The First Drop Of Rain

Chapter Nine

Once we had reached the school the adrenaline faded and the anxiety set in, my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest, my throat started closing, and sweat began working it's way down the center of my spine. The dread that comes with a school day seems to be never ending, and though one day I may look back and miss it all, right now I just wanted to run into the woods- well hobble walk my way into the woods- and hide out for the next seven shitty hours. My thoughts must have been screaming out because I felt a soft touch of a cold hand on my shoulder, and when I turned to look Edward was smiling at me. "Hey. It's okay." He explained with a furrow of his brow. "I'll let you in on a secret. After everyone found out about why Louise Johnson tripped and fell on you, the entire school has been against Jessica. Say she won't even make the final cut for homecoming court." I'm not sure why that made me happy, but it did.

"Thanks. I needed that. Even if it wasn't true." I gripped the door handle and popped it open, the cold autumn air flooding the cabin of the car and chilling me to the bone.

"Just so you know." Edward caught my arm as I began sliding out the door. "It is true. I wouldn't lie to you. There is no point in lying, you're too quick for it to be a success anyways." He smiled at me and let my arm go, allowing me to rise out of the car with the crutch ready to catch me should my leg decide to give. Something resonated within me after what Edward had said, I couldn't quite shake it. When Edward stood from the car holding my bag I smiled at him simply and offered to take it- to which he naturally refused.

"Oh! Do you happen to know what Mrs.C's extra credit is this week? I want to get started on it now." I asked nervously as he opened the cafeteria door for me. It wasn't until the cold air and skittering leaves disappeared behind the quick slamming lock of the metal door did I hear his chuckling.

"To my understanding you have a 110% in that class despite missing three weeks." He shook his head and continued walking toward my locker.

"I like to stay ahead of the curve. That way if I do really bad on the exam it won't matter because my average is still an A." I shrugged and continued walking down the linoleum tiled hall with its beige lockers hiding the walls, and its homecoming banners plastered everywhere.

"See so many of our fellow classmates are so concerned with Homecoming dresses and shoes, dates, parties, and what to watch on Netflix." He shook his head and stopped at my locker as I began to spin the combo out. "But you are focused, you care about reading, grades, and helping your friends..." After a long pause he chuckled and I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. "And try to hide anything you may think from me."

"You just have an unfair advantage!" I popped the door open and stared him down. "I have the tortured assumptions of what my fellow classmates and peers think of me. You have solid proof of what they are thinking in that exact moment." I grabbed the bag from him, though a little too quick, and felt a painful tug on my muscles.

"Ara!" He held the bag in his cold grip and looked at me with pure concern. "I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you were going to grab for it!" He spoke quietly and quickly, opening the bag and placing the books carefully in the locker then placing the book bag at the bottom of it. He plucked out the books for the classes we had to attend first, shut my locker and whisked me to a bench down the hall. It all happened at an alarming speed, and I found it lucky of us that only now were the first busses emptying out in front of the cafeteria doors.

"Thank you. It's fine really. I'm okay. Just tend to forget the 'taking it easy' part of my return." I mumbled awkwardly and played with the ends of my hair. I felt antsy, like all the nerves in my body were jumping and the air in my lungs wasn't enough to oxygenate my body. Fixing my eyes to the ground I tried to calm my breathing and clear my mind. Then suddenly I was calm, everything felt okay, and with a quick glance up I saw a reassuring smile from Jasper, who stood with the rest of the Cullens awkwardly at the end of the hall. I hadn't seen any of them except Edward from finding out their secret, and I wasn't sure how this was about to go. But just as soon I saw them, the flood of students came in, destroying my line of sight and breaking off the waves of reassurance I was receiving.

With that it was time to head to class, and Gaia was standing in front of me with a huge smile on her face. "Off to English for you!" She said with a flutter of her hand which pushed a stray strand of hair from her face. She wore a mustard yellow cardigan, light gray tank top, and pair of distressed skinny jeans. She always looked amazingly put together despite the fact that I knew her mind was always moving a million miles a minute. At this present moment she was clicking her large heel on the brown booties, which likely meant she was going through a mental checklist of the articles she had to proof for the Wednesday school paper, and of the pages she needed to get pictures for still in the yearbook.

"Off to English for me." I laughed and pushed myself up off the bench, when I heard Edward clear his throat next to me.

"I have that class with her, if you want to go attend another duty?" He had stood up, still holding my bag in his hand effortlessly.

"Oh! Sure! Yeah okay that works for me! Uh I'll come fetch you at the end and get you to science?" Gaia was undoubtedly shocked not by the suggestion, but by having not realized Edward was there, I could see it as plain as day on her face, and when I nodded in confirmation of the science plan, she clicked away on her heels, procuring a layout paper from seemingly thin air and began weaving through the students expertly.

"Off to English." Edward laughed and threw my bag over his shoulder.