It All Started That Day

It was a hot and humid Tuesday afternoon, and Marsha Stein was heading home from cheerleading practice. She was walking near the school when Holland Marks, the school football player, shoves past her. She turns around and says something to him because she got upset that he didn't say excuse me, but he brushes her off and tells her to stop acting like an [expletive]. She proceeds to walk off and go home. She tells her older brother, Stephen, who is also on the football team, about this incident, but he brushes it off, saying that football players act this way all the time. She scoffs and proceeds to find someone who will hold this guy accountable.

The next day at school, Marsha walks in like it's a new day, and she decides that it is best that she just forget it happened to avoid causing trouble. While she is heading to Period 1, she sees her fireball player eyeing her by her locker as he turns away to laugh and gossip with his friends; at that instant, she slams her locker and proceeds toward him. When she catches up to him, she immediately grabs his shoulder and turns him around and slaps his books to the floor, and asks him how he feels now that he's been shoved. Just as he is about to react, Principal Mayweather approaches them and sends them both to his office (in disgust that this just happened).

Marsha is sitting in the waiting room, and the principal calls her in the student court has passed the verdict. He explains to her that Holland told her what happened and that his friends can corroborate his story, so he was let off the hook and that she is going to have to reprimanded for what she did. He tells her to go and sit in the waiting room until the verdict has been passed by the student court. Holland walks out of the other room with a smirk on his face, Marsha makes a face, and he blows a kiss. Marsha is later called back into the office and is told that she will be sent back to class and work off her punishment with three weeks of peer tutoring. Marsha reacts with a lightened mood because, to her, it sounded easy and painless, but then Principal Mayweather shows her who'll she'll be tutoring, and it immediately wipes all smiles off her face. Marsha immediately goes into a protest of why she has to be Holland's tutor. Principal Mayweather explains to her that this is the least she could do to knock his books out of his hand and that if she didn't take this form of punishment, he would pursue a harsher one. He then tells her to meet Holland outside of the lunchroom before 3 p.m. today. Marsha proceeds back to class to tell her squad the news.

Marsha walks up to the outside of the lunchroom in a sour mood. She did not want to tutor Holland in Algebra, but she also didn't want a harsher punishment, so she dealt with it. As she arrives, she can't find or see Holland, so she waits there. She ends up staying until 4 p.m. before Holland comes up with his football friends, Jacob and Zach. She immediately gets up and walks over to Holland, who greets her and eagerly gets ready for tutoring, but Marsha walks up and puts a halt to his happiness. She tells him that the time was 3 pm to 4 pm and that she is not spending her spare time with him since he was disrespectful and a jerk. She then leaves, and he tries to stop her, but she walks away. Later that night, as she gets out of the shower, she gets a call on the phone and doesn't know who it is, but she answers it anyway. It turns out to be Holland, who got her number from a friend and is calling for help studying for his algebra exam tomorrow. Marsha sternly states that she is not his pawn and can't request things like this when he wants and that since he missed the tutoring, he will suffer on his exam tomorrow and promptly hangs up.

The next day, Marsha gets to the tutoring location, and Holland is right where he should be. He seemed to have a new mindset and even brought Marsha lunch from In 'N Out. As she came to sit, Holland apologized for the trouble he was causing with the tutoring and asked if they could start on a new foot.