Athena

I wake up, wondering why my alarm's repetitive noise wasn't bursting through my eardrums. However, when I look outside I rush over to my phone and see the time '12:22'.

"Oh Lord," I hit myself in the head several times and quickly got ready faster than I ever had which was around 30 minutes. Don't you dare judge! Showering has always been a long, and enjoyable, process for me

I walked out of my house with the same makeup as I did every day and a random pair of jeans with a cute yellow crop top, despite being late and rushing I looked reasonably good.

As soon as I walk out of my house my eyes automatically dart to the house next to mine and I spot the one and only Ryder locking his house and meeting eyes with mine. "I'm guessing you woke up late as well" He smirks and I shrug "Yup" I pop my p. "How comes? On purpose or-?"

"Off course not" I shake my head, " I stayed up late last night, binge-watching Netflix". "Wow must have been a good show, so I'm guessing you watch it often?" He asks and I nod back. I walk out of my gate and start heading to school and as I walk past his gate he stands there and wolf's whistles at me as I walk by. Almost instantly making my tanned face redden.

"Stop you idiot" I hiss at him and he laughs. "Since we are late already, how about we skip school?" He asks and I thought about it in my head.

I really shouldn't, I ditched school yesterday too. However, it would be nice to shock this guy and actually agree to one of his weird suggestions. Plus, if he pisses me off I could simply just walk away from him.

"Hmn, why not" I shrug and for a second he looks shocked but that signature smirk just came right back. At least I saw a different expression, even if it was for only one second. All I know is that stupid smirk he makes all the time and an occasional laugh, although the laugh is always to make fun of me in some sort of way.

He opens the car door for me and walks around, hopping into the driver's side of the car. I stand there hesitating for a second, did I really want to spend the day with this idiot. I mean I had already come up with the conclusion that although he's super annoying and a complete jerk, he wasn't the type to drag me to an abandoned house and sell me off. He wasn't like those rumours that told everyone he often beats people up, that he's in a gang or that he is a crazy meth dealer. I was a good reader of character... well most of the time, and I had a feeling he wouldn't do such things for no reason, or he wouldn't do them at all.

At least I hoped not, after all, I was getting into the car with him.

"Are you just gonna stand there all day or what?" He states which stops my thoughts and I hop into the passenger seat.

"Wow it's so comfy" I grin and he laughs and starts the engine. We drive for around 10 minutes after I sing to the songs on the radio where I would hear him occasionally hum. But every time I would turn my head towards him, after hearing him hum. He would just act all innocent as if he wasn't just singing along- but I knew what I had heard. Despite his shyness.

But I never failed to see his mouth smiling ever so slightly when I turned towards him, and for some reason, it made me do the same.

"Where are we actually going?" I question him and he just points in front of us as he finishes parking the car and I see a small building in front of us. It was obvious it was a café so I got out and headed over. I heard his footsteps just behind me so I walked in.

The place smelled nice and it looked comfy. It wasn't big but it wasn't too small either. "What could I get for the young couple?" She asks making me blush. "Oh, we aren't-" But before I could answer properly he puts his arms around my shoulder making me freeze in shock. "Could I get 2 caramel iced Frappes?" He asks politely "please" I add in forgetting about the heavy arm around me and giving him a stern look, "Don't forget your manners idiot."

"You two can sit over there while we make the drinks. We'll bring them over to you as soon as they're done" She smiles and points over to the table near the window. I instantly walked over to it, letting his arm fall back to his side. I didn't want his arm over me, it was heavy.

5 minutes later after talking about Alex and Cole being annoyingly clingy to one another, surprisingly laughing as we did so, the lady at the counter brings two amazing looking drinks as she smiles at the both of us. "Enjoy!" She places them down and walks off just after we thank her.

I take a sip and stare in awe at the drink. "Good right." He says and I nod instantly. "It's amazing" I almost yell with excitement. He chuckles and I go red at it slightly. He wasn't ugly, I can tell you that.

We begin to talk again, every now and again taking a sip of our drinks. "Who were those friends of yours? The ones who are next to you all the time?" I question. "The lightskin one is called Michael and The dirty blonde haired one is called Mason, you could say we are all childhood friends. We have been close since we were 5 years old. Although Mason is abnormally dumb and Michael is a bit of a hoe they aren't as bad as they seem. Like me" He smirks but I smile slightly.

