Maddox Academy: Grievous Beginnings - Wattys 2022 Shortlister

Chapter Thirty-One - Heart Versus Head

My heart and head continued to battle with neither coming out on top.

One told me that my feelings for Katie were valid, that I had every right to feel them regardless of what everyone else may have thought. The other told me it was wrong, in more ways than one. They spend the days arguing with one another in mind, getting stuck in a twisted tornado that would take longer to blow itself out then it took to form. I just wanted it all to stop. I wanted my head to clear long enough to figure out what it all meant and where I went from here.

I didn't think growing up would be so complicated.

"Felicity? Are you alright over there?" Mrs Clarington asked. I lifted my head from the desk and looked at her, realising I had been staring into space for five minutes and spinning the bracelet around my wrist.

"Erm, yes. I was away with the fairies," I said.

"Do you need any help with your project?"

"I think I'm good. I'm close to the end now."

"Really? You have two weeks to go, are you sure you're close to finishing?"

"Uh-huh?"

Mrs Clarington raised an eyebrow at me and went back to the work on the desk in front of her. She had given us permission to work on our projects during the lesson since we were only two weeks away and none of us could focus on Romeo and Juliet. I turned back to the paper on my desk, lightly tapping my pencil on the paper as I read over the speech I had prepared. Although it still contained a lot of facts, at least it was five minutes and a little more coherent than before. Katie said she would look over it for me.

I peered over my shoulder, catching Victoria's eye as she glared at me across the room. She had ink smeared across her chin and a lot of balls of paper on her desk and on the floor in front of her. Victoria wasn't ready for the presentations and it could work in my favour if she happened to be as unprepared as she seemed. Somehow, she had a way of pretending to be underprepared for something, but she was ahead of us all.

With her, every appearance was a deception. She also hadn't said anything more on her threats from the previous days. Which worried me.

The end of lesson bell rang, and the class broke out into noise as everyone packed up. I stuffed my notes into my bag and swung it up on my shoulder, following Emma from the classroom and into the hall. Katie stood outside, her back pressed into the wall, looking at her nails with one foot against the wall and the other still on the ground. Since our conversation the other week, Katie had been waiting outside all my lessons to make sure Victoria couldn't touch me. It was a little like having my own personal police officer.

Or a stalker.

"You take ages to pack up," she said.

"And you seem to fun from your own class to mine. How do you get here so fast?"

"I have my secrets. You're in sport now, right?"

"Yes. Are you not joining us this week?"

"We are. We're not supposed to, but we managed to wrangle it with Mrs Leverton. It beats studying, anyway," she shrugged.

"Your exams are in two weeks; you should be studying."

"Shh, don't ruin this for me."

She smiled at me and swung her kit bag over her shoulder, mine was already in the changing room. I thought it would save time if I put it in there after my run. It did. Everyone else had to rush back to the dormitory to get their kit bags or lug them around with their school bag. Katie and I just casually strolled down to the changing room without the need to make a stop along the way.