[𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐍]

She finally came out, the hood of her hoodie covering her head, a rice crispy treat in her mouth, and her backpack straps on her elbow pits.

She got in the passenger seat, threw her bag in the back seat, and opened the rice crispy treat wrapper.

"Look, waking up early and all that is new to me. So . . . my bad for making you wait," she said, not meeting my face.

"You ready to go?" I inquired.

"Yeah, we can go."

"Okay." With that, we were off.

Paris didn't play any music, she seemed engrossed in whatever she was looking at on her phone while eating her "breakfast."

She took off her hood slowly. I noticed her hair was different when I glanced at her. Normally, she wore her natural, voluminous curls or did different styles with them, like a slick back bun, or slick up bun.

Her braids looked nice, they were neat, I noticed that when I took more glances, also trying to focus on the road.

"Paris?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"Did you braid your hair by yourself?"

"Yeah, yesterday. That's why I was in my room for the whole day."

"They look nice, seriously, like they were done professionally." I was genuinely impressed.

"Thanks," she murmured.

"I need to get my hair done, that water messed my shit up," I said lowly to myself. I didn't know how to braid my hair, so I just put it in a durag, the flap tucked in.

"I can braid your hair," Paris offered.

"Yeah, but, I just have to get my hair washed first, though. But I'll do it."

"Mmm, okay."

We arrived at school rather quickly. In the parking lot, I was surprised to see Paris's senior friend, Darion, by his car, with two other girls.

Assuming Paris would want to greet them, I parked near them. She did.

Paris got out of the car swiftly and made her way over to them enthusiastically. I watched as she held her arms to hug Darion, but Darion looked her up and down and pushed her away when she tried to hug him.

It seemed that the girls and Darion ignored her and went inside, the girl wearing cowgirl boots didn't necessarily ignore Paris, the other girl was pulling her away though.

I looked away from them and went inside the building.

Gym was my last class before lunch. Paris was in that class. Juniors and seniors shared gym. While I would walk around with Kristen, Paris would play volleyball or basketball.

"I'm leaving early," Kristen told me when I was at my locker. "Orthodontist appointment. My mother wants me to get braces so my gap will close. I like my gap, I think it adds character."

I chuckled at that.

"Hopefully she doesn't make me come back to school, though." She looked at her fingernails while she pondered on that.

"Kristen Adler, please report to the main office with your belongings. Kristen Adler, please report to the main office with your belongings." Ms. Chamberlain, the secretary, spoke on the intercom.

"Bye, London! Have fun in gym!"

"Bye, Kristen." She flitted down the hallway to the office.

In gym, we had three options; basketball, volleyball, or walking around the gym. I walked around the gym with Kristen (her choice) since she was un-athletically coordinated.

Kristen couldn't catch or throw. I tried playing basketball with her once and accidentally broke her nail while throwing the ball to her.

After stretching, I walked along the court with my AirPods in during gym, listening to some Uzi.

Suddenly one of them wasn't in my ear. "What're you listening to?" I looked down to my side to see Paris putting one of my AirPods in her ear.

She sang the next part of Neon Guts. "Oops, sorry." She put it back in my ear.

"Where's your little friend, the one that walks with you?" she asked.

"Kristen left early."

"Oh, oh," she acknowledged. "You both look like more than friends." She pushed my shoulder and had a big cheeky grin on her face.

"Don't start."

"Damn, London, I'm just teasing. Not everything has to be so serious between us, you know?"

She had a point.

"M'kay. So why aren't you hanging out with your little friend?" I wanted to know, referring to Darion.

"He's not talking to me right now. You know how you took my picture when we were at the pool?"

"M-hmm."

"Well, because I tagged you, he's mad. He sees you as competition now. And I don't understand what he's mad about! He acts like we're in a relationship when we're not."

"When you say we're?"

"I mean me and him," she clarified. "I don't even like him like that. Even if I did, I still wouldn't date him of the controlling shit that he does."

"If he's so controlling, why are you friends with him?"

She sighed. "I don't know, man. I can't just cut him off."

"Why not?"

She finally looked up from her sneakers and bit down on her bottom lip.

"Because I just can't, London."

She walked up faster, and was in front of me, then she turned around so she was walking backward and facing me.

"Thanks for letting me rant even though I haven't been the nicest to you," she said softly with a frown. She ran back to the court to join one of the activities.

Competition, huh. That was information I never knew I needed.