Darkling

12| Blackout

Chapter 12: Blackout (Callum's POV)

"Bye," she said softly to her dad, taking the kiss he gave to the top of her head. After he left, she turned to me. "You shouldn't have left the class. Now we both might be clueless on what exactly we have to do," she said as we started walking to the staircase. 

"That's okay, we can figure it out together," I replied, adjusting my bag on my shoulder. 

She glanced at me a little longer than she should have. 

"Where are we going?" I asked. 

"Don't we have gym class? After twenty minutes that are left of English?" 

"Yeah," I nodded. 

"Why don't we just get changed for gym class and then down to the field?" 

"Okay," I agreed. 

Then we walked to our rooms, going our separate ways when we reached her room which came before mine. I went inside my room, put my bag down, threw my shirt off, exchanged it for the jersey the school gives everyone, and then switched out my jeans for the shorts. I pulled my shoes on, tied the laces, grabbed a water bottle and my keys, attaching them to the bottle, and then headed out. 

I locked the door and started walking when her door opened. Her keys were hanging off her shorts like they always are, she had a hair tie between her teeth and was throwing her hair up in a high ponytail. I looked her up and down, my eyes lingering on her legs. 

I don't remember the shorts being so short for girls. Then again, I would never look. 

"Hey," she said through gritted teeth while raising her brows at me. 

"Hey," I said, walking over. We started walking downstairs while she tied her hair, her arms dropping to her sides once she finished. "Were you there for the last class?" I asked, even though I knew she wasn't. Because if she was, everyone would be talking about her in those shorts. 

They're not that short, I know they're not. But still. 

"No, I skipped the last class. But Daisy said it's kind of fun. What do you guys do?" she asked, glancing at me while we descended the stairs. 

"Team sports, partner sports, everything," I shrugged. 

When we got downstairs and passed the locker rooms, two girls came out with their shirts tied up in a knot and their shorts rolled up. I glanced at Clara. She looked at them, then at herself, then scrunched up her nose at them. "Why do they do that?" She turned to me, seeming a little surprised that I was already looking at her. 

"What?" 

"Make their clothes even smaller? Aren't the shorts short enough for the girls? I thought they were," she mumbled, looking at her shorts. 

I feel weird now. 

Why is she thinking that? 

"You look fine, Clara," I nodded. 

We got to the field, both of us squinting a little under the sun as we walked to the bleachers. She sat down on the grass and I sat in front of her, leaning back on my hands. The bell rang and slowly the field filled up with our grade. 

And then our teacher/coach. Mr. Matthews arrived. "Everyone stand up please!" 

We stood up while Daisy and Wyatt came over. 

"We're working on partner sports today. We'll practice throwing and catching to warm up and then—" 

"Sir, can't we do normal exercises?"