you. | sean lew

chapter eighteen

march seven ; day twenty-one

sean's the first person to arrive at school, being it is 6:15. not even the janitors or any staff members have arrived.

the day has finally come for midterms, and sean has been up since four preparing for them.

he heads to the lunch tables and sets his things down. he mentally starts to name every single lesson he's learned since the beginning of the semester.

he continues doing that for the next hour, then all the zero period students start pouring in from all gates.

josh is the first of sean's friends to arrive and he joins him at the lunch table.

"how long have you been here?" josh questions as he grabs his study guide out of his backpack.

"6:15," sean yawns.

"i don't even think i was awake yet," josh replies sleepily. "so, are you ready for your calc test"

sean shakes his head and buries himself into his hoodie.

"i need a 92 on it to get a C in the class," he sighs.

"i think you can do it, i mean with viv tutoring you like everyday, it seems pretty likely," josh pats sean's back. "she's like freaking einstein."

"that's true, but i'm like the total opposite," sean groans.

julian joins the two and greets, "hey best friends! today's the day all my grades drop!"

josh looks up and gives a fake smile to jules.

"see, i knew there was nothing wrong between you guys!" sean cheers.

"why would there be something wrong between us?" josh responds nonchalantly.

"this guy is practically my soulmate," julian says, grabbing onto josh who's trying to mask his uncomfortableness.

"i don't know, viv said she noticed you guys seemed off while i was gone..like you weren't on good terms?" sean explains. "i thought she was probably overthinking it, which now i see she was."

"yeah..yeah, josh and i are as close as ever," julian assures.

the bell rings for zero period and the three head over to volleyball practice.

as they walk into the gym, julian nudges sean and points over to the bleachers where vivian sits.

sean walks over to the cheery vivian who seems abnormally happy to be at school so early.

"i got you breakfast! i knew you'd probably be hungry by now since you've been up since like three with all those texts you sent me," she hands him the takeout bag from the waffle house next to their school.

"thanks, viv, you're the best," sean kisses vivian's forehead and takes a seat next to her on the bleachers.

"i know," she laughs. "and don't stress too much during the test. you know everything, literally."

"i hope so," sean sighs, taking a bite out of the waffle.

the bell rings forty-five minutes later and the two part ways to go to class.

sean walks into his calculus period with extremely sweaty palms and one hand clutching onto their one allotted flashcard for the test.

the bell rings and the teacher allows the class to flip over their tests and begin. sean turns the paper around and carefully works on every problem, feeling confident on every single answer he bubbles in.

he finishes with time to spare and reviews all his answers twice, just to be extra sure.

even if he didn't get the grade he wanted, he still had a few more weeks to improve his grade and go onto senior year.

however, sean wanted to pass this particular test so he wouldn't need to follow through with james' deal. the longer it took him to improve his grade, the longer he needed to play out the deal.

class ends, and sean turns in his paper with a sigh of relief.

as sean is just about to turn the corner to go to his next class, he sees james enter his calculus classroom.

he finds it odd considering james didn't take calculus but brushes away the thought, being too preoccupied with worrying about his test results.

his calc teacher announced that she would put up the grades within the school day. that meant that sean would know by the next two hours if he needed to continue james' plan.

/

in the middle of their boring history lecture, sean's phone buzzes letting him know that his grades were updated. he quickly grabs it and hides it behind his backpack as he tries to find his grade.

"fuck," he mutters as he reads his score of 90 percent. "so close."

just as he says that, james passes by his seat on his way to grab a tissue from the front of the class.

sean quickly stuffs his phone in his pocket and returns his attention to the teacher.

the last bell rings, signaling the school day is over.

as sean starts to gather his things, he looks up to see james smirking.

"nine days," james says to sean. "don't forget!"

and with that, he walks out of the classroom.

***
a/n
this chapter is short but im double updating today so yeee + the next chapter is within the same day as this one