November 10th

Dear Future Me,

Today is Nikki's birthday, but I also have a big presentation with Levi today. I can't remember a time where I wasn't celebrating this day with her, but I have to remind myself to move on. I've been doing pretty damn good without her anyway.

I'm sure the presentation will go fine though. I mean, we've been working our asses off on it for weeks now. I just have to put my focus on that until it's all over and then I can maybe relax for once. It's crazy how we're having a project this big during the first marking period. I can't imagine what will happen at the end of the school year. We'll probably be expected to solve world peace or something, I don't know.

I had to wake up even earlier than usual today, but I can't complain. Levi is picking me up and we're gonna go on a Dunkin Donuts run, so yay, free coffee, and donuts. Maybe I could get one of those breakfast sandwiches. Ooo, or even a muffin. You know what? Lemme not get too excited. I have to get going anyway.

Sincerely,

Past Me.

•••

Levi beeped his car horn as Skye hurriedly locked her front door and ran down the steps, the time ticking as they had to hurry if they all wanted to get coffee. "Let's go! We gotta cram in this Dunkin' run!"

"Sorry, I was last minute writing something!" Skye exclaimed, running towards his car.

"Come on!" He beeped again, even though at this point it was useless because she had made it to the car already.

Skye opened the backseat door, forcing Hunter to scoot over so she could hop into the car without wasting more time. "Move, Hunter! I'm not sitting in the middle, there's no time!"

"Damn, Skye!" Hunter sassed, still not moving.

"Hunter, just move!" Danny yelled, not even sorry for raising his voice as he was kind of like the parent of the group.

"Yeah, I said move!" She said, pushing him over and squeezing into the car, slamming the door shut and not even bothering to put on a seatbelt "Drive."

Levi slammed on the pedal, speeding down the empty road so they could make it to Dunkin Donuts in time. There definitely wouldn't be any running over bikes today, but it wouldn't be surprising if that incident occurred again at that kind of speed.

Turning down the street, Levi slowed down as he hit the main road to avoid a ticket, although his passengers thought he should've kept speeding. It's like they wanted him to create chaos on the road.

"Why'd you slow down, man?" Xavier whined. "Dunkin' is always busy as hell in the morning and we got thirty minutes if we wanna make it to homeroom in time."

"Who's the one with the license here?" Levi raised an eyebrow, slightly looking over at Xavier while also focusing on the road, not receiving an answer from him as he didn't know how to respond. "That's what I thought."

"Xavier, considering you're the reason why I don't have a bike, your opinion is invalid," Skye interjected.

"Damn, I hate that you're right." Xavier cursed, crossing his arms and slouching down in the passenger seat.

Now Hunter, always one to say something completely random, does exactly that, but this time it was actually somewhat related to the current topic. "Yo, we're getting a box of munchkins, right? Cause I didn't sign up for this if we ain't getting any munchkins."

"Yes, we're gonna get munchkins." Levi groaned. "We all gotta split though."

"I'm fine with just a few," Danny said. "I didn't have time to eat breakfast this morning."

"Me too," Skye added.

"Bro, let's get fifty munchkins, cause like there's five of us so then we all get ten," Hunter said, but the way he said it made it seem like he thought he was a genius for saying it.

Skye looked at him in confusion as that was basic math, so she responded to him by also mocking his tone of voice. "Oh my god, that's like, how math works."

"I'm smart or whatever." He grinned, jokingly flipping his hair as it was longer than all of the other guys.

"Yeah, smart on a whole other planet." She rolled her eyes, which made Hunter's jaw drop since she totally crushed his spirit.

"I think you just bruised his ego." Danny laughed, covering his mouth to contain his laughter, the same going for Xavier.

"No, she didn't!" Hunter exclaimed, whining as a little kid would. "Women can't hurt my feelings."

"The look on your face said otherwise." Skye snickered.

"You-"

"Alright, everybody chill." Levi interrupted, putting an end to whatever that was. "We're just about to hit the drive-thru."

