Prank War

Prank War [8]

    "Ariane Laker, please come to the office," a feminine voice through the intercom said.

    Was I in trouble again? I made my way to the office, and walked in. An administrator was sitting at her desk, and waved me over.

    "Ariane Laker?" she asked. Well no duh. I nodded.

    "I've talked to your former principal," the administrator started to say. Oh, this was definitely not going in a happy direction. My previous principal hated me. I'd been to her office so many times, it was practically my second home. "And we're concerned about your grades."

    I wasn't sure what to say, so I just went, "Oh."

    "We think that it's best for you to get a tutor."

    Oh no, I hated tutors. I've always gotten the annoying nerdy kids who try to help me. But come on, we all know I'm a hopeless case.

    Wait, nerdy kids ...

    "Who could the tutor be?" I had a feeling I already knew.

    "Caden Stewart," she replied, "He's our, I mean, one of our best students."

    Of course. I totally saw that coming.

    All I needed was him to pester me into doing my homework, which I'm sure he would find a way to.

    "Is there ... any uh, other option?" I asked.

    "It's almost the end of the year," she hesitated, "And the final exams are really important."

    "I can ... improve," I pleaded. No wait, what was I getting myself into?

    The administrator thought about it for a few seconds, "If you can pull your grade to a 'B' average two weeks before the finals, then you won't need a tutor." 

    "A .. 'B'?" my heart fell. Nooo! What about my beautiful 'F's?

    "I think it's best you get a tutor as soon as possible," she told me, looking at a sheet of paper. I had a feeling it had my grades on it.

    "No, I can do it," I said quickly, "A 'B'. Got it."

    I quickly walked away before she could change her mind. A 'B' ... Dang it. That meant I had to actually do my homework and ... study for tests. Oh the horror.

    I made my way down the hallway and into my room. Did I even take the homework the teachers handed out?

    I sighed. No, I didn't. Now I had to go to all my classes to get it. As I turned around to walk back out of my room, I bumped into someone.

    "Sorry," a familiar voice said. I looked and saw that it was Caden. Just my luck.

    "What do you need?" I asked him, holding the door so that it didn't swing around.

    "Your homework," he handed me two textbooks and a couple of packets, "You .. accidently forgot to take it."

    "Right," I gave him a small smile as I took it. God, that look like a lot of work. Then I suddenly had a hopeful idea, "Could you help me with this? You could put this on your college thingie or whatever. Helping a 'delinquent', remember?"

    Caden assessed me for a few seconds, "I'm not going to give you the answers."

    I groaned. There goes my hopeful bubble. Hmmm ... I wish I had some bubblegum. I turned around and walked to my bed. As I sat down, Caden closed the door behind him and turned on the lights.

    He sat down next to me as I looked through the packets, trying to see which one was going to take the least amount of work.

    "So tell me, why are you such a rebel? I know for a fact that you're smart. Aren't you even concerned about your future?"

    I let out a short, humorless laugh, "Don't worry. I've had that lecture hundreds of times. Literally."

    "So why?"

    I looked at him, and he stared back at me with his blue eyes. I hesitated. "It's a long story."

    "I have time."

    "Well I don't," I told him, turning my attention back to the homework I still had to do. I flipped through the pages without actually seeing the words. His eyes were still on me, and I was very conscious of it.

    "You're supposed to help me here. Not stare at me until I tell you about my personal life," I told him with a sigh, pushing the textbooks away.

    "I'm curious," he gave me a smile, "Tell me and I'll help you."

    I pondered about it for a few seconds, "Fine. Long story short; I was a huge nerd in elementary school. You know, did all my homework, got perfect test scores. Kinda like you. I took advanced classes on weekends and blah blah blah. But then my dad uh .. died in a car crash and my mom was never the same. She didn't care about me anymore, so I had to look after myself. I tried being perfect to please her. But that didn't work out, and ... things happened at school."

    I paused to take a breath, "I came home crying on the last day of sixth grade. My mom was on the phone, and I thought, you know, she could care about me just this once. But instead, she pushed me away, saying I was grounded for interrupting her. So I realized that there was no use in brains and .. yeah. That's it."

    A small tear rolled down my cheek. Oh crap, I was not going to cry. I quickly turned away from Caden and wiped it away.

    The ground and I had a staring competition for a few seconds. The ground won, and I was not happy about that.

    "Ari, I'm sorry," he said softly.

    "That rhymed," I stated randomly. I looked up - at him, and realized how close we were sitting.

    "Well, you know, brains do matter," he told me.

    "Of course you would say that. But being a rebel is fun," I shrugged.

     "I'm surprised you didn't run away from home or something," Caden said, and quickly added, "Don't get any ideas."

    I gave him a small smile, "I've tried to run away once in seventh grade. But before I could, my grandmother called. I was the one to pick up the phone, and uh, let's just say I didn't think twice; I told her that I was running away. We talked for about an hour, and she convinced me to stay."

    "Lucky phone call," he murmured. His blue eyes stared into mine for a few seconds, like he was going to make a life-death decision.

    I had no idea what he was thinking. I was about to ask but before I could ...

    He leaned in and kissed me.