Midnight Silpper

Chapter 6

I lost both of them.

Either way, I let most of Elaina's crap go over my head, but what really unsettled me was the fact that she would make casual homophobic remarks, as if that were cool. She was selfish to the bone and even made fun of the one girl who was autistic, when she wanted to try out for the cheerleading squad. Riley was right about Elaina. She wasn't nice.

Mostly, I let the mean crap she directed at me go for dad's sake, but sometimes I wondered if he even cared. He didn't seem to notice me, as he focused mostly on his new wife and the newly-wedded bliss that surrounded them. I took refuge in the only thing that I could. Numbers.

I found out that Elaina wasn't as smart as she claimed to be. She was paying people to give her answers to her homework, too lazy to do it herself. Her excuse was why should she do it, when there were people willing to do it for her? I didn't bother to point out that what she was doing was not right, but it would also mess her up later, when she wouldn't be able to pass all her exams. She soon joined the cheerleading squad, but as far as I knew, she wasn't nearly as good as Justine and Emma, who were co-captains.

She even tried to get me to do her math homework once. I laughed, thinking it was a joke and told her that if she was so gifted in math, then it should be a piece of cake. She simply fumed at me, before running to Robin. Dad wasn't home yet and Robin came up stairs with a sickly sweet smile on her face.

"Adrienne?" Robin asked, as she stepped inside my room. "Can we talk?"

I turned in my desk chair and faced her, a sense of dread overcoming me. "Sure, what's up?" I knew what this conversation was going to be about. Elaina complained to her mom whenever she could. I didn't see how this conversation was going to be any different.

"I think we should discuss Elaina's request for help with her math homework," Robin said, as she closed the door behind her and approached me. She was made up as usual, in a pair of tight, white skinny jeans showing off her toned, thin legs and a flowy, cream-colored top. She had on a set of pearl earrings and her hair was expertly blown out and done, cascading down her back like blonde waterfall. Probably just got done from another trip to the salon, no doubt. She reminded me of one of those real housewives on the show. Hell, she could probably audition and land the part.

I frowned. "You mean how she wanted me to do it all for her? That's called cheating," I pointed out. Request, my ass.

"Well, I think you misunderstand," Robin explained. Suddenly, the polite mask was beginning to crack, as if she was starting to morph into something ugly. The uncomfortable feeling began to edge across the back of my mind. "You see, Elaina simply needs some help and it was very rude of you to deny her that."

"Why?" I asked her, giving her a look. I didn't owe Elaina anything.

"Because you should always help those who are less fortunate," Robin explained self-righteously. "It's important to help those who need help," she said, with a tight smile. "Like you mentioned earlier, you're good at math and Elaina's homework should be no problem."

Was this woman serious? She was asking me to cheat for her daughter. I couldn't fathom any parent ever asking me to do something so dumb.

"You mentioned yourself, that she's good at math, too," I answered. I narrowed my gaze. "Or was that a lie? If she's so good at math, it should be easy for her, too."

I didn't bother to mention that it wasn't even that hard when Elaina had showed me her homework. I knew that she had somehow ended up in a remedial math course instead of advanced placement like Robin had bragged she would earlier because of her superior math skills. In fact, Elaina was supposedly failing. However, somehow I knew Robin would turn it around to persuade me to do her math homework for her.