Predicamental Upperclassmen || Luis Mendoza

Chapter 17

So Monday, Luis served his second day of ISS, and since I couldn't see him that morning, I went to class like normally.

Things went smoothly for a little while, but not for long.

The next day in Chemistry, we were in the lab pouring liquids into beakers to measure them when we heated them over the bunsen burners. I heated up my liquid and wrote down the results on my paper. I was doing the work fine on my own, though I wish the same could be said for my partner. I was hooked up with that one girl in class who looked disgusted at everything. She bragged about her dad being a rich lawyer or whatnot, but no one else cared. She was just watching me do all of the work and she looked at my paper to get the answers.

"You could be doing your own work too, you know. Instead of just sitting there and not doing nothing at all."

"I am", she protested, "I'm writing stuff down at least, and YOU said you would be in charge of the beaker.

"By that, I meant I would be in charge of the heating and stuff. You could just watch it boil and tell me how much it reacts to the flame", I said with annoyance in my tone.

She flipped her hair and gave an arrogant expression, "whatever. We're almost done now, so it doesn't matter anymore."

"Yes, it does. She'll then ask us questions about what we saw and witnessed. I don't want to be the only one answering."

"Okay", said the teacher loudly to get our attention, "I'll be walking around to ask you what did you see. Be specific with your answers, please."

"See?", I motioned my partner.

"Well, you can tell her. If you speak for both of us, it still counts."

"Oh, really? Well, when she asks us another question, I'll be like 'I'll let her answer' and you're not gonna know a thing to say. So, get ready."

She looked at me indignantly and scoffed.

"Hun, I can be silent if I want. You can't make me talk if I don't want to. If I don't say anything, then she's just gonna have to get on us for not knowing anything."

She was really starting to annoy me. Her legs were crossed and she looked like she didn't have a care in the world. Not to mention her attitude was adding to my pissed level.

"You are going to explain to her about our project with me. And once she gets here, I'm also gonna tell her how you haven't done nothing and just looked off of my paper. I'll tell her how you refused to do anything."

Meanwhile the teacher was walking over to the table next to ours. I didn't notice. I kept my eyes on my supposed "partner".

"Whatever. You look like a pathetic hoe, anyways. No wonder you rage too much about everything. You're just some mentally unstable moron with issues."

My anger had begun to rise again. That look on her face just made me want to slap the shit out of her.

"Why you-!"

Then everything happened altogether. At that second, my teacher had went over to our table. I moved my arm back to do something, but my elbow accidentally shoved the beaker off of it's stand and it smashed onto the floor. The liquid inside it was still hot and a huge amount of it splashed onto our teacher's feet burning her skin. She hissed and exclaimed in pain as it contacted with her skin. The whole room fell silent. Everyone around us exchange looks between me, the broken, beaker, and the teacher as they glared in shock.

"Oops", I whimpered meekly.

A student helped her as he brought over a cold wash rag for her. She then looked at me with an angry look and ordered everyone else to head back to the classroom. As my "partner" passed me, she gave me a devious, mean smirk. I only responded with furrowed eyebrows mixed with a scowl.

Afterwards, I was reported to the office. Like Luis, I had received 2 days of ISS for being careless and injuring a staff member. I also told Mr. Tucker about my lab partner and he promised he'd have a word with her.

I walked out to my car with my stuff and kicked the front of it cursing aloud. The thought of that girl making me go even more red. I lean my backside on the hood and rub my veined temples.

That's when my phone rang and I saw that the caller was Luis. I picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Since the ISS hall is a little far from the arena, I'ma just head over there. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Fine. Don't come see me. Just abandon me like that, then. That's cool."

"What's the matter? Why do you sound so mad? You okay?"

"I'll tell you later. Just go to practice."

"Alright, see you in a bit."

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"So, it turns out it's my turn to get in school suspension, now", I tell Luis after he arrives to my house.

"What happened?", he asked.

I then explained to him about the whole lab incident with my "partner". His brows knitted together as I spoke, looking at me with pity.

"I understand her annoying you, but if you wouldn't have thought about striking at her, you probably wouldn't have caused anything."

"So, your saying it's MOSTLY my fault?"

"No, it's not entirely your fault. She should've kept her mouth shut. I'm just saying you didn't have to think about hurting her. You could've just told the teacher what was happening."

"I was too fired up at that point, and her face was not making it any less worse. That snobby pout of hers just made my blood boil as much as the beaker was."

Luis stayed silent, not knowing what to say next.

"At least tell me what you do in ISS so that I can know what to expect", I resumed.

"Not much, really. You just sit in a classroom and do your class work in there instead of in your normal classroom."

"Oh. Well, that's not very fun", I muttered.

"Yeah, but normal class isn't very fun either, so not much of a difference", he said with a shrug.

I took out my phone and opened it, going to Instagram.

"You also can't have your phone by the way."

"Obviously", I laughed lightly.

I take a selfie of myself with me covering my mouth and posted it with the caption: "Suspension's a curse". The first like was from Luis and he sniggered as he read my caption.

"That's a pretty accurate description for it", he said.

I could only nod in agreement.

We did our homework together and hung outside on the porch for a bit before he had to go.

That evening, as I watch his car leave my front yard, I concluded that I couldn't be TOO mad at myself this time. I was already lucky that my actions just left me to being punished IN school and not out. But I still was not ready to sit in a chair all day and not move a muscle. Whenever I would sit for too long, my bottom would start to feel numb and uncomfortable. What I really worried about though was math work. Without my teacher "explaining" to me how to do things, I just had to sit there and suffer, and it was VERY unlikely the teacher watching us was going to make any sense if I asked him for help. Brilliant.

I eat me a microwave dinner before showering. Then once lotioning down and putting on my pajamas, I go casually to bed.