"Olivia!" I yelled as I ran out Mr Trunchbulls office, in search of my best friend.

I pushed through crowds and groups of people in search of the blond haired girl.

Distant murmurs of crowds insulted me as I pushed through them, but I made sure to apologize every time. My legs pushed as my hair frailed behind me as I climbed up the stairs seeing her reading a book on a bench.

"Olivia!" I screamed in excitement as I reached the second floor of the building.

Olivia stood up in alarm as she quickly put her book down seeing me charge at her. I ran to her and enveloped her in a tight hug making her squeak and stumble back a bit, but she processed me and hugged me back hesitantly— not knowing what was happening.

"What's wrong El?" She asked me with furrowed eyebrows when I finally let go.

"I'll explain in a moment," I nodded at her before grabbing her wrist and running to the girls bathroom making her stumble once again but she eventually caught on.

I looked left and right, making sure there was no one present before dragging Olivia into the bathroom.

I pushed open each stall to make sure it was empty, and all of them were opened except the last one but that had a broken lock so I ducked through the stall to see if anyone was inside and there was only a mop.

"What are you doing?"

I walked back to Olivia, not answering her question as I grinned at her, showcasing my teeth.

"Tyler is okay!" I squealed.

I watched a small smile evolve into a grin upon her face as she squealed along with me and enveloping me in a big hug. "O-M-G! That's great!" She let go of the hug as she looked at me. "El I'm so happy for you!"

I squealed again as my hands shook in excitement and relief, knowing that my best friend was alive.

"I need to go see him but I don't know how." I sighed as a frown overcame my features and my gaze dropped to the marble floor.

I needed to go see Tyler, I didn't know what to do but I just had to.

Perhaps after school?

Olivia and I stayed silent for a moment before she widened her eyes and shook me. "I have an idea," She murmured.

"Let's skip school and sneak out to meet him."

I widened my eyes as I looked at her in disbelief. "I'm sorry what?"

Her grin stayed persistent, not faltering one bit. "I said; let's sneak out and meet your best friend!"

I shook my head immediately. "No no no, we can't. As much as I love Tyler I can't skip school. What if I get in trouble?"

"We," she corrected, making me look at her with a confused expression. "And we won't! Besides, it'll be fun and you get to see your best friend."

I shook my head. "What do you mean by 'we'?"

"Well obviously I'm coming with you, can't have you wandering about they city alone." She retorted.

I blinked at her, "and you coming makes it better how?"

"I know my way around the city!"

"You've been here barely a year!" I exclaimed. "You don't know your way around the city. I've been here my whole life and I don't know most of the city."

"Well I can't blame you," she murmured. "LA is a big place El."

"Even if we do, skip school I mean, how are we even gonna get there?" I questioned.

"We can call a taxi or Uber."

"It's far too unsafe."  I shook my head. "And plus, we're two minors and we're girls."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "What does us being girls have to do with anything?"

I eyed her which made her widen eyes and her lips form a 'O' like shape as she nodded slowly. "Right yeah. I forgot." She mumbled awkwardly.

"Well we can always take the city bus, the bus stop is like a kilometer away from here so we can walk." She pulled her phone out her back pocket of her jeans as she typed and scrolled through it before turning the phone over to my face, letting me read.

It was a bus schedule to the southern city bus and unfortunately I had never been on the city bus before so I was unsure of what I had to understand here.

Olivia obviously saw my confused face as she rolled her eyes and took her phone back and looked at the screen while talking to me. "It says here the next bus is at one thirty, it's one o two right now,"

"Which means we have exactly twenty eight minutes to get out of here and walk to the bus stand." I completed her sentence, slowly catching on with the plan.

She nodded, "but here's the thing." She started. "I need to drop Rocky off at her English class."

"What?" I groaned. "That's gonna cost us like ten minutes! We don't even have a plan to sneak out without the front desk lady and the guards outside seeing and that's at least gonna take half an hour and we'll miss the bus!"

Olivia shook her head. "No we'll be fine, we'll drop rocky off in five minutes that leaves us with twenty three minutes, we'll think of something in those three minutes as we're walking down to the front doors."

