» THREE

» SUMMER'S POV

We ran out of the restaurant, Hunter dragging me by the arm. "You can let go of me," I informed him matter-of-factly. "I can keep up with you. You're not that fast."

"Seriously, Summer, you have got to stop challenging me." He let go of my arm, sprinting away - leaving me in the dust.

"My house is the other way!" I called to him, and took off the opposite way.

"You could have told me!" He caught up to me in a couple of seconds. Okay, maybe he was faster than I thought. "I just wasted a good thirty seconds of my life."

"My b." I responded, putting all my concentration into running. He had to tire out sometime, right?

»»»

I was wrong. He made me tell him my address so he wouldn't get lost, and then took off. He beat me by ten minutes. When I got there, he was just chilling on my yard, lying flat on his stomach.

"You good?" I asked, panting.

"Um, I should probably be the one asking you that." He pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "So, you good?"

"Just peachy." I pulled out my keys, and inserted them into the lock. Hunter ran inside ahead of me and managed to find his way to the kitchen. He flung open the fridge.

"Hey, can I have some milk?" He asked, turning to face me.

"Go ahead." I nodded, dumping my bag onto the counter, knocking a bunch of papers over in the process. Typical. I swear I was the clumsiest person to ever walk this Earth. I bent over to pick them up, and when I stood back up to put them back in their place, Hunter had already chugged all of the milk straight out of the bottle.

"Hunter!" I exclaimed. "We don't have any more milk!"

"Yeah, I know. I drank it all." He told me, straight-faced. Honestly, he was going to frustrate me so much this summer. But it was definitely worth it. Hunter was really fun to be around.

"I need that for breakfast tomorrow." I rolled my eyes at his stupidity, making sure that he saw.

"Summer, I want you to know, your sass is not appreciated."

"Hunter, I want you to know, your ability to drink an entire gallon of milk is not appreciated."

"We can just go get another. No one has to know."

"And how might we do that?" I threw as much sass as I could into the question in an attempt to annoy him. It didn't work - he just ignored it.

"Walmart. We can bring your video camera, and then get kicked out. Kill two birds with one stone."

"How do you suggest getting there? Obviously, neither of us have a car. And there is absolutely no way that I'm running there. It's like eight miles."

"It's not that far."

"Hunter, I play tennis. We don't really need to run like five miles a day. I don't have that kind of endurance."

"Touché."

"I can call my friend Cara. She has a car and will probably drive us there - if we get her a cookie or something."

"Let's do it." He replied, pulling an apple out of the fridge and chomping down, tapping his foot impatiently.

I pulled out my phone and dialed her number, which I had memorized after our many years of friendship. It rang two times before she picked up. "What's up, loser?" She asked.

"I need a ride to Walmart."

"Wow, no 'hello'?" She quipped and I smiled.

"You did ask what's up, and called me a loser...so, you don't really deserve a hello." I answered.

"Dang, salty much? Anyway, what's in it for me?"

"A cookie?"

"Girl, you gotta do better than that. Get me a cake or something. I'm feeling chocolate right now." Cara requested in a lazy drawl.

"Done. By the way, Hunter McCall will be coming too." I added in, knowing that she would probably be really awkward if she wasn't clued in about his presence.

"Alright. Wait, Hunter? Why is he with you?"

"Thanks for the vote of faith, Cara."

"No problem."

"But actually, we were paired together for the Life Skills project that I told you about." I told her and glanced over to see Hunter splayed across the couch, eating out of a box of Cheez-its. "Hunter! Stop eating my food on the couch!" He rolled off of the couch and onto the floor, continuing to eat.

"Ooh, Summer, get some! I'll be over in like ten minutes. See ya." And with that, she hung up.

Hunter got up off the floor and looked to me. "So, is she coming?"

"Yeah. She'll be here in ten minutes." I informed him. "I'll go get the video camera. It's in my room." I headed over towards the stairs and bounded up them, with Hunter close behind me. He followed me straight into my room - and I winced when I saw my bright pink polka-dot bra strewn across the floor.

"Nice bra, Ramsey." Hunter smirked and picked it up, putting it on over his shirt. "Am I Summer yet?"

"Not even close," I joked, though my face was burning. "Get on my level."

"Nah, I think I'll just stay where I am. I don't want to move down like forty levels," He responded distractedly.

"Hunter."

