Walking out of the gym, I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut so the tears wouldn't boil over. I clutched the bag wrapped around my body, opened my eyes, and continued walking across the lot. I actually was a pretty emotional person, but I hated crying when someone made me mad. It just showed a sign of weakness - a sign that I d lost the battle; which is why I m outside where no one can see me. I took a seat on the curb and pulled my phone out. I hated not having a car. It put a dilemma on everything! Dad was talking about getting me an old mustang, but who knows with him. I looked down at my phone, hitting the new message button.
"Hey babe. Wanna come over tonight?"
From Ryan. We hadn't spent that much time together recently, and I felt bad, knowing that I had to ditch once again. Kat was coming over to plan for the 'Back to School Dance'. Ugh. I didn't mind going, but planning wasn't really my thing. I wasn't the best at that stuff so I will probably end up being the agree'er while Kat talks and plans. I didn't know what to say to him.
Sadie honked, knocking me out of my reverie. I rolled my eyes and jumped in the car.
"The least you can do is pay attention when I pull up." She started, when I was barely halfway in the car. "I don't like waiting for yo- actually, I don't like picking you up at all. C'mon Jude can't you-"
"Sadie!" I hissed, getting annoyed by her constant gripe already. "I've had a bad day. Shut up!"
The car slowed, I noticed. I turned my head to look at Sadie and she was staring at me incredulously. "Really? Why was it so bad?" She asked, mock innocence in her voice.
"School," I groaned, not going into detail.
"Ugh, boo hoo Jude. We all have to go to school. Get over it. Although I don't see why you think it's so bad.. I mean I iloved/i high school."
"Good for you." I mumbled, turning to gaze out the window. Typical Sadie, always having to bring me down. I couldn't stand her sometimes. She was okay, until she started rubbing things in my face. She was like that though. She always has to be the center of attention.
"So... I met someone."
I looked at her and laughed.
She shot me an irritated look. "He's coming over for dinner tommorow."
"Cool."
"Yeah.. I talked to mom about it. She said you could invite Ryan over."
"Of course she did," I sighed, shaking my head. My parents loved Ryan. They thought we were perfect for each other, and I m almost positive that if we ever broke up she would date him herself. I laughed thinking about it. Sadie raised her eyebrow and I shrugged.
"So you should bring him." She concluded.
I didn't say anything, trying to end the conversation. It worked. She didn't bring it up again and we didn't talk the rest of the way home. I went straight to my room when we got home, tossing my bag on the bed and burying my head in my pillow. It had been a pretty rough first day - not the worst - but definitely not first day material. I picked up my guitar and began strumming chords lightly. School was bound to suck this year, though I was hoping cheerleading would be off to a good start. The team was pretty good this year, and, it being my first year as captain and all I had to start stepping it up somehow. I had been worried lately, being the junior captain and having a senior as co-captain - like any minute my spot could be taken from me. Then with the new couch. Ugh! Little Tommy Q. I cringed as I thought his name, forcing myself to push those thoughts to the back of my head. It was one thing for us to hate each other, but a complete other for him to treat me like shit. I mean, making me run more laps than everyone for no reason? Giving me an assignment on the first day? It was gonna be a long year, I could already tell.
"Juuuuuudeeee. Heyyyy Judeeee." Kat sung as she busted through my door.
I laughed and raised an eyebrow as Kat skipped through the room singing and made her way to the bed. "Uh, Heyy Kat."
"We have a LOT of work to do! I can't believe I ever took this on. I'm gonna be so busy this week."
"I can't believe your dragging me into this. You Know I'm not creative at all."
"Oh please." She said, rolling her eyes. "So how'd your first day go?"
I rolled my eyes.
"That bad?"
"Well it wasn't the greatest."
"It'll get better." She assured. I was always notorious for having bad first day's so it didn't surprise her much. "What do you think about Little Tommy Q coming to our school? That's all everyone is talking about!"
I groaned, wishing I could go two seconds without hearing his name. Is that possible? I'm starting to think not.
"Not you too." I said icily.
"What? Seeing him in person has to make you like him. He's hot! And I m talkin' hot." She grinned hugely.
"Kat, there's something wrong with you."
Her mouth dropped open, "Ju-."
"Enough about Little Tommy Q! Let's just get to work."
She sighed but reluctantly pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, instantly scanning the paper and becoming attentive. "What theme are we going for?"
"Back to school?"
Kat shot me a look, "Duh."
"Um, it should be colorful... We should have drinks. And food. Look, why don't you call Jayden? She's better at this than me." I admitted.
"Yeah you kinda suck." She agreed, laughing.
"You'll need a concession... Maybe the cheerleaders could do a booth?" She asked.
She looked at me questionably.
"Like selling some of our junk we have in the cheer closet. We have mascot stuff, and rings. People would buy."
"Fine. Works for me." She said, shrugging. "I think I m gonna meet Jamie for some food. Wanna come?"
