Her Foxes

Chapter 1

I slam the door behind me and get a handful of who knows what sprinkled on me from the eaves above. Luckily today there is no one to shout at me for 'damaging the house'. The rain behind me slightly splatters my legs. It's cold, for the start of Autumn. I'd use my umbrella, but I lent it to Beckett, my best friend, a few days ago, and haven't gotten it back yet. The wall clock said it was almost eight when I was putting on my unpolished school shoes. I have fifteen minutes to make it to school. Usually it would be plenty of time - I could probably run there and back with time to spare. But I decide to wait until the rain thins out a bit.

When there is a small break, I make a run for it, sprinting onto the main road near my house, and making a beeline for the school gates. I'm inside their territory when the rain starts up again, pounding on my hat, coating my clothes in a wet layer. I'm soaked head to toe when I make it to the locker room. I drop off my bag and wince. My locker - which is at the bottom, in a small dank corner, mind you - will smell of dampness for days, if not weeks.

The humid room, with it's wide door-less entries on either side, starts filling up with students quickly. I try to shrink into my corner, into my locker actually, from the stampede of girls in too-short skirts and boys with no school regulation green tie that like to gather around this particular corner. My attempts don't work, as about two people step on my maths book and I get splattered with water droplets. It doesn't matter though. If I'm already soaking, what's a few more drops. It takes longer than usual to get up, as the girl using the locker above me has a whole pack of friends gawking at her phone, trapping me in my place. When I weave through, it's not the end of my troubles. The whole locker room is filled to the brim with high schoolers. I can't hear anything over the loud chatter inside, and the rain on the tin roof outside.

I wish I hadn't waited for the rain to stop, one, because I'm soaking anyway, and two, five minutes can make all the difference between slipping there and back from an empty locker room and standing, squished into other sodden bodies, waiting to somehow make it out alive. I clutch my laptop and books to my chest and try to slip through the gaps of people.

I hear the bell ring when I'm almost outside. Though it's muffled by the rain that's heavier still. If I step out of the locker room, I'll be soaking all over again, and just when I've started to dry off. But I'm never going back into the hell house I was just in. I take a step towards the rain, prepared to make a run for it when my arm is pulled back. At first, I think it's one of the seniors playing tricks on me, but I'm relieved to turn around and see Beckett. With my umbrella.

I break into one of my rare smiles, usually reserved for my friends. 'Hey!' I shout over the racket.

'Hey!' Beckett echoes back. 'Thought you might need this before you go out there.' He hands me my dripping clear umbrella, which I take from his hand straight away

'I could have used this twenty minutes ago.' I say as loud as I can, starting to walk out into the rain. Beckett droops his arm around me before replying.

'I can see that.' He laughs through the curtains of rain the umbrella shield us from.

I shove him back. 'Get off. You'll be wet too!'

'Good point.' He says and takes his arm off me. We walk under my umbrella to the science block, for form. Luckily we're in neighbouring classes, so we can walk there with company. We pass a few girl with too short skirts from my class. I follow their gaze to see them staring at Beckett like he's the only thing in the world. It makes me sick.

'Don't you get tired of all the girls staring?' I ask just because I don't feel like asking what subjects he has after form. It get's boring when you memorise your best friend's timetables.