Chapter 17

I don’t think I’d pay any attention to the class if you were there.

September 16th- Monday

Sofia wakes up at 6:30am. After groaning and thinking of an excuse to not go to school, she could only think of one reason to go: to see Robin. It was the first school year to which she wasn’t even a bit excited.

Sofia finally gets out of bed, gets dressed and does her hair and makeup. She walks to the kitchen and makes coffee and breakfast for her and Dustin. Since their mother only wakes up at 8am for work, because of her new schedule, Sofia has a lot more work to do in the mornings than before.

Dustin runs to the table and starts eating very fast. After he’s done eating, he runs to the bathroom to brush his teeth very quickly. When he’s done, he kisses Sofia goodbye, pats Tews and grabs his bike.

Sofia grabs her book from her bedside table, her Madonna cassette and walks to the car. She used to pick Cher up from her house every day, but now that she doesn’t have to do that it feels weird.

Arriving at school, 5 minutes before the bell rings, she groans and checks if she has everything she needs. Taking a deep breath, she opens the car door and gets out. She starts to freak out as she sees everyone.

What would she say if the teachers made them talk about their summer? Oh, I just fought this interdimensional monster and kissed my crush who is, in fact, a girl!

As she walks to the entry, her heart starts beating faster and her palms start to sweat. She starts nervously tapping her leg with her fingers to the beat of Angel by Madonna.  Walking in, she immediately starts looking for Robin. Not her locker, not her classroom. Robin.

As she walks through the hallways, she tries to keep her head up and seem confident. She makes a mental note to not forget to sign up for the debate team.

It’s now 2 minutes before the bell rings and she finally spots Robin by locker 44, alone, putting her books inside the locker.

“Oh jeez, hi” Sofia says desperately.

“Hi, oh my God” Robin says with the same tone. “I’m trying so hard not to die right now”

“Yeah, same. I don’t wanna be here at all” Sofia says.

“Right?! And it annoys me so much that like eighty percent of these people don’t even wanna learn” Robin says, looking around. “What do you have now?”

“German, what about you?” Sofia asks as she grabs her schedule.

“History” Robin replies and the bell starts to ring.

“See you after class?” Sofia asks.

“Yeah, good luck” Robin says, closing her locker and grabbing her backpack.

“You too” Sofia says and starts walking to class.

The class was pretty boring, since it was just an introduction, but Sofia was still nervous. She tried her best to focus on the teacher, but sometimes got distracted and started thinking about Robin.

She spent half of the class drawing doodles and writing lyrics from her favorite songs.

When the bell finally rang, she quickly got up and went to her locker, number 55.

She stuffed her books inside the locker and decorated the inside with a rainbow sticker and her list of books she wanted to read.

Right before she closes her locker, she feels someone tapping her shoulder. She turns around and sees Dustin.

“Dusty?”

“Yeah, can I borrow five dollars?” Dustin asks in a hurry.

“Why” Sofia asks with a confused look.

“Ugh… drugs?” Dustin makes up. Sofia furrows her eyebrows in response. “Just forget it!” Dustin says and walks away.

Sofia, still very confused, looks at her brother walk away and sees Robin walking up to her. She sighs in relief and closes her locker.

“Hi, I was looking for you” Robin says with a smile.

“Well, I just had the strangest interaction with Dustin, but it doesn’t matter. How was history?” Sofia asks.

“It was okay. We haven’t learned anything yet, so it was pretty boring” Robin says. “I was thinking that maybe we could go out after class”

“I’d love that, I just have to sign up for the Debate team first. Don’t you have to sign up for band or something?”

“Oh, yeah. I almost forgot” Robin replies and the bell starts ringing.

“What about soccer?” Sofia asks over the annoying sound of the bell.

“I don’t think I’ll sign up” Robin responds, earning a surprised look from Sofia. “I’ll explain it later”

“Alright, bye-bye” Sofia says, and they both start walking to class.

Sofia walks out of the classroom, on her way to the canteen. The hallways are empty when she gets everything she needs for her locker.

Closing the locker, she hears someone calling her name. She looks to her side and sees Nancy running towards her.

“Nance, is everything okay?” Sofia asks, worried.

“Yeah, I just need to talk to you” Nancy says, panting.

