Lucas listened to her talk nonchalantly about how she kept herself entertained. In a way he understood what she meant with having a hundred things to look at or think about, although Lucas had to admit that he had never gone to people watching at the mall before. He was too much of an extrovert to sit still like that for such a long time, though. Or perhaps, not so much extroverted as slightly hyperactive. It was probably a good mix of the two.

“Only a little bit,” he answered her question about her sanity. He pulled his keys out from his pocket and hit the unlock button. A black SUV park a few spaced down lit up and honked in response.

“That one,” he added.

He came up to the car, which he had received as a present for his seventeenth birthday, and dropped his backpack in the backseat instead of on the passenger seat. He quickly scanned around the car and was relieved that it wasn’t a mess, mostly because his sports gear wasn’t littered all over the ground.

“Well,” he said, shutting the door and getting into the driver’s seat. “I can’t guarantee it won’t smell like boys, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t stinky.” He laughed and when Alice had gotten into the passenger seat, he revved the car and pulled out of his space.

For the first few minutes, Lucas tried to make small talk with her, but as they barely knew each other, try ran out of things to talk about rather quickly. Thankfully, Lucas didn’t live very far from the school, so they were pulling into his neighborhood by the time things fell quiet.

“So, what’s our plan?” he inquired as he turned down his street. “Are we gonna do some research and just make some kind of small presentation? I really don’t feel like conducting a poll.”

Just then, they pulled into his driveway and he cut the gas.

“Actually, let’s talk about this later. I can't think on an empty stomach.” He laughed and hopped out of the car, lead Alice in through the front door, and immediately walked into the kitchen after dropping his backpack by his shoes.

“Help yourself to anything,” he said from in front of the fridge. “With someone like me in this house, there’s a ton of food.”