The hands on the clock taunted Runo.
It seamed like they turned slower in that last 5 minutes. Just 5 minutes left, only 300 seconds left until she could burst through the doors, welcoming summer with a fresh smile. She'd emerge brightly, which was very oxymoronic compaired to her current state. Her pencil, which was being tapped between her index finger and middle finger, seamed to be in rhythme with the ticking of the clock.
Next to her, the brown haired boy let out a small grin. Using his thumb, he poked her in the side. She jumped a bit, glared and stuck her tongue out at him, and went back to dimmly staring at the clock, quite obivious, actually. It was a wonder Mr. Tigg didn't catch her. Dan rolled his eyes at the girl and continued to doodle on his returned homework. The big red 78 stared at him, laughing at him in a way. The red X's were all across the paper, as well as a purple smiley face, compliments of Runo.
Returning to her stare down with the face of time in the classroom, only 2 minutes had passed since she had last looked at it. She pursed her lips, worried. Had she really been staring at Dan for that long now? It had only felt like a moment, but the clock didn't lie- and even if it did, she did think it was programmed to go even slower during school hours, compliments of her evil Social Studies teacher with the unibrow- but atleast Dan didn't seam to notice. He was too busy looking at his failing grade homework.
That urked her a bit; why was that peice of patheticly done paper more interesting then her? What did it have that she didn't? Shoving her thoughts away, she gazed back at her best friend. He was now glued to a book. Wait, a book?
Discretely, she stole the book away from him. He mused a silent "Hey!" and allowed her to look at it briefly. It was a longish book, but what he really was doing was playing his Nitendo DS, with the volume all the way down. She shook her head and gave it back to him. He continued to "conquer the phantoms", while as he was really just making Link look like a fool, slashing the air in half.
Briiiiiing.
Runo nearly fell out of her seat. Dan laughed at her as his group of three friends- all boys, of course- crowded around him and practically dragged him away. Flustered, she threw her bag over her shoulder and at a brisk walk, made her way to her locker without having to make eye contact with any of the four of them. On the way back, however, was another story.
She had almost made it to the sidewalk, before being tackle hugged by Marucho. Sure, it wasn't someone she was exactly avoiding, but she still had wanted to walk home alone. Marucho laughed and let go of the older girl, walking alongside her down the sidewalk. "Hi Runo!"
"Hey," Runo mused, surprised that her voice sounded so small. Maybe that class was pretty long. "How was your last day of school?"
Marucho tipped his head a bit, in thought, and then nodded. "Okay, I suppose. It seamed like forever in math, though. But that was my last class, so, naturally, it dragged on."
Runo nodded, knowing exactly what he had ment. Just a few minutes ago, she was trying to figure out if someone had hacked the clock. The two walked together in silence, until Marucho had reached his house, which was more like a tower. Making Runo feel small, he waved goodbye.
"Atleast i'm alone, now." She muttered under her breath as she dragged her feet down the road. She wasn't alone for long, however, because in a matter of minutes, Dan had trampled down the road, and attempted to scare her. "Not gonna work, Dan."
"Darn." He cursed, as he took a place next to her, keeping up a perfect pace with her. "How'd you know I was behind you?"
A small smirk painted it's way across her face. "Besides the fact that you sounded like a stampede of elephents, you breathe out your mouth." He was about to object, but they had already reached Runo's house. Smuggling a small wave, Runo escaped to the front door and closed it rather hurridly. Finally, she exhaled.
Confused, Dan shook his head and continued to walk to his house. "I'll never get her."
Meanwhile, Runo was running up the stairs to her room. She threw her white bag onto her bed. Stumbling down the stairs, she barely evaded a face plant as she turned on her toes, grabbing a white apron and tieing it around her waist. She took a tray, and walked out into the open of the resterant.
She sighed. Just another adverage day.
"Thanks again for letting me stay with you, Runo-chan." Alice replied thankfully, placing her things in the corner of Runo's bedroom. The red head sat polietly on the bed as Runo hauled Alice's other 4 bags up the stairs. "And sorry about over packing."
Runo didn't have time to muster out a comment before being crushed by the suitcases. Startled, Alice pulled the one that was hiding Runo's head off of her and onto the bed. Runo lifted her head weakly and nodded at Alice, as a thanks, and then thrusted the other cases in the corner as well. "Anything for you, Alice. By the way, can you cut my hair for me?"
