The Only Exception (Darren Espanto)

Feild trip

Claire's POV

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I woke up the next day with a text.

Morning beautiful :) see you later -Darren

If I could wake up to a text like that every morning, I wouldn't mind getting up so early. It was raining today so I just put on a shirt, a pair leggings, and just tied my hair up. I knew that I would forget that it was raining outside today so I tied my keys to my umbrella.

"Dad! What's for breakfast?" No answer. I walked past my parents room and I can hear them both sleeping. Its fine, didn't want a heavy breakfast anyways.

'Grrrrrr'. I can hear my stomach growling. Maybe a granola bar won't hurt. I just put on my backpack and went through the door.

As soon as I walk outside I was drenched. I forgot my umbrella! THUD! The door closed. And where are my keys? Tied to my umbrella because I thought that that would help me. Ugh I can be so dumb sometimes. Running to my bus stop, I saw Darren. He rushed towards me and covered the both of us with his umbrella.

"Where's your umbrella? It's pouring outside!"

"Yea.. My brain isn't working very well today", I said sheepishly.

"Here, just hold this". He handed me his umbrella and then started taking off his jacket. "You're gonna get sick if you don't cover up."

Logan walked up to both of us and laughed. "So you guys official yet?"

"No". We both looked at each other when we said that.

"Oooo is that a granola bar?" Logan asked as he took it way from me.

"You should give it back dude". Darren said.

"And what if I don't?" Logan raised his eyebrows.

Darren suddenly charged at Logan and pinned him to a wall. "THIS is what's going to happen."

Darren was strong but Logan was a jock. He has a bigger build and a more muscular body than Darren did. Logan turned so now Darren was against the wall.

"I know you like her, lover boy, but you shouldn't get in our business, understand?"

This isn't like Logan. What's going on between them? I got in the middle of them two.

"Stop! What are you guys doing? It's a granola bar for gods sake!" I pushed Logan off of Darren. Logan just walked off, spitting on the ground.

"Are you okay Darren?" I ask. "Why'd you do that? It wasn't a big deal!"

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." He said as he walked away as well. I really don't understand what is going on.

Darren's POV

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I don't know why I did that. I just felt that something was wrong. The bus interrupted my thoughts when it stopped. There wasn't enough space for everyone, again so Logan, Claire, and I had to sit together again. This time Claire was in the middle.

I felt really bad for what I did "Look, I'm really sorry that I did that to. I don't understand why I did that. I guess I just wanna be protective of her."

"It's fine but you don't need to be protective of her around me. We've known each other our entire lives. She's safe with me."

"If you guys are done with your cheesy apologies, can you guys please scoot? I'm suffocating here!" We all laugh and everything was fine. I guess I do really want to protect her. Do I really like Claire?

The bus stopped at our school and when we got off, there was a group of girls following me, as usual. Claire was about to walk away but I held her hand. She looked back, confused.

"Just go with it", I tell her. We walked hand in hand to our lockers and put our stuff away.

"Your jacket Darren." Claire handed me back my jacket and I took it.

The warning bell rung so we hurried to homeroom. Ms. Turner won't let us being late slide again. Claire and I took our seats as the final bell rung.

"Attention class!" Ms. Turner get the table. "We will be going on a field trip to California tomorrow. I know it's last minute but we just decided on it. We will arrive there on an airplane and it will take about 8 hours. It will trip will last for about two weeks."

Hands fly up immediately.

"Where are we staying?"

"In a hotel. The school rented a big hotel for all of the seventh graders. Each homeroom has 1 floor, all to themselves."

"Who are we staying in a room with?"

"You can choose your roommate".

"Can it be boy-girl?"

"There are two beds in each room, so yes." There are no more hands in the air. "You can choose your roommate now." She passed our field trip forms and a piece of paper so we can write who our roommates are going to be.

Every girl turns to me. I just look at Claire and squeeze her hand. The paper got to me and I write 'Claire and Darren'. All of the other girls sigh and turn around. Claire smiles at me. This is going to be an exciting trip.

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OMG guys thanks for 1.6K views!! I gave myself goals, and I expected to have 200 views in this story. You guys made it wayyyyy over that number. I remember the time when I had 3 views and I thought to myself, "3 real people that I don't know are reading my story. This is amazing." Now I have hundreds of people who are reading this story. Thank you so much, it means a lot to me.