Gold Rush

Chapter Fifteen

            “Here’s a situation, been to every nation, nobody’s ever made me feel the way that you do. You know my motivation given my reputation, please excuse me I don’t mean to be rude—”

            My hand slammed down on the alarm clock, cutting off Enrique’s voice. I opened my eyes, glancing at the clock. When I noticed the clock read 9:30AM I almost had a heart attack. I was late!

            Shoving myself out of bed, I hurried towards my dresser, grabbing the first clean shirt I saw. I stripped my pajama shirt off, quickly throwing on my clean one. Next came my pants as I hopped towards the bathroom. When my pants were on I turned on the sink, yanking my toothbrush from its cup and doing a quick brush.

            After running a brush through my hair and applying light makeup, I grabbed my school bag, and headed out the door. The grounds were dead as I hurried towards the main building. Third period was probably just starting. Just as I reached my classroom door, realization hit me. This was the day I was supposed to skip because of that stupid magazine!

            I cursed under my breath, dropping my hand from the door handle. Was it too late to escape back to my dorm? I shook my head vehemently. There was no use in skipping school for this. Everyone still knew about it. It was better just to face it. With that thought, I pushed open the classroom door.

            A few people glanced at me, but none of them held expressions of disgust, disappointment, anger, or hate like I’d expected. Confused, I slowly moved further into the room, barely noticing the teacher greeting me. “Miss Carter,” he snapped. “Do you have a late pass?”

            I blanked. I didn’t get a late pass from the office. Laughing nervously, I turned to face him. “I… er, no.”

            He shook his head, pointing towards the door. “Go get one.”

            Before leaving the classroom I quickly glanced around once again. Why wasn’t anyone giving me dirty looks? Did all these people not see the magazine? Didn’t they care that I supposedly cheated on Noah? I would think at least the girls cared… There had to be something I was missing.

            I marched off towards the main office, grumbling to myself. How could I have missed my alarm clock going off for three hours straight? Now there was an unexcused tardy on my attendance!

            “Iris!”

            I froze when I heard my name being called. Turning my head, I saw Luke jogging towards me. My eyebrows furrowed together. “Luke? Shouldn’t you be in class?”

            He held up a slip of paper in his hand. “We have a substitute so I’m bringing the attendance form to the office.”

            “There’s where I’m headed too,” I told him, turning back to the front again.

            “What are you doing in school today?” he asked, falling into step with me. “I thought you were supposed to skip?”

            I shrugged. “Well I forgot… and I decided it was best to face this head on, but it seems like no one really cares. Or at least the people in my history class.”

            “Oh, that’s because Noah snipped it at its roots.”

            “Huh?”

            Luke frowned. “Did I use the saying wrong?”

            I rolled my eyes at him, feeling a grin make its way to my face. “What do you mean by that, Luke?”