"Hell yeah, I love drive-thru's!" Xavier exclaimed, but Levi immediately shut him down as he was inching towards the drive-thru window.

"Shut up, I gotta put in everyone's order." He said. "What drinks do you guys want?"

"Uh, I'll have an iced coffee. Vanilla though." Skye said shyly, thinking they would judge her decision and call her basic. Seeing as they were all boys, she assumed that would get something that screamed "manly", but she was wrong.

"Ooo, that sounds good," Xavier said, much to Skye's surprise. "Lemme get that but with caramel."

"Same." Hunter chimed in, completely forgetting about the whole munchkins thing already.

"Just hot coffee for me," Danny added.

"Bet, now shush," Levi ordered, then turned around and rolled down the window to put in everyone's order, not forgetting to get munchkins for everyone. He knew Hunter would act like a toddler about it, so it was best he ordered that first.

Pulling up to the next window, everyone handed Levi whatever cash they had to contribute to the Dunkin' run, which he just accepted, quickly counted, then handed to the drive-thru lady. She then handed the big box of munchkins, which Levi handed to whoever grabbed it first in the back seat, then a tray of drinks which was carefully handed over to Xavier, then one last drink that was put in a cup holder in the front seat. After that, they speeded out of the Dunkin Donuts, making it to school in perfect timing.

"Everyone grab your drinks and go!" Xavier yelled, then all the boys hurriedly grabbed their drinks. Skye waited for that mini chaos to die down so she could calmly grab her drink, then she got out of the car, seeing Levi waiting for her unlike everyone else.

"Need me to carry anything?" He asked, which was just what she needed from him.

"Can you hold my drink?" She questioned.

"Yeah, of course," Levi said, using his free hand to hold her drink while the other held his drink (notably with all of the buttons pressed down to show it was his).

Once she got out of the car and got her backpack on, she shut the car door behind her and grabbed her drink, not forgetting to thank him. "Thanks."

"No problem." He grinned, then the two began walked through the parking lot and towards the school entrance. They had about ten minutes at this point, so they were good in the time department. Xavier was so scared of being late because of all of the taffy's he had last year, so he wasn't playing any games come senior year, which was actually very uncharacteristic of him.

"What drink did you get?" Skye asked to make conversation while they walked together.

"The same as you," Levi replied.

"Twins." She grinned, then the two gently clinked their drinks and took the first sip together.

"Damn, that's sweet." He said after taking a sip. Usually, he would get just good ol' regular coffee, but he decided to go off the grid today, which he most likely would never do again. It was worth the try though.

"Guess you can thank me later when we're energized for our presentation." Skye giggled. With all that cream and sugar mixed into that concoction, they would be up all night.

"Definitely." Levi chuckled, then the two pushed through the entrance doors and walked to their respective homeroom together, confident that they would do just fine on their presentation come second period.

•••

Skye returned home in a happy mood today. Why? Because she and Levi totally nailed their presentation. Compared to the other kids who mumbled through the PowerPoint slides, they were guaranteed a top grade. It was weird for Skye though because throughout her school years she would be just as nervous as those other kids, but Levi's confidence was contagious, and it brought them a home run in the end.

Now laying on her bed with her laptop sitting on her stomach, Skye browsed away on her computer, procrastinating the homework that sat in her backpack waiting to be completed. The insanely caffeinated iced coffee's effects had worn off hours ago, so she was now pretty tired after quite an energetic day.

Skye wondered how Levi was doing at practice, seeing as the season was going to be over in a little over two weeks, meaning Levi's high school football career would finally be over. Practices had been longer than usual as the team neared the final game, so he had been working hard, which was admirable. She knew it would be an emotional thing for him, but seeing as there were already so many colleges that wanted him at their school, he didn't have anything to worry about in regards to his future.

On the other hand, Skye hardly had a clue what her future held. Sure she loved art, but she couldn't see herself making any sort of career out of it. She didn't think of herself as the next Van Gogh or anything, so she was just going to have to figure out her true passion and go with that. She had the rest of the year to figure it out though, and that would be the perfect amount of time for her, which she didn't have a clue about yet.

