We all get off the bus and circle around Mr. Parks, "it is currently 9:36 a.m. We will meat back here at 11:00 a.m. to get ready for our performance, after that, you can choose one of the various places over there," he points to a line of fast food places, "until 11:00 you can do whatever, and then after you guys eat lunch you can do whatever, but, we will meat back here at 8:00 p.m. to go to the awards, then we will leave for a subway or something for dinner and then home," he finishes, "you need to be in groups of at least four and make sure you keep track of time," he stops to think of anything else, "I'll stay on the bus, so if you guys have stuff you wish to leave then it will be safe, I think that is all, go do whatever."
Kate and I walk until we catch up with Sky and Tyler, "what should we do first," Tyler asks.
"Let's go to the booths," Sky shouts, the competitions we went to were like little fair, convention things, I got quite a few things from last years competitions.
"God, do you ever stop shopping," Tyler asks her.
"Nope," Sky says as she skips along, pulling Kate with her this time.
"What were you two doing behind us," Tyler asks me as we start after the girls.
"So, Kate shoved a donut in my mouth, I pulled the strings on her hoodie and we just started laughing and talking," I explain, giving him the short version.
We catch up with Kate and Sky at a jewelry booth, they were looking at some music themed jewelry and I had to admit, they looked pretty cool, "look at these," Kate says to us as she points to a few trombone necklaces.
"Interested," the lady in the booth asks her a moment later.
"Yeah, how much?"
"$25.00."
Kate pulls out a twenty and a five and hands it to the lady and takes the trombone necklace, "this is awesome," she says as she clips it around her neck.
"Yeah," I say, "how much money did you bring?"
"I have fifty for food and fifty for whatever I want here," she tells me.
We spend the rest of the time looking at various booths and decide to take a shot at the games after lunch. Our performance went pretty well, don't think we'll place first, but we definitely won't place last. Now I was with Tyler ordering burgers from a food truck, we were going to meat up with the girls at some benches nearby, "what's on your mind," Tyler asks me as we're standing in line.
"Huh?"
"What are you thinking about?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Everytime Kate goes off with Sky, you start getting really silent," Tyler tells me.
"I just," I pause, "I want to know what they're talking about," I say.
"Why?"
"I know stuff about Kate that Sky doesn't," I say, "it's kind of how she broke out of her shell with me, she let me in. I want it to stay just a thing between me and her."
"Aw, come on," he stops to order his food, "I don't do all of this puppy love or lovey dovey stuff or anything like that, but I can tell that you and Kate love to be around each other."
I order my food and say, "she's an awesome girl and she's gone through some things that she doesn't deserve."
Once we both have our food, we walk over to some picnic tables and sit down, "what exactly did she go through?"
"Not my place to tell," I stop myself when I see Kate approaching behind Sky.
Sky sits next Tyler and Kate sits next to me, "hey," Kate says to me quietly.
"Hi," I say.
She scoots closer to me while Sky and Tyler are busy talking to each other, "can I talk to you about something," she says to me as she takes a bite out of her salad.
"What about?"
"Sky has this crazy theory," she starts and leans her head on my shoulder, making sure no one was watching us, just like it was on the bus, "that we'd be the cutest couple in the school."
"She does say that a lot," I agree.
"I, um, do you think you'd want to go to the movies at some point next weekend," she takes her head off my shoulder and scoots away a little.
"I'm not really into movie theaters," I say, "but maybe we could go to that trail, the one by the park."
She smiles at me, "sounds good."
~~~
We ended up placing fifth out of ten and got a medal for top five, now we were back on the bus and ready to go home. Kate and I sat in our same seats, we were both exhausted, "um, you said something about your parents not even wanting you to hang out with girls," Kate says to me.
"Yeah," I say.
"I don't want you to get in trouble for hanging out with me."
I laugh, "oh, trust me, Tess and I can get away with a lot of things," I explain, "I'm not supposed to be hanging out with Tyler."
"Why?"
"They say that he's a bad influence on Tess and I, which they're not wrong, but he's not that bad."
"Wow, I can't even think about lying to my dad, he works a lot, yeah, but we're really close. I go to him for everything."
"My parents work a lot, yeah, we always have breakfast together, but by the time Tess and I get home, they're gone, leaving the house all to us."
"At least you guys live near the school and can easily walk home," she says to me as she shifts around in the seat, laying her legs across me.
"You said you liked someone," I say, changing the subject.
She nods her head with a smile, her face turning red, "and you said you like someone," I nod, "we'll just leave it at that."
I smile, I get ready to say something when my phone starts to buzz in my pocket, "Hello?"
"Mom and dad want to know when you'll be back," I can tell that Tessa's the one on the phone.
"I don't know, probably around midnight."
"Okay," she pauses but doesn't hang up, "you and Kate look really cute in that picture on Facebook."
"What?"
"Sky posted a picture of the two of you sleeping together on the bus ride there," she says over the phone.
I pause and take a few short breaths, "Tessa, I need to go, I will call when we get back," I say as calmly as I can before hanging up the fun, "Sky!"
I move Kate's legs off of me and stand up to look down at her and Tyler, "I told you not to do it," Tyler says to her.
"Delete that post," I demand.
"Why, everybody would have seen it by now."
"Seen what," Kate asks cautiously, I forgot that she didn't know about Sky sneaking pictures of us on the bus ride to the competition.
Sky hands me her phone with the picture pulled up on it, "show that to Kate."
Kate yanks the phone out of my hand and starts to panic, "Sky, why?"
"Jesus Kate, calm down," Sky says to her as she leans over the seat and takes her phone back.
I sit back down next to Kate, "Sky, if either of my parents see that picture and who's tagged in it, they're going to kill me," I say through the seat.
"Fine, I'll delete it," she says.
I turn to face Kate who's in the middle of panicking, "Kate, what's wrong," I put my hands on her shoulders and her breaths slow down, she looks up at me.
She sighs, "honestly, I don't know," she admits.
I don't know why, but this time, when I get the urge to hug her, I just do it. I take her in my arms and hug her tightly, she's stiff when it first happens, but then relaxes and squeezes back, "someone," I say.
She pulls back and smiles, "someone."