Summer Letters

Chapter 14

Mid-semester exams came and Lena, Jensen, and their friends were so busy studying Lena did not get the chance to tell Marlene or Luna that she said yes to a date with Jensen. Luna, while she tried to study, got distracted by sports as she usually does. She keeps herself busy with cross country, track, soccer, and basketball. She was always cramming in studying after practice. Marlene studied better alone so she kept to herself in her room or the library. Sebastian studied with them a few times, but he was determined to pull off the best prank in school history before break. Jensen declined to help because of exams. Sebastian did not question it knowing how serious Jensen always was about school work, so he asked Alfonso to help him with the prank. This meant that Lena and Jensen often had to study alone. Sebastian and Alfonso turned it into a joke in front of Lena, but they encouraged Jensen about it when they were alone. To prevent further gossip about it, they agreed to study in their rooms away from all other students.

Lena let herself into Jensen's room after her last class. As Jensen stole her spare key, he finally gave her his spare key in return. He already had his books spread out on his bed so she put hers on his desk. She took out her notes first and sat next to him. "What are we starting with?" she asked.

"Can we start with science?" he asked. "I'm struggling with that subject the most and the final sounds brutal."

"We can agree on that," Lena said as she opened her notebook. "He said the finals will consist of 100 questions covering everything we've talked about so far this semester. There will also be five essay questions at the end of the test. I say we start with the earlier material to see what we can remember."

He nodded, "You first. I'm still organizing my notes."

Lena laughed, "You know, you'd think you'd be a little more organized."

"Smart does not always mean organized," Jensen smirked. "The smarter I am the more unorganized I get. I'm too busy thinking and studying to keep all this stuff organized."

Lena handed Jensen her notes. "Take these and read them out loud. I will sort your notes for you."

"Since when do you help me? Is this about our date?" Jensen grinned.

"Shut up," Lena laughed. "I am helping because we are never going to get any studying done with this mess. Lucky for you, I am the only one you can study with because everyone else is busy and they have their own studying habits."

"How has this not happened before this year?" he asked.

Lena shrugged, "I have no idea. It is weird though. Alfonso and Sebastian got a laugh out of it."

"Sebastian is still convinced he's going to win the bet. Alfonso thinks he will win too, but he's getting suspicious. Our plan with him didn't work. Little do they both know, I already won."

Lena smiled, "I can't wait to hear the argument for that."

"Right?! I am so going to win a hundred dollars at the end of the year."

Lena and Jensen studied together every day leading up to the exams, and still none of their friends suspected anything. As soon as their exams finished, their friends left for Thanksgiving break. Jensen and Lena were the only ones in their group that decided to stay for the holidays, but Lena was sure that Jensen only decided to stay because he knew she was staying. Their first night on break they could see students looking over at me because they sat together alone at dinner. "Can I hit them?" Lena asked Jensen. "or yell at them? They're acting like they've never seen us before."

"In a way they haven't because they've never seen us sit alone together unless we were studying or with our friends and that's not alone. We never sit alone together in public."