The Richardson List

Carter’s release with Parker was short-lived and she wished that the time before she had to come back to reality, which was her school, could have been longer. Alas her desires were unfulfilled as the familiar bus rolled up on the street and she knew it was inevitable she would climb onto it and then be brought to that damned building.

Her usual bus-buddy continued his latest trend and was absent that morning; leaving Carter to haul her dreary self of the bus without the usual boost she had grown so fond of. The lack of enthusiasm in her morning routine greatly affected her mood and she didn’t even reply to Tiffany’s very excited text that involved her actually completing her homework on time and not minutes before a class.

A text from Parker lifting her mood slightly, reading a good luck at her hell of a school. Still, the weather had decided to mimic her mood and was a lifeless grey abyss above her head, spanning out across the sky and blocking any dainty sunlight from penetrating through.

When she arrived at school though a lopsided smile found her lips when she saw Cole waiting by the doors of the school, leaning against the brick wall and texting on his phone. Fixing the straps of her backpack she slightly regained her composure, picking up her step with a brisk pace. Carter made sure not to bring any attention to herself and blended in with the rest of the students around her.

“Loner,” she mumbled while brushing passed the blonde, grinning when she was positive that he heard.

She remained purposely ignoring him as she continued walking to her locker, acting as if she hadn’t even noticed her friend at all.

Feeling a hand enclose her shoulder she looked up to see Cole with a smile on his face, a slight glare to his eyes.

“I don’t think I’m going to wait for you anymore,” he threatened, reaching in his pocket for the pens that Carter was awaiting.

As soon as he took them out Carter snatched him, grinning cheekily.

“I never asked you to. Then again, you could always take the bus me.” A light-hearted tone concealed the seriousness of actually suggesting the idea.

When their gazes met he was smiling. “You know what? I don’t think I’m going to give you the pens anymore,” he teased, making it clear that he hadn’t noticed her silent plea or decided to ignore it.

She decided to brush it off, knowing that she shouldn’t expect him to read her mind or catch onto everything, he was only human of course. Instead, she held the pens near to herself and gasped.

“Not my babies!” she faux-cried through her laughs.

Rolling his eyes, he bid goodbye before vanishing, leaving Carter to complete the walk to her class by herself. In truth, it was something she sort of grew to accept, it wasn’t anything that new to her. And Carter had learned that if she pulled out her cell phone and pretended to text she don’t look too stupid.

On that day she managed to grab her needed book and get to class on time, no time for socializing was in between. When she was standing in front of the door to her homeroom she decided that instead of pausing and thinking about whether or not she should enter the class she should just get it over with. She’d have to do it for the rest of the year anyways.

It gave her mind too much time to think about it, and instead reasoned it was like diving into an ice-cold pool, gaining up the courage is the hardest part.

Mr. Wyler sat at his desk, grumbling something under his breath as he wrote something down on a sheet. The students were as rambunctious as always before the bell rang, sitting on desk and chatting with their friends. Audrey was surprisingly chatting away with Skye’s friend Zack.

Skye sat at his desk, unusually quiet for his normal self. With confusion Carter slowly made her way to her seat, mumbling a greeting to Audrey on the way. The blonde grinned and returned the gesture before returning the conversation. The raven haired girl didn’t take offense to this though, her mind was too focused on the silent boy a few desks away.

When she sat down beside him he instantly smiled at her. “Carter!”

His voice was cheerful, almost as if he was glad to see her.

“Hey Skye,” she returned politely, the usual sense of anticipation hardly even noticeable anymore.

She realized that she was getting comfortable with him, their usual conversations slowly eroding her strangeness, and Carter hoped that it wasn’t a bad thing.

There was around a minute before the bell was going to ring, half the class or even more were already in the room and then there were the others that just make it time for the bell to ring or are usually late. In history class, Tiffany was always one of those people, except lately when she was walking with Carter form lunch she managed to get to class on time. It still didn’t change Tiffany’s impression on the teacher.

“What’s up?” he asked, his attention stationed on her and not on his cell phone or his desk as usual. It seemed odd.

Carter paused, noticing the change in attitude. “Nothing…” she spoke slowly, grabbing her books from her backpack and setting them on her desk, forcing herself to look everywhere but his direction.

Still, his gaze remained fixated on her and she as a result shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

“You?” she asked, hoping that he would go off on some long explanation on what he did and rip his eyes off her.

Her hopes were left unfulfilled as she lifted her gaze to see that he continued staring intently at her.

“Eh, the usual. Say, you doing anything today?” he asked casually enough, only now letting his attention fall to the cell phone in his lap.

At first Carter paused, confused on whether or not she had heard the boy correctly. There was room for error in his words, or she could be simply misinterpreting them. Her first thought was that he was asking her out. Legitimately taking her some place as a date, something two people who like each other do and something her and Skye would never.

“What?” she sputtered out, her eyes slightly widening.

In the moments before he answered she decided that he was simply asking her to hang out nonchalantly, his voice evidently communicated this point. There was nothing romantic about it, merely two friends going to the same place and talking, as they did during lunch the day before.

