The Richardson List

With slow, unhurried steps Carter promenaded down the grocery isle, her eyes grazing over the choices for her next meal. It was a Sunday afternoon and her parents had a friend’s party to attend, leaving Carter by choice for she never enjoyed going to these events because they always were filled with drunkards and loud European music. So to her wishes they let her stay home, leaving some money for her to buy something to eat around dinner time.

Her hand reached out for a microwavable dinner, Swanson chicken which was her favourite, when out of the corner of her eye she saw a familiar person walk by. Freezing, she turned her head to see Audrey leaning against a shopping cart, boredom apparent on her face as she popped her bubblegum which she it seemed she was always chewing.

Leaving the frozen food isle, hoping that the food wouldn’t grow legs and walk away like she always blamed on things that she couldn’t find, Carter made her way over to Audrey. She called her friend’s name and instantly caught her attention, and when Audrey looked over she held a smile on her face too, returning the gesture.

The blonde’s mother gave Carter a nod of acknowledgment before returning to the cereals in front of her, furrowing her brows undecided on which one to place in her cart. Unlike her mother, Audrey never enjoyed the shopping trips they took together, but she always got the foods she liked if she accompanied her.

“What are you doing here?” Audrey asked, staring down the box of Frosted Flakes in hopes that her mother would by some chance feel her gaze pick it from the shelves.

Carter smiled slightly when her face fell because her mother had decided on Lucky Charms.

“Buying my dinner,” she told her.

“Ah, parent’s out again?” she asked knowingly, receiving a nod in reply.

Carter still depended on easy dinners that required no skill at all other than pushing a few buttons when her food wasn’t made for her. Cooking wasn’t really her forte.

Her mother had made her way further down the isle and Audrey quickly took her chance to replace the Lucky Charms for her beloved Frosted Flakes.

“Hm, old woman doesn’t even know her own daughter,” she mumbled with a smile, laughing at her own joke afterward.

Carter joined her with a chuckle, her eyes landing on the oblivious woman down the way.

“Anyways, how was the party?” Carter asked casually, contemplating inside her mind whether or not she should buy a box Rice Krispies.

Even though her mind wasn’t very focused she still managed to notice the blonde instantly tense at mention of the party. Carter wondered to herself why her friend would do that, and why her face portrayed a stoic expression.

“The party?” Audrey echoed, her voice slightly strained.

“Yeah, the party you went to yesterday?” Carter spoke slowly, waiting for a spark of recognition to light up her face.

A moment of silence passed before a smile appeared on Audrey’s lips.

“Oh yeah, that, um, pretty boring. Skye asked about you, but other then that bo-ring. Seriously, you didn’t miss out on anything. Boring, really,” she relayed, being awfully redundant with the fact that the party was anything but interesting; something a party is usually the opposite of.

This caused Carter to cock an eyebrow at her confused, but she let is slip nonetheless. Still, she wondered why her friend was trying to impress this idea in her mind so forcefully.

“Sounds… boring.” Carter found no other adjective to put to use other then that one, but noticed that Audrey seemed to relax afterward.

It wasn’t until then did she realize that Audrey did not only say that the party was jaded, but that a certain boy had noticed her absence to the event.

“Skye asked about me?” she repeated, finding her stomach churn as usual when his name was mentioned.

Audrey didn’t find this that important though and waved her hand as if it weren’t a big deal.

“Yeah, just said he was surprised you didn’t show. I wasn’t though, no offence but you are not the partying type,” she teased playfully with a smile and Carter pouted, picking up Audrey’s beloved box of cereal and placed it back on the shelf.

At this action Audrey gasped and lunged for the Frosted Flakes, but before she could reach them Carter grabbed them and placed the box behind her back. Of course there were others, but Audrey didn’t seem to take this into consideration.

“You’re just evil,” she muttered, earning a laugh from Carter.

Still, she wondered what was up with Audrey, and what had happened at the party.



Uncertainty was set ablaze in her mind as she stood in front of her familiar homeroom door. Inside she knew who and what were residing in it and that slight detail only caused her all the more difficultly of walking in. The most appealing option to her at that point would be to call her mom and fake sick, cramps would always with do, and leave this entire situation for another day.

She did not want to go in there with every fibre of her being.

However she did, albeit her roaring doubt. A boy from her class was already behind her and waiting for her to enter the room, leaving her with no other choice but to go inside. So, she did exactly that.

Inside, as she had anticipated, sat Audrey at her seat, doodling in her notes. But she wasn’t the reason why she didn’t want to go to Math on the morning. No, it was the boy that sat only a few mere seats behind her, chatting casually to Zack who stood in front of his desk.

Lately Carter had gotten used to the idea of Skye sitting beside her, keeping her flipping stomach at bay. And while he was still unarguably unpredictable, the conversation flow between them had become somewhat easy. He’d even been fairly benevolent to her, which was even odder because Skye being anywhere near kind was a rare occurrence from what she had gathered about the boy.

