He had gone to last hour prepared so that when the final bell rang, he could theoretically go straight to the bus without stopping by his locker.

It was 2:25. He had to find Patel within 11 minutes. At 2:40 the

bus

would leave. Penn figured he could make it to the bus within four minutes, if he ran. This also depended on where Patel happened to be by the time Penn spotted him.

Penn had never spoken to Patel after school. In fact he had no memory of seeing him during that small sliver of time between the final bell and getting on the bus. Probably because Penn usually took the same route. From last hour with Ms. Monica in the East Wing he walked non ceremoniously to the west wing. Packed his bag with all the things he needed to bring back home. Lunch pail, any textbooks required for that day's

homework

, the calculator if there was any math homework. After he gathered everything he would shut the locker and head straight to the bus. He'd always be one of the first to arrive.

Along that route Penn had never run into Patel. In his imagination, this was because Patel was hanging out with some of the cool nerdy kids in the north wing, far from Penn's route. The imagery was usually so vivid in Penn's mind. But with the clock ticking, Penn actually having to locate Patel, the vision seemed blurry. Penn wasn't certain that Patel would be in the north wing. And it was so far from his class. Far from everything. So instead Penn decided he would make his way to the North Wing by progressively searching from where he was.

Ms. Monica's class was in the middle of the East Wing. So first he looked both up and down the wing to see if he could spot Patel in either directions. After verifying that Patel wasn't in his direct vicinity, Penn speed walked towards the edge of the East Wing, dodging both individuals and globs of kids. There was a group of four artsy girls. The shortest one amongst them loudly exclaiming "MAN! I can't believe the weekend's here!" Her lackeys rejoiced in confirmation. The energy rubbed off on Penn. He felt a second-hand effect of the

weekend

crowd already. He would never usually zip past people the way he was doing now. Usually he would avoid people, but not in this determined manner. Rather an avoidant one.

And if he were to find Patel before Penn had to leave for the bus, then he might be part of the weekend crowd in earnest. Go to a party. See what the cool kids did on Friday and Saturday nights. Have something to say about what he had done that weekend. Even if nobody asked, he would still know what people were talking about. He would've seen it with his own eyes. Monday morning could be fun. He could participate. Penn just had to find Patel.

He had a plan he'd thought out roughly. Ask Patel if he'd like to exchange numbers. Maybe even hang out before the party. Maybe that would be too assertive. Penn might instead ask, what Patel's plans were. Then depending on what Patel said, Penn might ask the next question or questions in a way that might get him invited. Because Penn was sure of one thing. He wouldn't want to go to the party alone. Patel had said "everyone's invited". But to a party virgin like Penn, Patel was his ticket.

He passed through the narrowing rock walls that diliniated the edge of the east wing from the rest of the east wing. It was darker there. More ambient lighting. The tiles on the floor were also darker. And because most of the kids had already cleared out of the area, it was quieter too.

There he saw Shelly McCormick. Only she wasn't standing tall and proud like usual. She was hunched over. Hand covering part of her face.