Nothing Special (Minicat)

; Carly

Homeroom is the most pointless class of the day. It's five minutes long, you do nothing but talk and pretend to watch the announcements, and everyone gets squished in the door trying to leave. And don't forget the last detail: it's the very last place you'll be in school.

I sit there now, staring at the clock and waiting to go find Craig and drag him to the beach with us. The school's daily announcements drag on and on, and I only catch a few words regarding clubs and such. The clocks tick to 3:00. Then to 3:01.

3:02.

3:03.

3:04.

A minute later, I'm out the door first. Grabbing Evan by the hood of his sweatshirt, I tell him to wait with everyone else by the humongous oak tree in the front of the school. He mumbles something in response, but I don't wait for him to finish, as I'm already skip-jogging through hallways trying to search for pink hair and glasses. Soon enough, Craig Thompson's curly-ass hair comes into view, shoved in between Adam Bennett's fists. I sprint up to Adam, who has Craig in sort of a choke hold. Upon seeing this, I calmly walk up to Adam, tell him to stop, and promptly kick him in the nuts.

Luckily, there were no teachers around.

As Adam cusses and doubles over, I grab Craig's arm and drag him outside to where the oak tree is. Craig's mouth is hanging wide open, but I'm not sure if it's because of shock or whatever. As we near the tree, I slow down and see the Craig has a view finger-shaped bruises on his neck. But he had gotten his things before Adam had got to him. That's good. It's good. We're all good.

I look up to see the entire gang there. Daithi and Jaclyn are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder against the trunk, with Daithi playing his ukulele that he'd smuggled into his locker; Scotty and Anthony sit on the school's lawn throwing grass at each other; Tyler and Evan are both on their phones, and both have earbuds in; and Lui and Marcel are racing each other up the tree while Simone is yelling at Marcel for being an idiot.

A pretty put-together squad if you ask me.

"GUYS!" I holler, causing everyone's heads to look up at me, and Craig to flinch back a little. "MEET CRAIG FUCKING THOMPSON!" Everyone starts to stare at Craig, who shrinks down and averts his eyes. Evan looks at me with a small smile at his face, then shakes his head and chuckles. Scotty and Anthony jump up, shake their grass-sprinkled heads clean, and walk over to us. From the corner of my eye, I see Craig mutter something. Daithi, Simone, and Jaclyn all smile warmly at Craig, and Lui and Marcel introduce themselves a bit before going back to their idiotic race. Tyler just glances at Craig a little bit before looking back at his phone. I bite back a squeal; just seeing them looking at each other gives me chills.

Evan eventually comes over to us and takes his headphones out, then claps Craig on the shoulder and says, "Don't let those two--" he motions to Scotty and Anthony--"get the best of you. They're basically toddlers." Craig smiles a little, then nods. So pure.

"Alright guys," I say, tying my hair back into a messy bun. "Let's roll."

----

lol when i finish this book i'm gonna have to go back and fix so much of this i'm so sorry my brain is not functioning

~ tay