Chapter Eleven:

Stuck In The Storm

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Is this ever going be over? Detention was definitely the worst. Ms. Wiggins, the 56-year-old woman who was our guardian during detention, fell asleep on the desk in front of her. Ever since her eyes fluttered shut i wondered if she was still breathing. That woman needed to either retire or go home and never come back. Same thing, really.

I had to endure Cameron throwing paper balls at the back of my head for the rest of the hour. It was torturous not being able to turn around and choke him to death. I had a feeling that would just get me detention again. That was the last thing I wanted. So, I glared at the chalk board in the front of the room and allowed the hundreds of paper balls bounce off the back of my head.

I fixed the glasses on my face, wishing I had my contacts in instead. These stupid glasses were making it hard for me to put my head down and come back up without a mark on my nose. Of course, I had the option to take them off but that would involve me possibly losing them to Cameron or a paper ball.

As soon as we were allowed out of the school, I made my way towards the student parking lot. Then it hit me, literally. Cameron hit me with yet another paper ball while he was walking to his truck. I didn't have a ride home and guess what? The clouds in the sky only proved that it would start snowing soon. Feeling defeated, I trudged over to Cameron's truck just as he was getting in. When his eyes landed on me he rolled down his window and rested his elbow on it. 

"As much as I don't want to," I jokingly lied, "I need a ride home." I faked an annoyed look and watched as he put his truck in drive. 

"Well, I guess I could give a pretty lady a ride home." He said with a sly grin. My cheeks heated up when he called me pretty and I smiled, running to the other side of his truck. I tugged on the door and got it open before I jumped into it. Cameron started driving down the road. 

I watched the sides of the road how snow was piled up along them, covering the ditches. There was still a good bit of snow on the ground but in empty corn fields you could see the remaining corn stalks sticking up from the snow. it looked like a lot of fun to just run and jump into. 

"What's the deal with you and basketball?" Cameron suddenly asked, bringing me out of my train of thought. His face was serious now and I could tell he really wanted to know. I just shrugged my shoulders, not wanting to tell him about Matt. Besides, it wasn't his business, right? 

"I just kind of... stopped." I lied. i would have never just stopped playing basketball. I lived that sport. Heck, it was all I ever did. When I had free time, I was outside shooting hoops in our paved driveway no matter what the weather was. Raining, I had a rain coat on. Snowing, I had boots and a warm coat on. I gave it up for my little brother, to spend time with him and because I just couldn't play when we were so low on money. 

Cameron stared at me for a long moment as if trying to place something. I bit my bottom lip and stared at the yellow line in the middle of the road. Snow was beginning to fall, and fast to. You almost couldn't see in front of you. Cameron finally decided to keep his eyes on the road and left the subject be for a while. Hopefully he wouldn't bring it back up for a while. 

I leaned forward a turned the radio on, Rebecca Black's "Friday" was playing. I thought this song already had its days? This song got so annoying. How could it still be playing on the radio? Oh yeah, it's Friday! That still doesn't matter. I reached forward again to change the station but Cameron smacked my hand. I winced and pulled it back, staring at him in shock. He was to busy singing along with the song to notice he left a red mark on my hand. 

"So, this is what you do in free time?" I laughed as he moved around in dramatic ways. I had a feeling he was pretending to like it just to make me laugh, but there was a little bit of doubt in that. I found myself laughing so hard at him that a few tears came out of my eyes and my stomach muscles were killing me. Cameron himself ended up laughing to. The song changed to something I didn't recognize and our laughs died down. 

"You're an amazing singer," I told Cameron sarcastically. He just bowed in his seat, "Why, thank you, ma lady." I giggled at his silliness and looked in front of us. Holy crap, you couldn't even see the road in front of us. Panic suddenly rose up in me.

"Uh, Cameron..." I sat back in my seat further. He glanced at me and a worried expression crossed his angelic features, "Yeah? What's wrong?" He asked. 

"Can we pull over or something? This is caring me. We could wreck!" I babbled. I didn't even realize what I was doing until I did it. I had unbuckled my seat belt and was scooting myself into the middle seat of his truck. I quickly buckled myself right back up and unconsciously put my back against his side. I couldn't help it; I cuddled next to anything possible when I was scared. 

When I touched Cameron, I felt his muscles tense. They slowly went back to normal and I was able to concentrate on how we were going to get out of this safely. Cameron pulled over onto a gravel pull-over area where he must've known was going to be there. I sat up against the seat and watched his as he pulled his phone out of pocket, dialing a local number. He tapped his fingers impatiently on his knee as he waited for the person on the other end to pick up the phone. His face brightened a slight bit when a voice rang through. I could hear mumbling as the other guy spoke. 

"Hey dad," Cameron began, "Can you come get us? I'm pulled over on the side of the road because I can't see the road." I looked out the window to see a few cars go by very slowly. It's a good thing that it's Friday or else there would be no school tomorrow. I have things to do, like my sports article in the school newspaper. That was very important to me.

"Yeah... OK. We'll be here." Cameron said after giving his dad directions to the place we were at. I would've never known where we at, I was horrible at directions. 

