PINKY PROMISE ; CLEARWATER

III.

NICOLE WAS ON HER phone, trying to call Cecelia, but her best friend didn't pick up.

Maybe she really meant it when she said that she wouldn't come to pick her up.

Finally, Nicole gave up and went inside their garage to get her scooter and helmet and went speeding off as she had already waited for too long for her best friend.

"I can't believe you really left me on my own there. What if I had waited for you to come and been late?" Nicole asked Cecelia as they met each other at their lockers.

"Come on, nothing happened and I really couldn't pick you up because I had to drive my brother to school." Cecelia responded as she got out her books and turned to Nicole, who had her hair all over the place because she never was careful when taking off her helmet.

"Here, let me braid your hair as an apology."

"Did I really look that bad? You hate braiding my hair," Nicole asked as she admired her two braids in the mirror of the girl's bathroom.

Cecelia shrugged as she put her brush back into her backpack, "I needed a bit of practice, otherwise I'd forget how to braid. I don't have three little sisters who let me practice on them daily."

"True, but come on, we need to hurry now, or we'll be late for philosophy," Nicole said as she made her way out of the small room.

"I still don't know how you managed to convince me to take this class. The teacher hates me." Cecelia complained as she followed her friend.

The girl just smiled, "You love me, that's why."

"I just don't get why we have to study this shit," Cecelia exclaimed as she threw her philosophy book into her locker. "What does it matter to me what some old fart thought thousand years ago about how one can reach ataraxia, like come on, I don't even know what that word really means."

"I think it's actually kind of interesting," Nicole spoke up, finally interrupting Cecelias ranting. "You know, we can actually take certain things from those "old farts "", she put those words under quotation marks, "but yeah, I do get why you don't like it, for the most part it's really confusing."

"Exactly! Why do we even have to learn some expressions in greek? It's not like I'll remember that after finishing school. I don't even remember what color my underwear has, how should I remember all of that stuff?" Cecelia continued as they walked to their next class.

Across the hallway Nicole noticed two familiar faces and turned to Cecelia, stopping her rambling. "Look, that guy over there, the one whose hair isn't in a braid, that's Seth."

Cecelia, who was considerably smaller than Nicole, tried to get a better look at him by standing on her tiptoes, though, to no avail. "I can't see him, go over and talk to him. Our class isn't that far away, you have enough time to do that."

Nicole shook her head quickly. "I can't do that, what would I even say? Hi, I'm the girl you talked to in the restaurant, do you remember me? Absolutely not, let's just go to our class."

"No chance, this is the first guy that you've been interested in for a while now. Go over and just say hi and ask him about, I don't know, the weather," Cecelia said as she pulled the taller girl along.

Not too far away, Seth and David were having almost the same exact conversation.

"She probably doesn't even remember me, I mean why should she, I'm just a random customer," Seth told his friend who was trying to encourage him to talk to the pretty girl.

"Shut up, of course she remembers you, she was just looking in your direction while talking to her friend," David retorted, not having any of Seth's overthinking. "See they're walking in our direction. Anyway, you're on your own. I have P.E. now and if I'm late again I'll get into trouble. Have fun."

"Oh, he really is cute," Cecelia noted as she was finally able to see the boys. "Go over and talk to them I'll be here somewhere and will get you out when it gets too awkward okay?"

"Wait, no you can't just do that," Nicole tried to reason but Cecelia had already disappeared into the crowd of students and it seemed as if Seth, with his sweet smile, was making his way over to her.

"Hi Nicole," the boy greeted her with a cheery smile and her knees almost gave in as she saw his dimples.

She smiled back at him, "Hi Seth, how are you?"

Internally, Seth was so not okay.

He was panicking, his thoughts running wild with things he could say to this girl he found to be really attractive. "I'm good now, I wasn't sure if you'd remembered me though." He laughed awkwardly as he pushed his long hair behind his ear and immediately wanted to get swallowed by the ground.

Nicole just laughed at his words, "Oh, come on. I don't forget faces that easily, give me some credit."

There was a short silence between them as neither knew what to say. Just when the silence was about to get awkward for the two, did Seth speak up, "What's your next class, maybe I could walk you there."

"I have to go to the science lab, but really, you don't have to go there with me. I don't want you to be late." Nicole responded, looking around for Cecelia, though she couldn't find her.

Maybe she should start looking for a new best friend.

Seth shook his head quickly at her response, "No it's okay, I have to go in that direction anyways, I have math next." Though he tried to hide his excitement, he was very happy that he could spend some more time with Nicole.

"Then let's go," Nicole said as the two began making their way through the other students, "By the way, are you in any club?"

"Yes, I play soccer, but honestly, I'm not that good, I only started with practice in middle school. Some of the guys on the team play since they can walk."

Nicole laughed at his remark and Seth admired the way her red lips turned upwards and her eyes creased. "I'm sure you're good, if you weren't they wouldn't have let you play for the team. What position do you play?"

"I'm a midfielder, you know what that means?" Seth asked, just to be sure, not wanting to confuse her about his position, and maybe he wanted to impress her by showing off his soccer knowledge.

"Yes, of course, my dad loves watching soccer and I always join him, so I actually think I know more or less everything you need to know," Nicole responded truthfully. She was even playing down on her love for soccer because if one ever caught her on a weekend with her dad in front of the TV, then they would meet a totally new side of Nicole Coberly.

"And you? You said something about volleyball on Saturday," Seth asked her now, though he knew that if she would start talking more in detail about the sport, he'd be completely lost. He only knew the basics, which was that the ball shouldn't touch the ground and that each team can only touch the ball thrice, he didn't know more.

Nicole nodded, though not all that eagerly, she hated talking about herself and her sport, "Oh, yes. I've been playing volleyball since elementary school. Last year I didn't go to school here because my old coach was convinced that I should try to join the team in a school in Port Angeles, though I had to quit and come back here."

Not sure how to respond to this, Seth just nodded his head and a silence stretched over them until they reached the lab, Nicole internally sighed as she saw the door that would save her.

"Thanks for going here with me. I'll see you around!" With those words she disappeared, not even giving Seth the chance to respond anything.

Nicole just wanted to disappear, by this encounter she was harshly reminded of why she had so few friends.

Why couldn't she just keep her mouth shut? Why couldn't she have a normal conversation with a guy she thought was cute?