"Hmm?" He looked up from his place by my desk, looking at the embarrassing pictures of me from when I was little.

"Please take off my bra."

"Why?" He whined, but then seemed to think better of it. "Actually, never mind. It's really uncomfortable."

"Now you know the struggle of being a girl." I opened a few drawers, looking for the camera. "But that's only part of it."

"There's more?"

"How dumb are you?" I asked, pulling open my last drawer, praying that the camera would be in it. Luckily, it was. "I found it! Let's leave." I was eager to get out of my room before he found anything else embarrassing that he could hold against me.

Hunter galloped down the stairs in front of me and jumped the last six steps to the bottom. "Hunter, do you have no chill?"

"Sure, whatever that means." He ran out the front door and flopped down onto the lawn to wait for Cara.

I sat down next to him as gracefully as I could (which was not very). I turned on the video camera. "Hi, I'm Summer Ramsey."

"And I'm Hunter McCall." Hunter chimed in, sticking his head into the shot - just as I expected.

"This is our Life Skills project."

"We're going to document every waking moment we spend together," Hunter took over the introduction. "That's dedication."

"Yep, that's us," I added in awkwardly. "Very dedicated to our work."

"Extremely," Hunter wriggled his eyebrows. "Anyway, this is our first video entry. We've created a bucket list for us to complete over the summer."

"And we're about to do one of them, which is-"

"Getting kicked out of Walmart!" Hunter cut me off giddily, like a little kid on their birthday. He grabbed the camera from me and faced it towards the sky, lying flat on his back. I joined him after a moment's hesitation. "Hey, Summer, doesn't that one look like an elephant holding a flower?"

"No, it looks like a cloud." I deadpanned and he glared at me.

"Use your imagination, Ramsey! Be-"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by a horn beeping repeatedly - which could only mean one thing: Cara had arrived. Hunter jumped up. "Shotgun!" He yelled, running over to the opposite side of the car and throwing open the door.

"But she's my best friend!" I argued, only to the sound of a door being slammed. The idiot had shut me out before I could lecture him on how I got dibs because I knew her longer than him.

I grumpily stomped over to the car and tossed the door to the backseat open with a deep scowl. Hunter pretended not to notice and went on recording. "This is Cara...?" He looked to her for affirmation and she nodded. "Also known as our fantabulous chaffeur."

"I try." Cara tossed her hair with a toothy grin. "Also, Summer, man up about-"

"But I'm not a man!" I pouted.

"Aren't you though?" Hunter put in, unhelpfully.

"You're the one who put on a bra!" I exclaimed.

"You have no proof."

"God, you guys are like an old married couple, I swear." Cara interrupted. "I'm turning on the radio." She pressed the button to drown out me and Hunter's incessant bickering.

Hunter immediately started singing along with Maroon 5. "I see her dancing in the street, sipping champagne on the beach, so expensive when she eats...cause she's so fancy! This summer's," He turned to wink at me. "Gonna hurt like a motherfu-OH SHOOT!" He changed the station, remembering just in time that he was still recording.

"Nice save." Cara remarked and he laughed while I looked on enviously. Why did they get to have fun up there while I'm all by myself in the back? Hunter was my friend and Cara was my friend. They were "friends" by association! They weren't supposed to get along this well. I crossed my arms and sunk down in my seat. This was probably going to be the longest ten minutes of my life.

Hunter let the camera run on the dashboard while he and Cara sang along to various songs. When the song got to "Waiting for Love" by Avicii, I broke and began to sing along. Hunter was attempting to dance in his seat, but it wasn't quite working out for him. His seat belt kept locking up.

"Do you ever wonder in the name 'Wall-E' derived from Walmart?" Hunter asked as we pulled into the store's humongous parking lot.

"No, and probably never would've if you didn't ask."

"Where did that idea even come from?" Cara questioned the bizarre fragment of thought.

"I don't really want to know, to be honest."

"Same," I agreed. "In only one day, I've come to realize that you, my friend, are very weird."

"OMG, Summer, we're friends? Yay!"

"Exhibit A," I muttered while Cara stifled her laughter.

"Wow, Ramsey. That was sly." Hunter switched back to calling me by my last name.

"Do you call me 'Ramsey' when you're salty or something?"

"You call me 'McCall' when you're salty." He accused and I opened my mouth to argue - but I knew he was right.

