for the time being. I haven’t been able to let Liam in on this part of my life yet, but I think he understands. He never pushes me for information and I’m beginning to think that one day I might actually be able to open up to him and tell him all of it. For now, though, I will keep those two parts of my life separate.

The thing that I think really cemented my relationship with Liam was how fast Addie took to him. He is absolutely amazing with her. Whenever we hang out Addie almost always has to come with, but Liam never complains. He actually seems to really care about her. Whenever she cries or is upset Liam can calm her down in a heartbeat. I don’t know what it is, but he is almost better at dealing with her then I am. He even decided that he wanted to teach her how to ride a bike and so whenever I have extra time we have been helping her with that.

Addie actually seems to have developed a bigger crush on Liam then me. She follows him around constantly and is always asking me when the next time we can see him is. She adores his attention more than anything and it is probably the most adorable thing. I’ve never thought I would find a teenage guy that would be totally okay with having his girlfriend’s little sister constantly around, but that is Liam for you. I really don’t understand how I managed to get a guy like him.

Neither do a lot of people apparently. Liam picked me up from school once and I guess it was obvious to whoever was watching that we were together because it seemed to spread around our school pretty quickly. Normally no one would care about something as stupid as who I am dating, but I have one of those freakishly small schools where everyone always seems to be in everyone else’s business.

I figured no one would even know who Liam was since he went to a different high school than me, but apparently he is popular enough that they do. This one girl even came up to me and asked if it was true that I was dating the Liam Chase. The way she said it made it sound like she was talking about some kind of god or at least someone extremely famous. I’m pretty sure I just sat there giving the girl a weird look because she eventually walked away with one of her friends whispering loudly about how I wasn’t even that pretty and what could he possibly see in me. After this I started receiving death stares from a lot of the girls in my classes. I was almost afraid that they were ready to jump me after school or something. They looked that pissed off over the fact that I was dating Liam.

That is why after dropping Addie off at daycare today, I was dreading going to school. I force myself to walk through the doors and immediately come face to face with a very angry secretary. By the look on her face you would think I just committed some serious crime. Well, this can’t be good.

“So, Miss Gray, it seems that you are late once again,” she says and I frown at the clock above her head.

“What? I thought I was on time today!” I reply defensively.

“You’re exactly one minute and thirty-eight seconds late,” she states matter-of-factly. I don’t even want to know how she knew that. “Looks like you will be staying after school for credit completion today.”

“But I can still make it to class on time! Please, I’m hardly even late,” I exclaim, outraged. She is seriously going to make me stay after over one minute and thirty-eight seconds? That has got to be the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.

“Late is late and you have had too many late days already. I will see you after school,” she says dismissively.

“I can’t stay after. I have to work,” I tell her a little desperately.