Cupid (On Hold)

Chapter 3

For a moment Julie felt a surge of anger.  Mrs. Hennessy had used her.  She and Lily had overheard her conversation with the jerk.  The idea that he actually liked her was almost laughable.  The feeling definitely wasn't mutual.  However, if it would get Jason to leave her alone, it would have been worth it.

"I think it did Julie a world of good," Lily spoke up.  "I think she's finally getting a firm grasp on things."

"Finally?" Julie scoffed.

"I've been tutoring you since school started and you are just now getting a grasp of it."  Julie couldn't say anything.  Lily was right.

"No hard feeling, Julie?" Mrs. Hennessy asked.

"No," she replied.  "That jerk needed to be brought down a peg.  And for the record, I hate his guts."

"So noted."  The two girls went to gather their books.  Julie donning her shiny red bubble jacket as Lily slipped on her brown suede coat.  As they headed toward the door, Mrs. Hennessy asked to speak to Lily for a moment.

"I'll get the car and meet you out front," Julie told Lily as she disappeared out the door.  Lily nodded.

"Lily, I've been speaking with your other teachers.  They are very impressed with your grades.  You are in the top one percent grade point average for the entire school.  They also noted that you often go out of the way to help your classmates with their work.  As you have done with Julie.  She wouldn't pass if not for your tutoring."

Lily suddenly felt embarrassed.  "I know Julie wants to go to Yale or Harvard and needs a good grade in this class.  I'm just trying to help her.  She's the one putting the extra effort in to learn this stuff."

"But you are instrumental in that process.  I see it and so do your other teachers.  We are jointly working on a letter of recommendation for you for when you begin scholarship hunting.  We plan to send it up to the school board to get their signatures as well."

"Wow, thank you."

"Don't thank me.  You are the one who earned it."

Lily fought the urge to hug her instructor, but held back.  Instead she smiled and nodded.  "Thank you."

She was walking on cloud nine as she headed toward the front of the school to meet Julie.  Such a letter would go a long way toward earning a nice scholarship.  Who knows, maybe she could get her whole college degree covered.  She already had several schools approach her regarding her academic accomplishments.  Too many in fact.  Choosing a university to attend was going to be hard.

A cold blast of air hit her as she exited the front of the school.  The news said a big winter storm was going to hit with over a foot of snow and temperatures dropping down into the twenties.  Expected winds were supposed reduce visibility and make travel almost impossible.  She knew her mom was stocking up enough food and water for a week.

"Great, just in time for the weekend. 

She was expecting Julie to be waiting or at least show up in a minute or two.  After nearly five minutes, she pulled out her cell phone and called her.  She hoped she hadn't run into Jason.

"Hi there, this is Julie...," Lily recognized Julie's voicemail greeting. 

"Julie, Lily.  Hurry up.  I'm freezing!"  She hoped the message would get her to hurry up. 

 She saw a few cars and trucks pull out of the student parking lot.  She waited another five minutes then began to walk toward the parking lot to see what was taking so long.

The Porsche was still where they had parked it earlier in the day.  The adjacent parking spaces were empty.  There were no signs of Julie.  Where was she?