M I S T Y
For the love of God!
Rand, did you just have to copy my answers?
I hate cheaters.
Rand was being such a snob during the physics final, which I aced, and unfortunately helped Rand ace as well. She was peeking at every single one of my answers that I filled in and copied all of them down, from A to B to C to D (and sometimes, to E).
What was even more annoying was that when I covered my answers, she stomped my foot. Girl...ow, that hurt.
So even with Rand bothering me during the big test, I still felt like I aced it.
And then I had art class in the afternoon. Not that there were finals for art.
So in terms of my exams, that's one down, three more to go.
One more for Spanish, another for history, and another for calc. For language arts I had nothing other than a final essay, which I'd already done.
Then I could just chill my whole winter break. (Chill, get it?)
OK, I'm not that funny.
But who cares? I was more happy than not. Which was a plus! Yay!
The last two days of school for the year were basically just party days.
We had a potluck in physics class, and I brought chocolate pudding. The table was piled with food after realizing everyone brought stuff. However, right before the potluck, we got our exams back.
The teacher told us to pick up our scantrons at the front of the classroom.
I found mine with a smiley face and 70/70 printed on it. Full score. Yay!! But that meant Rand got a full score too - but when I glanced at her, she surprisingly didn't seem very happy. Maybe even a little confused.
After everyone grabbed theirs Mrs. Strauss said, "So there were two versions of this test. I don't know if you noticed, but there's a tiny A or a tiny B on the top of your test and your scantron. The answers for both of them were different, with the order questions mixed up. I handed it out so that the students next to each other had different tests - in case anyone cheated. Which is why one of you copied all the wrong answers for your own test and got a zero."
I couldn't believe it! That meant that Rand got a zero from cheating off of me.
I looked over at Rand. She was looking down. In shame, I suppose.
"Who?" asked Edward.
"I won't name names," said Mrs. Strauss. "But whoever did it knows who they are."
I looked down at my 100%, which felt very nice. Then trying to contrast it to Rand's big fat zero did actually make me feel bad for her, but she did kind of get what she deserved.
I found Rand glaring at me from across the classroom. She pulled a face at me, and the words were written all over her face saying, This isn't over. Like she would pay me back for it or something.
But how was it even my fault?
I ignored Rand's stink eye the rest of the period. She was giving me one of those creepy 'hairy eyeball' looks. One of those looks that could kill.
And then I saw that Rick actually managed to squeeze by with a 53/70, which wasn't that bad for him at all. That was enough to allow him to pass. That relieved me. At least I didn't fail him as a tutor.
Either way, I did stuff myself with lots of junk food after that.
Nom nom nom.
~~~
After school when I was walking with Rick through the hall Mrs. Strauss pulled us aside. "Hey, we need to talk."
Uh-oh. "Did I do something?" I asked.
"One of you did," she answered. She held up our two identical physics study guides. "Explanation, please? I told you explicitly this study guide is individual work."
"That. Right," I said slowly. "We, uh..." I trailed off.
"It's a funny story actually," said Rick.
"Well I'd like to hear it. Or both of you guys would get zeroes."
Shoot. "We worked on it together," I fibbed.
"Well this work looks more like yours than Rick's," Mrs. Strauss said.
"Actually, it is Misty's," said Rick. "I copied it. I took her study guide answers and copied them."
"Really," said Mrs. Strauss.
"Yeah. Sorry. It isn't Misty's fault," said Rick.
I couldn't believe it.
"OK, well I'm glad to hear the truth, but you'll have to get a zero on this one," said the teacher. "But you can still pass if you ace your final."
"Got it," replied Rick.
"What'd you do that for?" I asked Rick once we were dismissed from Mrs. Strauss and were out of earshot.
He shrugged. "I couldn't let Miss oh-so-perfect tarnish her grade."
"So what'll you do when you fail?"
"I'll work my ass off for the class."
"Wow. Improvement," I nodded.
So my relationship with Rick did seem to be on the right track right then and there. But for some reason, it wasn't. It actually wasn't "picture perfect" like couples in romance movies.
The next day, I found Rick at his locker after grabbing my notebook and binder from my locker.
"Hi Rick," I said.
"Hey," he said, pulling out his books. Boy, his locker was messy, with crumpled papers sticking out everywhere and school supplies scattered around.
"Your locker's messy," I pointed out.
"Like I care." Whoa.
"OK..."
He moved away from me. "I don't care about having a messy locker, so thanks for having that been pointed out, you neat freak."
"I'm sorry, I..."
"Yeah, you're always sorry. Whatever." He sounded annoyed, his voice icy hard. Then he walked off, leaving me there stunned in a bad way. I didn't understand at all why he was the way he was. Did I do something?
I wrote him a note in class, asking, Are you mad at me?
He wrote back, No.
