Chapter Six - The Timing of the World Really Sucks

I entered the school gate cautiously, wondering whether or not I was receiving strange stares, however, I wasn’t. I calmed down at least a tiny fraction. Upon remembering that I had chemistry first period, I groaned inwardly, grumbling as I approached Ella in the hallway.

“So how did it go!?” she asked excitedly.

“How did it go? How did it go?” I growled. “I would rather walk around upside down!” I exclaimed.

“Something happened, didn’t it?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No. It didn’t,” I lied, epically failing at it too, because I could feel my cheeks turning crimson.

“Tell me, tell me,” she urged, poking me in the arm. “Tell me!” she whined.

“I kissed her, that’s what,” came his voice from behind me. I spun around and nearly bumped straight into him. I turned back and Ella was somewhat completely mesmerised as though gazing at a God of some sort.

“Ella? El-la?” I said in a sing-song voice, waving my hand in front of her.

“Oh – yeah – what?” she said in a daze.

“Yesterday, you see, I kissed her,” Hunter smirked, leaning down so that his face was right next to mine. I edged away nervously, only to bump into the locker. “On – the – cheek” he added, emphasising each and every word, putting a finger on my cheek in the supposed spot where he’d ‘kissed’ me.

My face reddened yet again and I cursed myself for getting embarrassed so easily. “Anyway. I’ll see you in chem,” he grinned, saluting me as he walked off.

As soon as he had disappeared around the corner of the hallway, Ella immediately began totally spazzing. “You said nothing happen!” she scowled, yet remained grinning.

“Shut up,” I growled.

“You – he kissed you! Are you for real? Do you know how many girls want to be in your position right now?”

“Firstly, it was on the cheek, I doubt they’d care, and secondly, all those girls are crazy.”

“The more I see him up close, the better looking I realise he is…” she sighed dreamily.

“Snap back to the real world now.” I flicked her in the arm and grabbed my books from my locker.

We parted ways as Ella headed to Drama and I to Chemistry. Was Hunter really that good looking? I took the moment to bring his face up in my memory. Blonde-brown hair and green eyes. His smile was kind of cute. Oh my. Why on earth was I thinking this? Definitely not. No way on earth. No no no no no.

“Deep in thought?” Hunter grinned, leaning against one of the lockers outside the chem classroom.

Of all cursed faces I had to see this morning, it just had to be him didn’t it? “Hey, I asked you a question. It’s rude to ignore people y’know?” He nudged me in the elbow.

“Okay, come in,” Mrs Smith said, opening the door. The students filed in one after the other and I quickly merged with the others, hoping to get away from Hunter as quickly as possible.

“Are you still avoiding me?” he asked, still behind me. I ignored him and sat down. “Come on, that’s just childish.” I sat down and opened up my textbook – the one that was half trashed now, courtesy of Hunter and co. He looked over at the textbook and gave a stifled laugh.

Shut up. Some of us are trying to pay attention in class. Also, it was your fault that my textbook is all screwed up.

“Here,” he said, sliding a brand new textbook across the desk. “They misunderstood the reason that you were there, okay?”

Should I take it? Or not take it? My pride was conflicted with my normal self. A free textbook? Or going out and buying my own textbook to retain my pride? In the end, my normal self won over. I put my ripped up one into my bag and opened up the new one.

It really was brand new; it smelled like one of those unopened books. The pages were crisp and smooth. Oh how I loved new textbooks. I risked a glance out of the corner of my eye, only to catch him smirking with what looked like self-satisfaction. I regretted taking that textbook, but returning it now would only make it worse.

I replayed the scene in my mind for the rest of the day, imagining what could have happened instead, but imagining it wasn't going to change anything. I continued rhythmically tapping my pencil against the paper, waiting for the teacher to finish writing up the rest of the notes.

She finally finished and I scrawled them down. The bell rang and we were all dismissed. "Cathy, please wait behind," my teacher - Miss Meller - said. Everyone looked at me as they left, and even I was curious as to why I was being held back.

I walked over to her desk, with what probably was a very anxious expression, because she said, "Don't worry, you're not in trouble," and laughed. "I need you to run these keys back to Mr Lane," she said, passing me a set of keys. "He's probably in the gym still; he had a class last period."

I hadn't entered the gym to do sport since year ten, but nothing much had changed; the gym was still the gym. Boys pushed and shoved as they left and I struggled to squeeze in between them.

Mr Lane was nowhere to be seen inside the gym, which meant he was probably outside, putting equipment in the shed. I went outside, and as I approached the shed, I could hear the clanking of equipment. Bingo. I walked into the shed, and just as I caught a glimpse of the person - who I originally thought was Mr Lane -, a gust of wind blew past and the shed door slammed shut.

