CHAPTER 2: AN EARLY REPORT CARD
“And so, the particle theory of matter comes to light and is the best, and really only, theory to use when determining the state of particles. What state of matter forms when it is cooled down to -237.8 °C?”
Matthew’s hand shot up. He sounded and looked like a geeky monkey as he started leaping in his seat. Bradley, a failing jock, who was sitting behind him, rapidly pulled his chair backwards.
THUD!
Matthew was sprawled on the floor, his arms under his legs, and his legs intertwined with the table. Everyone burst out laughing, and my giggles erupted as well. It was quite the sight to behold.
Matthew moaned and whispered in a raspy voice, “Bose-Einstein Condensate...”
“Wow, if Bradley had been knocked senseless like that, he wouldn’t have any brain cells left,” Alec, who was sitting beside me whispered.
“I don’t think he has any to begin with,” I played along.
“Excuse me, Miss Byers, care to tell us about your hilarious inside joke?” our Chemistry teacher said with a distasteful tone towards me.
“I think you were in on the joke too, Mr. Collington,” I blurted, pointing to Matthew, who was now rubbing his head, while Bradley’s face was turning purple from all his suppressed laughter.
The whole class started laughing again. Except for one.
Ethan Rayes!
He was clearly enjoying all this. He had a knowing smile on his face. When he caught me looking intently at him, I went back to doodling in my Science notebook, which held my course timetable. On the corner was a design I drew of a supermodel wearing a zebra-print flowing dress with a tight saffron sash, and matching saffron wedges. It was beautiful.
I opened to a new page. I glanced around the room, and scribbled all the boys’ names in a messy list. In total, I had about fifteen names. I started off with the basics. Eye colour, hair colour, height (I should start listening more in Math classes, I’m helpless with estimating), labels, lunch table, and life ambition. Then, I wrote a small blurb about each of them.
Alec almost peeked over my shoulder, but I flapped my arms around so he would leave me alone.
“Whatcha writing?” he said, smirking. “Love notes?”
I almost puked inside my mouth. “Ew, of course not! Maybe you should practice that form of writing,” I retorted.
“What are you getting at?”
“You like Alyce... A lot!” I sang.
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t!”
“Yes, you do!”
“No. I. Don't.”
“Yes. You. Do.”
By the time we finished it sounded just like the musical, only the lyrics were a bit tweaked. People stared at us, and started applauding quietly, while wearing ridiculous smiles.
“Wow, quite the singing voice,” someone said, as they brushed past me.
“It’s nicer than yours will ever be!” I chimed with a small laugh.
“Maybe you should give that up too, since, you know, popularity matters more than life,” he spoke again, and I froze. It was him. Ethan.
“Don’t get me mad. You know I’m not some Malibu Barbie,” I defended myself. There was more to me than that, right? Definitely.
“You’re right. You’re the Malibu Barbie. Of this school, that is,” he sneered.
“I, uh... But, no! What are you... just be... Ugh! You... I can’t stand you!” I whined, running away to my last period before lunch, my saviour. I held my head down low, and stared fixedly at my shoes, feeling my shoulders tense up. Alec followed me.
“Leave me alone!” I shouted.
“Mia. Be real, who cares what he thinks? He’s just another guy at this school.”
“Just... go. I have some Spanish to catch up on,” I lied, directing my eyes as far as possible away from him. I heard him walk away slowly. I rubbed my eyes and forced my feet to move, and almost bumped into the door leading to my worst subject, Math. The teacher, Mrs. Pinette, was a crow. She had a raspy voice, and was possibly the strictest Math teacher I ever had. She also never bothered to give me the grades I deserved. The rule was that if she saw ‘Written by Mia Byers’, it was automatically worth a C+.
I lowered my head, and walked in, gripping the textbook for dear life.
I would never forgive Ethan. He was my best friend in elementary, and my frienemy in middle school, and now I don’t know what he was.
I honestly didn’t know.