Or maybe he was just making small talk, meaningless conversation and that he didn’t want to be near her at all. Now, that made a lot more sense.

A low chuckle rumbled in his throat when he saw her reaction.

“I asked if you were doing anything, I wouldn’t want to interfere with any of your plans.” His blasé attitude greatly contrasted with Carter’s new found panic that his words brought.

“Why- why would you interfere with my plans?” she asked, pretending as if she were oblivious to what he was trying to say.

Carter just didn’t know what to say at that point, finding no other coherent sentences that would form around her lips. She hardly even knew if she wanted to hear it coming from him or not.

In return Skye rolled his eyes, leaving Carter to wonder if he knew that she knew what he was talking about. If he knew she was only playing stupid because she didn’t want to question thrown into her face, because she didn’t know what to do. And that only caused her more confusion, even more then the statement itself inflicted.

“’Cause usually to hang out with people they both have to be there, and if you have something else to do you can’t exactly be there, can you?”

He looked to her and her breath hitched in her throat.

“Don’t worry, you’re not going to be all on your own,” he continued, “your friend Audrey already said she’d go when Zack asked her,” Skye reassured Carter, noting the astonishment presented on her features.

She attempted to process the information, looking over at Audrey afterward. “She agreed to this?”

Skye nodded, confirming her deepest fears. Again, Audrey was one of her only escapes to this sort of thing and it seemed she was slowly inching towards the dark side.

Carter thought about this for a moment, mauling over her choices. Audrey and her had hardly spent any time together as of lately, with their schedules never being in the same place, and she felt that maybe there would be some good to come of this. It would give them both the excuse that sadly, they needed to be around each other.

“Who else is going?” she asked, wondering if Nina would be accompanying them during that time. She would be less then enthusiastic if that happened and would definitely fake a dentist appointment.

Audrey up ahead was still talking to Zack, oblivious of Carter’s gaze on her. Overhearing the conversation they were talking about the party that they had both attended that weekend, laughing about some girl who had drunkenly decided to dance on a table top and slipped, causing her to become a laughingstock to all those who had seen.

The “boring” party didn’t seem that “boring” to Zack.

Skye finished texting on his phone and slipped it back into his pocket, grinning at the girl. Today she noticed he had a light green shirt underneath his uniform one, peaking out slightly underneath. She thought it matched his eyes nicely, but when she realized how that sounded she immediately cursed herself and averted her gaze onto her desk.

“Just the four of us, maybe a few other people but that would probably be like Matt or Eric. So do you want to?” He repeated his question once again,

She felt as if she had no other choice, her friend was going and rejecting people was something she never really had a talent to do. Her conscious would guilt her into accepting, which could lead into bad things like her boyfriend in the seventh grade.

“Sure, I guess,” she agreed, almost reluctantly, but Skye didn’t seem to notice this.

Instead, he grinned at her, apparently pleased that she would be gracing them with her presence at that time. “Good.”

During the rest of the class they talked a minimal amount about other things that didn’t concern school. He told her where they were going- the mall as many teenagers tend to go when in need of a venue- and at what time. After that Carter avoided any unneeded talking that wasn’t about their education.

The day they ate lunch together was still fresh in her mind, playing chronically over and over. When she told her friends that she wasn’t sitting with them they were surprised, confused too. Even more so when she told them who she was ditching them for.

Carter tried to make it sound casual, making it seem miniscule and non-important. Cole and Tiffany were the only ones who seemed to buy it, but Audrey was still very puzzled on why she was eating with Skye when Carter was off walking in his direction.

Audrey then decided she was going to sit with Nina, leaving Tiffany and Cole to eat by themselves. Thankfully when she heard from both of them later on that day they both seemed to enjoy being in the other’s presence and easily made conversation the entire lunch period.

At first when Carter sat down with Skye, all his friends absent as he had foretold, she was anxious and worried. All the worst possible outcomes of her predicament plagued her thoughts and she was tense the moment her being hit the wooden bench.

However, it seemed Skye’s duty to make her comfortable and by the end of lunch he managed to achieve this. She was smiling and laughing as if they were both friends, and that feeling returned. The one where she felt that she was talking to “just Skye”, without the last name. Just a simple boy, not that one who created such a list.

As he wanted to they both learned a little more about each other. He had a younger sister who was living with his mom and he was currently living with his father there. Skye showed her a picture of his younger sister, her name was Izabella but she preferred just Iza. He admitted that it was kind of corny to keep it in his wallet but he was very close to her, Carter reassured him that it was cute.

His favourite bands were Pink Floyd and others of the sort while Carter told him that she was a lover of soft, acoustic songs. They both shared the same dislike for seafood.

Carter had to admit that she was enjoying herself on that day, but with the sudden proposition to hang out all of a sudden she wondered the relationship between them was going. She wondered what he was planning, what he was thinking, whether or not it was all innocent.

And even though she told herself to stop doubting him, she still was a little sceptic about everything.