Thirteen Summers

twenty-six

"Uh..." I mumbled.

The boy looked deep in thought and then looked at me. "Like you know how perfume lingers? Kinda like that."

I let him have that.

"Sorry, I didn't even tell you my name." He scratched his head. "I'm Simon."

"Josie." I introduced myself.

Simon nodded his head in acknowledgment then his eyes peered down. "You know you haven't written anything past today's date and the title, right?"

I looked down at the near bare page in front of me. "I'm...well aware, yes."

"You know class ends in like three minutes right?"

I looked at the clock and surely enough, he was correct.

Anxiety coursed through me as I glanced at the teacher who was making rounds around the classroom.

"It's fine, you can copy my notes." Simon flipped back a few pages and it was only then when I realised just how much that I'd missed.

"Thank you so much." I quickly got started on copying his notes.

It was rushed and messy and I hated that but I didn't have much of a choice, I'd just rewrite it all later on much neater.

By the time the teacher came around, I nearly had a full page of notes.

He lingered by us and I felt the hairs at the back of my neck stand up but he was only there for a second or two before he moved on to another desk.

The bell rang and I looked up in worry, and back down at my very incomplete notes.

I was already behind and it was only the first day.

"You know maybe you could..." Simon started talking, then he shrugged. "—maybe write down your number and I could send the rest of the notes? I don't know.."

Relief rushed through me and I wrote down my phone number at the bottom of the page of my notebook, before ripping it off and passing it to him.

I'd be rewriting everything on that page in a new one anyway.

"Thank you, I appreciate it so much." I said to him, packing my things away.

"It's no biggie." Simon shrugged, with a smile.

I arrived at my next class, just as the second bell rang.

It was easy to get lost in this huge building and I had difficulty finding the classroom alone.

I saw Caleb, sitting right at the back of the classroom with an empty seat beside him and I was relieved until I saw him talking to someone in front of him.

He was with his friend.

I didn't want to be the annoying sister and intrude on that so I looked around for an empty seat.

I found one and moved towards it until my name was called.

"Here, I saved you a seat." Caleb pulled the chair out for me.

"Thanks." I sat down, then put down my bag. "I got lost on the way here."

"Oh, you should've texted me. I wasn't that far from you."

"I can't use my phone in school.." I shook my head.

"Why? Everyone does it." The boy in front of us asked, the one Caleb was talking to, was turned facing our way. "You just have to make sure the teachers don't see."

That was easier said than done.

Knowing me and my luck as of late, I'd get caught and sent to the principal's office.