Being With A Jock

Chapter 24

Am I jumpy? Do I feel jumpy? How much jumpier can I really be? I'm fidgeting like crazy here, pacing myself back and fourth in my room at a fast motion. My mind is circulating around so many things around the one subject I have my final exam for - World Studies.

Any and all answers I may know have been clustered together in my single brain with it's capacity overloaded. A point where I might go crazy from all the stress that I'm burying myself beneath. The core of the stress is dug somewhere deep within my brain and if I don't relax and calm my tensed nerves, I'll never relieve my self from my manic state.

Can I even pass this test? Am I even capable of proceeding forward? If I don't pass, I will never be able to graduate or even go to prom with Chance. He'll be very disappointed that I won't be with him. I can't let him down.

I know he has been helping with me with World Studies, but I can't seem to grasp the simplicity of it. I couldn't even do that with math, how will I pass World Studies?

No, I must remain cool, calm and collected. I must believe in myself that I am capable of passing this exam, and know that deep within, I passed my other three exams of second semester. I can't afford to be sent to summer school, or even repeat a whole senior year. Stay relaxed.

I halt in my tracks in front of my bed. I sway myself near it and take a sit on the edge calmly. My hands glide up and down my legs pacing themselves slowly as I take a deep breath in, and exhale slowly. I repeat this method a couple of times to settle my nerves, and distinguish my stressful manic appearance.

I pace my tapping of my right heel on the ground, gradually coming to a complete stop. My eyes are shut and I'm imagining what keeps me steady. Thoughts of Chance and his loving smile, Tori and her uniqueness around me, my siblings and their crazy fun freedom, my parents, and Anthony. Thinking of mostly Chance gives more of an assistance in keeping steady and patient.

"Nothing I need to worry about," I murmur quietly to myself.

A bright chiming sounds escalates pass my ears. The doorbell has been touched and that is most definitely Chance here to drive me to school for my World Studies. Thinking of World Studies again gets me all fiddled. Just when I though I was fine, I automatically break my luck.

I take a moment in silence for myself before I get up off my bed slowly and make my way to the hallway, As I get to the stairs, I immediately stop for some reason, everything in my vision disorientates for a brief moment. I can't justify the explanation for it, but when it vanishes and my sight is translucent and settled, I stride down the steps. Once I'm at the door, I slither my fingers in my pocket retrieving my key that unlocks the door from the inside - vice versa from outside - and brush the door open to see Chance grin at me.

Instantly, he notices my noticeable fidgeting and he reacts by rushing in wrapping his arms around me, resting my head on his chest and kissing it softly. A gentle rub on my back is what he does in order to calm me down of my tension I urged myself in.

"Just relax, Thomas. You'll do fine on the exam, we studied for for this, you know the answers," he assures me.

In accord, my arms raise and ravel themselves around Chance in comfort. I sighed out a slight breath from my parted lips as my eyes lids slid shut.

Chance and I remain in this same spot for a short while, and we exit my house to approach his car. I trace back to the entrance door, remembering to take out my key from the inside lock and lock the door from the outside. It would have been foolish of me to forget. Burglars could easily sneak in and steal anything they wish.

When I trail back to the car, Chance leans himself off his car and opens the passenger door for me like the gentleman he is and I climb in. He closes and it and walk around to his side. As he does that, I buckle my seat belt and shift myself to get comfortable in the seat. I wouldn't want to feel uncomfortable and have more worries to stress about.

Once he's down revving up the engine and has his seat belt secured, he checks mine briefly and begins to drive us to our destination - school.

While in the car, I lean my head against the window, looking partly out of it and gazing halfway up at the sky. I over think too much about over thinking, and it gets to me one way or another. It's like I've lost myself and all I can do is have stress to deal with it all.

My senior year hasn't been all peach perfect, or glamorous great, but it had it's moments where I fully enjoyed it. I've experienced hardship with a guy I love, and I've always wanted part of reality. A reality in which there's difficulties in a relationship - even my relationship with Chance begun, ended, and refreshed in a new beginning.

Now I have to deal with exams, ones I hate in high school and will furthermore hare in college, whenever I go.

Right now, I do got to my mind on hold, and focus more importantly on my World Studies exam, final exam of the day and from now on in this school - hopefully.

"Roughly, what is the approximate number people on earth?" Chance randomly asks me.

I take the time to thin for answer, trying to scavenger for it in the storage of my brain. "Over seven billion people," I answer with slight confidence.

"Correct. How many continents are there, and list them all," he tells me.

I cross my arms as I lick my lips slowly. I try to go back and recall the memory of when I learned about the continents and their names. It's a short while before I come up with an absolute answer. "Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. And sometimes Europe and Asia are recognized as a single continent, Eurasia," I say with a slightly higher confidence. "So in total, that's seven continents, unless you include Europe and Asia as one - Eurasia, as I claimed before - then it's six," I simply explain.

"Name one of the eight capitals of Australia," he says.

"Adelaide," I immediately reply.

"In what Jurisdiction?" he asks as a leading question.

I hesitate to answer. I go through the answers in my mind, choosing the the right one. "South Australia," I say.

"See, you do know the answers and many more. No need to worry and stress over it, Tomster," he says.

I look at him and he gives a loving back to me, a loving smile of mine masters on my face. "Thanks, Chance," I say.

"No problem. Anything for my guy," he says.

As we come up into school, Chance parks his car in the student parking lot. I unbuckled my seat belt and by the time I'm done with that and thinking through over what I learned and studied for, Chance already opens my door. I climb out and he makes sure his doors are locked.

We walk side by side with our locked hands. Chance makes us go over a few things while we're making our way to my World Studies classroom where the exam will be taken.

Currently, it's nine-fifty-seven and my exam starts officially at ten.

We reach my classroom two minutes before my exam begins. Chance rests his hands on my waist with my hands locked around his neck. Our smiles exchange love with each other and I know for certain it warms my heart to the fullest. Same goes for Chance, it's gut feeling.

"Remember, relax and pace yourself in there, Thomas. Don't rush things. I know you can do this, you're smart. And good luck," he says. "May the odds be ever in your favor," Chance speaks, mimicking Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games. I giggle at his imitation. "Don't forget, I'm in my dorm room when you're done."

I nod.

He pecks me on the lips and sends his farewells to me while I enter class a minute before my exam officially starts. My teacher assigns me to my assigned seat that goes in alphabetical order. Before I sit down, I slide out the pencil, eraser and sharpener from my pocket and lay them out on the desk.

I glance at the classroom door window and happen to notice Chance giving me a thumbs up for good luck. I swear he left when I entered class. Any who, I smile back as a thank you and he leaves.

I take a deep breath and wait for instructions.

My teacher hands out the exam sheets flipped over on our desks. Once he's done, he stands at the front of the classroom. "You know the rules, caught cheating, you'll be marked a zero. No redoes," he states. "The test is two hours and a half. You may begin," he announces and us students flip over over exam at almost the same time.

First thing I do is print my name beside the word name and put today's date. I scan over the exam before going back to the first page.

Seems difficult, and hard. Mostly going to challenge by brain, but as Chance said, I got this.

I start on the first page, picking up my pencil to answer the first question, "what is the approximate number of people on Earth?" I whisper quietly to myself. "Over seven billion," I quietly mumble as I print the answer in the lines provided.