Little Things (HIATUS)

CHAPTER SEVEN

GAMES

It was silent as Lydia walked through the hallways. The blue paper was gripped in her hands as she glanced around. She hated being the only one roaming the halls; she always thought someone, like a teacher, would see her and say that she was in trouble even if she had an excuse. 

She made it to Mrs. Fuller's room and sighed. She had wanted to distance herself from the Fuller's because she didn't want to make her mom even angrier. Unfortunately, Lydia didn't finish a project in Mrs. Fuller's class so she had to go during homeroom to finish it. Homeroom was after third hour, which confused Lydia at first. Back home, homeroom was before first hour. 

"Lyd!"

Lydia turned to see Adriana grinning. "Hey."

Adriana frowned and faltered slightly as she came to stand next to her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Lydia said quickly. "Nothing."

"No, something's wrong." Adriana placed a hand on Lydia's shoulder and said, "For real, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing. For real," Lydia insisted. "What are you doing at your mom's homeroom?"

"All of us meet here," Adriana said, shrugging. 

"All of who?" Lydia asked as Adriana opened the door to the room. Lydia stared inside and saw many people in there. Ashton looked at the door and grinned when he saw Lydia and Adriana. 

"Addy! Finally," he said, rolling his eyes. "You've been gone for a while."

"I'm sorry," Adriana said. She walked inside and motioned for Lydia to follow. "I got distracted."

"By what?" Mrs. Fuller asked, her eyebrow cocked. 

"Nothing, Mom," Adriana said, huffing. "You always assume I'm with a guy when I'm not!"

"Calm down," Danielle said, sitting on the floor. She was leaning into Liam, who had an easy smile on his face. His arms were wrapped around her chest. "Mrs. Fuller is just worried."

"She's worried for no reason."

"What is she doing here?" Presley said from the back corner of the room. 

"I'm here to work on a project," Lydia said, sighing. "But I'm not sure how much I'll get done."

"Presley, stop being mean," Silena said, rolling her eyes. "Come on in, Lydia. There's no need to be afraid."

Lydia stepped in the room and and shut the door behind her. She walked over to Mrs. Fuller's desk and said, "Where can I sit?"

"Just sit up here with me," Mrs. Fuller said, sighing. "I'm sorry about them. I didn't want them to come today but they insisted so I allowed it."

Lydia set her stuff down on Mrs. Fuller's desk and grabbed a chair from a table. She drug it to the desk and sat down, grabbing her project. Lydia tried to work but the other people in the room decided to be loud. "Do you mind if I put my headphones in?"

"No," Mrs. Fuller said, shaking her head. As Lydia got her phone and headphones out, Mrs. Fuller said, "Guys, you have to be quiet. Lydia is trying to finish her project but you guys are being too distracting."

"I'm never a distraction," Adriana chimed in.

Lydia laughed slightly as she shoved the headphones in her ears. Everything was drowned out by the song that was playing. Of course it was a song by Sincerely, Gray, though. She thought back to her mom but slightly shook her head. She wasn't going to stop listening to them just because her mom didn't like them. 

Lydia quickly finished the project and handed it to Mrs. Fuller. As she was gathering up her stuff, someone took her headphones out of her ears. She turned around with a frown on her face. "Adriana, what are you doing?"

"Do you want to play a game with us?" Adriana asked, a small grin on her face. "We have a couple minutes left so we decided to play a game. I want you to play with us."

"I don't know," Lydia said, shrugging. Her mind went back to her mom yet again and said, "Actually, that sounds nice."

Lydia followed Adriana to the small opening of seats in the back of the classroom. She set her stuff on one of the tables and sat down next to Adriana and Ashton. "What game we are playing?"

"Uno," Liam replied as she shuffled the cards. He did a perfect bridge, which fascinated Lydia. She could never do that whenever she played with her mom. Liam quickly passed out the cards and Lydia made sure no one could see her hand. 

Lydia got excited but made sure not to show it. She had many plus 4's and plus 2's, as well as regular color cards. Soon, it was her turn to go. Adriana was on her left and the card on the pile was not something she had. She shrugged and placed one of her plus 4's down on the pile and said, "Blue."

"Lydia!" Adriana said, gasping in horror. "Why are you so rude?"

"I'm not rude. I just like to win," Lydia said, laughing. 

"Well, I like to win too," Adriana said, sniffing. Before Adriana could pick up four cards, the bell rang. Lydia jumped up and grabbed her stuff. "Lydia, wait!"

"I have to get to class," Lydia said, glancing back at Adriana. "You know we don't have fourth hour together."

"I have lunch so I can be late," Adriana said, waving her hand. "I want to talk to you."

"Okay," Lydia said, frowning. Adriana quickly grabbed her stuff and Lydia started walking away. "What do you want to talk about?"

"What did your mom say about Thanksgiving Break?" Adriana asked, falling into step with Lydia. 

"Oh." Lydia went silent, thinking about what to say. "Well, she didn't really give me an answer yet."

"What do you mean?"

"She got upset with me for spending a lot of time with you," Lydia said, nodding. "I don't think she likes your mom much. And then she got upset with me because I was listening to your aunt's music. I just . . . I don't understand why she's getting so upset with me for having friends."

"That's weird," Adriana said, frowning. "Mom isn't a bad person."

"I know that." Lydia sighed and shook her head. "I don't know anymore. Everything went downhill once we moved away from Dad."

"I hope everything gets better," Adriana said, and it was the first time she heard sincere concern in Adriana's voice. "I'll see you later, Lydia."

"Bye."