"Riley...Riley...Riley Matthews!"
Riley jumped, sleepily lifting her head and slowly gaining remembrance of her surroundings. She felt her eyes pop out of their sockets as she looked the substitute history teacher in the eyes, realizing she had fallen asleep in the middle of class. Again.
"Riley Matthews, I don't know what to do with you.." The substitute teacher said, sighing as she put her hands on her hips. "This is the second time you've fallen asleep in this class, Riley, is there something wrong with you? Do you do this when your father is teaching, too?"
Riley diverted her eyes towards her shoes, feeling her face begin to burn as the entire class had their attention on her. She shamefully shook her head.
"Well, if you really want to sleep that bad, you can sleep in detention. You have permission to take yourself a nice, 1 hour nap with me after class is over." She gave Riley one last exasperated glance as she turned to the whiteboard, restarting her discussion on the Revolution of 1848.
Riley's head collapsed into her hands once the teacher turned around. Gazing at the problems scribbled on the chalkboard, she gave half of her attention to her teacher and half of her attention to keeping herself from relapsing into unconsciousness. She had never been so tired before in school, as she was used to being alert and perky, answering questions and exchanging grins with Maya.
However, since Maya had been suspended for a couple days after a scuffle in the hallways, she had no one to keep her awake. Or maybe she had let her guard down a little too much since her father had the day off.
This drowsiness, however, didn't feel like something that could be cured with a nap. Riley had felt light-headed all day, while simultaneously feeling like someone had tied dumbbells around her ankles and shoulders. Her throat had begun to feel scratchy and sore in the middle of the morning periods, and she had awoken feeling stuffy. And every so often, she would randomly have-
'Yep, here they go again,' Riley thought as cold chills fled up her spine and penetrated the deepest layers of her skin, causing her to uncontrollably shiver like a deranged Chihuahua. She drew her arms closer to her body, clinging to the remainder of body heat she still possessed.
Suddenly, she felt something being laid on her shoulders. Startled, she turned around to see Lucas spreading his jacket on her. He smiled as Riley turned and looked at him.
'Thank you,' Riley mouthed to Lucas, smiling and pulling the jacket over her shoulders.
After class, Riley stayed seated, awaiting the hour of detention that was up next on the list of her hectic, bizarre day. She suddenly remembered Lucas's jacket was still spread across her shoulders as she watched him head for the hallways.
"Lucas!" Riley called, taking off his jacket and holding it out. "Here's your jacket."
Lucas smiled, waving it off. "That's alright, you can keep it for today. You'll be needing it more than me."
One hour went by fast, as Riley took her teacher's advice (while it wasmeant to be sarcastic) and dozed off now and then, even though it didn't give her a single ounce of strength in return.
Unfortunately, it was pouring bullets of rain in NYC, and Riley had no umbrella stored in her backpack. Staring outside at the rainy streets through the glass doors of the school, she was still shivering, her teeth clicking together as she pondered what to do. Cold rain did not sound inviting at the moment, as it would probably just force more goose bumps up onto her skin.
Suddenly, Riley realized that Lucas's jacket was tied around her waist. She ripped it off, remembering how he had said that she would need it more than he would as she stuck her arms into the jacket and flipped the hoodie over head. Boy, was he right!Riley thought to herself with a little smile.
The sky above was packed with black clouds, darkening the streets below. The only lights that broke through the caliginous surroundings were the white headlights of taxis and the red and green traffic lights that reflected in blurry streaks on the flooded roads. Riley dashed for the subway station, maneuvering around people and avoiding tidal waves of water as cars sped through puddles in the road.
Finally collapsing onto a seat on the subway, Riley laid her head back and wildly panted, trying to gather air into her lungs after her marathon through the city. Suddenly, she closed her mouth in embarrassment, realizing her teeth were still chattering and that everyone on the subway could their rapid clicks as her mouth was gaping open.
It didn't matter how tightly she wrapped her arms closer to her body, her shivers and chills were uncontainable. The confusing part was that the temperature was only 53 degrees today, which was very warm for New York City in mid-April, yet Riley felt like her body was chilled to a degrees of -32.
Riley shut her eyes and laid her head back again, hoping the chills would go away by themselves.
Achoo!
Riley broke the silence in the subway as she let out a loud sneeze. She sniffled, drawing in a breath as her nose began to tickle again.
Achoo! ACHOO!
Riley fell back into her seat after the final sneeze, beginning to feel even more drained than before. Running through the streets of New York with chills attacking her body probably wasn't the smartest idea, but it was all she was left with at the time.
