The Girl Who Was Adopted

Chapter 15 - It's a Super Emergency!

'Skating?'

'Skating.'

'Perhaps this will be our okay.'

'Skating.' I answered Ryder's text with a laugh.

It had taken a long day of convincing, but I'd finally managed to convince Ryder to watch The Fault in Our Stars only the day before, and since then he had been referencing it with every chance he had. I slipped my phone back into my pocket and turned my attention back to the front of my classroom where my English teacher was explaining something that I couldn't bring myself to care about.

I was glad that it was Friday, and the awkward lunch with Sabrina had been forgotten by the boys. The latest gossip around the school was that Kit and Sarah had hooked up at some mid-week party, which I knew wasn't true because Sarah and I had been binge watching 'Awkward' that night. Both of them denied the rumour, but it just seemed to make people believe it more.

Summer was on its way and everyone seemed to be pretending that we didn't have the year's final exams coming up. I was nervous about the exams, but I was also completely disinterested. I counted down the seconds until the bell rang and I quickly grabbed my stuff before darting out of the class. I made a pit stop at my locker, grabbing my bag, before heading up to Ryder's last class. His home-room class had done something that had put them in a lot of trouble, and they had to sit there, with their teacher, for an hour after school.

They were about to enter their final year of high school, and here they were being kept in class because of something stupid – I think it had been a mean note about the teacher that had been passed around, although I wasn't entirely sure. For people about to graduate and become seniors, they were being treated like middle-schoolers. It surprised me that the teacher wanted to keep them there, twiddling their thumbs, like ten year olds rather than accepting the fact that in a year they would be finished high school and entering the real world.

I stepped into the classroom and the teacher's eyes snapped onto me, but I ignored her. "We have to go right now, it's an emergency," I told Ryder, hoping that I was being convincing enough. "It's a super emergency!"

Ryder stood up, fighting a grin as he grabbed his things and dragged me out with his free hand, "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I have to – it's a super emergency." We ran out of the classroom and Kit appeared at our side. I doubted that he knew why we were running, but he simply kept up as we tried not to laugh too loudly as we dashed through the halls.

Ryder's teacher stepped out, screaming behind us, and while I learnt a lot of new swear words, we didn't stop running until we'd broken free into the outside world, feeling the freedom and sunlight reign down on us. I leant against a wall, drawing in deep breaths between bursts of laughter. "That was crazy."

"Did you hear her call us dipsticks?" Ryder leant over, laughing so hard his face was red.

"Nobody has said that since the 60s," Kit chuckled.

"Let's get out of here," Ryder shook his head laughing as he led the way to where he'd parked his car. As we climbed into the car, I noticed a lot of people from Ryder's class walking around the school grounds, most of them were laughing amongst themselves; it is amazing what one escapee can inspire.

We headed off to the mall to meet up with the girls, and when we arrived Chloe and Jessica greeted us happily before we all headed down to a small Italian restaurant where we ordered a bunch of pizzas and talked loudly, earning dirty looks from the older customers. An elderly couple a few tables seemed specifically annoyed by our laughing and jokes, but it only made everything funnier.

Normally, I wouldn't have thought about sitting in a restaurant being loud, but I felt comfortable with my friends, and that was something that I was willing to embrace to no end. Halfway through our meal – because after three pizzas for the table, it no longer counts as an afternoon 'snack' - I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.