Booksmarts

chapter 007

SUNLIGHT SHONE BRILLIANTLY THROUGH my living room windows, blinding my eyes. It was 7:52am, Amira dragged me out of bed bright and early to get a head start on studying. Paris had to leave early as well but she didn't tell me why. Assuming it was probably another family emergency, I didn't question her, because lately she's been having a lot of those. Sitting in my living room, I try concentrating on my assignments that I was given. The timer ticks down the remainder of the 45 minutes I was given. Amira decided to start me on pre-calculus sheets to prepare me. Math was my worst subject by far, sophomore year I earned myself a 'C' on my first Calculus BC test and I worked my butt off ever since. I'm almost halfway through the sheets until I hear Amira yell.

"4 MINUTES!" She looks at her wristwatch and peers over my paper. She gives a disapproving look and shakes her head. "Are you stuck or are you just bored?"

I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping she wouldn't see the embarrassment on my face.

Right... because if you can't see her, she totally can't see you.

I look up to face her and flash a bashful grin. "Um...Both?" Amira gives a pronounced sigh and sits on the couch beside me. She stops the timer and observes my paper, she turns around with her back facing me, clicks her pen, and starts to correct the ones I've already done. I try to peep over her shoulder but I assume she notices because she walks away from me and grades my paper on the dinner table. My phone lights up with another text notification from Paris. Ever since last night, she wouldn't stop texting me with messages along the lines of

"Have you read it yet??" or "I will steal your phone if you won't tell me!!"

And every time I reply with "No." It's really not a big deal either but I just can't seem to open his message. I should just bite the bullet and see the message right? It's really rude to leave him on read too. I sigh and turn off my phone, letting Paris's text messages light up my lock screen. Just as I set down my phone, Amira calls me over.

"Alinna! Come over here!" She pats down to the seat next to her. Walking over, I get a good glimpse of my graded papers. Red marks scattered across them, with little notes in almost every margin. I sit down and take the papers to observe what I did wrong. Amira smiles at the discouraged expression on my face. Upon looking closer, I realized that the red marks weren't because the answers were incorrect. In fact, they were checkmarks, and the notes in the margins were comments of approval. Amira taps the paper. "I wrote everything in red to scare you HAHA!"

The ringtone from her phone interrupts her laughter, making her jolt in surprise. "Lukas Moreno" flashes on her screen and Amira quickly picks up. Holding the phone close to her ear, she quickly grabs my car keys and mouths "Get ready in five." Confused, I oblige anyways and grab my phone and a jacket. I quickly follow Amira as she hangs up the phone with a faint smile on her face and heads to my car. As she put the keys in the ignition, I take this as an opportunity to ask.

"So why are we in my car and where are we going?" I flip through the radio stations and she pulls a big binder underneath the driver's seat.

Since when did she leave a binder in my car?

"We're going to study elsewhere and no...I will not be telling you where." I cross my arms and huff. Well, if she got off the phone with Lukas then that means we're probably meeting up with Lukas...and Mason. Crap. God really does have perfect timing, doesn't he? My chest tightens and I get that familiar feeling of my throat closing up. I try to take my mind off of seeing him. It's not even confirmed that I'm going to see Lukas OR Mason. Maybe Amira wants a change in scenery? There's nothing to stress about, again this is probably just something I made up in my head–and if I do see Mason, it's not a big deal. I keep telling myself this until Amira finally pulls into her destination and parks the car. I look outside the window to see where we are. "The Candlewood Cafe" in an elegant wood carved sign grabs my attention. Amira hops out of the car and grabs her clunky binder and struggles to close the door. She notices my stares and groans.