"You guys need to stop arguing and go piss of Walmart already. For real." Cara interjected.

"Okay, okay!" I got out of the car with Hunter, who had the video camera in hand.

"Don't forget my cake!" Cara yelled as I slammed the door.

"Why doesn't she just come with us?" Hunter asked.

"Cause she's stupid."

Hunter laughed, throwing his hands to the side as if he were powering the sliding doors. "Hey, Summer, did you know I have the force?"

I snickered. "Nerd."

"Oh, really, Summer?" He challenged. "That's funny, coming from you."

"Low blow, Hunter. Low blow."

He gave me an exaggerated wink. "If you know what I mean."

It took me a few seconds, but when I got it, I groaned. "Ew, Hunter! You're so nasty!"

"Thanks," He threw me a dazzling smile. "I try."

"So should we get the stuff first and then come back to get kicked out?"

"Yeah, probably. Wait, what did we even come here for again?" Hunter looked genuinely confused.

"Uh, do you not remember straight-up chugging all of my family's milk?"

"Oh..." He trailed off. "Yeah, I remember that. So, I'll get the cake, you get the milk and we'll meet near the cash registers, K?"

"Okay. See you in five." I walked down the aisles, going the opposite way of Hunter. Scanning the aisle listings for milk, I completely ran into a girl who looked a little older than me, carrying a little baby boy. "I'm so sorry!" I blurted.

"No, it's my fault. I totally blanked out and didn't see you there." She smiled and my brain made an [unexpected] connection.

"Hey, are you Fawn?" I remembered her from Flynn Chaste's video earlier that day.

"Yeah, how do you know me?" She looked surprised.

"We just got assigned our Life Skills project and Mr. Clyde showed us examples from past years. You were in a guy named Flynn's."

"Oh, I remember that," She smiled serenely. "Good times, good times."

"Who's this little guy?" I asked, motioning to the baby propped up on her hip.

"This is Ryder," She stated proudly. "He's ten months old."

"Are you the mother?" I questioned carefully, hoping it wasn't a touchy subject.

Fawn nodded - and I thought back to when Mr. Clyde had added in that someone had gotten pregnant because of the project.

"Who was your partner on the project?" I asked as casually as I possibly could.

"Gaige Turner." She answered with a slight grin on her face.

"Is he-"

"Yeah," Fawn knew what I was going to ask even before I could awkwardly stammer it out. "He's amazing."

"I met him earlier today at The Grub Shack when I was getting to know my partner for the project."

"Who's your partner?"

"Well, Mr. Clyde changed it so that there could only be same-sex partners."

"Let me guess," Fawn pretended to think. "That was because of me."

"Hate him." We both muttered at the same time.

"I can't believe we have to take that class for all of high school. It's so stupid." I complained.

"Forever retweet, girl. Forever retweet." Fawn grinned. "Maybe you could come hang out with-"

"SUMMER!" I heard Hunter's familiar voice bellow from halfway across the aisle. "I got the cake!" He came over, half-skipping, half-running. "Then I waited for you over by the registers for like ten minutes but you never came so I figured I'd just come and find you."

"Sorry. I-"

"Girl, you didn't even get the milk yet? Shame on you," Hunter snapped his fingers in a Z formation. "Disappointment."

"Oh dang," Fawn slid backwards. "You know it's about to get real when he snaps his fingers in a Z formation!"

"True!" Hunter nodded appreciatively. "By the way, who are you?"

"Fawn Brooklyn. You?"

"Hunter McCall."

"Ah, you're the supposedly hot junior that everyone kept talking about."

"Are you kidding?" Hunter looked bewildered.

"Funnily enough, no. People would not shut up."

"Well..." Hunter began, but I shut him down.

"It was nice talking to you, Fawn." I smiled. "Come on, Hunter. Let's go get the milk."

"No, boo, that's your job." Hunter stood next to Fawn. "I'm going to get some free samples from over in the food section."

"That's where the milk is, idiot." I took off in the direction of the grocery portion.

"Fine, okay. Be that way. Whoa, that rhymed! I should be a poet!" He fell into step next to me, throwing one last wave over his shoulder to Fawn.

"Definitely not."

"Ramsey, stop. You sassy words sting."

"Hunter, make like a tree and leave me alone."

"That was clever, but no. You're the one who didn't get the job done, so I have to stay here and make sure that you don't get distracted."

