Undateable

Thirty

Kaia's POV - 57 days remaining

Cade sits next to me in history class and he looks upset, for the first time. I feel bad that I couldn't really do anything to cheer him up when I can't help but think what everyone has been telling me about him. It's hard to be supportive to him when everyone else's voice tells me he is not a good person. When he enters the class, I smiled at him but he didn't seem to believe my smile is genuine. He takes a seat beside me and avoids all eye contact. I can't help but think our relationship is deteriorating. It probably is.

We're two people who never really dated before so we don't know how to be in one. Mr Thomas walks in class with a stack of papers and I immediately knew what they were. They are our history papers. My jump in my seat, my heart racing and my stomach churning at the sight of them. I can't believe the results are back already. I start to calm myself down, with words of encouragement. I can't handle seeing another shit mark again. All that tutoring with Mitch has to be paid off somehow and I even did a group assessment with Vi, who constantly checked that my grammar and spelling is correct.

"Calm down Kaia," Kieran mutters, without even looking at me. Kieran eyes the stack of papers. Kieran knows that every time any results are released, I have a mini heart attack. I get so anxious and worried. I usually don't care about my assessment once I submit them, but I get terrified once I know the results are released.

"I can't," I whisper over Cade to Kieran.

Cade frowns. He looks at Kieran, "What's wrong?" he asks him.

"Results are released," Kieran says, leaning his head back on the table.

"We'll be fine Kaia – I'm sure of it," Vi says confidently.

I nod. If Vi is confident then so should I. "I brought back the marks for your history assignments, but I'll hand them out at the end of the class," he says. What? No! Abruptly, everyone's eyes are on me. "Is there a problem, Miss Mercer?" Mr Thomas asks.

It then dawns on me I screamed out no. I awkwardly laugh, "I..." I pause, not sure what to say.

"Sir, in the best interest of Kaia's sanity, we should see the marks now before she faints," Kieran says out loud.

"Oh, very well. That shouldn't be a problem," Mr Thomas says. He begins handing out our assignments and each name he calls, my heart skips a beat.

"Oh, I can't handle this anymore. I think I'm dying. Kieran, sedate me," I say exaggeratedly, holding out my arm to him.

"Stop freaking out," Kieran mutters.

"I can't – I hate results," I say. Mr Thomas announces Vi and my name and I immediately jump up from my seat. "Present!" I say, a bit too loudly.

I capture nearly half the room's attention, including Vivian who scoffs. Mr Thomas frowns but hands out our paper. I take it but not looking at the grade. I place it on Vi's table.

"I can't look," I say, covering my eyes. My heart racing even faster.

I hear Vi flipping the paper over, "We did good," Vi says.

"Good?" I repeat. "That means we did terrible, didn't we?" I ask, finally looking at her. Vi has our paper held in front of her face, showing me, the grade mark written in red and circled.

"We got an A plus," Vi says excitedly, as she peaks over the paper.

I sit down on my seat, sighing with relief. "Oh, that scared me," I say, having my head lean on the table. All energy is gone from all the freaking out I did in the span of two minutes. Cade and Kieran's name is called out and I lifted my head immediately. Cade made an unwanted deal with me that if he gets an A in all his classes, I would have to fire Mitch. I don't think I'm in the position to fire Mitch when I was forced to be tutored by the teachers. So, jokes on Cade.