Alice looked taken back. "What?" She gazed over Runo's long blue mane. It reached her hips, and was probably the only thing that Runo could be proud of. Runo ran her fingers through it as she let it out of the high ponytail. "Why? It's so pretty."
Chewing on her lip, Runo shrugged her shoulders. "It gets in the way."
Unsure, Alice double checked Runo's expression. "How.. how short do you want it?"
Wincing, Runo lifted her finger and wedged it at her shoulder. Alice gasped, but slowly took out a pair of scissors and a brush.
Runo's mother smiled warmly at the red head. Alice had her hair pulled into a messy bun, and was wearing a black skirt that came down to her knees. She also wore a dark navy blue short sleved shirt, and a pair of blue flip flops. "What's the occasion, Alice?"
Alcie subtly shrugged. "The brawlers are having a party, because school's over." She pursed her lips. "Did you know that Runo asked me to cut her hair?"
Runo's mother looked a bit shocked. "What? Really? Never in 14 years has she let me touch her hair. I had to cut it when she was sleeping." She stared at Alice in disbelief. "How short did she want it?"
Alice shushed her nonchalantly as Runo rushed downstairs. She wore a pair of jean shorts, two tank tops, the bottom one black, and the top one mint green. She had on knee high green socks, and black sneakers. Her hair, now at her shoulders, was pulled into two braids, by her ears. "What? Is there something on my face?"
Both Alice and her mother shook their heads, but her mom decided to speak up. "You look cute.. but why'd you have Alice cut your hair?"
Alice stared at Runo as she blushed a light pink and studdered. "Well, it was hot and um, I didn't want to have to deal with it anymore." She lied through clenched teeth. They seamed to buy it, it was a plausible answer. Runo was relieved. "Let's go!"
Alice nodded, and followed Runo out the door. The two girls walked down the sidewalk in an awkward silence. Alice was a tad worried, so decided to start a conversation. "So, what do you think we're gonna do at the party?"
Runo began to purse her lips. "Well, when me and Dan were passing notes in Science, he said that there was going to be a bon fire, lazer tag, and fire works." Alice stared at her. "What? There's something on my face, right? You and my mom lied to me or something? Stop staring at me!"
"You were passing notes?" Alice asked with a smug smile. "With Dan?"
Runo glanced slightly at Alice, embarissed. "Yeah? So what!" She picked up the pace of her walk, leaving Alice behind. "Come on, we're here."
Alice rushed after her as they walked up to Dan's door and knocked. Julie, however, threw open the door quite cheerfully. "ALICE! RUNO!! You're finally here!" She glomped them and pushed the two girls inside. "The guys are outside."
Chan was sitting on the couch, watching TV. She was wearing black capris and a red elbow length sleved belly shirt, and red flip flops. Her hair was held back, as always. Julie grabbed the marshmellows, running outside. Chan looked at them. "Woah! Runo, what happened to your hair?"
"I got it cut." Runo replied with a harsh tone. Chan stuck out her tongue, and Runo copied her. "By the way, why is Julie wearing all pink?"
Chan rolled her eyes. "When isn't she?" Runo and Alice both mummbled something in agreement. "She's also pretty happy because Dan finally agreed to go out with her. I think he's finally lost all taste in girls. Him and Julie aren't a good match."
Runo felt a pang in her chest. A sinking feeling came over her, but she did her best to ignore it. After all, Alice and Chan were in the room, and they both had teased her a lot about her liking Dan. She had denyed it to them, and if she showed any signs of sorrow now, they'd NEVER let Runo live it down. "How does Billy feel about that?"
Chan made a small face as she flicked off the TV, via the remote. "He needs to talk to you." She stood up, and lead Alice outside. "He's in the kitchen, okay?"
Runo wasn't able to respond, before Alice and Chan were already out the back door. "Fine, I'll talk to Billy." She wandered into the kitchen, to find Billy slouching on the counter, looking faintly sad. He turned to Runo when she walked in. "Um, hi, Billy. Chan said you wanted to talk to me about something?"
Billy walked up to her and stared at her hard. "Will you go out with me?"