Hawthorne Heights [Editing]

fifteen [edited]

    The homecoming dance date crept up on the students of McKinley High like a snake slithering through tall grass. Posters made appearances during the lunch period with cheesy rhymes and expensive flowers. Teachers decorated their classroom doors with baby photos of themselves, and students covered the walls in streamers.
   Milo admired the blissful couples from afar yet internally felt a sense of doubt that she'd never find anyone. Sure, she had boyfriends here and there, but the relationships weren't anything serious. Khari didn't arrive at lunch that day since he had to finish developing his pictures for his project -- she blushed back to her memory in the darkroom. Did she like like him? Or was she just bored? She wanted to ask her friends what she should do, but Miracle vanished and Warren told her that his advice for any type of crush is to simply ask them out.

   Miracle needed to prepare for the dance recital that would be approaching Saturday evening at her church. She would sneak off into the gymnasium during lunch so that she could practice her routine, yet no one noticed how she skipped out of eating.

   Warren complained, "School doesn't get out 'til May yet somehow I've lost my hope for this quarter already."

      "You and me both! This summer I kept hyping up myself and saying how my notes would be A-1 but after that first week I gave up," Milo laughed, "Man, I played myself."

      "On God I did! I told my mom that since I'm going to Morehouse I need to make sure that my grades remain perfect. And you know that my mom is West Indian so she's really tough on my grades. I talked back to her the other day so she threw a pot at me," Warren grumbled with a mouthful of tater-tots.

   Because Warren's parents were Caribbean he cared solely about his grades when it came to school. They wouldn't allow him to leave the house if they didn't know his friend's parents personally and they often stored leftovers in Country Crock containers. Milo went to his apartment one day because they all decided to go out to Red Lobster when she apparently arrived too early. Warren claimed that his parents ran on BPT. Black people time for short. Their six o'clock equated to nine-thirty on a good day.

   Milo laughed, "Can't relate. My dad is the one that lectures me until my ears bleed while my mom follows up with another lecture afterward. Then somehow, mid-lecture, the topic shifts from me talking back to me becoming a drug addict. Then they'll both talk about their childhood in the sixties and how they weren't given the privilege that I have."

   Warren's dad was surprisingly laid back save the problematic things that he said in the past. He supported his son in anything that he wanted to do and even offered to pay for his college tuition. Meanwhile, his mom wanted him to become a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, or even a computer technician.

      "There's no way I'm gonna be able to stay afloat this year then I'll have to get a tutor or something. My dad will pay for it: my mom will probably just say that I need to stop being on my phone as much," Warren snorted. "I could get food poisoning and she'll say that it's because I was on my phone instead of checking my food."

   Milo flipped through her forensic science binder so that she could loan Warren her note cards. For some reason before homecoming, all of the teachers decided to load the students with tests, essays, and reading quizzes.

   She sighed, "Just like freshman year, we split the classes in half. You do first through the fourth hour and I'll do seventh through eighth. Then we can just send pictures of the homework. You know that's the only way that I'm passing, right?"

      "Avery is helping me with my Latin class since it's basically a dead language. He's perfect," Warren cooed.

   Milo had her suspicions of Avery because she had never seen him. In her heart of hearts, she wanted to believe that Avery was sincere about his identity, yet after watching several seasons of Catfish, she wasn't too sure.

   She admitted, "I need help with my French but I don't like many people at this school and then I'm too shy to talk to them. I'm in intermediate French yet I can't even say bagel."

      "Isn't it just bagel?"

      "This is why I need a tutor, Warren."