***
“Wow, Jesse, you’re whipped!” I bubbled, giggling lightly. Jesse was Alyce’s brother, and I’ve seen him a couple of times with her, always sharing a good laugh.
Jesse stood in front of me, Coca Cola dripping down his hair and sweater. Even after he bumped into a random person and spilled his soda all over himself, he was still gazing longingly at a bashful, short girl with side bangs.
“Hey, guys,” Alec said to us, but looked at Alyce. She was sitting right beside me. I scooted over, and he beamed, taking a seat between us.
Alyce looked up curiously, and her cheeks flared as she started picking at her vegetables. I looked at my plate, and sure enough, it was a replica of hers. That’s the price you pay for trying to be fit like a cheerleader. You can’t gain excessive weight.
“Hey, Alec. She’s getting tired of waiting for you,” I pointed out.
“How do you know?” he said with disbelief.
“I’m a popular girl... Hello! I know everything about girls and guys and relationships. I could even be a teacher for that subject!”
“Absolutely,” he said, rolling his eyes. “But I think you’d be pretty harsh if you had to mark the guys though.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know. Give me your Science notebook.”
My eyes widened, probably exceeding those of an owl.
“You didn’t have time to read it...”
“Oh, yes, I did,” he sang. “And I never knew you fancied Cody.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s taken, and no, I don’t!” I almost yelled.
“Don’t start the musical again,” Jenny, a pretty Asian girl groaned.
“Well, just thought I’d let you know. Don’t write anything more. You’ll be in a mess.”
I was infuriated at Alec. Why would he invade my personal entries? I despised the fact that I had no privacy in my life.
“I’m going to the washroom,” I announced. I wasn’t going to come back. After all, there was only ten minutes left, and coming back would mean enduring irritating taunts from my best friend. Sometimes I wondered why guys always teased any person around them for the fun of it.
I pushed myself away from the cream-coloured table, picked up my tray, and secured my backpack on my shoulders. People gave me weird looks, since no one was leaving so early. Lunch was like bliss.
After placing the tray back in its proper place, I started walking as briskly as I could. I kept my head low, as usual whenever I was embarrassed, and my pace quickened. Then I felt a harsh impact on my shoulder.
“Hey!” a voice screamed. “Watch were you’re- oh, it’s you Mia! Looking better than ever...”
I snapped my head up and threw the dirtiest look I could to my current boyfriend.
“Just leave me alone Rick. I don’t want to have anything to do with you,” I boomed.
“But, why Mia? I thought we were an item,” he whined, gesturing between me and him. Then an arrogant smirk danced on his face and I wanted just to slap it away with as much force I could muster.
“Like I told you, you’re a conceited, egotistical jerk. I am a less self-centered popular girl. People like me. People don’t like you. I’m only lying so that I gain popularity and so that you don’t seem half as bad and you can get on the football team,” I said through gritted teeth.
“You know I’m not that bad,” he said, advancing on me. I moved back a lot more.
“Yes, you are! Do you know how many times I’ve caught you red-handed with one of your Garbage Girls? That’s enough for me! And you’ve said such rude things!”
“I didn’t think you actually cared. After all, you have no emotions other than fake and fake, right?”
Tears were brimming at the corners of my eyes, and his platinum blonde hair mingled with the lockers in the hallway. “I never cared except for my rep... It’s the whole school population that cares!” I croaked, my voice hoarse.
“No one cares what you have to say. Reputations don’t exist. Don’t you understand? When people look at you, all they see is status. Nothing else. Nothing deep,” he remarked, and brushed away, his steps slowly fading away.
I ran as quickly as my heels allowed me. As I reached the girls’ bathroom, I barged open the door and was sent flying in.
I just stood there, moving about as much as Frosty the Snowman on a icy winter day.
Audrey and Stella were looking at me with knowing looks on their faces. Stella was halfway through reapplying liquid eyeliner. She looked pretty ticked off that she was interrupted during her important business.
“Hey, MiMi. What happened, girl?” Audrey crooned.
“Nothing... just a little incident. I’m perfectly fine. Don’t worry,” I said, surprised she actually cared.
