"You're soaking wet," Ben said.

"I took Lina to the left-wing entrance," Clint replied.

"Why not the one by the gym?" Ben asked.

"Dude, who's going through there today? It's probably locked"

"True. Did you make out in the rain?" Ben inquired.

"Not quite. But, we did make out near the doors."

Ben laughed.

"How long do you think it'll last?" Clint asked.

"I'm not sure. Probably till noon." Ben replied.

"What do you want to do?" Clint asked.

"We could try going to the treehouse," Ben said.

"Dude, Hammel caught me skipping last week. He was pissed," Clint said.

"Did you leave through the parking lot?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, I was almost at the sidewalk," Clint replied.

"Follow me," Ben said.

He grabbed his backpack and took out a small black umbrella from the side pocket before they walked into the rain. Clint grabbed the hilt of the umbrella and got under it as Ben released the canopy. They walked in sync for a few seconds. Then Ben noticed Clint walking closer to him than he should have been. He looked down at his shoulder, then looked at Clint. Ben pulled the handle away from him.

"Fuck off," Ben said, laughing.

"Don't want to share?" Clint asked.

"My shoulder gets wet if we're both under," Ben said.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know your fragile shoulder was getting wet," Clint said.

They were near the edge of the forest now. He tried grabbing the umbrella again. Ben shoved him out

"Why does it bother you. You already got wet," Ben said.

Ben started walking straight into the woods. Clint trailed behind him.

"I don't want to get wetter," Clint said.

"You're wet or not wet. You can't get more wet," Ben snickered.

"Yeah, you can. If I get under your umbrella your shoulders going to start getting more wet." Clint retorted.

"It's either wet or dry," Ben said.

"Well, it's already wet. Let me get under the umbrella." Clint said.

"You're already wet." Ben let out.

"I'm getting wetter," Clint said.

They looked at each other and laughed. They walked in silence for a bit. Clint got more wet.

"I can't believe you barely figured out that we can get to the treehouse from here," Clint said.

"Right? It would have been so useful before," Ben replied.

"Dude, I swear. Remember when we got caught sneaking out during the veterans day assembly?" Clint asked.

"Oh god. I can't believe they got so mad about it. It wasn't even the first time we got caught," Ben said.

Ben hadn't noticed but the two of them were now walking shoulder to shoulder, under the umbrella.

"Detention was fun," Clint said.

They both stopped, looked at each other, and started laughing.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me they were edibles," Ben said.

"I wanted your first time with brownies to be an interesting experience," Clint said.

"I thought I was going crazy," Ben said.

"All I remember is you standing up and throwing a whole bunch of shredded assignments in the air and yelling, 'fireworks for the veterans.' I couldn't breathe," Clint said.

"I don't get why they gave me so much shit about it. I almost had straight A's that semester," Ben said.

"See, the 'almost' is the issue. If you did have straight A's you'd be smoking shitty cigarettes in the teacher's lounge," Clint stated.

"I have straight A's now," Ben said.

"No shit?" Clint asked.

"Yeah. I mean the semester just started so it's easy right now," Ben said.

Clint ran a hand through his wet hair. "I already have a few D's," he laughed.

"Was it Sapkowski's daily homeworks that got you?" Ben snickered.

"Yeeaaah those were part of it. The only A I have is in Shield's," Clint said.

Ben looked straight at Clint.

"You mean the class we just skipped," Ben said.

Clint looked off into the forest. "Maybe."

"Dude you're not going to graduate," Ben laughed.

"Worse comes to worst, I can just copy all of your assignments," Clint said.

"What's that going to do? Tests are 60% of the grade," Ben said.

"I can handle the tests. I just hate doing the assignments. Isn't that the spot?" Clint asked.

"Yeah. I told you, this shortcut's great," Ben replied.

"It's like 10 minutes more the normal way," Clint said.

"Don't exaggerate. C'mon, don't you want to stop getting 'wetter'?" Ben asked.

They both ran up the small set of stairs that led to their arboreal abode.