Chasing Rainbows

Black Sheep

Midterms were killing me slowly but surely.

"Have you even slept this week?" Kade asked from across the cafe table.

We had A.P Lit together so we figured we would meet up before school and study. Olivia had already done one of her midterms last week and was skipping her first couple classes to catch up on some sleep. I might scream if I had to read another book written before 1600. Luckily we had one of those teachers that you could easily bullshit if you thoroughly read the first and last chapter, skim the rest, and look up the plot on Wikipedia.

I nodded. "Yeah, a couple hours last night. I just couldn't sleep."

He sighed a little dramatically. "Doesn't have anything to do with those pills, does it?"

Kade was the only one that had ever really shown any real concern about my study helpers. Piper and Olivia gave me shit about them and I gave Piper shit about pot and Olivia about alcohol, but it was always in a humorous way. Mark was very libertarian like the rest of his family so he had that 'live and let live'attitude, but I'm sure he'd step in if I started doing cocaine or something like that. But he also consumed a very worrying amount of energy drinks, too. On the other hand, Kade's first cousin had ended up getting addicted to heroin after he broke his ankle in basketball and ran out of painkillers so I was pretty sure I was going to follow the same path as his cousin. He was also the only one really with a position to point out our substance abuse problems since he really didn't do that much of anything.

"I wouldn't be able to sleep very well with midterms on my mind anyway," I shrugged it off.

As much as I appreciated his concern, it was also slightly annoying. It's not like I was doing them all the time. Just for big projects and during midterms and finals. And for AP Chemistry, which was sitting at a low A- right now. Luckily that class didn't drop the GPA based on plus or minuses.

"Just make sure you're staying hydrated and getting enough sleep an all that," he advised. "Some electrolytes wouldn't hurt either."

If I ever did anything like acid or shrooms, he'd be the man to babysit. He already had several times for Piper.

"Its Adderall, not ecstasy," I laughed.

"Just...be careful," he warned.

"Okay, dad."

~~~***~~~

"Oh, good! You're home!"

I was greeted by my mom, who was home uncharacteristically early.

"I am home," I responded, a little curious as to why she was home at 3 pm instead of the usual 7 pm or 8 pm. "So are you."

"I was thinking that we could order in," she said. "Your father should be home soon, maybe an hour."

God forbid we ever actually use our kitchen and cook or bake.

"Did someone die or something?" I asked.

Usually, I would be thrilled to get my parents for the entire night, but I had actually been counting on them not being here so that I could study for my AP Chem midterm that was tomorrow. My final midterm and then I could crash for the entire weekend. I wasn't feeling too hot about the AP Lit test I had taken this morning, but I had calculated it out and I could get a 60 and still keep an A in the class. I definitely got at least a low B and she was a super easy grader. Even though that might not help us pass the AP test at the end of the year, it helped my GPA and that was all I cared about at this point.

"Your dad had a lot of random cancellations and my law firm went out to celebrate some more wins, but I didn't feel like going out drinking with a bunch of 30-year-olds at the moment," she explained.