In Search of Tomorrow ✓

Twenty

"All right!" said Ms. Reeves once the entire class had arrived, "We're not going to do a lab today. If any of you read the syllabus, you would see that I'm actually announcing a project today."

Just what I need, I thought. A long-term project.

"You will be working with your lab partners to do a project on one of the following topics, which will be first-come, first-serve," continued our teacher, holding up a sheet of paper. "Go ahead and pick your topic, then spend the rest of class brainstorming."

Ashley glowered at me, then tossed her hair over her shoulder and went up to our teacher to look at the list. I stayed behind, knowing we would probably disagree on a topic and not wanting to antagonize her. When she came back, she said, "We're doing our project on the effects of ultraviolet light on microorganisms," she said, taking out her notebook.

"Okay."

"We're going to need to raise a bacteria culture."

"Okay."

Glaring at me, Ashley flipped open her notebook and said, "We're required to put the finished project on a trifold and present it in about a month."

"Whatever you say."

"I guess I'll be doing this project myself, won't I?" she asked coolly, beginning to write the title of our project down in her notebook. "You never do any work."

If she wanted to say one thing to anger me, that was it. "I do lots of work," I said. "I'm the one with a job."

"And the one with the failing grades," she said primly. "Yet somehow Cameron's your boyfriend. Not sure how you did that—maybe you blackmailed him."

I had to bite my lip, hard, to keep myself from saying what I truly wanted to say. Instead, I yanked my own notebook out of my backpack and opened it fiercely, saying between gritted teeth, "Let's just work on this project, okay?"

Ashley smiled cruelly, showing two rows of sparkling white teeth. "Whatever you say, Mrs. Maddox."

~*~*~

By the time I'd gotten home from picking up Maddie and Clare from their after-school care, I was exhausted. Biology had been stressful enough, and in art class afterwards Ms. Fuller had made everyone take a pop quiz on what we knew so far about To Kill a Mockingbird (I knew nothing).

When I broke the news to my sisters that I'd be dragging them along to Cameron's soccer game, I was met with mixed reactions.

"Yay!" squealed Maddie, hopping up from the kitchen table where she'd been coloring and beginning to dance around. "Cameron's going to win, isn't he?"

"I hope so," I said, smiling at her. My gaze, though, had shifted to Clare, who was crossing her arms and staring sullenly at the floor. I walked over to her and began smoothing down the long braid going down her back.

"You okay, Clare?" I asked.

She looked up at me, frowning. "I don't want to go," she said. "I'm sick of you pretending to be someone you're not."

I wanted to say something to calm her down, but all I could think was that she didn't understand. "I'm sorry, Clare," I said. "Maybe you don't get it. If you were my age, maybe you would. Go pick out something neon to wear—we're going to the game."

While my sisters picked out what to wear, with varying levels of excitement, I started in on pasta and chicken fingers for dinner. As I was cutting up apple slices to go with my sisters' meals, Maddie came downstairs wearing a bright pink t-shirt that came down to her knees and a lime green skirt.