Caitlin pushes a few stray, strands of long brown hair behind her ear as she rushes to finish her test before the bell rings. As she scribbles down the last couple of answers, the teacher stands up, and moves to the front of the class.
"Okay, time's up. Please pass your papers forward. Now that this is over, Monday we'll be ..." she continues on, talking about a project that they're apparently, supposed to begin next week. Everyone passes their papers forward and starts to pack their bags.
However, the bell rings in the middle of her sentence, and everyone jumps up and heads out the door, proof that no one was actually listening to her any way. She gives them a disapproving look, but doesn't try to stop them, probably because she knows it's pointless.
Caitlin stops at her locker and puts a couple of books inside before grabbing some things out to do this weekend's homework. She starts down the hall to the double doors, but stops when someone calls her name. She turns around, her chestnut eyes search the crowd for the source and stop on her blonde headed friend walking towards her. Megan is bubbling over with excitement as she says her name again before finally reaching her.
"I got to borrow my mom's car today because she didn't have work, you want a ride home? I know I've only had my license a couple weeks but it's better than the smelly bus, I promise."
"No thanks Meg, I think I'm gonna walk today. I need to work off some of the junk food I've been splurging on," she answers, feeling a little bad because it's extremely obvious how excited her friend is. Megan's smile drops a little, but she quickly tries to hide her disappointment.
"Definitely next time though," Caitlin rushes out, hoping to cheer her back up. It seems to work a little because her friend perks up and continues on with the conversation as though unfazed.
"Okay. Your loss. You're just being a chicken any way and using junk food as an excuse," Megan responds snarkily as they push the double doors open heading into the parking lot. Megan glances up at the sky in confusion when she isn't momentarily blinded by brightness. Dark grey clouds that look ready to burst at any moment meet her gaze.
"You sure you don't want a ride, Caitlin? You're going to get completely soaked if you're seriously, insisting on walking."
"I'm sure, it's only a mile or two home, and it only takes me about thirty minutes. They've held off this long, I'll be fine. If I slack off and get fat, then I'll fall behind the other girls. I couldn't stand to loose my volleyball spot. I'm sorry."
"It's fine, but you're completely crazy. Enjoy your shower," Megan says with a giggle before walking off towards her car, shaking her head.
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Caitlin would have taken the ride, but she could really use the alone time that the walk provided. Thunder rolled as she popped her headphones in and headed for home, already too caught up in her own thoughts to notice.
Noah, the boy she liked, had actually sat with her at lunch today, and then he'd even spoke to her! Actually he'd more than spoke to her, he'd asked her to go to the movies this weekend! But she was sixteen and he was eighteen, so she didn't know if her dad would let her go. But she really hoped he did because her parents had been fighting lately, and this would help cheer her up.
About a quarter of the way home the clouds continued their rumbling and eventually broke. They poured big, cold, merciless, drops onto Caitlin's head interrupting her thoughts. She continued on a bit gloomily listening to the music coming from her phone. Thankfully, she had received a waterproof phone case for her birthday two months ago.
She was quickly becoming completely soaked and hoped the water didn't leak through her satchel to her expensive textbooks. How dumb she had been to not accept the ride from Megan, but it was too late to dwell on it now.
Caitlin was about halfway home when she had to move out of the road, for a beaten up red truck with faded paint to pass her. She didn't really pay it much attention. Until it pulled into a driveway and turned around, coming back in her direction. Once again she stepped out of the road to let it pass, noticing it had a broken headlight.
Just as it got around her, it stopped, and backed up until the window was even with her. The strangeness of what this truck had just done made her a bit uneasy. So she didn't move any closer to the truck, but removed her headphones. She really didn't want to stand in the rain, but felt it was only polite to see what this person wanted.
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