Burnouts 2: Without Butterflies

A Day in the Life

Scene 1: Addington High

Heather Blakely

I check the clock again and groan. 20 minutes is too long to make someone wait for you.

My head turns at the sound of footsteps, but they don't belong to Jace and I'm condemned to more wasted time.

"Hey," Leo said in passing.

"Hi."

He stopped at the door and turned around to see me. "You good?

I forgot how attentive you are.

"Um..." I shrugged casually. "Yes."

"What's up?"

"Well," I sighed. "Jace was supposed to meet me here at 3:15 so we could take boxes to the food drive at this Catholic Church."

"So, where is he?"

"Exactly," I said, exhaustedly.

Leo squinted his eyes and gave me a cautious look. "I hate church ladies."

And I'm sure he has a ridiculous reason why that comes with an eccentric story, "but..."

He threw his head back and sighed. "Where are the boxes?"

"Really?" I said with hope.

Leo nodded. "Yeah, I got you."

"Thank you so much." He playfully rolled his eyes. "I owe you."

"Yeah, you do."

There is a storage room in the cafeteria— a giant pantry, essentially. Audrey, Alison, and I would come in here and sneak cookies freshman year. It started as a dare, but we kept a key hidden and didn't stop coming back until the year was over.

I unlock the door and Leo goes in before me.

"Jesus. Why stop at the Catholics? You can feed all of New York." He gaped at the shelves and stacks of food.

"They only get ten boxes. Don't worry."

"We put them on this and wheel them out?" Leo asked, rolling the utility cart.

"That'll work."

"Cool," He replied, watching me so he would know what to do. "Why'd you agree to do this with a flake?"

"I didn't know he'd flake. It was his idea. I'm not even in the club."

"This is for a club? I'm showing up for the yearbook picture."

"We should," I laughed.

"I'm counting it as volunteer work for myself too. It's going on my resume or something."

"Oh, great, your hour of philanthropy."

"Loading and unloading the boxes? Two hours of philanthropy."