I huphed. "I honestly don't think this is a good idea Olivia."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh calm down, we'll be fine dumbass." She patted my shoulder before walking from beside me and out the bathroom, leaving me there alone.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, offended she left me in the blank as I dashed out the door.

Leaving the empty girls bathroom.

-

"And then Harry said "But I'm feeling twenty two!""

Olivia and I were currently walking to drop Rocky off at her fifth period, which was 'perfectus Anglicus'.

Our school had this weird habit of dramatizing the most ridiculous and random of things— Rocky had to take English class which was specialized for students that were from abroad or foreign exchange students that didn't have the best English and needed to improve theirs.

Olivia had told me that Rocky made a total fuss about it, saying her English was good but the school administrative wouldn't buy it since her accent is thick and deep, apparently making it almost impossible to understand her.

Of course I agreed with Rocky, saying her English was good— sure her english did mess around here and there but everyone's does and Olivia both agreed her accent was beautiful.

'Perfectus Anglicus' literally translates to 'Perfect English'.

"We're here," Olivia pointed at the orange classroom door that read 'Mrs. Herman's class'.

Rocky let out a annoyed sigh. "Thank you." She muttered under her breath, not meeting our gazes.

Olivia glanced down at her white watch before looking up at Rocky. "So we'll come at around an hour later to pick you up yeah?" She lied.

You see, we had this plan. We obviously weren't gonna leave Rocky by herself in a new school but Olivia had picked up since day one that Rocky was hot headed yet independent, she always wanted to figure new things out on her own. In that case if we tell Rocky that we'll help her— according to Olivia, she will get offended.

I cut in. "Uh I don't think I'll be able to join,"

"Why?"

"I have to meet up with my brothers after school and I have some place to go." I replied, referring to the hospital to see Tyler.

Olivia nodded in acknowledgement. "Well I guess just me then." She flashed Rocky and I a kind smile.

"Well I wont be here," Rocky muttered. "I can find my way around here, thank you very much." She said sharply, sounding almost offended that Olivia and I underestimated her abilities to navigate her way through the school.

"Oh no we were just trying to help-"

"Whatever." Rocky cut Olivia off before pushing the door and walking in before closing it behind her.

Olivia looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. "Did I say something wrong?" She mumbled, looking and sounding genuinely confused.

I shrugged and shook my head at the same time— indicating I didn't know.

Once we were sure that Rocky was in and couldn't hear us, we started walking away— talking about our plan.

Olivia grabbed my wrist and whispered into my ear. "First let's keep our bags into our lockers, take your phone and wallet tho."

I nodded as we each walked to our lockers. Olivia's ockerer was two rows away from mine.

I put in the password to the lock as the yellow locker swung open, revealing a picture of my brothers and I. They were ten and won their first football match and Ryan had me on his shoulders with the help of my dad as Lucas and Blake gripping my back and leg so I don't fall. Boy was Ryan wobbly that day! We all had huge grins on our faces, my buck tooth missing as I used my fragile little arms to raise their trophy. It was gold and i felt so proud of them.

Right beside that was a picture of Tyler and I on our trip to a camp with the class in middle school. We were fishing and he had just caught a big catfish and I grinned at him in awe while he grinned back at me, our gazes locked. We were in a little stream near the forest and our camp counselor clicked that and we had no idea.

"El?" Olivia called out from her locker, before closing it and locking it nod walking towards me, making me blink and look at her.

"Hurry!" She hissed, "we only have twenty minutes!"

I shook myself out as I nodded, stuffing my phone and wallet into my pockets. I looked through the zipper of my bags, finding a sugar free chocolate granola bar. I stumble it into my pocket along with my phone, keeping it for Tyler. He must've been so hungry after all these stressful days.

Olivia softly grabbed my wrist, tugging at it. "El come on! You're wasting time!" She softly groaned.

Upon hearing that, I pushed my yellow locker door close and securing it before wriggling my wrist out of the warmth of her palms and walking towards the entrance of the school.

Olivia grabbed my wrist once again, making me stop in my tracks and looking at her with a slightly annoyed look. "What?"