That was good. But he was still acting cold around me.
The following days, he was acting pretty indifferent, and only slightly acknowledged me. He was still being nice to me, but for instance, one morning, he hardly looked at me in class. Then, he would just walk past me at my locker without stopping to talk to me. And he started acting like he was not into me anymore. It actually kind of hurt. And I was scared he was no longer interested in me, and that he'd dump me for another girl. I was starting to grow extremely worried.
I went up to him at tutorial time a few days later to ask him about it. He was shoving his books from his locker into his backpack. I sort of really needed an answer, and I intended to figure out what was going on.
"Hey Rick," I said to him. "Are you OK? You're not really yourself around me anymore. You're acting differently. Something or someone is bothering you. Is something the matter?"
He dropped his planner and binder into his bag. "No."
"Oh, really? Because you're acting really weird."
"No I'm not."
"Are too."
"Am not. Stop grilling me about it."
Well, ouch. "But I'm your girlfriend, and..."
"Misty, close your trap." Rick banged his locker shut. Banged, as in banged. "I don't need you being nosy about my life every hell of a minute. It is not your business. You think you can help everyone fight their battles but you can't. You can't solve everyone's problems for them. So stop asking."
What the hell?
His words put me in a bad mood the rest of the day. I could not believe he snapped at me like that. I just caved in and left.
I told Sandy about it. "He just snapped at me for no reason. I asked him what was going on, and he got mad!"
"He's probably having a mood swing. But he shouldn't be taking it out on you either way."
"I know! And I want him to come talk to me about it but he won't. I don't get it."
"Maybe just take some time from him, and he'll miss you and come back to you. I think he just doesn't want you to know."
"But he's my boyfriend, and I should know. I don't want to seem like some snoopy girlfriend, but I care about him."
"Then stop trying to ask him about his life, and he'll eventually feel bad about doing that to you. Act like you don't care. I don't know what's wrong with Rick, but it's Rick, and I'm not surprised."
"I guess I shouldn't be either, then," I said.
I guess I was looking down, because when I got home, Max could tell I was feeling the blues.
Max was like, "'Sup? You look defeated. Did your day suck again?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It kind of does."
I snapped at him. "Can you butt out of my life? I don't need you fighting my battles for me. You think you can, but you can't. It's not your business, and you can't solve my problems for me. So get out of my life, please."
I don't know why I suddenly exploded, but I did.
Max shrugged. "OK, I was just asking." He walked away, muttering something under his breath. Something like "What's wrong with her." As if there was something wrong with me.
I angrily went to my room so I could jam music and try to lift my spirits. It did not work. Max was right, that I was in fact defeated. I was tired of everything. Exhausted, actually.
And I'd talked to Max the same way Rick did to me. I felt like a total debbie-downer.
I gave Rick the silent treatment the next few days to let him know that I was not happy with him. I did not want to go up to him. I wanted him to come to me and explain.
Eventually, he broke down to me at school.
"Misty, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. Things have just been shit for me lately and I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I really like you."
"It's OK," I said. "You're forgiven."
"It's just what I'm going through right now. I have problems with everything. I can't do this anymore. I can't take this. No one else in the world even understands."
"You can talk to me, you know," I said.
"I just can't stand life at home and school," admitted Rick. "Everything sucks for me. Life is hell."
"Yeah, I get that feeling. You're not alone."
"So are we cool?"
"Legit cool," I said. "We're cool."
"OK, good. I'm so sorry."
"I know. Stop apologizing now, and we're cool."
"Cool."
We were cool, and the situation was resolved.
~~~
I found a scrap of paper in my locker the next morning, which wrote:
Stay away from him.
My heart froze, cold slipping around it.
Him.
The word that could possibly contain a million meanings.
Him.
But I knew who it meant.
It meant him, my boyfriend.
Him, Rick.
I looked at the words, and they stared back at me. My fingers involuntarily hardened around the edges of the paper.
I gulped, then shoved it into my pocket and exhaled.
It didn't have or else in it. It didn't have any threat.
But those four words standing alone were deadly enough to me. I walked away from my locker, heart thudding.
"You looked like you'd just seen a ghost," said Kendall as she met up with me at the end of the hallway.
"I'm fine," I said.
I told Rick about the note and showed him during tutorial, when we were sitting on the floor of the hallway together behind room A201.
"Probably just Rand or some prankster," he said. "Don't worry about it." He put his hand on my back and rubbed me. "Did it scare you?"
"Yeah," I said, resting my hand on his thigh.
"Don't stay away from me," he said. "I don't want you to."
"Me neither," I said, feeling safe that I was with him.
He opened his arms and I lay against him. He gave me a sense of security. I wanted to be with him, him, and him only. That note I received telling me to stay away quickly turned to ashes in my mind.