I hear the bell ring and I open my eyes, lifting my head off the desk. Grabbing my bag I stand up. I walk to the door and pull out my phone.
I see a text from Richard saying “Hey, wanna meet up for lunch? I have something I want to talk to you about. It's kind of important.”
“Yeah, sure, wanna meet up at the tree we used to eat at?” I text back with curiosity. I take out my earbuds from my pocket, take one out of the case, and put it into my ear, I press play on my phone and the first song that starts up is Psychosocial by Slipknot.
Approaching the tree, I see Richard. He stood at about 6’2 with thick, somewhat long hair, always tied back into a ponytail. He was wearing a black hoodie with an anime character on the front and dark blue jeans, most of his somewhat light brown skin was hidden from view. He was still quite handsome though. “Hey,” I say “How was class?”
“It was pretty good, boring as always though,” He says, tapping his foot kind of fast.
“So, what was it you needed to talk to me about?”
He clears his throat, “So, we’ve known each other for quite a few years, right? Well I have these feelings for you,” He rubs the back of his head “and I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date with me, tonight”
I chuckle softly “Of course, I have the same feeling for you, but I have practice tonight, and the big competition Saturday. Would tomorrow night work?
Twisting his foot on the ground and looking down he says “Yeah, that would work. Do you wanna go to Dave’s grill or somewhere else?”
“No, that’d be fine. Want to go grab lunch? I'm getting kind of hungry.”
“Yeah, let's go.” He walks ahead of me and I start to follow him. We get into the lunch line and wait. As the line moves forward we walk up until we reach the front. There are usually about three or four open booths, this first has pizza, the second has chicken alfredo, the third has nachos, and when the fourth is open has orange chicken with rice. I go to the first booth, and, as always, I get the pizza. Richard goes to the fourth one, which is open today, and picks up his food.
I meet up with him near the exit and we walk back to the tree. We eat for a few minutes and talk about random things, catching up as we haven't spoken in person in about a month. The bell rings and we both stand up.
“Welp, I guess it's time I go to history. I’ll text you after school, ok?”
“Yeah, see ya later”
“See ya”
We walk together for a few minutes then we split off. He goes to one building and I continue walking to a different one.
I get to my history class, my teacher holding the door as always and I walk into the class, my teacher greeting me, “Good afternoon Jason.”
“Good afternoon Miss Yosa. How’s your day going today?”
“It's going pretty good, for a Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday, so it’ll be better than today” She smiles at me and I walk into the classroom.
I walk to my seat and sit down, getting the stuff I need for this class out of my backpack, notebook, computer, pencil, the usual.
Today we were doing notes for a project we had to do the following day. An hour passes and class ends, so I grab my stuff and put it away into my backpack.
Walking to the local pizza place with one of my friends, Danny, she says “ So, how was your day?”
“Pretty interesting, Richard asked me out finally, and I said we could go tomorrow, as I couldn't go tonight because of practice. I need your help though, I want to look nice, wanna come home with me tomorrow to help me pick out my outfit? You have very good taste in fashion.”
“Yeah, sure,” she says with enthusiasm and excitement.
We come up to the parking lot a few minutes later, then, walking up to the door, I rush in front of her and open the door.
“Well, thank you, kind sir,” Danny says to me.
“Welcome guys, what can I get for you both today?” The girl at the front desk says.
We walk up to the desk, and I order for both of us. “Can we get two drinks and a medium pizza please?” I ask.
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She types up things into her computer and then says, “That’d be seventeen dollars and fifty-six cents.”
I pull out my wallet, open it and pull out a twenty-dollar bill and hand it to the cashier then she gives me back my change and the receipt. She walks over to the counter behind the desk where all the cups are, grabs two of them, and walks back to the desk, handing us our cups and a tall, metal rod with a base at the bottom and a card with a number on its top.
“Thank you,” I say
“Your pizza should be out shortly,” the cashier says
I hand Danny her cup and we walk to the soda machine, she gets Coke and I get Mountain Dew. We walk through the lowly lit restaurant, booths lined around the walls and tables lined up in the middle of the room. “Not too many people here,” I say as I walk to one of the booths on the wall
“Yeah, not too many people, which is nice”
I walk up to the booth and sit down on one side, and Danny sits down on the other side. I put down our number on the table. “So, what happened Tuesday? You're usually always at practice” I ask. She is usually at practice, but Tuesday she wasn't, which spiked a little bit of concern for me.
