Chapter twelve
Oakley
God! Math class is so boring. I want to go to the advanced class but my teachers don't think I should since I'm a "space ranger". I'm bored and I already know this stuff. What do you think is going to happen! It's been about three months since school started. I have one class with River, and four with Becca, and three with her brother. River's dad comes in a week and I'm not ok with it. I want to tell her I like her, and about my sister but I'm too scared of my parents.
Five more minutes.
Two minutes.
Three, two, ring! SWEET JESUS! School is over! I grab my bag and run outside.
"OAKLEY!"
There she is. She's grabbed onto one of the poles on the school. I walk over to her and grab her. I'm her ride, and it makes me so happy! She makes me happy. I wish a zombie apocalypse could happen or something so I could tell her.
"Thank you for waiting this time," she smiles at me.
"Well after what happened last time I'm never not going to wait on you," she almost got trampled.
"Haha. Let's go home. I have so much homework to do."
"My house?"
"Your house."
We walk past the buses and toward Tree. FUCK! Becca's by my ride. What the hell could she want?
"Hey bestie."
"Becca."
"No need to be so fiery farm girl. I'm here for her," she nods at River, "Apparently you've grown in popularity. Here," she hands her an invitation, "You can bring a plus one and dress sexy! Bye, bye bestie," She walks to her Tesla and her and her "friends" hop in.
"Well… shit."
"Yep," I turn toward her, "well, you wanna go home."
"Yep."
I pop off Tree's seat and stuff our backpacks in, "You wanna drive?"
She smiles, "No."
"Okay."
We hop on and I turn the key, "I go fast remember?"
"Good."
I pull out of the school parking lot and I rip through the road. She's got a smile on her face and so do I. We twist and turn on the roads. Up and down the hills. She laughs and I couldn't care about anything else in the world. I pull up to the front gate and hop off. The gate starts to open before I even get to it.
"You have a remote for your gate."
"Oh yeah!"
"You are a complete dork."
"Be careful now you'll hurt my feelings."
"Aw, boo," she scoots up and grabs the handle bars, "my turn!"
I blush and sit behind her. She starts to roll then closes the gate. Her hair smells like the wind and vanilla. We get to my house and Lilac is sitting on our front porch with Poliwhirl.
"Your mom locked me out!"
"Really," I pull River's and my backpacks out, "why would she do that?"
"She said 'go outside! Not only are you eating all the cookies, you're watching all the TV.' I want more cookies."
"I know you do. You may have one more cookie. How was school?"
"BORING!!! Poliwhirl can't come with me like last year."
"Well," River sits next to her, "Why don't you pretend?"
"It's not the same!"
"Come on," I open the door and she runs like the wind.
"Oakley?! Did you let that animal back in here?"
"Hey! I am a human," Lilac says through a mouthful of cookies. She walks over and pulls on my shirt and swallows, "My sister is coming home today."
"But school just started," her sister, Iris, is around my age. She goes to boarding school and comes home on holiday and over the summer.
"Mommy said that her school got really sick, and they're sending them all home."
"I wonder if something happened at the science lab," there's a government science lab down the road from her school.
"I don't know," she looks up at me, "can I help you with your homework?"
"Only if I can help you with yours."
We walk down the hallway to my room and Lilac grabs my hand and pulls me down.
"I think she likes you," she whispers
I come back up and I feel my face go red. We walk into my room and I throw my backpack on my bed.
"Okay! Homework time!"
"Yay," River said bluntly.
I sat down at my desk and Lilac smiled at me and started to walk to River. I turned around to watch what she was up to.
"River?"
"Yes, dumpling?"
She giggled, "Can I tell you a secret?" she looked at me with her evil toddler eyes.
River was obviously confused and looked towards me. I vigorously shook my head no, and River turned back to Lilac, "What kind of secret?"
She leaned toward River and put her hand over her mouth, "I think-".
I jumped her. She could ruin my life so of course I jumped her. Immediately, she started to cry. I hushed her and ran to my closet and disappeared into Fort Fundom. I quickly grabbed a few cookies and ran back through. I handed them to her, and naturally she was curious.
"How," pant, "did you," bite, "do that?" she swallows her bite and I look to River. She nods and I grab her hand.
"When we all first moved here, I messed around and I managed to get this built," I help her through my clothes and the small door leading to my Fort. She sat in the bean chair and stared in awe.
"This is so cool. Where does this door go?" she pointed to the small door by my tv.
"That," I push the door open to show her, "goes to the pantry."
She peeks her head through the door to see for herself. "Your room is my favorite now."
"I know. Now can I do my homework?"
"Yes."
We walk back out and River's already finished part of her homework.
"Finally."
Lilac spends the rest of the afternoon in Fort Fundom and by the time River and I are done with our home work Lilac's dad is here with Iris. He picks up Lilac and they go home. Iris doesn't feel great so they go straight home. She probably caught the illness that's been going around her school.
"See you later," Lilac called out.
"Bye Pewdiepie," River calls back. Lilac giggles at this.
We go back inside and go to my room. We look at each other and then sit on my bed.
River pulls a paper out of her pocket, "What am I ever going to do this weekend?"
I forgot about that invite, "Oh yeah. Rowan got invited once."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he dated one of Braxton's friends and he got invited that way."
"Braxton?"
"Becca's brother."
"Oh. Well the party is the day after tomorrow… what should I do?"
"I wouldn't suggest skipping it. If you did, Becca would probably find you after the party."
"Well, guess I'm going," she leans back and looks toward the ceiling, "do you wanna go as my plus one?"
I look at my feet. "Uh, sure."
Her face turns red, "Great."