Hannah (The Girls of Mulberry Manor)

Chapter 4

When the bell rings I head to my last class of the day. When I walk in the door Myles waves me over. I take the seat next to him behind a lab table.

"How was Lit class?" he asks me.

"It was good. I've read most of the books on the reading list already, so I think it should be an easy enough class," I tell him.

"With Chase as your partner it should be a breeze," he says.

Mr. Walker walks into the room, so all the students quiet down. He passes out our textbooks and starts going over safety procedures. As he's talking, he points out the different stations in the room.

I look over at Myles and see he's writing something in a notebook. He pushes the notebook in front of me. "This is my last class. You?"

I take his pencil and respond. "Yes."

He takes the notebook back and writes, "What are you doing after school?"

"Probably just going home," I respond.

"No way! Me and the guys are going to the arcade. Come with?" he replies.

I shake my head no at him.

"Pretty please, Hannah Benson!!!!" he begs.

I take the notebook from him and write, "Fine, but not for long. And it's just Hannah. Stop with the Benson!"

He looks at me with a huge grin on his face and does a little dance in his chair. What a goofball.

After class I follow Myles out to the parking lot. Chase and Vin are standing beside a newer, blue Lexus. As we walk up to the car Chase opens the front passenger door for me to get in. Myles takes the driver's seat and the other two hop in the back. This is a really nice car for a high schooler. I wonder how he can afford it. It's also ridiculously clean inside.

We pull up to a mini mall. One of the stores has a neon sign in the window that says Next Level. We walk into the arcade and the guys immediately go for the change machine. They stick their cash in and quarters come clinking out of it. I don't have any money to play so I just stand back and watch them.

I decide to walk around and look at the games. There are a bunch of shooting and racing games. They even have an old Pac-Man game. After a few minutes Chase finds me and asks me if I want to play.

"Actually, there is a game I like, but you have to play too," I tell him. I lead him over to the Skee-Ball game. This is my favorite arcade game ever.

"Skee-Ball? Really?" he asks me, with a doubtful look on his face.

"Yes, really. I bet I can score higher than you," I tease.

"You're on," he says, putting quarters in two lanes.

I watch as he rolls his first two balls. Ten points for one and twenty points for the other. I'm seriously going to kick his ass at this game. Lainey used to take me to the arcade when I was little, and this was only game I was truly good at. The trick is to stay low. I roll my first ball and hit the 100-point hole. Chase stops playing and stares at me.

"I bet you five bucks you can't do that again," he says to me.

"I'll take that bet," I tell him. I pick up the second ball, crouch down low, and roll it straight into the 100-point hole again.