Playing His Game

Chapter Thirty-Five pt. 3 | Baby Break It Down

Chapter Thirty-Five
Part 3:

Mr. Moss cleared his throat from where he was sitting at his desk. His eyes leveled on me when he was finished speaking, flashing with surprise. He made no comment, but I could tell he never would've expected to see me in detention.

He looked at the other three students filling the room. "Okay. You all know the drill. One hour, no talking, then we can all get on with our lives."

The no talking rule made it easy to ignore Trent, or at least not even glance in his direction the entire hour we were in there.

What was hard to ignore, though, was the thunder. There had been dark skies all day, and the storm finally seemed to be hitting. The thunder shook the walls, echoing in my ears and making me squirm in my seat.

I was never one to be scared of thunderstorms; In fact, I actually loved them. However, the thunder was making me a lot more uneasy than it would've, combined with the dead silence of the classroom.

Mr. Moss had given up on reading his book about halfway through our detention. We still had about 15 minutes left when the strongest roll of thunder yet rattled the walls of the classroom. The fluorescent lights overhead gave a pitiful flicker before all going out simultaneously. There was a loud, electrical groan that sounded, and I could tell the entire school had just lost power.

Just when I was starting to wonder if there was some sort of rule on this, Mr. Moss stood up and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair. "That's it. You're all dismissed. I'm not about to become responsible for all of you during a storm."

I gathered my things and got up, happy to leave the all too quiet classroom. I made it out the door and into the dark, deserted hallway before I remembered the situation with my ride, or, rather, lack thereof.

My steps grew even slower as I reached the double doors and took in how it looked outside. It was barely 4:00 and the sky was almost completely dark. Besides that, it was pouring rain, and a flash of lighting could be spotted about every 20 seconds.

I heard the slam of a locker behind me. I fished my phone out of my bag and dialed my mom's number, groaning when it went straight to voicemail and I remembered she was working late.

A pimply faced guy who had sat near me during detention appeared at my right. He looked at me, then pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head. "Wish me luck, dude."

I watched him open the door. I flinched as a gust of cold air and rain blew in. "Me too," I muttered as he walked outside, and I prepared myself to do the same.

After securing my own hood and tucking in my hands, I shouldered the door open. As soon as I was away from the cover provided by the schools roof, the rain pelted me fast and hard.

My boots were almost an inch deep in water as I traveled down the sidewalk. I wondered why there weren't any flash-flood warnings, which this certainly had to qualify as.

"Audrey!"

I turned around, raising a hand to shield my face from the slew of rain coming straight at me. I squinted and wasn't surprised to see Trent heading towards me. "What's up?"

"Come on, I'll give you a ride home!" he shouted over the downpour. "It's not safe to walk in this!"

"No, that's okay!" I yelled back, lowering my voice when he was only a few feet away. "I'll just...actually, yes. I change my mind!" Another streak of lighting flashed behind him and I decided I didn't care how awkward it would be, I needed a ride home.

He nodded, leading the way to the only car remaining in the parking lot.

I climbed into the passenger side of his Jeep, grateful for the warmth and shelter it immediately provided. I shrugged my now soaked jacket off and laid it across the seat between us. I crossed my arms over my chest as Trent climbed in and started the car, rubbing the long sleeves of my white top to try and generate some body heat.