Three days later

"Dad, I have to go," I mumbled, pulling my shoes on as I hopped towards the driveway. Maeve was going to be here any minute now, and for once I wanted to not be late.

"Okay, just give your old man a hug before leaving!"

"Fine," I rolled my eyes theatrically before pulling him in for a big hug.

"There you go. Now, bye!"

"Bye!"

As if on cue, Maeve's car rolled onto our street and towards my driveway. She waved out from behind the wheel, from where, if I didn't know any better, she looked almost comfortable.

She had turned sixteen last September, but I was yet to, so for the last few months she had been driving me to school- or so our parents thought. Maeve hated driving, so usually I would, as soon as we were out of range of the neighbourhood.

It wasn't a long drive, only about fifteen minutes or so, but it was the most often practise I got.

Even though I was eligible, I hadn't enrolled for driving school yet - my parents had said to wait a few more months, and honestly I had no pressing need right now.

They were busy and so was I, so I figured I'd wait maybe until the spring break before going to driving school. With the practise I had been having the past few months, I'd probably be able to pass my driver's test easily, so it really didn't bother me.

It had been two days since Sam and I's argument, and things still hadn't completely returned to normal between the two of us.

Maeve was the only one who picked up on it, and asked me when we were alone what had happened.

I had explained that it was just a petty argument that got blown out of proportion, and though she was skeptical when I wouldn't tell her the specifics at first, she eventually stopped pushing.

That was what I liked best about Maeve; when I didn't want to speak about something, she wouldn't make me. Unlike a certain Sam.

"We have our first economics lesson together today," Maeve said, as she inched out of my driveway.

I groaned. "Not double eco."

"I thought your teacher was good."

"She's awesome. It's just that...eco. I don't like it as a subject." I just didn't find any appeal in it, and only took it because I needed the next subject.

"It's fine, you can drop it next year."

"I'm planning on it."

We played some music and sat mostly in silence, which gave my mind some time to wander.

I planned to talk to Sam today. We always sat together during our economics lessons, so maybe it would be a good time to try and get things back to normal between the two of us.

The car jerked suddenly to the right.

"Maeve, use your indicator if you're switching lanes."

"I didn't try to switch, its just-" the car jerked to the side once more, and even after she pressed down on her brakes, the car took longer than normal to respond.

"Oh, shit. Maeve, pull over."

"Huh?"

"Put on your indicator and pull over."

"Okay." Her voice seemed small all of a sudden.

She stopped the car on the side and turned on her emergency lights, and I pulled off my seatbelt and got out of the car as fast as I could.

"Oh," I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw what was wrong. No big deal.

"Shit! What do we do?" Maeve seemed panicked, which was almost comical to me. Our reactions should have been the other way around.

She was the one that had been to driving school before, not me. A flat tire shouldn't be a big issue for her.

I was terrified it was brake failure or something else that I had no idea how to go about fixing.

"Its okay, just a flat."

"What do you mean just a flat? God knows how far away a shop is where we can get this fixed." She ran a hand through her hair and began pacing back and forth.

"Maeve, we don't need to go to a shop."

"I don't know how to change a tire! Do you?" Her tone suddenly calmed at the realisation. "You do, don't you."

I contained my laughter. "Yes. And you should have paid more attention at driving school."

***

It was a little harder than I expected to change the tire, and took a lot longer than anticipated, but eventually we got it done.

Thankfully Maeve's parents were the type to make sure that every supply you could possibly need were in the car. Literally everything. Apart from the carjack, lug-wrench, and reflective triangle thing, there were a bunch of tools I didn't even recognise in there.

Add to that snacks, a jam-packed first aid kit, and even a box of something that looked suspiciously like condoms. I didn't bother checking though.

We had already missed the first lesson, english, by the time we reached school, and got to economics class halfway through the second.

I guess today was my lucky day in a way- I only had to endure a lesson and a half of economics, about an hour, rather than two full lessons.

We ran through the reception area first to mark ourselves present for the day before rushing to class.

I knocked on the door twice before pushing it open.

"Hi, girls, come in, come in. What happened?" She took a glance over our messier- than- usual state.

"Car got a flat," I mumbled.

"Oh, did you manage to get it to a shop?"

"No, we changed the tire."

"Oh." It sounded as if the thought hadn't even occurred to her.

"That's great. Take a seat, girls. You can copy down the notes from someone else after class and come to me later if you have any questions. We haven't covered much, anyway."

I highly doubted that. She could finish chapters faster than I imagined possible. For all I knew, she had finished half a chapter in the last twenty minutes.

I took a quick glance around the room while Maeve introduced herself to my teacher. There were six new kids including her, all the faces somewhat familiar.

I had wanted to sit with Sam like I usually did, but my usual spot next to him was taken. He smiled awkwardly my way, and I smiled back.

I went to an empty seat in the third row, next to one of the 'rich' kids who had also been transferred to this class.

Aiden, I remembered. I had shown him around some places in the school when he joined a couple months into freshman year, but never really spoke to him after that. We didn't have any common classes.

Well, we had economics in common now, I guess.

The majority of the class went relatively smoothly for the next twenty minutes or so.

"Okay guys, you can have a five minute break before we continue. We'll start on the types of inflation after that."

She left the classroom to fill her water bottle, and the regular idle chatter began. Now would be a good time to go talk to Sam. I stood up and made my way across the classroom.

"Hey," I smiled at him as I approached his desk. He turned to face me.

"Hey."

"Listen, I-"

"I just wanted to-"

We both started our sentences at the same time, stopping and glancing at each other awkwardly.

"I just wanted to apologise for how I spoke to you on Monday. You were trying to look out for me, and I was being unreasonable with the way I spoke to you. I do still stand by what I said, though. I don't want to talk about it. It happened, its over. Done."

Sam nodded along, even though he clearly wasn't pleased with the last bit.

"It's your life, Del, I can't and shouldn't force anything on you. But know that I really, really think that you should work on not being such a people pleaser."

I nodded. I got what he meant.

"I turned down that spanish tutoring thing, by the way," I told him, sitting down on the floor next to his desk.

"That's good. Sometimes you're too nice, Del, and people are gonna start to think you're a pushover. I just don't want that to happen."

"It won't."

He smiled again, but for the first time since our argument on Monday it reached into his eyes as well.

funny story, I actually had to stop on the way to school a couple days ago because there was a kid on the side of the road whose car had got a flat lmao- and I kid you not I helped through the knowledge I had from watching a video before writing this chapter like a month ago. So i just remembered about this chapter and decided to post it even though i honestly have no idea where I'm going with this story.

I hope you're enjoying, and don't forget to vote and comment if you did! It's super motivating and really helps me continue writing :)

Have a great day/ night <3