"So here's the plan," she whispered into my ear as we hid behind a wall that was connected to the front desk. She took out two hall passes and hung one around my neck and other around hers making me furrow my eyebrows.

"Where'd you get those?" I questioned in a low voice as she hung it around my neck.

"I had a few in my locker, collected them over time."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "did no teacher suspect?"

She shook her head. "Nope, I always told them I gave it to the janitor and hid them in my locker instead in case i needed to sneak out today was just the day."

I scrunched my face. "Why would you give it to a janitor?"

She shrugged, "at least it works."

I rolled my eyes. "I never knew you were this kind of a person."

She scowled and scrunched her face in offense. "What's that supposed to mean? I don't even have to help you right now but I am."

I quickly shook my head. "No no I never meant it like that," I urged. "It just didn't seem like you were the kind to skip class let alone school."

"Well I am, only for you." She grumbled. "Now listen to my plan."

"You will go talk to Ms Ahmed and distract her," she pointed to the lady whop sat on the front desk while working on her computer. "Compliment her, just stall her and right beside her," she paused for a bit. "Are the pair of keys that I will need to use to unlock the front door." She then pointed to the set of silver keys that she needed to unlock the front door. "I crawl over there while you talk to her and you move your elbow and 'accidentally' drop the key and-"

I cut her off. "That's a marble floor, a loud sound will come out if I drop it on the floor."

She rolled her eyes before muttering a quick "patience." She took a deep breath before continuing again. "I will already be there squatting behind the counter and beside your legs so if you drop the key I can directly catch it on my palms."

I nodded as I looked at her. "Woah, that's impressive."

She smirked and continued. "And then, you ask her for a file that Mr CiCi, the ninth grade geology teacher asked you to get."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "But Mr CiCi didn't ask me for a file?"

Olivia rolled her eyes. "It's called a lie, dumbass."

"Well, how am I even gonna ask her for it without a teachers note?"

She pulled out a lime green sticky note from her pocket and handed it to me.

Ms Ahmed,
Please hand me the ninth and eighth grade syllabus for geology and history. I have sent a student of mine to pick it up,

Thank you.
Mr CiCi,
Class 209

I read it, furrowing my eyes in confusion as I opened my mouth to ask how she even got this but she cut me off.

"No questions just listen." She looked back at me. "You hand that note to her and she goes to look for the files. She finds the ninth grade syllabus and hands it to you and turns back to get the eighth syllabus, when she does I'll crawl to the front door and unlock it. Obviously the keys will jingle so I need you to talk to her really loudly, over the sound of the jingle. It will take her approximately three minutes to look for the eighth grade syllabus cause no teacher or school staff this year asked for it, making it stack far in the back. By the time she hands you the files I'll be out there with the door unlocked and you can just walk out with the files."

"How am I gonna just walk out if the door was locked genius?" I scoffed.

"Check your pocket,"

I checked my pocket and felt something in the back, I don't recall putting anything in the back pocket, only in the front. I pulled it out to find a silver key but it felt weird.

"How did you even-" I muttered, as I observed the key. "You know what? I'm not even gonna ask."

"Buttered up to some eleventh grader computer geeks and they 3D printed a regular normal silver key for me."

I stayed silent, urging for her to continue with her plan.

"Boom, you show that to Ms Ahmed the key and say Mr CiCi gave it to you and you get out."

"She's gonna ask me why I'm outside." I mumbled.

"Tell her Mr CiCi is coaching varsity soccer." She said it in a obvious voice to which I nodded uncertainly like I have been doing all this while.

I nodded as I took a deep breath.

"On the count of three." Olivia murmured, both of our eyes on the women who sat typing away her on her computer.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!" She pushed me out there into the view of Ms Ahmed making me yelp softly and lose balance, yet I caught myself as Ms Ahmed's sharp hazel eyes meet mine.

I smiled awkwardly at her as I brushed myself and stood straight and cleared my throat before walking towards her.

"Hi Ms Ahmed," I smiled softly at her— a expression she mirrored.