“Shoot” Sofia says.

“I need a writer for the paper, and I thought of you” Nancy smiles.

“Oh… what type of writer?” Sofia asks, surprised that Nancy thought of her as a choice.

“Chronicler. It’s only once a month, we can go over a few themes and you choose one to write about. It can be about school or something about politics…” Nancy explains.

“Oh, I don’t know if I’m the right person for that…” Sofia says, feeling like she’s not up for the job.

“Why not? You’re an amazing writer and you’re on the debate team, you’re good at giving opinions” Nancy compliments. “Please…”

After giving some thought to it, Sofia agrees to do it. It’s going to look good on the curriculum anyway.

By 3pm, Sofia saw Robin on the staircase, writing something in her notebook. Sofia sneaked up behind her but couldn’t read what she was writing.

“Boo!” Sofia says, scaring Robin.

“Jesus!” Robin says out of breath. “You scared me”

“Sorry, it was an accident” Sofia jokes, as Robin gets up and puts her notebook inside her backpack.

“Ready to go?” Robin asks. Sofia nods and they get out of school.

They walk to the milkshake place and order one chocolate milkshake to share. They sit down, waiting for their order, and start talking about their day.

“I can’t believe we don’t have one class together this year” Robin says sadly.

“Yeah, it’s so unfair. Maybe it’s for the best though, I don’t think I’d pay any attention to the class if you were there” Sofia smirks, looking at Robin.

Robin blushes and shifts on her chair. “Well, literature was pretty fun, we just talked about some of the books we read this summer. I think I talked a lot, but Professor Stanley seemed pretty interested in what I was saying” Robin smiles.

“In my literature class we just heard the teacher talk about Shakespeare and some other male writers. It’s so unfair how we don’t learn about female writers” Sofia says.

A lady comes up to them and places the milkshake on the table. They thanked her and kept talking.

“I know right! I hate it so much” Robin says. “And it sucks because there are so many amazing female writers with great points of view and beautiful writing. I hate it how most students don’t learn the women’s point of view, which is usually so much better” Robin starts rambling and keeps doing it and Sofia just stares at her, listening.

Sofia loves to hear Robin talk, especially about stuff Robin is passionate about. Robin doesn’t usually speak her mind at school or social gatherings, so it’s always a pleasure to hear her talk. She always gets a different spark in her eyes. It’s cute.

However, since Robin started to be friends with Sofia, she learned to speak her mind more often and to be more confident about it. Sometimes Robin just rambles to people and ends up annoying them, but it’s better than not talking at all.

They keep talking and taking sips of the milkshake. They look outside and see the sun starting to set. They pay and get out of the milkshake place and Sofia looks in awe at the sky and Robin does the same.

“It’s so pretty” Sofia whispers. She stops looking at the sky. Then, she gets an idea. She grabs Robin’s hand and starts running.

“Where are we going?” Robin asks between breaths, extremely confused. She always loved how random Sofia was, but most times it includes running, which she hates.

“We’re almost there!” Sofia says as they run through some trees. 

Sofia abruptly stops and Robin bumps into her. They’re facing a beautiful garden full of marigolds and orchids with a great view of the sky. Sofia smiles and motions Robin to follow her.

“How do you know this place?” Robin asks her, looking around and she notices a small empty parking zone.

“My dad took me here once, to see the sunrise. I had forgotten about it actually, then I remembered back at the milkshake place” Sofia says, with a smile of sorrow.

Robin notices Sofia’s sudden sadness and hugs her from behind, resting her head on Sofia’s shoulder. Sofia pats Robin’s arm that’s around her waist in response. Robin’s hugs are the best.

They sit down on the grass, looking at the sky. Sofia puts her arm around Robin’s shoulder. “Thank you” Sofia smiles at Robin.

“W-why?” Robin asks with a smile.

“For being here” Sofia says. Robin smiles in response.

They stayed there until sun set. To Robin, being in Sofia’s arms felt like home. The sun, the view, the garden, and the flowers were just a bonus.

The school blues didn’t even matter anymore.

A/N: OKAY THIS WAS THE LAST BORING CHAPTER, GET READY FOR THE NEXT ONE CUZ SOME SHIT IS ABOUT TO GO DOWNNNN

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE, LOVE YA