Braves

At 3:00 Gwen waited as promised by the buses. She smiled to herself as she went over the day in her head; she never had any fun at school. Ok, so not a lot of the day was actually spent in class, but still she was on school grounds and had fun. Jason chickened out and ended up going to detention after all, but Gwen stayed on the grounds for the rest of the afternoon watching the clouds and thinking about how she was going to advance from here. There were no answers yet, but there was hope, and that was a first for her.

After 10 minutes and no sign of anyone coming up to her, let alone a muscular nerd, Gwen ground her teeth in frustration and frowned for the first time since last night. This Eric was ruining her mood, her bus was about to leave, and if he didn’t hurry up she would miss it. Gwen took out her phone and tried to act natural and calm, she didn’t even know why she was still waiting for this guy. She would just end up running home anyway and she doubted he could keep up any better than Jason. Thinking of which, I’m pretty sure his bus close to here. Gwen perked up a bit and started searching for her friend, walking down the bus line a little bit.

He must have seen her because when she was gave up and started heading back to her designated wait spot she got a tap on the shoulder, “Who are you looking for?” Gwen spun around and grinned at Jason before throwing herself into a hug with him. He laughed and hugged her back, “Who has the audacity to make you wait?” he whispered into her ear before gripping her shoulders and holding her at arm’s length.

Gwen rolled her eyes and said, “A nerd that feels like Armstrong’s little cousin.”

Jason smiled slightly at the reference and focused on a key word, “Feels?” He asked.

“I kinda don’t know what he looks like,” Gwen started, looking away slightly and sighing. “I was pushed into him this morning before class and he caught me to ask if he could walk me home; I felt bad for him so I said yes. That’s why I was late for Science.”

Jason smiled slyly, “Is this also why you were in such a good mood?” He leaned in and spoke quietly in her ear, “Feeling up a guy like Armstrong isn’t so bad, I might wait up for that.” Then he pulled away red-faced looking at her asking if that was ok.

Gwen smiled and flushed a bit herself as she giggled and nodded her head, “Might be worth the wait.” Is all she said before she looked down unable to continue the conversation due to embarrassment.

Both of their heads shot up as the first bus in the line started pulling away, “Shit, I have to go, see you tomorrow!” Jason yelled running back to his bus. Gwen waved to him as she started to head back to her spot, she glowered as she noticed that still there was no damn Eric. She looked on in despair as her bus hesitated before moving on effectively stealing her last chance of having an easy way home.

Gwen sighed and looked around her one last time, oh well, it wasn’t the first time she’d missed her bus. She would have to call her mom and wait until she got picked up at four. She smiled slightly; she may be able to get something done on her project now. However, if she ever found Eric again she was going to punch him right in the face.

She looked around one more time to make sure he wasn’t coming. Nothing. She shook her head and swore under breath as she opened her phone to call her mom. She waited, tapping her foot, the phone continued to ring with no answer; she tried her mothers work, same thing. Gwen would rather die than call her father after last night, not that he’ll remember what happened. She frowned, no time for the project if she wasn’t going get picked up.
Gwen rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath to relax and started to walk home. Determined, she started down the long drive way, trying to calm herself by looking at the trees and field she had been running through just a few hours earlier. Gwen started to calm as her neck started prickle, someone was following her. She looked around and couldn’t see anyone. Continuing to walk as the feeling kept getting more and more intense; Gwen whirled around, breathing deeply and unintentionally showing her fear, hating it the whole time.

Still she could not see anyone, she closed her eyes and inhaled slowly to calm her racing pulse and began walking more swiftly, no longer enjoying the scenery but keeping watch. She heard what she feared most of all, heavy footsteps in the distance, running toward her quickly. Gwen didn’t hesitate as she bolted down the drive, hoping to leave her shadow far behind her. However, the presence behind her was astonishingly catching up and fast. Gwen felt frustrated rage build up in her back as though the presence itself was felt rather than heard, the closer the prowler got the more intense the feeling got. She felt as though her back would implode from the increasing pressure, her breath became ragged as she increased her stride the farthest she dared; she felt as though the very fabric holding her together would burst. Gwen let out a strangled yell when the person caught up to her and grabbed her around the stomach!

Laughter?