Trust the Instinct

“Do you understand what Mr. Harrison was saying in class today?” Allison asked as we looked at our notebooks while sitting on the bleachers after school, getting ready to watch lacrosse practice.

“Not a clue, Danny’s coming over my place to help me since he’s pretty much a wiz at it,” I said as I sighed and placed my notebook back into my backpack, figuring that I wasn’t going to get any studying here, not when Scott, Danny and Jackson expect Lydia, Allison and I to pay attention.

“Do you have work tonight?” Allison asked and I shook my head.

“I got Scott to switch with me since we have that Chem test tomorrow,” I said and she looked at me confused.

“What about Scott? How is he going to study for the test?” Allison asked and I sighed.

“I asked him that, he just laughed a little,” I explained and looked at my phone to see that Dr. Deaton was calling me, “Uh one sec,” I said and answered my phone, “Hey Doc, what’s up?”

“Alexis, I have the results for Pepper,” he said and I smiled.

“Really?” I asked excitedly.

“Yes, Pepper is a healthy two year old Collie mix, she doesn’t have an owner, and it’s a lot of paperwork if I have to bring her to the pound, so if you would like her, she’s all yours,” he said and I squealed and looked at Allison who was looking at me confused.

“Oh my god, that’s great, can I bring her home tomorrow after work?” I asked and heard the doctor chuckle.

“Of course,” he said and I did a air first.

“Thank you so much Doc,” I smiled and then hung up with him and smiled brightly at Allison.

“What’s got you so excited?” she laughed and I rocked back and forth.

“You remember that dog that you hit the other night?” I asked and Allison sighed and nodded her head, “Well I’m adopting her, she doesn’t have a home or an owner so I asked Doc if I could have her and he said yes, he got the results after doing some tests and she’s healthy.”

“Oh that’s great!” she said and gave me a side hug, “What did you name her?”

“Pepper,” I said and Allison smiled as I showed her a picture of the pup at the office, “I kind of grew attached to her after you brought her in.”

“So you like your job?” Allison asked and I smiled and nodded my head, “That’s good.”

“Though, Doc’s probably going to take her expenses out of my paycheck,” I said and Allison nodded her head, “I get to bring her home tomorrow, do you want to go shopping for supplies with me on Saturday?”

“Yeah sure!” she smiled and I nodded my head, “Are you going to the party tomorrow night?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there, a little late, but I’ll be there,” I said and Allison smiled, “Are you going with Scott?”

“Yes.”

“Good, because that boy talks about you nonstop at work,” I laughed and Allison blushed.

“Man, I hate having tests on Friday,” Allison groaned as she shut her Chemistry notebook.

“Better than Monday,” I said and she sighed and nodded her head.

It was the fourth day of the new school year and things were going good, I liked my classes, well most of them, I had friends, I had a job, I had my Grandmother and now I was getting a dog. Doc knew that I would always be an hour late because I’ve been staying after school to watch the lacrosse practice and then head right over to work after, sometimes Scott and I would have the same shift, and sometimes I would be there alone.

Practice had started and we watched as Scott had gotten up from being pushed down from Jackson, he quickly snatched up the ball, ran down the field, jumped over a person, flipped and scored a goal. Everyone was on their feet, including me, cheering for Scott and shocked at what he just did. We were still on our feet when his Coach called him over, yelled at him for a moment and then announced that Scott had made first line.

“What’s first line?” I asked and Allison laughed.

“It’s a good thing,” she said and I nodded my head.

By the time practice was over and Allison and I had waited for Scott and Danny, it was almost five. I thanked Scott again for covering my shift at the clinic and then Danny and I walked towards the parking lot. He had parked near my bike today and was going to follow me back to my home.

When we got there I saw that my Grandmother’s car was gone so I figured that she wasn’t home, I was a little happy about that because I didn’t want to answer any questions.

“So where do you want to do this?” Danny asked and I nudged my head towards the stairs and we walked up stairs and I led him to my room. We walked into my room, I threw my bag onto my bed and looked back towards Danny to see that he was smirking and looking around the room, “I can see why you’ve never heard of lacrosse now.”

“Why?”

“You were too damn busy paying attention to hockey,” he said and I smirked and looked around to see posters and small felt pennants of all thirty National Hockey League team.

“What can I say, I love my hockey,” I laughed and then watched as Danny walked into my room and threw his bag onto my bed, “I guess it’s more of a Northern thing.”

“Well I know that California has two teams, right?” Danny asked and I nodded my head, “Sorry, never really got into it.”

“Well, I never really got into lacrosse-“

“You never heard of it, at least I’ve heard of hockey,” Danny said and I laughed and shrugged my shoulders.

“All right, all right, you’ve got me,” I said and then unzipped my backpack and pulled out my chemistry notebook, but then cursed when I noticed that I left my book at school.

“We can just share mine,” he said and I nodded my head.

“Too bad you bat for the other team,” I said and Danny laughed and gave me a side hug.

We spent three hours studying and if I didn’t pull away I thought I was going to lose my mind. Danny was saying that he was hungry, so I decided to order some pizza and have it delivered to the house. I was surprised that my Grandmother wasn’t back yet, but then looked on the downstairs calendar and saw that it was Thursday, that was her bingo night.

“So do you live by yourself?” Danny asked as we waited downstairs for the pizza to come.

“No, I live with my Gram, it’s bingo night, she goes into the next town, she’ll be gone until at least ten,” I said and Danny chuckled and nodded his head.

“So after we eat, you want to get back into it?” Danny asked and I sighed and nodded my head.

“Are his tests usually hard?” I asked and Danny scrunched his face up and nodded his head, I groaned and then hit my head off of the table, “Shit, I’m screwed.”

“You’ll be fine, with me as your tutor, I guarantee a B, C at the lowest,” Danny said and I laughed a little and nodded my head.

“So, any boyfriends?” I asked and Danny gave me a sad smile and shook his head.

“Recently single,” he said and my eyes widened.

“What happened?”

“He dumped me for someone else,” Danny said sadly and I sighed and came up behind him and wrapped my arms around his neck and placed my head next to his.

“You’ll find someone,” I said and Danny smiled and nodded his head.

“What about you?”

“God no, too much shit in my life to even find time for a relationship,” I said and Danny looked at my confused, “A story for another time.”

“Sounds like a good one-“

“And long one,” I said and Danny nodded his head.

The doorbell rang a while later, the pizza here. I paid the man and then Danny and I ate in the kitchen, I had to tell him we couldn’t eat upstairs because if my Grandmother found any kind of mess I would be in trouble, and I didn’t want to take that kind of risk.

“So are you going to Lydia’s party tomorrow night?” Danny asked and I nodded my head.

“You?”

“No, I’m going to the club,” he said and I looked at him surprised.

“Are you old enough?” I asked and Danny smirked, pulled out his wallet and flashed his license.

“According to this I am,” Danny said and my eyes widened when the license said that he was of age to drink and party.

“What the hell? A fake id?! Where can I get one?” I laughed and Danny placed his finger to his lips.

“It’s a secret.”

“Well spill it!” I teased and Danny shook his head so I sighed in defeat, “Now I want a fake id.”