"Hello Ms Saphrano." Her smooth voice drawled out of her tongue as she stopped typing on her computer and turned to give me all her focus. "How are you my dear?"

"I'm good, how are you Ms Ahmed?" I rested my elbows on the counter, edging them closer and closer to the edge of the counter.

"I'm doing just fine, what are you doing here?"

"Well," I started while tapping my foot on the ground. "I need some files from you."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Files? What kind?"

"Oh here, I have a note." I fumbled into my pocket to grab it out and gave it to her.

She took the sticky note silently and read it to herself, her eyes grazing every word.

I noticed see was distracted so I started inching the key to the near corner, about to drop it until I felt a tug against my shoes— seeing it was Olivia from the corner of my eyes.

"S0-" Ms Ahmed started but didn't get a chance to finish as I interrupted her.

"Oh one sec! Let me just tie my shoelaces." I smiled at her, ducking down before she could say anything else.

"What?" I hissed barely above a whisper, glaring at my best friend.

Olivia rolled her blue eyes at me and shook her head. "Don't drop the key so soon dumbass, do it when she turns to get the syllabus." She said, equally as harshly.

I glared at her for a quick second as a way of response before raising myself up quickly to not rise suspicion in Ms Ahmed's eyes.

"Yes, you were saying?"

She handed the sticky note back to me and nodded before rising herself from the chair. "Alright, give me a minute sweetheart." She smiled at me, me mirroring her kind gesture.

The second she turned away I felt a tug again against my ankle, making me look down to see Olivia mouthing 'Drop.' to me before silently pointing and gesturing at the set of keys.

I nodded as my elbow touched the key but Ms Ahmed had to turn around with a pink binder right at the time.

I bit my lips in frustration but covered it up with a smile before her eyes met mine.

"Here you are," she handed me the binde before turning around and looking through her other files again. "Wait a minute sweetheart, the eighth grade syllabus is a bit back. No teacher took it this year." She mumbled.

"Oh?" I asked with fake interest, cooking up a conversation. "Why is that?"

"Oh you know, eighth graders had their exams postponed this year due to the SAT preparation for the high schoolers."

"Mhm," I hummed before finally hitting the key with my elbow, looking to see Olivia catching it immediately with the palm if her hands as she smirked at me— knowing full well this plan was going quite smooth.

Olivia looked around wondering how she was gonna hold the keys since she was gonna crawl to the glass door. I gestured to my mouth, asking her to carry it there instead.

She widened her eyes and shook her head sharply, not wanting to put the chain in her mouth.

"We have no choice." I mouthed each word quite clearly.

"Did Mr CiCi ever teach you any subjects?" Ms Ahmen asked, her back still turned to me.

I shot my head up and looked at her back and shook my head even though she couldn't see. "No, but I did have him as a substitute back in Junior high."

From the corner of my eye I could see Olivia scowling in disgust at the key and gagging before putting it into her mouth like a dog and carrying it. Her face of genuine regret did not say that she was enjoying this.

I softly giggled which didn't go unnoticed by Ms ahmen causing Olivia to stop in her movement and I to widen both our eyes.

"Something wrong?" The hijabi women turned her heda over her shoulder to look at me.

I shook my head. "No, I was trying to stifle a yawn." I slipped a lie. "By the way I love your hijab!"

Ms Ahmed wore a light pink floral hijab with beautiful flowers imprinted on them, it was so beautiful and matched perfectly with her green eyes.

Green eyes.

Tyler's green eyes.

I shook my self out of the thought as Ms Ahmed grinned at me, showcasing her perfect pearly whites at me. "Aw thank you," she chuckled after turning back, a hint of amusement hidden in her tone. "My baba got it for me."

I grinned in enthusiasm, very happy for her. "That's wonderful!"

I looked to the side to see Olivia crawling as slowly and softly as she could to not make a noice before she finally got there. She entered the keys and nodded at me, the sign to actually distract Ms Ahmed.

You see, this was the hard part. Ms Ahmed was very alert and vigilant. They say that last year she caught twenty seven students skipping school in a month! She is very kind but you do not want to be on her naughty list.

Olivia brought three fingers up and mouthed "Three turns." and then