A little while later, they stood at the point Jane had decided upon, thumbs out, hopeful faces on. By now cars had started to come past again, but none slowed down.

Jane sighed in disgust. 'At this point, it'd be faster to walk.'

Then she noticed that the man was leaning on her more and more heavily. 'I'm very sleepy,' he yawned, his eyelids and arm drooping.

Her eyes grew wide in alarm. 'Uh, dude, I'm gonna have to ask you to wake up now, please…!'

As she struggled to keep the man standing, let alone awake and with his thumb out, a black car rounded the turn and began its ascent up the hill, and unbeknownst to Jane, the driver of said car was her Algebra 2 teacher. Noticing not only her somewhat funny struggle to not be knocked into the road under the man's weight, but outstretched thumb, he slowed down, pulling over just behind them.

Jane noticed the car pull up, and, grabbing the tie on the man's suit, dragged him after her. 'Looks like we got a ride. C'mon!'

He groaned sickly.

The passenger window rolled down as Jane walked up to it. 'Hey, there. Really sorry to bother you, but-'

Then she saw who was at the wheel. 'Mr Jones?'

Alex Jones, maths and science teacher, eyed his student suspiciously. 'I thought hitchhiking was illegal.'

Jane blinked once. Twice. Then, 'Um, can you please give I and my friend a ride?'

He glanced at the man, who, at this point, was leaning up against the car, eyebrows furrowed in discomfort. 'What's the matter with him?' Mr Jones asked.

'He's… sick,' Jane continued, fibbing beautifully. 'And we need to get home so he can take his meds.'

'Oh. Okay.' Mr Jones was being his usual monotone, sarcastic self.

'Thank you so much, Mr Jones!' Jane said happily. 'I really owe you one.'

'Yeah, yeah…' he grumbled, but he said it with a hint of a smile in his voice.

She helped the man into the back seat, then scrambled in herself, putting her rucksack on the seat between them.

'You realize this is against school rules?' her teacher asked as she buckled the man's seatbelt for him. 'District, actually. A student getting into a teacher's car, you know…'

'I'm not telling,' Jane said. She glanced at the man, who was sound asleep. 'And I don't think he will, either.'

Jones stared at her in the rearview mirror for a few seconds, then pulled back onto the road. 'Going somewhere?'

'The bus stop. I think I can handle him from there.'

They went on down the road.

'Is he going to be okay?' Mr Jones asked, glancing in the rearview mirror again.

'He's, ah…' Jane looked over at her new friend, the wheels in her brain spinning rapidly. She was a great liar, though she absolutely hated this fact. Some people would find being able to wind a tale at the drop of a hat useful, but not Jae. She tried to be an honest kid. Sadly, it didn't always happen. 'He gets food poisoning really easily. Like, I mean, really easily. Touchy stomach, y'see.'

The maths teacher stared at her. He'd been around, and the way the man was acting didn't look like any kind of food poisoning he'd ever seen. No, what exactly the man looked like he had was… well, Jones couldn't really tell. 'Right.'

As they passed the flat complexes that were behind the convenience store at the end of the road, Jane sought to end what she felt was an awkward silence. 'So, Ms Schuster was telling me about your mock trial thing.'

'Yeah?'

'Well, I wanted to participate. Cos she said you were looking for actors to play witnesses, but I'm going to need a bit more information than that, cos I heard the words "fee" and "time-consuming"…'

'Yeah, okay, well, here's how it works…'

Jane smiled to herself. With Jones busy explaining the mock trial process to her, his mind wasn't on his other passenger, and that would keep both questions and awkwardness to a minimum. Perfect.

0-0

Another short one. Because it's 11.2o at night and I'm finishing up a history project, and since this is the only day I've had and will have on the computer for a while, I figure it's worth a few more minutes of sleep. Sadly. *sighs*

Just so you know, when it's typed "Jae", it isn't a type-o that I forgot the "n" in. "Jae" is a nickname for "Jane" (though "Jane" is so short already I don't know why you'd need a nickname for it XD) that she often calls herself. As you'll see later, close friends also call her by it.

Um, what else… think that's it… I found my wallet. Or rather, a girl who actually just happened to be in my drama class found it when she went to the same bus Twitchy and I had. She got there soon-ish after we'd left and caught the next bus after ours. She told me she thought the wallet looked familiar, then when she opened it and saw my ID she definitely picked it up, and gave it back the next day. The cash was gone, but it was only enough for about one bus ride, and everything else was still there, so I was really happy. I owe you one, Elena, I don't care what you say! 8D

Thank you so very, very much to my dear readers! I has some now! 8D Haha, I'm such a downer sometimes. I dunno. I have no idea what I'm going on about. Just ignore me, please. XD But still. Thank you guys. Even the shortest review makes my heart go KERBLAMMO with joy. XDDDDDDD