The Do-Over (Extra Credit series, Book 2)

Chapter 2: ANNIKA

The worst is to back down. Or fall down, God forbidding. All through class-since I first saw him behind me-I've been tense and unsettled. I just can't shake him. Or That awful Night. It haunts me.

I steel myself again and wait til the room is empty before approaching Marjorie. Calling a teacher by her first name--how American is that?

"Marjorie, I hate to ask, but is there any way to get out of this class? Anything else I can do instead?"

Marjorie buttons her coat as she regards me steadily. "Is it just because of Matt?"

I blush a little, embarrassingly, and search for the right words. Sometimes I reach for words and they come in several different languages. Then I have to pause and sort them out before I respond.

"Partly. We have a history. Obviously. But I didn't do what I was accused of doing."

Marjorie shakes her head. "I have no say in how these situations are handled. This is a pilot program and we're still trying it out. My job is to help you figure out what you're doing that got you here, not to address any specific incident."

I sigh. "So that's it? I'm stuck?" She seems nice. It's not her fault that my life here sucks. That's his fault.

She nods. "I'm afraid so. But think about what Matt wrote: I don't know if he really meant it but it wouldn't hurt for you two to acknowledge you have a problem and think back to what happened and why."

I'm already shaking my head. "I really don't want to talk about that."

"Maybe that's the problem, Annika." She pats me on the shoulder and we leave the room together.

I spend the rest of the day in classes, go for a run before dinner, then finish my summer internship application before turning to my reading for the night. I have nothing much else to do anyway and the time zones between New York and Tallinn mean that if I read til midnight I can call home and catch my family before they all leave for their day. Tonight I really want to hear their voices.

"Papa! Any fresh snow?" I slip happily back into Estonian when my father picks up his phone.

He chuckles. "Zaychik, it's as you see-" He turns on FaceTime and pans his phone around the view out our kitchen window. I hear muffled conversations around him and see that the trees in the park behind our house are all white, their branches sagging under the weight of the heavy powder.

"Are you skiing this weekend?" I like to picture them in all their daily routines. It makes them seem closer.

"Me and Maire, yes. Your mom and Lena, no. Lena has a date so they're staying home."

"A date? With a boy?" I squawk. My sister is only sixteen. I wasn't allowed to date until I was eighteen, and that was all of two months before I left for college last year.

"Yes, well...." He clears his throat.

"Well what? Why does she get different rules than I did? What's the principle here?" I press him.

"Let me pass you to your mother-"

"That's not a principle. Here they call that 'passing the buck,' but I don't know why." It's no use because my mom is already on the phone.

"Annika! How are you?" She is moving around as she shouts into the phone to be heard over the morning chaos.

"Good! But why is Lena dating already? It's not fair!"

"Situational ethics, dear-"

"Our situations weren't different!" I cut her off. My mom happens to be a professor of philosophy and I don't want to get her started.