Splinters: Part One

Part One | 41

Chapter 41

A Rough Start of Summer

As the clock's big hand slowly made its way to the twelve, I inched my final exam closer to the top left corner of my desk and slowly scooted off the chair. The lazy ticks continued for what felt like hours, but finally, the bell rang, signaling the very last class of my first year of actual high school.

"Exam's over," said Mr. Richmond. "Everyone place your test over in the box."

"Summer!" Mikayla exclaimed.

"Thank God! It's finally over!" her best friend, Nicky whined.

"We're officially juniors, you guys," Todd admitted.

I looked around, grinning as I watched my classmates throw their cinch bags over their backs and make their way to the box in the corner of the room. Suddenly, a hand was placed on my shoulder.

"We're basically juniors now, hey Brayden?" Marcus, a guy I'd become good friends in both this class and US Government with.

I smirked. "Yeah, I guess so."

"In celebration of summer and the end of finals, I'm having people over today. You can bring Collie if you want."

A summer party. That's actually a really good idea. "I'll ask her," I nodded.

"Zech won't be there. I didn't invite him," he reminded quietly, nudging me.

I shrugged. "It wouldn't bother me if you did." Even though it definitely would.

"Well I'm just lettin' you know. Nobody likes Zech." He told me as if it was something I already didn't know.

"I wonder why," I stated sarcastically.

"Anyways, try to come. Lots of people will be there," he said, going off in his own direction.

"Hey, Marcus," I called just as we were about to leave our separate ways outside of the classroom. "If Collie comes, she might invite Tay."

He shrugged. "That's cool."

"Are you sure? Tay can be a bit... much... and I know you had a thing with her until she started talking to Diego."

He waved me off. "Guys like me and girls like her don't let 'things' get serious."

"So it's okay?"

"Yeah, sure," but there was something off with his tone of voice. I wasn't sure I believed him.

"Alright," I replied hesitantly. "I'll text you if Collie and I don't decide to come."

"Okay, cool."

I waved to him before turning and walking down the hall. I had a strong feeling Collie wouldn't want to go. She never really wants to hang out with my friends, which is okay because I feel the same with her friends, but hers are mean and mine aren't. There was a part of me that gave her the benefit of the doubt, though, because Marcus is a football player, one of the only sophomores to play more than four Varsity games. Obviously, that means he's popular so Collie will want to go.

The funny thing was Marcus wasn't allowed to be in Zech's group, though. It's obvious many guys, especially Zech, are jealous of Marcus, including Zech. Marcus told me that he used to be part of the popular guy group all throughout Freshman year, but once all the guys took into account how much he was playing Varsity and JV, they got angry I guess. It was really hard for my brain to wrap around the fact that Zech used to play football.

"Hey, Brayden," I heard someone call behind me.

Turning, I realized it was Kimberly. She held her yearbook out in front of her with a gleeful grin on her face.