"Bye," she said softly to her dad, taking the kiss he gave to the top of her head. After he left, she turned to me. "You shouldn't have left the class. Now we both might be clueless on what exactly we have to do," she said as we started walking to the staircase.

"That's okay, we can figure it out together," I replied, adjusting my bag on my shoulder.

She glanced at me a little longer than she should have.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Don't we have gym class? After twenty minutes that are left of English?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Why don't we just get changed for gym class and then down to the field?"

"Okay," I agreed.

Then we walked to our rooms, going our separate ways when we reached her room which came before mine. I went inside my room, put my bag down, threw my shirt off, exchanged it for the jersey the school gives everyone, and then switched out my jeans for the shorts. I pulled my shoes on, tied the laces, grabbed a water bottle and my keys, attaching them to the bottle, and then headed out.

I locked the door and started walking when her door opened. Her keys were hanging off her shorts like they always are, she had a hair tie between her teeth and was throwing her hair up in a high ponytail. I looked her up and down, my eyes lingering on her legs.

I don't remember the shorts being so short for girls. Then again, I would never look.

"Hey," she said through gritted teeth while raising her brows at me.

"Hey," I said, walking over. We started walking downstairs while she tied her hair, her arms dropping to her sides once she finished. "Were you there for the last class?" I asked, even though I knew she wasn't. Because if she was, everyone would be talking about her in those shorts.

They're not that short, I know they're not. But still.

"No, I skipped the last class. But Daisy said it's kind of fun. What do you guys do?" she asked, glancing at me while we descended the stairs.

"Team sports, partner sports, everything," I shrugged.

When we got downstairs and passed the locker rooms, two girls came out with their shirts tied up in a knot and their shorts rolled up. I glanced at Clara. She looked at them, then at herself, then scrunched up her nose at them. "Why do they do that?" She turned to me, seeming a little surprised that I was already looking at her.

"What?"

"Make their clothes even smaller? Aren't the shorts short enough for the girls? I thought they were," she mumbled, looking at her shorts.

I feel weird now.

Why is she thinking that?

"You look fine, Clara," I nodded.

We got to the field, both of us squinting a little under the sun as we walked to the bleachers. She sat down on the grass and I sat in front of her, leaning back on my hands. The bell rang and slowly the field filled up with our grade.

And then our teacher/coach. Mr. Matthews arrived. "Everyone stand up please!"

We stood up while Daisy and Wyatt came over.

"We're working on partner sports today. We'll practice throwing and catching to warm up and then—"

"Sir, can't we do normal exercises?"

"You kids want to do exercises?"

"Yeah!" most of the people yelled.

"No," Clara mumbled beside me.

"Okay. Start stretching then. Exercise it is." This is why gym class is normally fun because he listens and lets the class do what they want. "Everyone picks a partner now, come on."

Most of the girls chose each other and it became pretty clear that exercising was just an excuse to gossip.

"No, no, no," Mr. Matthews laughed. "You all wanted to exercise, now we're exercising. No gossiping. Boys, pick a girl to work with. Or girls, pick a boy."

"Can we choose, sir?" Nate asked, eyeing one of the girls.

"All right, quickly. Starting from the left, Chris?" He went on, asking all the boys. "Atticus?"

He scanned the girls. "Clara," he shrugged.

"Huh? What?" she asked.

"Clara, you're working with Atticus."

"Oh," she mumbled.

Why the hell would he pick me?

She clearly doesn't know how a guy thinks, that's why she's asking herself that.

"Callum?"

"I was going to say, Clara, actually," I shrugged, already knowing what would happen.

Mr. Matthews will let Clara choose. "Okay. Clara, who do you want to work with?"

She looked at Atticus and then at me. "Callum."

Everyone broke out into whispers.

"Atticus, why don't you choose someone else?"

"Violet," he sighed.

"Great. Callum, you work with Clara."

I glanced at her and found her already looking at me. I raised my brows at her. She shook her head and put her hand up, blocking the sun out of her eyes.

"Start your stretches."

We both walked to the shade of the tree and started stretching. "Do you like working out? Because I don't. And I can't do it either. So, you probably shouldn't have picked me," she scoffed.

"I didn't pick you because I thought you were good at working out."

"Oh. Then why did you pick me?"

"Because you're the only girl I talk to," I answered honestly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm not friends with any other girl."

"Oh, we're friends now, huh?" she grinned.

"Nevermind," I mumbled, rolling my eyes.

"All right! Boys, on the ground, on your backs."

I huffed, lying down on the grass and looking forward. Clara stood over me, her hands on her hips while she looked at Mr. Matthews.

"Shoes off."

I kicked my shoes off to the side.

"We'll start with crunches. Girls, make sure your partner's feet are touching the ground."

She sat down in front of me, kneeling like all the other girls were.

"We'll do this for three minutes. Start."

I put my hands behind my head and started doing the crunches.

"Well, this is boring," she mumbled, looking around.

"It won't be when it's your turn," I chuckled.

"Very funny," she scoffed.

"Why didn't you want to work with Atticus?" I asked.

"I didn't mind working with him, I just don't talk to him at all. None of my classes are with him." And we talked the rest of the three minutes away.

"Girls, your turn. Two minutes for you."

"Sir, we can do three!" Kristen yelled.

"Why the hell would she say that?" Clara huffed, lying down in front of me.

I sat on my knees the way she did.

"Okay, three minutes, off you go!"

She crossed her arms over her chest and started doing the crunches. "Who is the girl who asked for three minutes of this?"

"Kristen, why?" I asked, grabbing her knees and pinning her feet to the floor when she lifted them up.

"Because she's incredibly stupid," she huffed, glaring at Kristen. When we had thirty seconds left, she was about to give up.

"Come on," I laughed. Some people looked at me. I don't normally laugh. Or talk. To anybody.

"Callum, shut up!" she groaned, but still kept going.

"Time's up!"

She panted, lying down.

"Boys, push-ups are next."

I held my hands out and she grabbed them pulling herself up.

"How many of you think you can handle a girl's weight?" All the guys said they could. "Okay, ladies, take your seats," Mr. Matthews chuckled. She sat down on my back, her legs dangling off. "Go!"

I started doing push-ups like I would while working out. She's fairly light, it was easier than expected.

"How are you doing this?" she asked, resting her hands on my shoulders.

"It's fine," I said while exhaling.

"Can I lie down?"

I stopped in the air. "Okay," I agreed.

She lay down and I felt her back pressed against mine, meaning she turned around. She gasped, "There's a butterfly in the tree."

"What color?" I asked.

"Yellow."

"You like butterflies?"

"They look pretty. But haven't you seen that Spongebob episode where we saw the close-up of a butterfly. They are scary up close."

After gym class, we all headed inside, a little sweaty and very tired. Luckily, I have no classes tomorrow, it's a free day. While we were all walking inside, all the lights shut off.

"Oh shit," I mumbled, staring at the lamp that flickered and then dimmed to darkness.

We don't have blackouts often, but when we do it lasts a very, very long time. Sometimes, more than twenty-four hours.

"What's going on?" she asked, getting pushed into me as the crowd kept moving blindly.

"There's a blackout," I answered. I tried bringing the power back but it didn't work. It did shock me though. I huffed, shaking my hand and the tingles out of it.

"Ow," she mumbled.

I grabbed her hand when I felt it brush against mine. "Come on," I sighed. And then I realized that holding her hand was giving me tingles too.

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