63

"You made it!" Lucy grinned when I collapsed into the desk beside her in the back of our first period class. Clock still read 8:00 am. I thanked Time for slowing down for me.

"Barely-," I wheezed, "I had to speed walk from the stop and almost got hit twice."

"You need to stop missing your bus," She teased, laughing at the angry look I shot her.

"Uh, yeah, I guess just start working on your presentations, their due Monday, you have the rubric...," our English teacher waved us off. I'm pretty sure he doesn't like teaching. Or kids. Or most literature.

We pulled out our computers and started adding quotes to our Cyrano presentation.

"Did you ever finish your lab pre-work?" Lucy asked as I flipped through the crackly old pages of "Cyrano de Bergerac".

"No," I shrugged.

"Here, I can handle this, you finish the Lab."

"You are literally a lifesaver, thank you," I immediately closed my computer and pulled out my lab book, frantically copying the background and procedures.

After about 6 minutes, we broke our focus. Honestly, that's a little bit of a record, for us.

"You know what I was thinking about last night?"

"Your mom?"

I rolled my eyes, and continued anyway.

"This time next year, Reese and Pebble will be moving," I sighed, stretching my wrist.

"Noooo," Lucy groaned, "I don't wanna think about it."

"Yeah it's gonna suck. I'm gonna miss them," I mumbled. And I really was.

We fell silent.

"We should make it a habit to call every week, like we did last night," I suggested. Now that I didn't have a time lock, it'd be a lot easier for me to join.

"Oh yeah, definitely," Lucy agreed, scrolling through pictures of Roxane.

"Or maybe, they just don't go to college." I wondered sarcastically. Lucy jumped on the bit.

"Maybe we just run away and live in a van."

"Maybe we just forget civilization and travel the wilderness."

"Maybe the apocalypse happens and we survive together, rampaging and spreading anarchy with fire and ecoterrorism and democide."

I looked at my dear friend with concern.

She looked at me.

We burst out laughing. Our teacher came over to make sure we were working, keeping a sharp eye on us the rest of the period.