Your Sweet Six Six Six | Sitkolson [C]

Chapter 4 | Theft

Science, being the first class of the day, proved the most challenging for Devin. He may have been able to convince his father into letting him stay home one day, but two? Forget about it. Using a twenty four hour flu as an excuse gave him a very small but much needed break from school. He groaned as he put his head down on the table in front of him. The sound of the class bell felt like it'd make his ears bleed.

"Mr. Vaughn?" He softly asked, gesturing to the window beside him, "Can I close this? I have a headache."

Being one of the cool teachers of the school, he gave a simply, "Yeah, sure."

Devin's question happened to be a good distraction from Ricky's tardiness. He slipped past his teacher quickly and rushed into the chair next to his friend. Like most high schools, their science lab was a series of black tables. The two goths counted themselves lucky they'd been sat next to each other. 

"You're alive!" Ricky nearly pushed him over with a hug while he was twisting the blinds shut.

He forced a little smile, "Yeah. I guess."

"You didn't text me back last night." He hopped up on a stool, continuing, "We were all really worried about you."

"I'm fine. I just had a small stomach bug." He muttered.

"Sit down, you animals!" Mr. Vaughn spoke, mostly directing it at the restless jocks, "Today's going to be a work day. I understand it can get a little loud, so I'm going to let half of you go to the library. Get in your groups."

"Groups?" Devin murmured to Ricky.

"Oh, yeah. We got put into groups of four for our semester project. Don't worry, you're with me."

"Who are the other two?"

Ricky's respond was a simple sigh as their lab partners walked up. Devin was having a hard enough morning. He figured, with the way he'd been feeling, there was no way he could muster any emotion other than tiredness and sadness. When he looked up, he quickly realized that wasn't true. Fear flushed his pale skin for two separate reasons. 

His dearest ex sighed, "I don't like this anymore than you do."

Devin's head fell against the table, "Why would he put us in a group together? He sits us on opposite sides of the room because he knows we don't get along."

"At least she'll do work." Ricky muttered.

He drew in a breath as he lifted his head, "True."

Ronnie narrowed his eyes at them, "What exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"You're a slacker." Kylie simply responded.

"Yeah, I mean, just think about how small your group of friends has gotten just because so many have dropped out since Freshmen year?" Ricky added.

"Look, I know I'm not good at this shit, but I do try." 

"Just as long as you try hard enough that I get a B, at least, I'll be happy. My dad will kick my ass if I have bad grades this semester." Devin said.

"So will mine!" Ronnie replied.

"You got busted robbing a grocery store over the summer and your dad got over it. I'm sure he won't give you as much shit as Devin's dad if you get bad grades, but lets not argue. Since Devin was gone yesterday, we're already a little behind." Ricky pulled his notes out, setting them between the them, "I'll give these to you so you can make a copy of them during lunch or study hall or something. Just make sure you give them back to me at the end of the day."

"Okay. Thank you." He softly muttered.

"Do you want to come over to my house after school so we can work on everything together?" He offered.