Our Time In High School- KotLC AU

The Text

Sophie POV:

My phone pinged loudly in my pocket, making my mom look sharply across the table at me. "Sophie... You know the rule. No phones at the table."

"Sorry, mom, can I please check it? It might be from the newspaper, I got the job today."

"Oh, honey, that's great!" My mom said, brightly.

"Yeah, Mr. Daxner practically begged me to do it." I decided not to tell her about the fact that I had to do it with Keefe Sencen. My complete opposite. School Prankster. My mom would probably flip.

She laughed lightly and my little brother kicked me under the table. "You're not that great." He whined.

My father patted him on the knee. "Be nice, Dom." This was our family. From the outside, we looked like the perfect family. My father was the mayor of our small town and my mother was his trusted assistant. We had rules, and we followed them and we had a routine that we followed meticulously every. single. day. And, truth be told, we were perfect, thanks to my mother's planning, her curfews and all the rules she put in place. It... just didn't always feel that way. But that was probably just my raging teenage hormones speaking.

My mom interrupted my thoughts, tucking a stray piece of hair back into her perfect bun. "Of course, Sophie. You can go your answer your text, but come right back."

I stood from the table, not taking out my phone until I got to the hallway. A text from an unknown number was on my home screen. I tapped on it, curious.

Hey it's Keefe r we meeting in the art room tmr @ 9??

I frowned at his overly casual manner and chose not to answer. Instead, I pocketed my phone and returned to the dinner table. My dad looked up from his steak. "Who was it?"

A flush crept up my neck, I could feel it. It happened every time I lied. I was not a born liar. At all. "Um, yeah. It was the newspaper, I'm supposed to meet there at nine tomorrow morning to get started on my first article."

"That's great, Soph!" My dad said, reaching over to give my arm a pat. I relaxed, glad they didn't suspect anything

I smiled. "Can I be excused? I need to go brainstorm some ideas." On how to cope with a certain, blond-haired, blue eyed, bad boy. I didn't say that out loud though.

My mom nodded. "Okay. Just put your plate away."

* * *

I flopped unceremoniously onto the mountain of pillows on my bed and flung an arm over my forehead. How did he get my number? How am I going to survive a whole year of working with him? Will he even take the photos, or will he slack off and make me do all the work? I'm already overwhelmed, to begin with. I had to plan the school dance, organize fundraisers for more events and run every single Student Council meeting for the next year. I built a little mountain of Things-I-Need-To-Do and fell asleep quickly, everything weighing me down. That night, I dreamt about what would happen at nine o'clock the next day.