They seemed close, it was cute.

We finished and paid the women when we walked out. I hopped into the car thinking we were going home but apparently not.

I looked on my phone and it said '2:14' but when I looked back up the car stopped and there was a brick wall with a sign saying 'No entry.' "What you expected to hang out with the 'bad boy' without breaking any rules" He smirks and I shake my head. Oh no.

He steps out of the car and I hesitate to do the same. But I end up following behind him. "Come here" He instructs, making a come closer hand motion, in which I stand right in front of him and all of a sudden he bends his knees implying for me to get in his shoulders. "You don't mean-" "Yep, get on my shoulders, I'll get you up there"

Fuck it. I put my thighs over his shoulders and hold onto his hair. He easily goes up but it wasn't so easy for me as I think I'm gonna fall off and grip as hard as I can on his hair, using it for safety. "Ow!" He screeches at me as he rubs where I almost made him bald.

"Ok, you're near the height on the wall so get up onto it and stay up there until I say" He orders and I salute while replying "Yes sir".

I raise my arms towards the top of the wall and pull myself upwards and as I do I my feet are on his shoulders. And he kept yelling at me.

"Hurry up"

"That hurts you-"

"What's taking you so long"

"Your shoes are scraping my shoulders"

I mean I didn't blame him but could he shut up so I could concentrate on trying to get up. After a few minutes of blood, sweat and tears I finally manage to get myself up onto the wall.

I cheer as I look at the wall in victory but I look down at Ryder, I repeat look down, and he doesn't look the happiest. If I was being honest, he looked as though he could kill me but then he puts both his hands up and pulls himself up the wall in seconds. "Ugh, whatever I could have done that" I state as if it was a fact. "Yeah right, say that to my bruised and scraped shoulders" He laughs slightly but gives me a small glare.

He jumps right off of the wall and lands perfectly. Then he looks up at me.

"Jump"

Did he just say jump? Me? Jump off a wall? Are you dumb? I'm not ready to break a leg. I give him a stern look and he rolls his eyes.

"Ok I'll just leave you there" He begins to walk off. "Wait" I yell slightly as I raise my arms towards him. "You'll catch me right?" I say sacredly and for a second his expression changes.

But it shifts back and he raises his arms "I'm right here"

1

2

3

I jump and land straight into his arms. We had our arms around one another so I wouldn't fall. And for a split second, I felt my heart thump.

He puts me down and I sigh with relief, I didn't break anything, luckily.

Ryder walks ahead of me. Putting both hands in his pockets. I run behind him and catch up, looking up at him for a second before looking in front of us. We were actually in a forest where there was pretty much only trees surrounding us.

"I hope this isn't the part where the rumours are true and you take me to a meth factory and sell me off" I state and he looks at me confused. "I have a meth lab?" He questions and I nod "apparently".

"Damn, I must be loaded." He jokes, "I should've made you pay for my drink if I knew they were real" I join in and the joke. "I'll pay next time then."

Next time?

We walk for around 10 minutes when I start complaining about my legs being tired. "Should I pick you up till we get there" He suggests, taking me aback. "Uhh... definitely not, don't want me to hurt your fragile shoulders." I make fun of him and he laughs, "You know they aren't fragile... I guess that you're just using this as a form of manipulation to see them" I scoff, "As if!"

5 minutes later I hear the sound of waves and there I see before me. A sea. It wasn't a beach but a cliff. I could tell you could get beautiful views from here.

"Wow, it's pretty," I say in awe. He turns to me "Wanna stay here till the sun sets?" He asks but I look up at him "I haven't asked my parents. And they might find out I bunked" I gulped "Pass me your phone" He orders I hand it to him, telling him my password. I hear my phone ring as he raises it to his ears.

"Yes, Hello Mrs Liveria.

Ah I mean Amelia. yes, Athena's with me.

Yea, I asked her after school too since my friends were busy.

Maybe around 8:30 if that's fine.

Ah, thank you.

Bye"

That was all I heard along with a few muffles coming from the phone which was my mum.

"So now that's sorted you can stay here. I will be back" He says, walking off into the forest. But before I can question him for leaving me he's already walked far down.

