Skaii hissed under her breath as she stepped through the door and her eyes caught Matthew. He was sitting on the hood of his black Porsche that was parked in front of the house.
Why did he have to be here?
Normally, she took the bus to school or got a ride from someone going her way but unfortunately she was late this morning.
When Matthew spotted her, he began to grin from ear to ear. Skaii cursed herself for not turning back and going inside before he saw her.
She took a deep breath and started walking towards the gate.
"Good morning Skaii." Matthew greeted her and hopped off the hood.
"There's nothing good about my morning Matthew, f*uck you." She said while she gave him the middle finger.
"Careful Skaii, it would be sad for you to tragically fall and break your next hand." He stalked towards her.
Instantly, she felt threatened and started to back away from him. As he was about to grab her arm someone shouted his name. They turned to the person standing on the lawn next door.
It was Nicholas.
She didn't know why she felt safe; Nicholas hated her, but she found herself breathing out in relief. Nicholas's eyebrow was raised as he looked between them, like he was doing an assessment.
"Hey Nick what are you up to?" Matthew saluted, he glanced back once at Skaii and then turned to Nicholas completely.
Nicholas shrugged, "I'm about to head out to get my car. Why are you standing there looking pretty?"
"Me? No man, that's Skaii's job." He laughed and nudged Skaii in her side with his elbow.
He was so good at pretending. A few seconds away, he was threatening to break her hand, now he laughing and talking like nothing happened. No one could really see the truth when he was that good, even if it was staring right at them.
Nicholas's front door opened and slammed closed and a few seconds later, Mr. Harvey was walking towards them, fully clad in his uniform.
He smiled when he saw Skaii.
"Mr. Shaw, Miss Holder, nice to see you again." He greeted and then turned to Nicholas and said, "Nicholas, if you don't mind, I'm running late."
"Mr. Harvey, Matthew has to pick his girlfriend up and I kinda don't want to intrude. Do you mind me riding with you today?" Skaii made sure her smile didn't falter, even though her inside was going through a storm.
"No that's okay Skaii, I'm sure she won't mind you." Matthew said, realising what she was trying to do. He held onto her hand.
"No, I think it would be best to drive separate, just for today." Skaii continued smiling. She could feel Nicholas staring at her, but she didn't look at him.
"Of course you can ride with me Skaii, but for the rest of the journey it's just you and Nick. I'm taking him to pick his car up, then I go to work." He said while he fished for his keys. Skaii bit down on her bottom lip as she waited uneasily.
She almost screamed when Mr. Harvey found his keys.
"Matthew, see you later, tell your girlfriend hi for me okay?" With a huff, Matthew went to his car and drove off. Skaii followed Mr. Harvey to the car and sat in the back. Nicholas was the last one to enter the car.
"I though you said you didn't live around here Skaii." John said while he started the car.
"I did, I just didn't want to pop your son's bubble." John threw back his head in laughter. Nicholas looked from his father to Skaii with a frown. When their eyes met, Skaii winked at him.
****************************
Without a word to Skaii, Nicholas opened his car door. It took them fifteen minutes to get to school after they'd collected his car. Skaii had gathered so far that he was snappy, mean and self absorbed. No wonder they didn't get along.
She reached forward to open the door, but he surprised her by doing that gesture and held out his hand.
She looked up at him and then back down to his hand. Hesitantly, she took it and regretted it almost instantly.
What she felt when their hands met took her by surprise. Her lips parted and she slowly breathed. Her palm was tingling and a wave of heat rushed down her spine.
She tried to shrug off the feeling as she stood.
"Skaii, I'm-" Nicholas began to say.
"Skaii you're back!" Someone screamed from across the lot, but Skaii was more interested in what Nicholas was about to say.
Was he going to apologize? She furrowed her brows and continued to stare at him, silently urging him to go on.
"Nick, what were you going to say?"
He shook his head and pulled his hand away from her and stood up straight.
He slammed the door shut and said to her, "See you around."
Skaii continued to stare after him until he was out of sight. She sighed and turned around to see Kelly and Melinda standing with a smile on their faces.
"Finally, you're back. The girls are killing us." Melinda groaned in frustration.
"And the boys, let's just say they were their usual selves." Kelly piped in.
"You can't possibly think that I would want to hear about cheer matters on my first day back." Skaii snapped at them.
"Well, the football season is back and we are having games this week. I, um, we thought, you'd like to handle our routines." Kelly stammered.
Skaii closed her eyes and scratched her forehead.
"Okay," she screamed. "I'll build your routine, but I want a eighteen person's team."
"We're seventeen, it can work."
Skaii looked to Melinda and smirked. "You don't tell me what can't or what can work. Make an announcement to everyone, we're having tryouts after school."
"Sure captain, whatever you say." They grumbled in unison.