Chapter 9. And the day got better (not).

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours. Two periods must've passed because the loud chime of the bell penetrated the door twice.

Fiddling with her fingers,  the thoughts of what her mother would do to her if word got out that she skipped classes and with a boy at that,  made Adana's insides shudder.

"The window." Storm half exclaimed and heaved his weight off the floor and took hurried steps to the window.

His long fingers played over the windowsill. How had he missed it earlier?

With all his upper body strength,  he managed to push it open causing the humid air to fill the small room. A stream of relief washed through him. He wouldn't have any problems with squeezing his way out. How Adana was going to squeeze through was his concern.

The window level reached his chest region. He could just hop unto the sill,  sit and balance, then fold up his legs to turn and hop out the other side. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for his brilliant plan.

"I can pass through," he started halting her thoughts. "But the real question here is if you can do the same."

For a moment, Adana couldn't comprehend what he said then a realization hit her like a slap to her slightly plump cheeks and she flushed even if he couldn't see.

"What do you mean by that?"

His eyes rolled back in their sockets and he face-palmed like she was some two-year-old asking questions with obvious answers. Then another plan popped up in his mind.

"Come here." His tone was soft yet firm.

Adana wanted to remain where she was but sensing no harm,  she pulled herself up and dragged her feet to stand before him.

To his surprise,  his eyes refused to stop their focus on her chest. She cleared her throat and readjusted her clothes giving Storm enough time to break away from his trance.

"Uh, yeah," he muttered and crouched so fast that Adana blinked furiously before noting how he interlaced his fingers with one knee down. "It's a boost. You can sit on the window then go out from there."

"That's actually smart but..." She trailed off at a loss for words. How would she explain that she was three times the weight of him without sounding ungrateful?

As if reading her mind, he added,  "don't worry about my hand,  it'll only be for a brief second. I can take it plus you aren't as heavy as you think."

A small giggle left her lips at his bold lie. "Yeah, I'm not that heavy as you're not that dumb. Got it."

Choosing to answer her indirect insult with a scowl,  he nodded to his hands waiting to give her the boost. The next few minutes were filled with groans of frustration mostly from Storm as Adana failed to sit on the window more times than he could count.

"I know giving me a boost more than once was painful to say it lightly," she started when he dropped from the window after her. "So thank you for the boosts."

The plan to respond with an indifferent nod vanished from his mind when he was greeted with the sight of a breathtaking smile. A smile that made him want to do foolish things like hugging her or better yet,  kiss her. He wanted to offer everything. Damn, he'd only just met her yesterday but here he was melting at the sight of just a mere smile.

To both their surprises he smiled. Not the mischievous one or the one used to charm but a full-blown smile which emphasized a one-sided dimple on his left cheek which Adana hadn't noticed until now. "You're welcome. Now let's get our asses to class."

She nodded before they made to depart after an awkward walk through the door of the main hall.

With deep breaths to calm her spiraling heartbeats, she gave the knob of the door a gentle push and immediately wished she didn't. Over fifteen pairs of widened eyes studied her including the more than irritated teacher.

"And why are you here?" Mr. Owen pretended not to know the girl while he crossed his hands. Her eye lowered at his question and he held out his left hand, telling her to be quiet. His lightly tanned skin tinged with slight anger. "You're invited to detention for coming to my class this late."

She rushed to make an excuse. "Mr. Owen, I can't afford detention."

"You should've thought of that before coming to school in the middle of the morning."

His toned didn't entertain room for an excuse and a defeated sigh left her lips. 'My day just keeps getting better', were her thoughts when she sunk into her seat and whipped out her notebook to face the rest of the day.

"Dana, what happened?" A familiar pair of grey eyes on a creamy face and downturned lips bounded to 'their table', as they got used to calling it because the other kids were 'too cool' to sit there during lunch.

"Dana?"

Leilani's eyes rolled skywards and she decided to ignore her question. "It's cute and you haven't answered my question."

Ronnie's listened to their conversation with interest, nibbling on her tuna sandwich. "If you sit, maybe she'll answer you?"

It came out as a question but Leilani got the memo and she slapped her forehead realizing she was still standing with her tray. "Oh yeah, sorry but not sorry about that."

They giggled in unison at Leilani's apology. After getting comfortable,  she tucked one of the stay curls behind her ear and turned her body to a fidgeting Adana.

"Um, where do I start?" She laughed with a hint of nervousness which didn't go unnoticed by the two girls.

"The beginning would be nice," Leilani answered and placed her hands under her chin in a show of genuine interest only making Adana clear her throat.

The scenes which played out this morning flashed through her mind but she proceeded to speak. "Yeah, I was waiting for you but didn't see you and Storm insisted to wait for me."

Adana was well aware she was blabbing at this point but she just wanted to pour it all out once and for all. "The warning bell rang but he refused to leave and before I knew it,  a teacher started checking the halls. I pushed him into the janitor closet and the door got stuck and. . ."

"Oh, I'm so sorry about that. I forgot to send a text or call you to tell you I would be in the school library finishing my assignments, the deadline was this morning. I should've called but it slipped my mind."

At the shaking of her head, Leilani stopped her babbling to let Adana talk. "No, it's fine. We can't change anything about it. My only problem is I got freaking detention for coming late"

"I got detention too."

Both their heads whirled to focus on Ronnie who now had her head lowered, drinking from her juice box through the bendy straw. She rarely made any contributions to most of their conversations probably because she was still a little uncomfortable around them.

"I'm not even going to ask you what you did," Leilani said. "The teachers here give detention for every freaking little thing."

"That's right," Adana agreed. "Well, Ronnie, be my guest?"

An unexpected grin arrested her face and her underrated beauty shone through. "Yeah sure, let's visit hell together."