Chapter 36: Smitten.
Kate's POV:
Kate groaned as she got out of bed on Monday morning, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she went through her routine to get ready for school. She felt as though she hadn't even had a weekend since she'd spent almost all of it doing homework assignments and now she was headed back to school once more. Lily had been unwell all weekend and had shown no real sign on improvement the previous night so Kate didn't think she'd be coming to school that morning. As she walked quietly past her room and downstairs towards the kitchen Kate could hear her father yelling at someone over the phone from his room but knew from experience to stay well away from that.
Sure enough Lily was nowhere to be seen that morning and Silas ended up driving Kate to school alone, the car ride unusually quiet since her mother had also chosen to stay home and look after Lily. As they arrived at the school Kate began to scan the cars in the car park but to her disappointment she could see no sign of Humphrey's beautiful mustang. 'I hope he's just a bit late.' She thought to herself since she wasn't exactly early herself. She hadn't heard from him all weekend since they spoken via message on Friday night and had been looking forwards to seeing him again. Of course she was looking forwards to seeing her girls as well but there was something about Humphrey and she knew exactly what it was.
Kate thanked Silas as she got out of the car, heading towards the entrance where her friends were waiting for her and together they headed into the school towards their various lockers. When she arrived at homeroom a few minutes later Kate looked around as she entered but to her disappointment saw no sign of Humphrey, his seat next to her conspicuously empty. After going through both Science and Social Studies and having Humphrey still a no show Kate gave up and accepted the fact that he wasn't going to show up at school today. As soon as the bell rang for lunch she headed not for the cafeteria but the teacher's lounge to try and see Charlie since she was a little worried about Humphrey given that the last time she'd heard from him he'd been in the hospital.
"Hutch." Kate called out as she rounded the final corner and saw Hutch walking down the hallway, heading in the direction of the teacher's lounge. He turned around, waiting for her to catch up and falling into step next to her as they both headed for the teacher's lounge.
"Hey Kate. Why you headed this way?" He asked her as they walked together.
"Quite possibly the same reason as you. I want to see Ms. Imnriss." Kate said, almost having to crane her neck to look up at Hutch since he was even taller than Humphrey; stockier as well Kate noticed as she looked at him a bit.
"About Humphrey right? I heard he wasn't here today so I wanted to make sure he's okay." He said, his frown turning to a grin as he added, "Probably should've figured you'd be here as well. You're his girlfriend right?"
They'd arrived at the teacher's lounge at this point and Kate honestly had no idea how to reply, wanting to neither deny the statement since it was what she wanted nor admit her feelings on the matter, regardless of how good friends Humphrey and Hutch were. Luckily she was spared the trouble of thinking up an acceptable answer as the door opened before them and Ms. Imnriss stepped out, looking at the two of them in surprise. Kate breathed a silent prayer to the gods of convenient timing as she and Hutch greeted the teacher before them.
"What?" She asked them sharply, her expression turning sour as she took a sip from the mug of coffee in her hand.
Kate blinked in surprise at the frosty teacher and was sure that Hutch must've done the same. They both had spent quite a bit of time around Charlie and had never seen her like this before.
"I... We came to ask about Humphrey. Why isn't he here?" Kate eventually ventured, almost bracing herself as Charlie's irritated gaze swung onto her, growing even darker at the mention of Humphrey's name in a way that made Kate's spirits plummet.
"What's wrong? Is he okay?" Hutch added, upon seeing Charlie's reaction, a worried note audible in his tone.
"Last we heard he was in hospital." Kate added before immediately regretting it as she realised she'd interrupted Charlie as she'd been about to answer.
"Quiet! Both of you." Charlie finally said, now obviously pissed as if she hadn't been already. "He's fine but I've no idea where Humphrey is, he vanished this morning."
Kate let out an almost silent 'oh' as she realised why Charlie was acting so out of character.
"He did say he'd be back soon. That's all. Now scram." Charlie added in a somewhat bitter tone, very clearly ending the conversation as she turned to go back inside and left Kate and Hutch standing in the hallway in silence, both wondering the same thing, 'Where on Earth was Humphrey?'.
The next day.
Kate sighed morosely as she sat in Social Studies, half listening to the chatter of the others around her as she sat and pretended to read the assigned passages. They had a relief teacher today and she'd just told them to what to do before sitting down at the desk and ignoring the class, which was once again Humphrey-less. Charlie had told her and Hutch that Humphrey would be back soon but she'd seen neither hide nor hair of him all morning and was getting annoyed. If they were friends and there was nothing wrong with him then why didn't he tell her anything?
Kate's thoughts grew progressively worse throughout class before the bell announced the end of class and dragged her back to the present. She let out a sigh as she packed her things away, realizing that she was overreacting to something that likely had nothing to do with her because she missed spending time with Humphrey. 'He probably just didn't even think it was worth mentioning.' Kate thought to herself as she stood and headed out the door to go to English. It was a nice thought that she wanted to believe was true but it didn't stop darker ideas from coming to mind.
As if the day needed to get any worse than it already was, their teacher sprung a surprise essay on them in English, making Kate groan along with the others as they entered; although to be honest Kate probably could've seen it coming, given how her week had gone so far. She walked over to her seat, greeting Angel who was already in the seat next to hers, weakly returning her grin as she sat down and prepared herself.
"Hey Ange." She said as Mr. Sanposito walked around the room, handing out paper and the essay question page that held their instructions.
"Hey Kat. How was Social?" Angel replied, shaking her hair a bit as she spoke to reposition her pure white locks. Kate wouldn't really admit it but she was super jealous of Angel's hair, both the color and the fact that Angel had enough confidence to wear it that way. At least Kate hoped that was the reason she dyed it and not to overcompensate or seek attention.
"Meh, pretty rubbish." She muttered. She tried to play it off but her response causing Angel to shoot her a knowing look of concern as they both put their heads down to begin writing their essays with talking no longer allowed.
"He'll be back before you know it lovebird." Angel said in an almost inaudible whisper, just loud enough for Kate to hear and blush as she did her best to ignore her friend. She knew Ange was trying to cheer her up but she couldn't help frowning as she got down to work.
Lunchtime.
Kate and Angel were heading towards the cafeteria, chatting about their answers in the essay they'd just completed. The English classroom was close by and they were some of the first students to arrive, getting their food and heading towards their usual table. Kate was so distracted as she chatted with Angel that she didn't even notice that someone was already there, appearing asleep as he rested his head on the table.
A/N: Hey everyone. I decided I didn't like how this and the next two chapters flowed in their original form so I played around with them a bunch. Let me know what you think if you can please. Otherwise enjoy, they next couple chapters will be out soon.