Down For The Count

Ice Cream For Dinner

Paisley's POV

"You need to get better at doing your homework." Winter mumbled from beside me at the lunch table as I frantically tried to finish my paper on the interactions between branches of government.

"You're a smart girl, Paisley." Lin said.

"It's not that hard, you can do it, Paisley." Lin said.

"It'll be so fun, I can help with homework all the time, you'll ace that class!" Lin said.

"I didn't raise a non-AP level student." Lin said. And when I argued that technically he didn't raise me at all, he was not happy with me.

"Shh." I hushed Winter, knowing I only had ten minutes before lunch ended and I'd have to walk into Government and hand in whatever this trainwreck of a paper turned out to be.

"I miss the bubbly one." Alex sighed from across from us, referring to Violet who was currently in the Philippines visiting her family. She would be gone all week, which I was not excited for. I miss Violet.

"And she gets to miss today's Chemistry test? I studied all night and I already know I bombed it." Winter groaned, and I immediately panicked.

"We have a Chemistry test today?!"

Man, I have got to get better at paying attention in school.

Winter and Alex stared at me, both looking confused and a little annoyed.

"Since when did you become such an awful student?" Alex asked, causing me to frown.

"I'm not an awful student, my grades are good." I pointed out. Winter took the paper I was writing, reading it before I could protest.

"'The branches of government are good because they help and we need them.' That's your first line? Paisley, this is...awful. You really think your grade is gonna be okay after this?"

I shrugged, taking my paper back and starting to write again. "Some people are natural born writers. I am not one of them."

"Your dad is. This is legit, do your parents always write you notes?" I heard Alex say, and I looked up to find her grinning, holding the lunch notes that were always packed in my lunch box. Vanessa's were always very short and sweet, and Lin's were always some sort of very weird poem or rap. Today's was about not forgetting to let Tobi out when I got home from school.

"Those are private." I snatched the notes back, feeling my cheeks burn up a bit.

Alex laughed, looking ready to say something before quickly stopping, her face contorting into worry. "Do I look okay?"

"What? Why?" I asked at Alex's sudden shift in mood. But before she could say anything, a big smile rested on her face, and a girl appeared next to her.

"Sorry, the library printer ran out of paper, I had to wait forever to print out my essay." The girl said, dropping her book bag as she sat down beside Alex, looking over at Winter and I as if she had just noticed our presence. Her face heated up, and she looked a little embarrassed, her tone quieter than when she had been talking to Alex. "Oh, hi."

"Hi." Winter smiled at the seemingly soft spoken girl, looking to Alex for an explanation.

"This is Bailey."

"Hi." Bailey said quietly again, and it was very apparent that she was a shy person, which I thought was ironic considering how loud and outgoing Alex is. She was very pretty, the most prominent thing about her was her ridiculously curly black hair that was pulled back out of her face.