“They only call your house if you have three unexcused absences. If this is your
first one, you won't get a call. After your third one, they will call. Usually, it
will be before 4.”
He glanced at her. She raised an eyebrow.
“If no one is home, they will just leave a message and you just delete it before
your parents listen to it.”
“Sixteenth time, eh?” Casey smirked and sat back in the booth.
“It is. So now I have a couple more days I can skip before my next phone call.”
William watched as Casey weighed the risk of sneaking back into school. Her
expression brightened, blue eyes gleaming.
“All right, how do we kill the next three and a half hours?”
“Well, I would say we could go walk around the mall but since that is pretty close
to the high school, half of the teachers go there for lunch. My friend Dave got
busted that way once.” William leaned forward. “So, we don't want to go there. A
movie maybe?”
“A movie,” Casey pondered for a moment. “What's playing?”
“I have no idea. We can get a paper and look at the show times,” William responded.
“Oh! Let's just go to the theater and see the movie that starts the soonest after
we arrive,” Casey told William. “We'll let fate decide what we see.”
“I am fine with that,” William agreed.
As they walked out, Casey turned to the counter and told Manny, “Thank you for the
delicious pancakes! They were the best ones I have ever had. I will be back!”
Manny replied with a gigantic smile, “Why thank you, dear. I look forward to seeing
you soon.”
William waved goodbye to the diner owner and headed to his car with Casey.