Young Writers Society

"Thank you," she whispered, rubbing the last of the tears away as she finally got herself put together. "That's very kind."

She took a deep breath.

"I'll buy next time." She forced a small smile. If there was a next time. She wouldn't blame him if he wanted nothing to do with her after this. She brushed her fingertips across the hem of the shirt. It felt surreal that someone had actually stopped to help. That he actually cared. "And... thank you."

James pulled to a stop at a light, looking over at her. He could tell that she had been crying, but he didn't know if she wanted attention drawn to it, and he knew he'd caught her at a very vulnerable time.

He smiled back and nodded his head just a little.

"Hey, don't worry about it," he said. "You're welcome."

He paused, glancing at the light as it turned green. He quickly opened the compartment between the seats and pulled out some paper napkins. He didn't have tissues.

"Here," he said, handing them to her one-handedly as he pulled forward.

"Do you have any more classes today?" he asked gently.

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

That quote sent a strange shiver down Elias's spine, but he shook it off with a laugh when Nugget screeched on Carter's desk. The screech was so loud, Elias was sure she was going to lay an egg.

After Professor Lordy dismissed them all, Elias scooped Nugget in his arms and then walked out of the classroom with Carter. Of course, it was a big class, and there were some freshman-looking girls who passed and said something like, "Oh my gosh, is that a real chicken? Where'd you get it? You brought it to class? That's so funny. Can I take a selfie? Sure, you guys can be in it too!"

And that was the story to how Kayla, Brittany, and Stephanie were all in Carter's apartment with Elias and Nugget. And Carter, of course. Couldn't forget about him, even though Elias was the wingman.

"No no no, go left, go left, GO LEFT!" Elias yelled in front of the TV, leaning forward on the couch while turning the Mario Kart Wii controller. "Gaaah, I fell."

He sat back in defeat as the girls all beat him and he came in fourth place.

"You are so bad at this," Stephanie giggled, poking him. The other two girls somehow still beat him even though Nugget was cradled in their arms.

"Yeah, it's definitely 'cause I've never driven a car," he joked, but it oddly didn't feel like a lie.

Elias passed the remote over to Carter then slumped back on the couch. "Here, you drive this time."

"No." Jerica took the napkins gratefully and wiped at her dripping nose. "I mean, I don't know, but no. I've had enough of today." She sniffed and crossed her arms. "Do you?"

Carter took the remote with a grin and laughed, hopping in the space between all the girls on the couch, and Elias.

"Alright, now let's try rainbow road," he said.

"Bet," Kayla challenged him.

Carter met her eyes. "Bet." He repeated.

They would see who won this race, and now, pride was on the line.



James shook his head. "I just came from my last class for today. I have them all in a row in the morning," he said. "But it's nice because the rest of my day is free."

He took a turn, heading in the direction of Chick-fil-a.

"Oh--" he said, glancing over at her. "If you're hungry now, I just remembered. I think I have a protein bar or something in the glove box. To tide you over before we get there."

"I'm okay, thank you." Jerica smiled over at him. It was so thoughtful -- but she wasn't going to wither away over a few more miles. "What classes are you taking? Do they seem okay?"

"Well, so far I think I can say Lordshire's class is the most entertaining so far," James said with a little grin. "But, I have no idea what'll come of it after that class. We'll probably have some interesting discussions. The other class I took today was on Russian History in the 20th Century, and while it was mostly an introduction, it's already pretty interesting. Looks like there's a lot of reading required, which I don't mind, but it's definitely a content-heavy course. I have a few other history and English classes lined up... it's a lot of reading and writing. I don't know how much that interests you, but I don't want to talk your ear off."

He glanced back over at her before returning his eyes to the road.

"Do you have any classes you're looking forward to?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know," Jerica answered with a smile. History was almost Jerica's least favorite subject, though nothing would ever be worse than math. At least in history, there weren't numbers dancing and flipping around every which way every time she looked at that page. It still seemed awful, but he seemed happy enough about it.

Am I looking forward to any classes? -- that was quite the question, wasn't it? Dread settled in her stomach as she realized she might have already missed some classes. Syllabus day doesn't matter, whatever.