Cameron slipped his phone into his pocket and turned the heat off. I knew he was trying to get the truck warm because we'd have to turn it off soon. We'd run out of gas and/or get poisoned by the gas. I sighed heavily, feeling tired right now. It was a long day at school. 

I unbuckled my seat belt and scooted my butt towards the other seat so I could lay down. Cameron tensed up when I laid my head on his lap. I looked up at him with a ginormous grin on my face as he stared at me with no expression. 

"Now would be a good time to explain that I get loopy when I'm tired. And then I get grouchy. So watch out." I giggled as I made a makeshift gun with my fingers and pointed it at him. A smile broke out onto his face and I laughed. Suddenly, a hiccup escaped my mouth and I quickly placed my hand over it. I couldn't help but laugh even more, my whole body shaking with laughter. Cameron's booming laugh erupted after mine and I knew I wasn't going to stop laughing any time soon. This was to funny to me! I turned my head to the left so I was facing the steering wheel, my forehead touching it barely. Under my head was Cameron's knee. 

"You're comfy," I told Cameron as I yawned. He chuckled and ran a hand through my silky hair.
"Well, thanks. Your hair is soft." He replied in a low voice. I laughed and turned on my back so I was staring up at the ceiling of the truck, glancing at Cameron every other second. He reached for the keys to turn the truck off without breaking the gaze between our eyes. I felt my lips stretch in a smile and slowly fade when my eyes were becoming heavy. Cameron continued to play with my hair which only made me even more sleepier since that's what happened to me when someone played with my hair. He slowly became blurry as my eyes fluttered shut, never taking his eyes off mine. 

*

I woke up by the sound of a loud motor roaring by. My head was in the same position on Cameron's lap and he was softly snoring while sitting up. I felt a little guilty for making him sit up and sleep while I got to take up the rest of seat. A coat was blanketed over top of me as I flipped it off to reach for my phone in my pocket. We had only been asleep for 15 minutes. I looked at all my missed calls, all from my mother. Well, that's not good. I quickly sat up and dialed her number, knowing I was in for it. 

"Hello?" She answered frantically. 

"Uh...hey mom." I said hesitantly. I knew she was going to yell at me... I could prepare myself..

"Sophia?! Where are you? Are you OK?" Her voice was filled with worry as she rambled so many questions on. I bit my lip and waited for her to finish, peeking over at Cameron to make sure I didn't wake him up. 

"I'm fine, mom. Cameron and I got stuck in the snow storm so we pulled over and his dad is coming to get us to take us home; safely." I told her. Then I realized, I never told her about Cameron. Or that he was the friend I'd been hanging out with, or that he was a he.

"What? Who is Cameron? Where are you?" I could hear my dad in the background laughing along with Matt's adorable laugh. 

"Calm down. I'm tutoring him. He was giving me a ride home after-" I stopped myself before I went on saying I got detention. That was another story for another time, "school." I finished Cooley. I crossed my fingers in hopes she wouldn't ban him from my life since I didn't tell her about my friend being a guy.

"So that's the 'Cam' Matt hasn't stopped talking about? Well... As long as you get home safely. I don't care. I expect to meet this 'Cameron' the next time he's with you, understood?" Mom's voice was stern but I could tell that she wasn't to scared of me being with him. I had good judgment, which meant that I would never take a ride or invite someone to our house unless I knew them. 

"Yes ma'am." I replied with a light chuckle. I never called her ma'am but it seemed appropriate. Cameron moaned from beside me and I jumped, holding my hand to my heart. I said a quick 'goodbye' and 'love you' to her before hanging up and pushing the phone back into my pocket. 

Cameron rubbed his eyes and did a double take when he saw me out of the corner of his eye. I giggled at his shocked expression. 

"What? Did you expect to see a model sitting here?" I asked jokingly, crossing my arms loosely over my lap. Cameron just made a weird expression that meant he was still trying to wake up, "No, I didn't know if  you were really here." My heartbeat quickened as I tried to figure out what that meant, but was distracted when I saw a Ford Explorer pull up in front of us. Cameron became even more awake as he checked his pockets quickly for his phone. He pulled out and murmured the 'S' word under his breath. 

"I forgot about practise tonight. Coach Fawley is gonna kill me." He ran a hand over his face and groaned as he hastily shoved it back in his pocket. A man that looked an awfully lot like Cameron knocked on the window. Cameron didn't hesitate to roll the window down as greeted the man with a, "Hey Dad." I smiled at Cameron's dad when he waved at me. 

"Let's get going, kids. I still can't see the roads so we need to get back to the house quickly." He told Cameron and I. We grabbed all our things and hopped out into the snow before we both climbed into the backseat of the Ford Explorer. I didn't question it when Cameron hopped in beside me, though. 

Cam's dad got it the driver's seat, "I'm Dale, by the way. That's what you can call me." Dale said as he looked at me through the rear view mirror. I couldn't help but notice how much him and his son looked alike. Same brown eyes and everything. 

"I'm Sophia, nice to meet you." I replied with a genuine smile on my face. Dale sighed heavily as he started driving, "Looks like you'll be staying over tonight, Sophia." 

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