"You're a distraction."

"Okay, I'll be quiet." He pretended to zip his mouth closed, lock it, and throw away the key. I bet the silence won't last long.

My thoughts were proven once he began to hum approximately ten seconds after promising to be quiet.

"Hunter!" I hissed. "What's your definition of quiet?"

"Sorry, I forgot." He smiled abashedly.

"Do you have short-term memory or something?"

"Probably, yeah. Ace teases me about it all the time. I always forget to do everything." He blushed sheepishly.

"Hey, look, here's the milk. Run off and go get a sample real quick." I saved him from trying to cover that up - yes, I know. I'm such a good person.

Hunter ran over to the fruit section where he proceeded to take about half of the samples out of the box - when the sign clearly said "Please Take One". He's going to get us kicked out before we even actually try to.

"Summer, I got you some strawberries!" He scampered back over, fruit in hand. "You're welcome."

"Fun Fact: I don't like strawberries."

"Boo, you whore," Hunter quoted.

"Regina George?" I grinned as he shoved the strawberries into his mouth.

"That's me."

"Evil takes human form in you?" I grinned, quoting Mean Girls once again.

"Why, yes. Yes it does." He smirked at me.

"Okay, well, let's go pay for this stuff and then bring it to Cara. Any ideas for getting kicked out?"

"A few. What about you? Any master plans?"

"One. You're the inspiration." I grinned mischievously, daring him to ask what I was thinking of.

He didn't. "I'm your muse?" He batted his eyelashes. "Awe, Summer, I'm honored!"

"You should be." I said as we moved to stand in the line at register eight.

"Well, I am. So... stop trying to run my life."

"Calm down, Hunter. No need to be so uptight." I set the milk on the counter to be checked out and when I turned back to face him, he was on his phone. "Hunter?"

"Hmm? Oh. Yeah." He nodded absentmindedly. "Just to let you know, you're coming to a party with me tomorrow."

"I never agreed to this." I panicked, having never been to a party before (not counting birthday parties).

"I know," Hunter looked at me weirdly. "You don't have a choice."

"You always have a choice," I argued. "And my choice is no."

"No, it's yes."

"No, it's no."

"Was that a double negative?" He asked. "If so, that means you have to come because you cancelled out your no."

"It wasn't a double negative!" I snapped. "And you can't make me come!"

"Relax, it's not like you have to drink alcohol or anything. I mostly just drink Kool-Aid, to be honest."

"It's not that," I mumbled. "I-uh...it's just that I've never actually been to a party before."

"There's a first time for everything," Hunter shrugged. "Am I right, or am I right?"

"You're left." I answered, suppressing a grin.

"That'll be $15.91." The cashier interrupted, obviously silently judging us. I knew that look - though Hunter probably didn't, as he was still going about being his usual spastic self.

"Uh, did you bring money?" Hunter asked, biting his lip anxiously. "I left my wallet in the car, I think."

"I got you covered," I pulled out three five dollar bills, and dug further into my handbag to try to find change. "Uh, what happens if I don't have the 91 cents? Do you think you could let it slide just this once?"

"I'll give you a free pen," Hunter added in - as if that would help.

"I guess maybe just this once," The cashier, a middle-aged woman, looked at us strangely, almost scrutinizingly. "So how long have you two been together?"

"Um, what?" Hunter laughed nervously.

"How long have you two been an item?" The woman gave us a knowing gaze.

"Oh, no," I was the first to process what she actually said. "We just met today, actually."

"Well," She smiled. "Good luck with that, and have a nice evening!" She handed us our purchases, which were safely tucked away in a plastic bag.

"Thanks." Hunter nodded awkwardly and we set off to go give the cake and milk to Cara.

Once we got to the car, Cara had already seen us and pulled out a fork from her glove compartment. "Good thing I decided to bring my trusty fork. I'm about to straight-up eat this whole cake."

"Alright, well, we might need a quick getaway so wait by the entrance, okay?" I made sure she had heard and then Hunter and I retraced our steps to go rain on Walmart's parade.

"So, what was your idea?" Hunter asked as we entered the building for the second time that day.

"You're going to try on bras in the middle of the store." I answered, craning my neck in order to see his reaction.

"Okay," He approved my proposal without missing a beat. "Lead the way, Ramsey. This shit is about to go down for real."

a/n: *cues GDFR*