While Skye was doing some online window shopping, a little pop-up notification appeared in the corner of her screen, and to her surprise, it was a video call request from Levi. She looked at the time to see it was almost seven, so she assumed he was probably worn out from practice, but seeing as he was the one calling, she pressed accept and sat up so she wasn't giving any sort of unflattering angle.

"Hey." Skye waved, seeing Levi's bedroom in the background, meaning he was definitely home from practice at this point.

"Hey, I just got done with my homework. Practice was brutal." He said, which reminded her about her own homework that remained untouched.

"Shit, I haven't even started mine yet." She groaned. "I've been distracted."

"I can send you the answers for chemistry." Levi offered, but after that cheating on makeup work binge, Skye felt so guilty that she never wanted to ever cheat again.

"Oh, no. No, no, no." She shook her head. "That was just a one-time thing."

"Oh, well, let me know if you change your mind." He shrugged.

Skye went on to change the subject as she knew her mind wouldn't change on wanting homework answers, so she brought up how practice was as she was curious how it went. "So, how was practice?"

"Stupid Hernandez wouldn't shut up about how it was his girlfriend's birthday and that he needed to leave early. All it did was make everyone have to stay longer." Levi rolled his eyes. As Skye wrote earlier, it was Nikki's birthday, but she managed to forget about it after that until now due to being so focused on their presentation.

"Oh yeah, Nikki turned eighteen today." She frowned, making Levi feel bad for mentioning it.

"Ah, I shouldn't have brought it up, sorry." He said. "Let's talk about the turkey bowl or something."

Yes, the turkey bowl. It was the silliest name of all time, but since that was the last game of the season, everyone managed to take it seriously and draw hype around the event. "Did you say the turkey bowl? What kind of name is that?"

"That's the last game of the season!" Levi exclaimed. "We do it on Thanksgiving morning for some reason. Happens every year."

"Who do you play?" Skye asked.

"Stupid Brandywine." He scoffed, which meant that Megan would without a doubt be in attendance, but Levi wouldn't let it rain on his parade, although Skye got nervous about the whole thing.

"Oh."

"Yeah, not exciting, but also exciting at the same time cause it's the last game." Levi sighed.

"Guess I shouldn't bring up you know who, huh?" Skye questioned, referring to none other than the infamous ex.

"As long as you're there I'll be fine." He grinned, then questioned if Skye would actually be at the game or not. "You are going, right?"

Seeing as they were one hundred percent on good terms now, there wasn't a doubt that Skye would skip on this, especially because it'll be the last game of Levi's high school career and the last one she'd ever witness. "As stupid as a turkey bowl sounds, I'll do whatever I can to be there."

"Ah, you're the best." Levi beamed, then looked over at the time, thinking that he should leave Skye alone now as he's already bugged her enough. "I'll let you get to your homework. I'm fricking starving right now."

"Go eat!" Skye demanded, which made Levi laugh as it was funny to see her care so much.

"Well, you go do your homework!" He yelled.

"I will!" She yelled back.

"Good!" Levi exclaimed.

"Bye then!" Skye said.

"Bye-" he began to say, but Skye cut his goodbye off short by slamming her laptop shut. She let out a laugh as she abruptly hung up on him, laying her head back and letting out a big sigh.

God, he's such an idiot. She thought to herself. But he's the only idiot I'll ever willingly tolerate.

•••

MARIA TALKS!

they cute or whateva 🙄

i realize that people may not like my time skips, but i can't necessarily have too many chapters where nothing important happens. this could be considered a bit of a filler chapter, BUT we can't forget that it was mentioned in this chapter that they were getting close to levi's last high school football game ever, which will be the closer for act one.

speaking of act one, there's only three chapters left! it's crazy to think i've managed to get this far, but i'm having the time of my life, seriously.

as always, don't forget to vote, and i'll (hopefully) see everyone next time.