I'm Home

Chapter 4

The rest of the day went by in a blur. All of my teachers welcomed me back and talked to me about the work I missed and how I can get back on track. Thankfully, even if I only had art, history, health and spanish with Maya, Lucas was in all of my classes except art and spanish, so I got to sit next to him in math and biology. When I wasn't walking next to Maya, my hand was intertwined with my cowboys'. When the dismissal bell rang to signal the end of the day, Lucas and I were packing up our stuff in math.

"Hey, what are you doing after school today?" Lucas asked me as he flung his backpack over his shoulder.

"I don't really know. Maya said that she has to stay for art club, Zay was talking about how he has a tutoring session, and I know that Farkle and Smackle are working on their science fair project. I guess I'll just go to the bakery and get started on my make-up work." I said while trying to organize all of the late work I had gotten from my teachers.

"Do you want me to go with you? I could help you get caught up a little faster." I swear, if anyone else had said that to me, I would've thought they were flirting, but he said it in a way that was sincere with only the slightest bit of flirting.

"What if my dad sees you? He'll try to file a restraining order against you!"

"That's why we have to leave now, so that your mother sees us together before he does. If she sees that I'm just helping you with schoolwork, she'll make sure he leaves us alone."

"Well in that case, let's go!" I grabbed his hand and my backpack and we raced out of school to the subway, where our train was just starting to pull up. We hopped on and got our usual seats and got off a couple stops later. We quickly walked the familiar path to the bakery, letting ourselves walk in a comfortable silence.

Once we got there, we ordered a couple smoothies and some cookies before getting our work set up. We decided to sit in our usual seats inside, since it was just starting to rain when we got in. No sooner had we set up everything and started to work then Katy walked over to us with our smoothies and a plate of cookies.

"Study date?"

"Uh, I guess. I got all of my late work today from my teachers and since the rest of the group are all busy, Lucas offered to help me out." I said, desperately hoping I wasn't blushing too much. I guess I was, because I saw Lucas give a light chuckle after looking at me.

"I know I won't have to help her too much; the work isn't too hard and she's way smarter than me." Lucas said to Katy with a smile.

"Riley, you got a good one. Only the good ones will admit that the girl is usually the smart one." Katy said with a light laugh.

We decided to first enjoy our after-school snacks a little bit before more work. As we started on the delicious lemon cookies, I heard a gasp behind me. Here we go.

"YOU!!!" I turned to see my dad about to lunge after Lucas. Thankfully, my mom held him back. I saw a flash of light and turned around so I was facing Lucas when I saw Shawn standing next to Katy behind the counter.

"Cory, relax. They're just two kids getting their homework done in a bakery." Mom tried to calm him down. She walked him (more like pulled him) over to the counter away from us.

"Come on, Cor. Let the kids have their moment. They're just sitting next to each other; it's not like they're holding hands or something."

Right at that moment, Maya walked in holding hands with Josh.

"YOU!!!" My Uncle Shawn yelled as he was about to jump over the counter. He probably would've if it wasn't for Katy and Mom.

"Shawn, calm down. He makes her happy." Katy said in an effort to calm down her husband.