Strings Attached

Chapter Four

We all have those secrets that we really do not feel like sharing, not because we do not trust people, but because they are too painful to be relived.

All I felt like doing in that moment was to rush home and cry until I fell asleep. I wanted to cry because my dad had been ignoring Brianna and me for the past five months. I wanted to cry because my mom did not deserve what he had done to her. I wanted to cry because we were alone and helpless and no one even tried to aid us. I wanted to cry because it all sucked so much, yet there were worse things. I wanted to cry because, deep inside, I knew that whatever had happened to Theodore had been way more painful than what had happened to me.

"Are you okay?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and saw Theodore looking at me with worry. I simply nodded, deciding not to talk because I knew that if I tried to, my voice would break, and Theodore would notice that I was definitely not okay.

***

"He can't be," I told Martha, my school counselor, as she gave me the news.

"Well, he is," she said, shrugging. "What can I say? He has taken some college classes, and they have really helped his average."

"I've taken college classes, too!" I exclaimed.

"He got only As on them," she said.

"Did he?" I sighed.

Theodore took my place as the salutatorian, and it really hurt because I had worked so hard to earn the title. It hurt to know that I could not even be number two at anything, let alone be number one. It was as though everything that I had ever worked for was going directly to the trash.

He had only spent two weeks at my school, and he was already beating me. He would probably become the valedictorian in no time. I knew I should have not cared, but I needed to send my transcript to Columbia, and I would no longer appear as the salutatorian.

"Don't worry," she said. "You still are the third place, and that's very good."

I lowered my face. "Not good enough for an Ivy League."

She patted me on the back. "You don't need to go to an Ivy League."

"But I do want to," I said. "It has always been my dream to be accepted in Columbia, and now Columbia will laugh at me for not being able to beat two kids."

"It's not about beating the rest. It's about showing how you can outstand without having to be the best at everything. We all have our ways to outstand, even if we do not outstand at every single thing."

"Well, Ivy Leagues want you to outstand at every single thing," I said.

"No," Martha said. "Ivy Leagues do not look for perfectionists. No school looks for perfection. What they look for is passion and determination, and those are two things that you have. You work so hard for what you believe in and what you want that you dedicate your whole being to make it happen. If a person like you does not get in, then I would seriously lose hope in them."

I smiled. "Thank you for always making me feel better. You are the best."

Martha smiled. "Just don't feel discouraged if you're not accepted. It'd be their loss."

***

As soon as I got to calculus class, Theodore smiled brightly at me and asked me to sit next to him.

I raised one of my eyebrows. "Since when do you and I talk at school?" I jokingly asked. "I thought you were the popular kind."

Theodore had spent these two weeks eating lunch with the dance team. He was popular among the boys in the basketball and soccer teams, too, so he basically was high school royalty. I was never part of any popular clique. In fact, I was never part of any clique at all, but Theodore did not seem to struggle making new friends.