The Badboy, the Catfish & Me

Fourteen

That Friday, I received my precalculus quiz grade. Scrawled in red ink at the top of the paper was a 92.5 and a 'Not bad! I know you can do better!' Despite my teacher's disappointment, I momentarily held the test paper to my chest.

Alhamdulillah. Mama said to say that anytime you wanted to show gratitude. The grade wasn't the worst thing in the world. If Mrs. Vaia ever offered extra credit, I could probably balance this out to get the grade up to a 96 and not lose valedictorian.

"Wow, Inaya, that emotional over a grade?"

I froze at the sound of Elsa's voice. It was easy to forget that she was in my precalculus class because both she and Clara sat in the back, a mile away from my spot at the front by the teacher's desk. Turning to my left, I saw Elsa holding her test paper in her hands a few feet away. A circled 93 was drawn beside a congratulatory 'fantastic job!' atop Elsa's paper. I was lost for words. How was I supposed to respond?

"You should cry, though," Elsa said in my silence, turning away, "Since I scored higher than you."

I ignored her and put my quiz paper away in my folder. Receiving a lower grade than Elsa was something to cry about, but not today. I knew I hadn't studied well for this quiz and still scored decently. I was sure I would have left Elsa in the dust had I studied like usual.

Not to mention Salah's theory from the other day still made its rounds like a fluttery sensation within me. And how Valentino complimented me a lot in-game, too. 'You're pretty cool,' he'd said, 'You're too good for that.' I tapped my pencil on my open math notebook, remembering he had also mentioned he had his fair share of jealous people. Who was it? And what had they ruined for him?

I couldn't ask in person. Valentino's texts had gone back to being school-only, mainly helping with citations as Mrs. Asaka prescribed, and he was skipping homeroom for practice more often. But I had Tireya.

"All right, class," Ms. Vaia said, "put your quizzes away. We're going to begin class now."

I sat upright and forced myself not to get distracted. I slipped up once, but it wouldn't happen again.

That afternoon, I sat with my mom in the kitchen. I played around with my food a little, mixing the rice and chicken curry over and over to muster the courage to bring up the precalculus quiz grade.

"I got my precalc grade back," I finally said. My mom looked over at me from her plate. "92.5."

Mama pursed her lips a bit and thought for a moment before answering. "That's not terrible, but you're going to have to do better to be valedictorian," she said.

"I know. I won't mess up again." I was spending too much time on CrusadEon Online with a certain person, who also reminded me of prom. "Mama," I added, dividing the mixed rice and curry into little mounds on my plate. What if I went to prom, but I wouldn't do anything wrong, like go out with a boy or something? Like what if I go with my friend Salah?"

Mama looked at me questioningly. "I'm sure if you wanted to hang out with Salah, you wouldn't need prom," she replied.

"Right," I mumbled. Mama had a point. But..." I knew it was normal not to go to prom as a Muslim, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I really wanted to go. I'd be good about it, too.

"I know what you're thinking, Inaya. I've thought about it, too."

I glanced up from my plate and was surprised to see Mama had a small smile on her face.

"If you can promise me to go with a girlfriend, send me some pictures, and come home early enough, I'll let you go. The payment is due around now, isn't it? But Inaya, I'm worried about that test. We need to go over it, but not today. I'll be busy tonight."