She had no idea what his intentions were, and that scared her a lot more than she wanted to admit.

But when she heard that he had asked about her, noticed her absence, well she found herself back at the beginning. Her stomach flipping and her heart thudding, not in a love-struck way with butterflies erupting, but more of a way were he was so erratic that she never knew what to expect next, keeping her on edge.

As she advanced to her seat, a wave to Audrey on the way, Zack felt that he needed to return to his desk. This left Skye obviously alone, which meant that the chances of him speaking to Carter were very, very high. And Carter was still deciding whether this fact was a good thing or not.

Trying to act as she regularly did, Carter slid into her assigned seat. “Hey Skye,” she greeted him first, knowing that conversation between them was inevitable.

“Hey Carter.” He grinned at her, stretching his arms across his desk. “So you didn’t go to the party I noticed,” he said nonchalantly, regaining his composure and turning his head to meet her gaze.

She averted her eyes, not able to look directly into his emerald eyes.

“Yeah, I told you that didn’t I?”

Skye nodded his head. “Yea, but I didn’t think you’d be able to stay away from me.” He smirked arrogantly, shaking his hair out of his eyes as he always did.

“I wonder how I was able to restrain myself,” she drawled sarcastically, attempting to conceal how nervous she really was, but finding a smile blossom across her face even though.

He chuckled and she hoped that her face hadn’t betrayed her and revealed her true emotions raging inside.

“No worries,” he reassured her confidently. “You can hang out with me at lunch, make up for lost time.”

This caught her off guard and she stared at him dumbfounded for a moment, waiting for him to laugh and retract those words, or add on a “just kidding”. But, he never did, the proposition still left hanging in the air between them, left neither declined nor accepted.

“Um, are you for real?” she asked, feeling incredibly stupid on how her choice of words even though they portrayed exactly how she felt. She was still waiting for herself to either wake up or for him to poof into the air.

The question seemed to cause him amusement for once again he chuckled. “

“Is it such a crime that I want to hang out with you? I thought we went over this that one time at McDonalds.” He smiled and Carter tried her best to hide her astonishment, she was shocked that he even remembered that night.

“So, you gonna sit with me at lunch? I’m sure the rest of your friends won’t mind too much if I steal you away for a day. I’ll ask Audrey if you want,” he offered and Carter had no doubt that he wouldn’t do so.

The question burning in her stomach was whether she wanted to hang out with him and his friends or not. They were quite intimidating and she never did well with intimidating- prime example, Skye.

“Um, sure, but what about your friends?”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, scratching the back of her neck nervously with a sheepish smile.

“Hmm, well, I’ll ditch them too. It’ll just be me and you and I get to learn more about the mysterious Carter.”

That simply statement caused her to burst into rounds of laughter that she just wasn’t able to contain. Carter knew she was anything but mysterious, much too easy to read. Skye, on the other hand, was very much so mysterious. And the fact that he would think such things of her caused laughter to erupt in her stomach.

“Me, mysterious? Not really,” she said between giggles, attempting to recover from her little laugh attack.

It was clear on his face that he thought otherwise to this.

“All I know about you is your last name, that you’re friends with Tiffany, Cole, and Audrey. You’re good at math and your favourite colour is turquoise. Not blue, not green, but turquoise,” se quoted Carter words when he asked her before, making her smile at how well he remembered.

“I don’t know much about you either,” she pointed out, the teacher now entering the class.

With a curt “good morning class” he instantly shot into the lesson, which was only copying notes down for that day. The class hushed but still, a few whispers polluted the air, Skye’s voice one of the main offenders.

“Well then, this will be a chance to get to know each other,” he whispered rather loudly, his words hanging in the air afterward.

She wondered to herself whether or not she even wanted to get to know him. Did she really want to get to know the infamous Skye Richardson, or would she rather just stay a simple acquaintance, someone he knew? Did she want to be his friend, or wherever they were going?

What scared her most out of this was she didn’t know. She didn’t know if she wanted to take that risk, or would she rather be content simply engaging in small talk with him for the rest of the year, their conversations meaningless and quickly forgotten.

Carter didn’t know if he was the bad kid, or a good one. The list, it broke hearts, it caused self-esteems to drop drastically. In fact, it caused girls to spend hours checking their make-up and caking it on, to make sure they look okay. It caused girls to go insane.

But, it also brought people back to earth, the ones who needed it. It helped people rise to the top when all they needed was a simply little encouraging push.

It all confused Carter greatly, these new found questions creating her mind to be a chaotic mess. Beside her sat the boy who made it like that, who caused the clutter in her mind, who flipped the entire social hierarchy in a matter of seconds with the flick of his wrist.

And she wasn’t even sure he knew it.