𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙮 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 / 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧

"greater risk"

"Hey beautiful." Adam greeted me with a smile when I hopped into his car, early Tuesday morning. I was excited that my mom had agreed to let me go to school, even if it was only for a day. 

"Good morning." I smiled back and fastened my seatbelt, as Adam pulled out of my driveway and towards Eden Hall. 

"How are you feeling? You know, both physically and mentally, I mean." 

"I've got some pretty great pain meds so my head feels fine." I patted the front of my backpack which rattled with the sound of my bottle of headache pills. "And I'm obviously scared about everything going on. But grateful too. For you and the team."

Adam nodded. "Happy to be of service." 

A few minutes later, the school came into view. A weird, almost sinking feeling, made its way into my stomach. I didn't know why. I think I was just nervous. Things were different now. 

As I jumped out of Adam's car, I looked up to see Connie and Guy across the lot. They had just gotten out of Guys car and were walking towards us.

"Hey Connie! Hi Guy." I waved at the two and Connie immediately picked up her pace, beaming as she did so.

"I'm so happy to see you here." She slung her arm around my shoulder and once Guy caught up, we all walked towards the school together.

"I'm happy to be here." I laughed. "No hockey practice though, unfortunately."

"Aw I'm sorry." Connie gave me a sympathetic look. "But we'll survive without your kickass moves, as long as we know you're being safe."

I nodded. "Yeah. Still sucks though."

Adam reached forward and pulled open the heavy door to the classroom building. I thanked him and followed Connie and Guy inside. My first class was Chemistry so I said goodbye to my three friends before splitting off.

"See you at lunch!" Connie called and I nodded. Adam planted a quick kiss on my forehead before walking up the stairs. I took a deep breath and made my way down the hall, weaving through masses of students, all hurrying before the first bell rang.

The Chemistry classroom was at the end of the first floor hallway. When I walked inside, I immediately made eye contact with Polly. She smiled and waved and I walked over to sit next to her. 

"Hey Ella. How's it going?"

"Oh you know, pretty great." I widened my eyes to show the obvious sarcasm in my voice. Polly laughed as I set my bag down on the floor and took a seat. 

"I finished the project, by the way. I turned it in yesterday, so don't worry about it."

"Polly, thank you so much. I really appreciate it." I gave the blonde girl a soft smile, feeling bad that I had made her do the whole thing, even if it wasn't intentional.

"No problem. You don't need anything else stressing you out right now." She played with the end of her ponytail, before suddenly looking up and smiling. "I almost forgot to tell you. Guess who I talked on the phone with, pretty much all night last night?"

My eyes widened. "Please say Charlie."

"Yes!" Pollys face glowed as she talked. "After practice we were all of course pretty upset. And so Charlie and I got talking in the locker room and I offered to finish our conversation over the phone and he agreed! So I gave him my number and we talked for like three hours about anything and everything. It was great!"

"Oh my gosh, Polly that's amazing!" I reached over and squeezed her hand. "Are you guys like talking talking now?"

"I'm not really sure. Before he hung up he thanked me and said he'd love to talk more. So yes?"