"Um, I mean, I'm Field Ecology, which sounds fun." She shrugged. "And I'm in a comparative anatomy class, which is going to be rough, but hopefully interesting. And, uh, Lordy's philosophy -- which, heh, should be interesting now that I've... done what I did. And I'm also in an ummmm English something or other with Morgan?"

James hummed and nodded as she started listing classes, and his eyebrows shot up at the last one.

"Professor Morrigan?" he asked, clarifying. "Sounds like we share another class, then."

"Oh, yeah, Morrigan," she muttered. "That's cool. Have you looked at the syllabus for that yet? I don't even know what we're in for."

Somehow, she was certain that he was going to enjoy it far more than she was, no matter what the answer was.

James nodded. "I did take a look at it. It looks pretty balanced between assignments and final papers..."

He trailed off as he saw a car pull out of a parking spot and stop in the middle of the road.

"Ooookay, where are you going?" he said quietly, to the car. He slowed as they drew near, and watched as the car quickly sputtered to a start and crossed two different lanes before making a sudden turn.

"Alright, then," he muttered.

"Sorry," he said, glancing back at Jerica, returning to driving as usual. "Morrigan's class looks like it shouldn't be too hard. He seems like a pretty relaxed teacher, at least from what I've heard from other students who've taken his class. I don't think his will be a class you really have to worry about."

He spotted the red and white sign up ahead on the right, and checked his blind spot before changing lanes.

"Do you know what you want?" he asked as he turned into the parking lot and started rolling into the drive-through. There was a small line, but they would be up next in a car or two.

A sudden pang of anxiety stabbed through Jerica when he asked what she wanted. She hated people buying her... well, anything. It felt like charity most of the time. And in cases like now where it was a simple meal -- even if it was a pity meal -- there was nothing simple about it.

She didn't know anything about him.

Could he even afford to be buying her food? And what was his budget if he could afford it? A full meal? Just an entree? Just a side? She'd be grateful for any food at all.

I should have just accepted the protein bar. She looked at the glovebox sorrowfully, chest tight. What if that had been his hint that he couldn't afford to buy much here? Could he even afford to buy anything?

She took a sip of the water, trying to think of what option might actually get her out of this mess. Could she claim she changed her mind and just wanted to eat the bar and go home? Would he be suspicious of her?


She didn't even know what he usually ordered. If she knew how he spent for himself maybe she'd have an idea for how he could spend for her. But no. Here she was. Alone. In a stranger's car. Yet another one of her wonderful decisions from the past twenty-four hours. She swallowed hard but forced a smile. "Uh, I don't know, what do you usually get?

"Depends how hungry I am," James said. There was one car ahead of them now, and it looked like they were just finishing up their order. He could tell that Jerica was nervous and probably didn't want to take advantage of his generosity. They were, after all, still essentially strangers, even if they had run into each other a few times.

He decided to make the assumption that Jerica wasn't going to be too picky. He'd seen what she packed onto her plate the night before, so he knew she had an appetite.

"How about..." he trailed off, watching the car ahead of them move forward. He pulled ahead and then lifted up a hand to her. "I've got this."

He rolled down the window.

"Hello," he greeted. "I'll have two classic chicken sandwich meals with large waffle fries, another two chicken sandwiches, and for the drinks, a water and a--" he paused, looking over to Jerica.

"What do you want to drink?"

"Coke?" She wasn't sure why she'd answered the question with a question. "Please?"

She was relieved that he'd ordered for them both. And, that he'd gotten lots of food. At that point, she'd take anything she could get. But she was excited to have enough to actually fill up. This was going to be the most glorious feast of her life, followed by a shower fit for the queen that she was, and then sweet, sweet sleep.

"And a coke," James said. "And I'll have two barbeque sauce packets and three chick-fil-a sauces."

He waited as the server repeated the order back to him, listing off everything they said. They didn't miss anything.

"Perfect, thank you," he said.

"My pleasure!" Came the voice from the speaker.

At that, James pulled forward and came to a stop behind the next car, reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet.

"I hope you don't mind that about all of that is going to go into your lap," he said as he fished for his card.