A while later he comes back with a small plastic bag and I look down at it then back at him and he smirks.

"Got us some snacks" He holds the bag up and sits beside me. He opens a bag of candy and takes a few for himself then holds it in front of me and I take a few, smiling slightly.

"By the way don't tell anyone about this place, it's our secret" He convinced me and I nod. "Sure, our secret"

At around 7:45 the sun began to set and we were still eating the many snacks he had brought, The view was breathtaking and I couldn't help but stare in awe at it, as I had done many things. I could tell he was doing the same through my peripheral vision.

We just stayed there for a while in silence, but not an awkward silence, A silence that would comfort us both.

Around 8:15 Ryder suggested it was almost pitch black and we did want to get back without getting lost in the dark. We also didn't want to both be scolded by my mum.

To be honest, she probably would of let me out later, but once a time has been set. She expects me at that certain time.

This time I got up and jumped off into his arms much quicker than we did before, luckily for the both of us. He parks his car and goes to his house as I do mine but before the both of us walk in I turn to him. "Your not that bad if you aren't being a dickhead" I say and walk into my house before he can say anything.

My mum smiles at me "so, what did you and Isabella's son do?" She investigated me. "You know, get a few things at the shops and got food. His friends couldn't make it and he needed to go today" I say and she just nods "Hmn, ok" she sounded unsure about something but I don't question it.

I wake up in time and luckily my mum didn't question me about skipping or anything like that. I started to admit since I've come here I've bunked a lot more since I've been here than I have in a while. But, at least I was having fun.

I get dressed and do what I've done every single day apart from yesterday and this time I was on time. I get to school with Cole and Alex towering over me. They were in front of me and it felt like they were my bodyguards.

I head over to the locker, quickly sorting out my books and closing it once again. I see Olivia so I slightly jog up to her and she frowns "where were you yesterday?" She asks concernedly "Oh that, I just woke up a little late and-" I pause for a minute "and that's it" I state and she looks at me weirdly. "You're really bad at lying" she laughs at me "But I won't question it" She smiles.

We walk to our first lesson and on our way we see a certain Ryder and his two friends he talked about yesterday. I see them all talking to one another laughing. And he spots me and smirks. "Hey midget, what did you mean by that yesterday?" He yells, walking over and stopping right in front of me.

I frown at his nickname that he gave me for a second but then I remember the words I said to him yesterday 'You're not that bad if you aren't being a dickhead' and chuckle slightly under my breathe.

"Yesterday?" Olivia says to me, raising an eyebrow. "Yep, we bunked together yesterday" He grins and I elbow him and Oliva just comes out with an "Oh". She gives me a slight look that said it all 'Screw what I said we will be talking about this later.'

"I didn't think you were the type to bunk" Mason adds "But we did catch her and her friends bunking the other day" Michaels decides to put his input in too.

"Ryder, Athena; my office now." We hear from behind us and the principal was standing there will a half-assed smile smacked across his face. Oops, I'm guessing he heard that whole thing.

We followed him. I looked down and walked into his office. With Ryder right behind me. "I heard your whole conversation there. You both skipped school yesterday AND detention from a few days ago" he starts. Shit, I forgot about that. I turn to Ryder and he's smirking slightly. As if he knows what's coming.

"For your punishment, you guys are going to have a new punishment method our school has been seeking since the beginning of this school year. It's called isolation. We will make the two of you have a separate class from others and do separate boring work in complete silence. You're also not allowed to go to lunch, if you are getting school dinners you may go out 5 minutes before lunch happens then come back. And you may go toilet, just ask. Apart from those main things and a few others, you stay in that certain classroom." He says. He seems a lot more serious than before.

"This will be starting next week and you both will stay there until next Friday. Until then you can't go into your normal classes." He sighs after saying all that. "So I have to spend a whole week with him?" I speak and anyone could tell I didn't enjoy the idea too much.

"I thought I wasn't that bad" He smirks. "Yea, when you're not being a dickhead". "Language" the principal adds and I apologise. But then Ryder acts surprised and hurt.

"The midget keeps insulting me sir," he says to him. "You literally just insulted me within that sentence" I matter of factly spoke.

"Yep, definitely got closer" the principal laughs sending us out to our classes.