“My grandma went to the hospital, she got covid about a week ago and refused to go to the hospital, but then she collapsed in the front room. She's doing fine now though, it was just a scare. They got fluids into her and took some tests. They said the worst has passed but she is going to be in there for a while” She says with hopefulness in her voice and she smiles at me.
“Well, that's a little scary but I'm glad that the worst has passed and she is going to be ok. If anything happens like that can you let me know? I would've taken off practice and spent some time with you to make sure you were ok” I say heartfully
“Thank you, I just didn't want to worry you until I made sure she was ok. I was planning on telling you today but you asked before I could tell you” She chuckles softly
“Well thank you for thinking about me, but next time let me know please” I smile at her.
“Of course” She smiles back
“What else has been going on?”
“Nothing much, just school, marching band, the same ol’ stuff. I have a favor to ask though. Since you have a car, can you drive me to phoenix in a couple of weeks? I told you I met this guy a couple of weeks ago on Discord right? Well, we plan on meeting each other at a coffee shop there in Pheonix. He’s out of town for a few weeks so it doesn't have to happen right now.” She says with ardor but with some hesitation.
Of course, I would be able to, I mean she is my best friend so why wouldn't I drive her. But before I could answer a lady walks up with a tray, with, what I would assume is our pizza.
“Here’s your pizza guys,” The lady says. I look at her name tag which reads “Ranease”. She sets it down on the table and picks up our number and walks away.
“As I was about to say, of course, I will, I don't have anything going on anyway.”
We exit the restaurant and start walking back to the school. Danny walks kind of fast and I walk kind of slow, so it's hard to keep up with her but I do keep up with her. Coming up to the traffic light, I push the crossing button on the pole. We wait a minute or so then the blackboard on the other side of the street changes from an orange hand to a stick figure that looks like it is walking. I start crossing the street then Danny walks up behind me. Danny reaches the other side before me, as she is faster. We continue walking, the school right in front of us. Walking for a few minutes we reach the door to the performing arts center and she opens the door for me.
“Thank you,” I say
“No problem” She shoots me a smile.
I walk through the doorway and she follows behind me, the doer closing behind her. “I wonder what we are doing tonight, probably drill, right?”
“Yeah, we are already halfway through movement two, probably going to finish it tonight” We walk to the other door to enter the band room and she opens this door for me and I walk in, her following behind me. “Looks like everyone is here today”
“Yeah. I mean the big competition is Saturday so I would assume so”
“Yeah. Well, I better get to the stage for sectionals, I’ll see you later tonight.
“See you later”
I walk to the guard room where my equipment is. I grab a tall grey bag filled with a five-foot-tall pool with a black flag with a couple of shiny grey lines going across it, a white wooden rifle, and a three-foot PVC pipe with a light pink flag on it, otherwise known as a swing flag. I put the strap around my shoulder and walk out of the room. Walking out of the band room door and taking a left, the opposite side of the door outside I walk down the hallway to a door on the right side of the hall. Turning to the door and opening it I walk in and when I walk in I'm greeted by Carly, “Hey Jason,” Carly says. There are three others there, Joseph, Mikala, and Kary, Kary being the color guard instructor. She has long brown hair and is wearing a grey shirt and black leggings. Carly, probably my closest friend next to Danny, is wearing all black with half white half black hair split down the middle. Mikala is tall and skinny, standing at about five-foot-eleven wearing a blank blue hoodie with light blue skinny jeans. Joseph is about five-foot-tall and kind of skinny wearing a blue and red tie-dye hoodie and light-ish blue jeans.
“Hi,” I say flamboyantly to Carly. I walk up to her and immediately tell her the news “So, something interesting happened today, Richard finally asked me out and I said yes. We are going tomorrow.” I say with ardor.
“That's really cool, I'm happy for you guys. It's about time, I noticed there was something between you guys a while ago and now Richard finally acted on it.”
“Yeah, finally. Though we haven't talked in person in about a month, I'm worried things will be differen-”
Before I could finish, Kary interrupts our conversation and announces to everybody, “Ok, it's four o’clock, let's get practicing”
I walk out of the band room, then the outside door, and when I'm greeted I'm welcomed to cool, crisp autumn air and black skies, with lights lighting up the sidewalk and cars in the parking lot, about ten or eleven cars. I walk to my white, two thousand two Ford Mustang. Pulling my keys out of my pocket I unlock my car, open the door and I get in.