CHANGES [eric matthews]

What I Meant To Say

↳CHAPTER 3.2
What I meant to say.
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『 "So... what's your favorite color?" 』
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THERE WERE MULTIPLE perks of living with a teacher, though one of them did not include absences. Beckett was relatively good when it came to attendance, but once in a while she found herself stuck to her bed, unable to move. She didn't know what it was, but she was often struck with this deep pit in the center of her stomach, and her head raced at the thought of going to school. So she stayed put.

But now that an adult figure in her life actually paid attention to what she did, she no longer had that option. The sick card worked twice before Turner gained suspicion. She didn't know exactly how to tell him her body was physically repulsed by the idea of school some days, so she went anyways.

She was walking the halls one day, a small fruit basket in hand and her hands shaking. Today was one of those "school actually makes me sick" days, but she had a mission to complete. She needed Feeny to write her a recommendation letter for Pennbrook, one of the schools she applied to, and although he had previously told her he would help her anytime, she knew the man had way too much on his hands to say yes so easily. Writing these letters took time, effort, and appreciation for a very nice student who bought a lovely—

She quickly backpedaled as she watched Mr. Feeny holding two other gift baskets. Clearly she was unoriginal. She huffed loudly and turned the opposite way, the pit in her stomach growing. She needed a new plan.

"Woah, what's with the fruit?" Eric asked as he nearly ran into her. He grabbed her shoulders to steady her, quickly detecting her shaking figure, "You good?" Beckett clicked her tongue,

"I'm fine." She dismissed with the wave of a hand, "This was supposed to be a gift for Feeny, but from the looks of it, a few people beat me to it." She frowned and picked up a piece of fruit from the basket, "Mango?"

Eric shrugged and accepted the fruit, before his eyes glazed behind her head, "Thanks Becky bear... Gotta go."

"Don't call me that," Beck feebly said, following him with her eyes as he voluntarily— Yes, voluntarily— walked over to Frankie Stecchino and Griffin Hawkins. Y'know, the boy who was consistently flirting with Beckett towards the end of her junior year.

They hadn't spoken during the summer, yet Griffin was well aware Beck had broken up with Jason. It was one of those strange elephants in the rooms whenever they walked by each other in the halls. She was too afraid to talk to him now, though she didn't really know why. Was it because she didn't have the security of a relationship to hold her back? Or was it something else?

She watched as Eric and Griff did a suspicious exchange of paper, which she quickly recognized as Feeny's stationary. He was going to fake his recommendation letter!

Beck gasped at the deal. Her grip tightened on her fruit basket.

"I'm gonna need a Feeny envelope.." Eric added to the exchange, to quick Griff turned to his friend to say,

"Frankie?"

He pulled out a notepad, "Tuesday."

"Tuesday." Griff repeated.

Eric nodded, "Tuesday."

And with that, he was off. Beck rolled her eyes. Who knew it was that easy. Would it be easy for her? They hadn't really been friends as of recently... but surely he wouldn't mind helping her out? She was really desperate, as were the many seniors of John Adams.

She, against all of her judgement, smoothed her hair, shoved the fruit basket at Mr. Williams as he walked by—He was a teacher now!!—and walked up to Griff, giving him a tap on the shoulder.