84. School Starts Again (Liona)
Liona took the piece of paper that Erik handed her and glanced at the address written down. It was located right around the park that she always met his siblings at and where she would pick up and drop them off at. But that confused her since she was unaware of a house being out in that area. It was a pretty underdeveloped area since the park service and marina on the reservoir owned most of the land in the area. The place was meant to feel like a getaway in the middle of the city, so it was strictly regulated for commercial use. If there was a residence in the area, it had to pre-date the change in land use policy some years ago.
"Wow, I didn't know there were any houses around the park area, where exactly is this place?" Liona didn't need to know, strictly speaking, but she was curious. All she had to do was input the address onto her nav unit and her car would take her there.
"It's directly across the street from the park I always have you drop me off at. If you look carefully, there's a small driveway hidden between a tall grove of cypress and pine trees. It's a trailer park, so there are many spaces and ours is number 17, so it's smack dab in the center of the park."
"Okay, then what time should I come over?" Liona asked as she glanced up at a group of her schoolmates getting their coffees on their way to school.
"My Mom typically serves dinner around five, but knowing her, she's going to want to ask you a lot of questions, so if you can, come over a little earlier. I should be done with school at two and done with work by four. I typically catch the last bus out of the station and can be home by four-thirty. If I'm home, then I can try to prevent my mom from being too harsh on you with her questions or statements."
"Okay, if that's the case, why don't I just pick you up after work today? Then we can go to your place together, and I won't have to make you worry about your mom cornering me. Although I'm pretty sure I can handle anything she wants to ask. At least if it's not about what I would like to do after graduation…" Liona attempted a laugh, but it sounded a little hollow to her ears.
"You don't have to answer anything that you don't want to, Lia. I'll scold my mom if she presses you too much. I don't exactly know what I'm going to do after graduation, either. I mean, all I know is that I will find a full-time job and maybe a part-time one too. She doesn't get to grill you about your life choices. It's none of her business what you do or don't do with your life. She's not you, and she's not your mom, at least not yet…" Erik barely mentioned that last bit under his breath.
This got Liona giggling. She felt like teasing him since he was blushing so cutely. "What? Already have plans of asking me to marry you? Should I address your mom as mother? Should I start addressing your sisters as my sisters too? What about your adorable baby brother? He's going to grow up with just one more sister, so by the time he can speak, I'll just be another big sis to him?"
Erik turned bright red. His whole face was flushed, along with his ears and neck. Before he could correct, refute, or say just about anything to counter her tease, two alarms went off. Liona presumed that his phone's alarm was telling him he needed to leave for school, and her phone alarm was also going off. She had set her alarm for school so that she didn't end up with a tardy on the first day of the last term of school.
"That's my warning to get to school. If I'm late on the first day back from break, I'll never hear the end of it from my family. So I'll swing by the restaurant and pick you up after work?" Liona didn't give Erik time to respond. She got up from the table and went over and placed a kiss on his cheek before jogging to her car.
Once she got to her school, Liona jogged to the high school building, thanking her lucky stars that the high school was the closest building to the student parking lot. Over the years, the layout of the buildings and the parking lots had only changed slightly. Now, more than ever, more students drove to school, so they had to expand the parking areas and make dedicated staff and accessibility parking near each school building.
Arriving at her class, Liona practically dove for her seat, and just in time too. The counter on her desk had hit one second before she got a tardy notice. She sighed in relief, only to realize, in horror, that she didn't have her school bag with her. She groaned and hit her head on her desk in frustration. She forgot it in her car and she wouldn't have time to go and get it until after class, and that would make her late for her next class.
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With only this morning's little mishap, Liona sighed in relief as the last bell rang. She was free to go and pick up Erik from work in a couple of hours. In the meantime, she was going to grab a table and an after school snack at his work and wait for him to get off work. After her day, she was craving a chocolate shake and seeing her mate was going to be just the recharge she needed.
"Liona, hold on for a moment." Her Aunt Emma requested, as she was heading for the door.
She turned to her aunt, wondering what she could possibly want when all she wanted to do was get the heck out of school and see her mate for a good recharge. "Yeah, Auntie?" She asked, trying to mask her annoyance.
"Are you feeling alright? You've been spacey all throughout class, and you even left your celebration early last night."
"I'm fine, Auntie. Just a bit tired today. I have my notes, so I'll be able to do the homework, so you don't have to worry about me failing. I know you gave me a generous grade on my report card, which got Mom and Dad off my back. I promise to do better in class to really earn that grade from now on."
"I didn't give you a special grade, Liona. You earned that grade all on your own. I'm not worried about you failing if you keep on the trajectory that you are on now. Keep up the hard work in the rest of your classes, and you'll pass just fine. You have plenty of time to turn your failing grades around if you keep up this momentum. Make sure to get plenty of sleep and if you don't feel well, take care of yourself. There's no shame in taking a 'me' day as long as you keep up with your schoolwork."
"Alright, Auntie. Can I go now? I'm meeting with a friend soon, and I don't want to be late…"
Liona would continue to refer to Erik as her friend so as to not arouse suspicion as long as possible. She didn't want her family to sniff out Erik all over her and start to ask questions. After her siblings pointed out Erik's scent all over her, she had used a pheromone absorption patch to help hide his scent. It wasn't specifically designed for that purpose, but it did the job she wanted it to. As a bonus, she could keep that scent to herself for longer than it naturally would stick around otherwise, by doing so. It was a clever invention of her grandfather, Lionel's when he had been a younger man.
"Alright. As long as you know, you can come to us if you are struggling, Liona. We all care about you and worry that you're trying to take on too much." With that, Liona was free to leave.
Heading for the fast food place, was going to be her next stop, but as she was leaving her class, she forgot to take into account that she hadn't seen her friends since her party. They were waiting for her out in the hall.
"There she is! We missed you before school! Where were you?!" Alli cried as she was glomped by her best friend.
"Obviously, she was late; otherwise we would have seen her…" Chloe rolled her eyes at their friend's theatrical dramatics.
Liona laughed as her friends both gave her hugs. She knew she owed them an explanation, and she had been a terrible friend, leaving them in the dark since her party.