“Oh, no, I was talking about your mascara. It’s, like, smudged all over your face!”
Inside, my heart ached. So she really didn’t care, after all. Figures.
I threw my backpack over the counter and leaned over the sink to get a better view of my state. My pin-straight red-black dyed hair was dishevelled and all over the place. My hands instinctively flew up to my eyes’ lower lids, and I used my index finger to wipe off the black smears. I quickly washed off all my eye makeup and my lip gloss, and just put a thin layer of lip balm. I’m truly sick and tired of all this synthetic trash on my eyes.
“Hey, honey... You look terrible without it! Here, have some of mine. It’s way better than anyone else’s,” Stella offered.
“Nope, it’s fine. I’m just gonna lay off the toxic trash today. At least for now,” I replied.
Audrey and Stella looked at me like I had just caught a serious case of chicken pox. Then Audrey seemed to snap out of her imaginary trance, and she turned her head, her eyes landing on my Science notebook that was peeking out from my backpack. That book was as vicious as vicious could be. It couldn’t just hide, it needed it’s seek.
She made a grab for it, and my hand shot out too, but she was way quicker than me. She read the title of the notebook. It read, ‘Science: And other less boring things’, with the subtitle just a bit smaller than the large subject font.
She flipped the pages, scrutinized the pictures of models and seemed a bit envious of my designs. I didn’t think much of them, but I really did like creating articles of clothing and sketching.
Then she came to the page I hoped no one would ever look at, other than me. I should have ripped it out, stuffed it in my desk, even burned it! Then I wouldn’t have to worry about unwanted eyes skimming its contents.
She read it all slowly, as my head pounded and covered my face with my sweaty palms.
This is all a dream, this is all a dream, this is all a dream, I kept chanting inside my head.
“Cody Zehr? Really? I’ve had my eyes on him for the longest time! That is an excellent description of him, MiMi!” Stella beamed.
My hands flew off my face like a bolt of lightning.
“Uh... I don’t know what to say... I mean, Alec did say I would be harsh if I were to give the guys a mark. Since I said I could even pass as a teacher since I know a lot about relationships,” I blurted out. I quickly covered my mouth.
Audrey and Stella looked at each other, confused. Then their faces moulded into one of excitement and they kept on glancing back from the book to me.
“What?” I shouted, completely exasperated. What did they want?
“You should totally make a...” Stella started, enthusiasm dripping in her every word.
“Report Card for all of the guys!” Audrey squealed so loudly that I covered my ears while trying to understand what she meant.
“What do you mean?” I asked suspiciously. I had absolutely no clue what they were saying.
“Oh, come on. It’s so simple. Give them each a mark, from F- to A+. Then write similar blurbs like these and add a little picture of what they look like... Then voila!” Stella explained giddily.
“Why would I bother doing that?”
“Because! It could be, like, a guide to all of the guys in our classes! Imagine how many girls you can help. Imagine all the rep points you’ll gain,” Audrey said temptingly.
My mind kept replaying what Rick had just said. That reputations don’t exist, only status and label. As if that’s all people care about. I inwardly snorted.
Suddenly, with a burst of energy, I gave a placid look to the two girls and placed my hands on my waist.
“For the sake of the girls. Because all of us know how embarrassing it is to date or hang out with a guy that everyone else thinks is a geek. So, I’m going to write this for all of the girls. Not anything else,” I said, while the girls looked at me proudly. “And, by the way, I get to mark them in different subjects such as dress, comicalness, cuteness, et cetera, but you will have to help me, got it?”
“Of course!” Audrey and Stella said, obviously not containing their joyfulness because they kept squirming around.
“Perfect,” I exclaimed.
I picked up the Science notebook, and with a Sharpie I dug out from my backpack, I cut out the original name.
Instead, I wrote:
‘THE GRADEBOOK’
~~~~~
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Or simply Vomman? Haha. I had lots of fun writing this, I hope you had equally as much fun reading it! Thanks for your support.
~Swoony :D