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~Thursday, January 6th~

As if I wasn't awkward enough around Noah, now I have to live with the fact that he knows what I look like in a leotard. Sure it's really not much different than a bathing suit, but it's like the difference between a bikini, and a bra and underwear. Bikinis are completely socially acceptable around water, but if you show up somewhere in a bra and panties, everyone is going to feel weird - especially you. It's sort of like that for me in my dance clothes. Some of the leotards I own are somewhat scandalous, in the sense that if I wore them by themselves out of the studio it would be bad. Thin straps, open backs, keyholes, and high-cut leotards rolled up at the leg holes to make my legs appear longer - like that trend the Kardashians started. It's just weird to have someone not from dance see me at dance.

I've made it through most of my day though, and another positive is that my toe is starting to feel ever so slightly better. I've been icing and resting it as much as I can without missing any classes, and it's beginning to hurt less.

Last period I have French class with Olivia, and oh - guess who! Noah and Cameron are both in this class, which never bothered me in the past, but lately I haven't been able to avoid them, Noah especially. It's only Thursday, and how many times have I embarrassed myself infront of him just this week? I had only even talked to him once or twice in my life before the past few days, and that was only due to other class projects or school events. At least Cameron and Olivia are here too, and at least I enjoy French class. I find the language very beautiful, and of course I chose to learn French because all the terms in ballet are French.

Madame Martin begins the class by handing out our tests from before break. My test is placed on my desk, followed by Olivia's on her desk to my right.

"Merci," I say as I begin to look it over. I smile down at the "95%" written in red pen at the top of my paper. I look through the test to find what I got points off for, and when I'm finished I look over to Olivia.

"I got a ninety-two, how about you?" She says.

"Ninety-five," I smile back at her.

"You win this round," Olivia fakes jealousy. We often compare grades in the classes that we have in common, not in a bragging way, but we make it a competition. Just incase having good grades in itself isn't enough encouragement, we try to beat each other at every graded assignment. And it works, some nights when I'm tired and don't feel like putting in the extra effort to study after completing written work I remind myself that Olivia is probably studying right now, so I better keep up with her. We're so close though, so we never get truly jealous.

After handing out all of the tests, Madame Martin hands each of us a packet to complete for practice with the new verb tense we learned last class, on Tuesday. We have a block schedule, meaning that we have each class every other day. We complete the packet in silence for about half of the hour and a half class, then Madame Martin tells us to finish the rest for homework and we take more notes from the board. We finish class by picking a partner and doing a group activity where we are given cut up pieces of paper with words in French on them, and we have to figure out the sentence that the words make. Of course Olivia and I pair up, and we have completed multiple sentences by the time class is finished.

Relieved to be finished with the school day and ready to finish my day off from dance by catching up on work and icing my toe, I pack up my things. Just as I'm about to walk out of class next to Olivia, just before I am free from school for the day, Madame Martin gets my attention from her desk at the front of the classroom.

"Theresa, and Noah, please stay for a moment." What did he do, and why did he get me involved in it? It's not uncommon to hear "Noah, stay for a moment" from a teacher or "Noah Thompson to the principal's office" over the intercom, but why did he drag me into whatever punishment he was about to receive? I sigh and wave to Olivia, who only wiggles her eyebrows at me, making me want to roll my eyes at her. I trudge back to the front of the classroom where Madame Martin and Noah are both waiting for me.

"Theresa," Madame begins.

"Oui, Madame?"

"You are one of my top students, which is evident in not only your grade on the test I just handed back, but also your average in this class. It is also easy to tell that you are a hardworking student."

"Merci, Madame," I say blushing slightly at the praise. Though I've done absolutely nothing wrong, I wasn't expecting to be called up to her desk to be complemented.

"Noah, you usually are a good student, but lately you've been slacking, especially on this past assessment. I don't know what changed, but I would like Theresa to tutor you until your grade begins to improve." Oh, this is so not going to end well, I immediately think.

"No way, no way on earth is she going to tutor me," Noah immediately states. Okay, ouch. I know we haven't gotten along too well in the past, but there was no reason to be so blunt about it.

"I'd really like if some of Theresa's traits would rub off on you, so even if I have to force this on you, it's going to happen. I'll be checking up on each of you individually so I can get both sides of the story on how this is going.

"But her?" Noah responds, giving me an almost disgusted glance before looking back at Madame Martin. What's wrong with him, he's insulting me and I'm standing right here in front of him!

"I don't want to hear anything more from you," Madame finished. Noah immediately scoffed and left the classroom, walking fast between me and Madame. She sighs, then says, "Bonne chance [Good luck]."

"Merci, Madame," I say before adjusting my bag on my shoulder and following Noah out of the room. As much as I also don't want to tutor Noah, I don't want to get on Madame's bad side. She's very nice when she likes you, but she's not afraid to yell and give out punishments when someone doesn't listen to her. I spot Noah down the almost-empty hallway at his locker. If we're actually going to do this tutoring thing, I'm going to have to be the one who initiates it. I take a deep breath, bracing myself for an argument, and walk up to Noah.

"When do you want to meet?" I say when I stop walking about two feet away from him.

"I don't," he says matter-of-factly before closing his locker and beginning to walk away from me. He's not getting away that easily.

"Well, you're not exactly making me want to do this either, but it's not really our choice. Madame said we have to," I say, following him.

"I don't care about what Martin said, I don't need a tutor. I'm not doing this."

"If you stopped thinking only about yourself for a moment, you would realize that I would also be in trouble if we don't do this, so we're doing it." He was starting to get me worked up, and he was going to regret it if he didn't stop.

"Like I care about you getting trouble," he says challengingly, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

"Look, I've tried being nice to you but all you are to me is a jerk, so I'm going to stop being nice. We're doing this, whether we both want to or not, so we are going to organize times to meet. Thursdays or right after school on Wednesdays and Fridays work best for me. You can check your schedule and let me know tomorrow morning in history." I work up all the courage and confidence I can muster to counter Noah for the second time this week, then turn and walk towards the exit leading to the parking lot, leaving no room for a counter argument from him. I keep my confidence up as I walk away, and stop myself from limping at all. Hopefully Noah is staring dumbfounded at the spot where I was standing moments ago, completely shocked at how I told him off yet again. In that case, I had to show no weaknesses until I was out of sight. Walking out of the school doors and through the parking lot, I'm aware of the last few students getting in their cars and driving home. I do the same, and it's not until I close the driver's side door and turn on the engine that the adrenaline wears off and I realize what I just did.

What is wrong with me? He's actually going to kill me this time! How was I going to survive classes with Noah now, let alone tutoring him one-on-one after school? And I thought I was trying to escape Monday's encounter, not repeat it! He completely deserved it though, he's only ever a jerk to me and has been lucky that I've mostly put up with him. But now, driving home from school, I'm left to wonder if Noah is one to hold grudges, and if he is, what will his payback be?



~~~~~

Written 8/22/17, Published 10/5/17

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