"Pass." I hated feeling like a third wheel when I was with them, and I had a feeling she was offering out of kindness.
"Jude you can be so unsocial sometimes."
I laughed, "Right. Maybe next time."
"Fine. See you later." She waved, exiting the room.
"Bye Sades." I called, jumping out of the car and walking to the foyer area of the school. I'd forgotten to text Ryan back last night, and I wanted to find him before he got the feeling I was ignoring him or something. He always got moody when I didn't text back. I forgot though. It was an honest mistake.
I spotted him at one of the vending machines. I sighed, thankful he wasn't around his friends. He had a tendency to be rude to me when his friends were around. "Hey Ry." I smiled and leaned up against the vending machine, biting my bottom lip softly out of nervousness.
"Thanks for texting me back last night." He said sarcastically. "I texted you twice." He said, turning to walk the other way.
Ugh. "Sorry, Ryan. I was talking to Sadie, then Kat came over and I lost track of time. You know I always forget to text people back."
"Kat was over?" He asked, turning towards me and crossing his arms.
I nodded tentatively, staring down at the ground.
"Okay so you can spend all week with your friends but you can't spare one night for me?"
"Ryan it wasn't like that."
"Save it, Jude. I'm getting sick of this." He started walking off but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Come over tonight." My voice sounded pathetic and pleading but I didn't know what else to say. "My mom's been dieing to see you."
He rolled his eyes, shrugging his arm away from my grasp. "Jude, I-."
"Please?" I begged, staring up at him with puppy dog eyes. "Just come over for dinner, okay? You can stay and hang out afterwards like old times... I'm sorry, okay?"
He stared at me for a few seconds before he finally answered. "Fine. I gotta go." He said, leaning down to kiss me before disappearing within the crowd.
I sighed, relieved, and walked to homeroom.
The day went by pretty fast. It was better than the day before luckily, though I had been dreading this moment all day. Mr. Quincy's class. I took a deep breath before I entered. I was determined not to let this class bring my whole day down. I walked past his desk where he was grading papers and took my seat next to Speid. Mr. Quincy looked up and smiled as the bell rung. The class was still full of noise when he stood in front of the classroom.
"Okay, listen up. Does anyone remember any math from last year?" He asked, scanning the room. He laughed when no one raised there hand. "Well I guess we'll find out." He said, picking up a stack of papers on his desk and handing them to a girl in the front row to pass out. "There's only twenty questions on here, but answer them to the best of your ability. I just want to know where we stand and where we need to go from. Any questions?"
"Is this for a grade?" Someone asked from the back of the room.
"Depends on how well you do." He said, looking over the room once more before his eyes stopped on me. "Jude,"
I looked up slowly, already growing angry at the sly smile on his face. "Yes?"
"I believe you had some homework."
"I believe I did." I said, smiling sarcastically at him before I reached in my bag and pulled out the completed worksheet. I handed it to him.
"Thank you." He went back to his desk and sat down.
I shot a glance at Speiderman and he was staring off into space, twirling his pencil between his fingers. I doubted he knew any of the answers. But I couldn't say much because I probably didn't know any either. I stared down at the paper and forced myself to concentrate on the equations. Once I stared daydreaming, I couldn't stop. It was like me to zone out the whole class, but since we were more than likely going to turn these in at the end of the hour, I had to get to work.
The bell rand before I knew it. I hurried to circle in the last few questions I didn't get to.
"Put your papers on that front desk on your way out."
I hurried as I got done guessing on the last few and threw my stuff in my bag. I didn't wanna be the last one out but it was looking like that was the case. I jumped out of the seat and placed my paper on the stack of other papers.
"Jude." I heard Mr. Quincy call. I thought about just walking out but was kinda curious as to what he wanted. I turned my head and he motioned for me to come to his desk. "Do you have something you need to tell me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
I stared at him, confused. I had nothing to say to him. "No?"
He held up my homework, and I spied a bunch of red marks on it. "Your homework?" He asked, acting like it would ring a bell but it didn t.
"Um, yeah, I did my homework. Thank you for your concern."
"You got almost every one of them wrong. Did you even give it an attempt?"
I didn't get any right? Wow, I actually tried on that paper. I worked out most of the problems. How were they wrong?
"Actually, I did. There must be a mistake." I said, snatching the paper from him and looking it over.
He laughed. "You're funny."
I stared at him, crossing my arms. "How so?" I raised my voice in agitation.
He shrugged, a smirk on his face. "You're just acting like your really surprised."
I stared at him, my mouth open in shock. Was he seriously laughing at me? He thinks this is a joke, does he? And I knew I wasn't totally wrong for hating him right off the spot.
The smile vanished from his face slowly as realization sunk in. "Um-"
"I suck at math, okay?" I was definitely offended.
He stared at me, not sure what to say. "I guess I should've gave you something a little easier then." He said seriously, though he looked like he was going to bust up laughing any second.
I smiled sarcastically and walked out of the classroom. I knew that class would put me in a bad mood.