The Hippie | DISCONTINUED

9: assignment

"Hey, Tiffany!" Looking behind me, I saw Kyle swaggering down the bustling corridor—heading right towards me. 

"You right? " I nodded my head as a way of greeting him as he leaned on the locker next to mine. 

"Yeah, a bit tired though. I had a long practice yesterday and my muscles are a bit stiff from the workout coach had me doing after." 

Rolling my eyes at him, I said, "Oh, I don't actually care, it's just a way of greeting people." 

"Ah I see, cute Aussie slang from a cute Aussie girl."

I tried to ignore the blush that began creeping up my neck as I shoved the last of my necessary books into my bag. It wasn't even Aussie slang, I'm sure people all over the world use that greeting. "So, why are you talking to me in such an open area?" 

"Why? Do you prefer privacy?" Kyle wiggled his eyebrows as I slammed the locker door and turned to face him, mirroring how he stood. 

"Nope. I thought you wouldn't want to be seen with a loser like me." 

Kyle broke the eye contact as he muttered, "Um yeah about that... Anyways I came to see if you wanted to come over to mine tonight and we can start on the project thingy." 

"Yeah, I can pop around for a bit if it's cool with my folks." 

"Great! I'll meet you in the car park after school." I was just about to turn around and head to my first class when he spoke again, "Oh and, I hope you don't mind but I have Football practice after school for an hour so you'll have to wait around. Or you could make your own way to mine at about half four?" 

He rubbed the back of his neck and kept his eyes on the floor as he waited for me to reply. As out of character it was for me to think this but... It was kinda cute that he was thinking about me!

"Nah, don't worry about it, I'll chill in the music room."

"Awesome! I'll come to get you when I'm finished and we can go back to mine."

"Ta. See ya in the arvo!" I bid him goodbye as the bell went, enjoying watching the confusion cross his handsome face at my use of more Aussie slang.

Floating down the corridor, caught in a current of bodies, I kept myself from panicking. After all, I just need to take the first left... Wait, first left? Or is the second felt. 

Oh, fudge nuggets. 

Who made this school such a freaking labyrinth? 

Damn, I'm going to get another detention. 

Taking a deep breath, I cut off my negative thoughts—freaking out wasn't going to help me now. As I came close to the first left turn, I moved to the left wall in preparation. With a hand on the corner, the coolness of the wall helping to calm me, I looked down the corridor and tried to identify if it was the right turn. 

As I scanned the corridor for any of my classmates, people barged past me as if I was invisible. It wasn't working—everywhere looked the same and the swarm of people was traveling too fast for me to identify anyone. 

Giving up on that corridor, I re-joined the flow of bodies to the next left turn. All too aware of the time ticking by, I fought to keep my cool. I came to a halt at the next turn and started down it. It looked the exact same as the previous corridor. 

Okay, maybe I can panic now_

"Hey!" A friendly, familiar voice said into my ear. I jumped and whipped around to see who was talking to me. 

When I saw my savior, I threw my hands around Bree and huffed out a breath I'd been holding.

"Oh! Thank God you're here," I greeted her, pulling away. 

"You okay? I mean, it's great that you're glad I'm here, but you look like you'd just seen a ghost and I saved you before it could possess you." Looping my arm around hers, I let her pull me down the corridor to class. 

I smiled sheepishly and said, "I forgot how to get to maths." 

"Ah, Lola, what am I going to do with you?" She sighed.

"It's not my fault that every part of the school looks the exact same." I threw my hands in the air in exasperation.

Collapsing into a chair next to me, Bree grumbled, "Yeah, school is hell."

"I wouldn't get that far. Yes, it's painful but some classes are interesting. At lunch, we can play and I wouldn't have met you if I hadn't come to school." I pointed out the few yet important factors of school. "Or we could be able to play if you didn't keep getting detentions!"

Bree shook off my attack and replied, "Yeah, but I'm sure homeschooling was better and I bet you had lots of friends at home."

"Yeah." I smiled sadly as I remembered all of the people I left a thousand miles away. I hadn't texted my friends as much as I'd hoped due to the time difference but I'd have to speak to them soon. We had been such a close network of people, it had crushed me when my parents had told me we were to pick up our stuff and leave the redbrick paradise for some dump thousands of thousands of miles away.

"If you're free," I began to change the subject, "We could always go into the practice rooms after school?"

"Yeah, that sounds cool. And it's just as well—"

"You got another detention?" I asked incredulously. "Girl, you need to sort out your act. What did you do this time?" 

"It's not my fault!" Bree exclaimed loudly, a few people turning to look at her. "That teacher wants to kill me. I forgot my pencil case." 

"Seriously? Maybe you should get a lawyer." 

Bree threw me a look that said 'I don't think so' as the teacher at last arrived. How? If a student is five minutes late they get detention yet the teacher shows up ten minutes late, isn't attacked! That sucks!