Nothing But Trouble

34/stronger than this

chapter 34: stronger than this
blake ren

        "We wrapped up a few minutes early so I'll let you pack up now," Mrs. Stoneman announced, causing a domino effect on the rest of the class that hurried to put their work away. She glanced at me, smiling. I tried to smile back but it was more me pushing my lips together than it was smiling.

        "I can't believe it I got a 79 on the derivatives quiz with exponential and logarithmic functions," Kyle marveled. He held up the paper for me to see how much less red markings there were this time than usual. "Hey when was the extra credit due again?"

        "Wednesday by lunch time, Kyle." Mrs. Stoneman was able to use a voice that was actually appropriate for indoors, unlike Kyle who seemed to only speak as though his hearing was busted in one ear.

       "By the way Coach changed practice to today and is calling a mandatory meeting tomorrow at lunch so can we work on the extra credit after school tomorrow?" he asked me, flicking his pencil in between his fingers rapidly.

        I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my chin. I pretended to think out loud. "Well let me think, if we do I'll have to move my world domination plan tomorrow from 4 to 6 and then I'll have to move dinner plans from 6 to 7 so," I pursed my lips and pondered my options. I shrugged. "Yeah that should be fine."

        "Oh don't let me interfere with your world domination plans," Kyle assented generously.

        "No, it was more of a consultation to make sure what went wrong last time doesn't happen this time so it's okay if it gets pushed back," I told him.

        "You sure?" he asked, still playing into it.

       "Totally," I replied. He breathed a dramatic sigh of relief, picking up his stuff and standing up out of his desk.

       "You let me know if you need to change it, okay? Don't be shy." Kyle winked. I laughed and rolled my eyes.

       "Go bother your girlfriend already," I said as I waved him off. He shot me a finger gun and clicked his teeth, then went over to bug Molly at her desk, not that I thought she thought of it as bugging. I looked over at her gazing up at her oaf of a boyfriend. Yup. Definitely lovestruck.

The bell rang and everyone filed out of the classroom.

"Blake?" Mrs. Stoneman called. I stopped and turned to her, standing by the door with my arm on one strap of my bag.

        "Mhm?" I answered. The last student filtered into the hall. Leaving me and Mrs. Stoneman alone. I gulped. Was I in trouble? Probably. This was really unfair dipping into my bathroom time between classes, I'd rather she have just aired me out in front of everybody while we were still in session.

        "You know you almost got a perfect score on the quiz I handed back today." She thought I was cheating. I was, but not in this class.

        "I didn't cheat if that's what you're about to say I did," I defended fiercely. She smiled at me like she knew that'd be how I was going to react. I didn't know how she ended up working in such a dump like Woodsboro. She was young and attractive, with dark brown skin and bouncy curls, the life still in her eyes—not for long if she stayed here, this place had a way of sucking the joy out of people.