"What the heck!?" I accidentally exclaimed aloud, immediately spinning around, trying to push the door back open.
"Nerd bird?" Hunter asked. I heard his shoes shuffle forward. There was little to no light in the shed. The little light shone in through the cracks in the shed.
"Do you know how to get the door open?" I asked.
"I'll try," he sighed. I moved to the side and he too tried rattling the door. "Well, on the bright side, I'm sure someone will come by quickly."
"What about Mr Lane?" I asked.
"He's not coming. You see...I'm here, because I'm in 'trouble'."
"Right." Despite the lack of light, I was lucky to be able to make out Hunter's figure moving around; if not, this would be even more awkward than it already was. "Someone! Help!" I exclaimed. "Help!" I yelled again.

I heard the school bell toll loudly outside and then the excited yells and shouts of students in the school yard. Too bad the shed wasn't in the school yard. The shed was on the opposite side of the school - it was behind the school.

"There's no way anyone will hear you. We might as well wait for a miracle," he sighed. Although I couldn't be certain, from the noise, I assumed that he sat down, so I too decided to follow. I had to feel my way around, shuffling rather than taking proper steps. It was getting dark far too quickly for comfort; it was one of the reasons I didn't like winter so much.

"Woa-woah-woah!" I exclaimed, stumbling over something rock-like. I hurled forwards and immediately stuck my arms out.

After what felt like minutes of free falling, two strong hands gripped my arms and I was standing...but tilted forwards. Hastily, I stood back up. Those were Hunter's legs? Who the hell would leave their legs out like that!?

"Uh...thanks....and sorry about that," I apologised awkwardly, sitting down. I ensured there was at least a one metre space between Hunter and I.
"That's going to bruise," he mumbled.

Silently apologetic, I remained silent. We didn't talk for the next however long it was, and eventually, the school yard had become silent. How was it possible that throughout those hours, no one had walked past? If someone had, we would have heard their footsteps and jumped up and yelled.

"What," I began saying, but stopped when I realised my voice was all hoarse and croaky from not speaking for a long time. I quickly cleared my throat and started speaking again. "What time do you think it is? Do you think they'll close up school gates soon?" I was honestly beginning to panic.

"I'm pretty sure they close the school gates at five thirty; it's probably five by now," he replied. We were both sitting here hopelessly. Being trapped in here all night would be torturous. The temperature dropped significantly at night time; the transition into winter was always awful.

Was it possible to die from coldness because the temperature dropped too far below zero?

The wind began blowing through the gaps in the shed, the temperature seeping out from my skin. I hugged myself for warmth and pulled my legs closer, nudging slightly over to the left side to avoid a gap in the shed wall. Now I was only half a metre away from Hunter.

"Anyone out there!?" I tried yelling again. "Hello!?" I shouted. The sun had begun to set as the amount of light int he shed lessened and lessened. A few minutes later, it was completely dark. And I was cold. Very cold.

"The caretaker is so deaf, he probably wouldn't hear you if you screamed like that in his ear," Hunter remarked.
"Doesn't this seem a bit nostalgic?" I asked, suddenly recalling a memory I didn't exactly want to recall. It was dark, and I was in a closed area...alone...with Hunter.

"Good times, good times," he joked.

I hugged myself tighter, trying to preserve body heat for as long as possible. "Do you have a phone on you?" I asked, suddenly remembering that technology did exist.
"If I had a phone on me, I would have used it by now," he replied, sounding slightly annoyed.
"It was worth asking," I answered defensively.

I was shivering and the goosebumps were evident all over my skin. Sure, I was in a jumper with a blazer on top, but I was wearing a skirt and stockings. Stockings had little holes in them!

"Here, wear this," Hunter said, ditching what felt like a sport jacket at me.

He must have been wearing the jacket before because it was really warm when it touched me. If he just threw his jacket to me, then what on earth was he wearing still?
"I don't need it," I said quickly, throwing it back. A second later, I had it hurled back at my face again. I pulled it off my head, snarling.
"Don't be so dignified. You're shivering so much, I can tell from here," he said.
"I'm fine. I've got a jumper and a blazer on, you're the one who should be worried."
"Meh,"
An idea struck me, but I paused for what felt like hours to think. It would be wrong to have him die here, especially with me present. I made my decision.
"Um...do you want to share then? I can take off my blazer as well so that we're both warm...." I suggested awkwardly, peeling the blazer off.

"Okay," he agreed rather quickly. The cold must have gotten to him by now. We both shuffled our bums across the concrete floor and eventually our shoulders were touching. He was freezing cold.

I put my blazer and his jacket over the both of us and I continued to hug myself tightly. Although he had been trying to be manly earlier, I could tell he was cold, because between my shivers, I could feel his slight shudders from the cold wind.

If we didn't die here tonight, this would be one very long night.

~*~*~*

Author's Note:

Sorry once again, I didn't have time to reformat the story so the spacing is all over the place. I'll get around to it sometime (:

Thank you for continuing to read the story and please vote if you enjoyed it! (: