Chapter 28: What If Wrong Is Actually Right?: Part 1:

Note: 

Sorry this chapter is kind of boring and uneventful :/ But the next part will be a lot more interesting. I had a whole chunk of a scene I was going to include between David and Melody but I had to cut it because I knew I wouldn't be able to do it with The Sims 3's chemistry set :( Oh well... Until part 2 :)

The stench of unfamiliar chemicals and strange gases lingered between me and David as we finished up our lab, well technically he had done all the work and I just watched him.

"Okay so what are we mixing together now? This?" I asked, as I lifted up a test tube that contained a blue liquid, and flashed it in front of David's face.
"No! We're done, there's nothing else to do" He scolded, nudging my arm away from all the chemicals.
Just then Ms.Johnson swiftly walked over towards us and tapped my shoulder, crossing her arms over her chest as she eyed me up and down. "Ms.Wiggins what's the problem with this picture I'm seeing right now?" She tapped the heel of her foot in a long, monotonous rhythm, waiting for my response.

"Umm, I'm not sure. I'm not even doing anything-" I muttered, looking around at our table, everything looked fine to me.
Ms.Johnson kept staring at me and I was still standing there, like an oblivious little fool.
David nudged me with his elbow, laughing a little bit. "Your hair, fix it."
It wasn't until then that I realized I hadn't tied up my hair and we still had our Bunsen burner on even though we were about to turn it off. "Ohhhh, yeah that. I'm sorry Ms.Johnson." I said, walking towards my bag to go and get a scrunchie.
"Yeah, I know you are." She replied, smirking a little as she shook her head back and forth.

I turned my back towards her and walked to my seat, rolling my eyes while heaving a deep sigh. Why couldn't I still be at home, laying in my comfy bed? All of these chemical equations were making me feel brain dead. Ugh.
I slipped my fingers inside my bag, pulling out my scrunchie. "Yeah, the 6th is tomorrow, and then we just have to wait until the 13th!  Where have you been this whole week? Hockey tryouts are next week, you better get ready! I'm so glad the football season will be over soon...They didn't have too good of a season this year." Janelle was talking to her friend about the game tomorrow. Janelle was actually a pretty kick-ass hockey player despite the fact that she loved cheer leading and was quite 'girly' as some would say. I wondered if she talked to my sister lately. Everyone was always talking about sports these days. But that was nothing new for my school.
They made it so blatantly obvious that they appreciated the athletes more than the regular students or students that were interested in other things, and I hated that. I mean for Christ sakes, they were spending our parents hard earned money on silly equipment and new stadium lights that didn't even need to be replaced in the first place. We couldn't even at least get new textbooks or something, I found that quite pathetic. But then again my school was pretty pathetic despite the fact that it was a private school. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to be in a public school. Was it really as bad as they made it seem?
In an abrupt and careless manner, I gathered my hair in my hands and worked it through the hair tie, creating a rather sloppy looking bun, but I didn't really care.

Thank God it would be Christmas soon, because God only knew how much I really didn't want to be here in this hell hole of a school.

When I walked back over to David, he had already cleaned everything up at our table. This past week he had been very helpful despite the nasty attitude I had given him before. He tried to help me whenever he could even though I knew he was probably annoyed with me sometimes, especially since he kept repeating himself nearly everyday.
"David?" I asked, leaning against the table as I stared at him.
"Yeah?" He kept his eyes on the empty test tube as he dropped it inside the rack.
"Thanks. I know I can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but thanks." I knew my cheeks were turning various shades of scarlet but he was too busy to notice it.
He didn't laugh, or smile, his lips didn't even budge. "Oh yeah, it's no big deal." He said as if he were in a hurry or something. I at least thought he would say a joke, but he didn't, he was acting strange.
"Wow you're enthused... Are you okay?" I twisted my eyebrows, something definitely was up.
"I've had better days." He finally put the last test tube down inside the test tube rack. His eyes finally reached mine like a bulls eye on an archery target "I just have a lot on my mind."

  He looked back over at the test tubes and it looked like something was making him depressed.
What the hell had gotten into him? "What's wrong with you?" I knew I would probably regret asking him that.

   He rolled his eyes,looking  around the room in the most slow and awkward way. His lips pursed slightly and then looked at me, in a funny way. "You're too young to understand."
    "David you're only 2 years older than me, that's not really a significant age difference, you sound ridiculous." Did he realize what the hell he just said?!
    "It's a significant difference when you're in high school." He laughed at me and looked back over at the test tube.

"That makes no sense," I mumbled. "How are you anymore different than me?"
"Well..." He looked me up and down, laughing a little. "I'm a guy, and you're a girl."
I nudged him in the shoulder. "I get that, smart ass."
"Excuse me Ms.Wiggins?!" Shit. Ms.Johnson was stalking me from behind my back, like a hawk. I could just feel her beady little eyes on me. My heart rate quickened, she was about to swoop down and eat me alive.

I turned around to face her, looking like a ghost, pale and white in the face. "Yes?"
"Did you just say foul language in my classroom?" She raised her eyebrows, they looked like mini-mountains above her eyelids. "You do know that, I could report you for that, right?"
It was probably bad but I really didn't care if I was reported, I didn't want to be in school anymore. Suspension sounded like a glorious vacation to me. "Yeah I know, and I'm sorry Ms.Johnson." I said, trying to make it sound like I cared.
"Next time I won't be so generous when it comes to the use of foul language in my classroom do you understand Ms.Wiggins?" She looked at me like I was a dirt bag.
      "Yes ma'am." I said, nearly biting through my tongue.
      "Good. You know....You might want to learn a thing or two from your partner...Maybe he can help you clean up your act."  She looked over at David, grinning before she started walking towards another lab group.

    Ms.Johnson finally walked away and once she was nearly out of sight I turned to David, mocking her. "Maybe he can help you clean up your act." I turned back around, watching her help some other students in the class "Bitch." I muttered under my breath.
It was like David was at some comedy show because all he did was sit back and laugh. "You are a very mean-spirited girl, you don't seem like it...But you are, deep down inside."
I lapped my eyes at him. "No David, I just don't like it when teachers get on their high horse over dumb shit."
"Dumb shit" He said, throwing air quotes into the air. He laughed some more. "I see you really want to get reported, huh?" He waited for me to answer him but I ignored his little snide remarks.

A grin spread across his face like butter being spread across a piece of toast, pitch black, burnt toast. "Don't worry I can help you out with that..." His voice trailed off as he slowly started raising his hand as if he was going to ask a question.
My hand moved viciously fast like a fly swatter, slapping a fly. I slapped David's arm and looked around, making sure Ms.Johnson was still busy. "Put your fucking hand down!" I whispered.
"Owww!" He rubbed his arm, looking at me in shock. "What was that for?!"
"You know what that was for." I said, like a parent scolding their child.
"I was going to ask her a question about the lab" He was a really bad liar, his lab was already filled with the blue ink from his pen.
"Mhmmmm" I hummed, looking over at his paper.

 

     Just then, everyone started packing their things and David did the same. His fingers met the lab sheet and I felt like every thing was moving in slow motion. "Could I-Are you done with that?" I asked which was a dumb question because 1: I sounded stupid. And 2: He already had blue ink plastered all over it.
    "You want to 'borrow' it, don't you?" He asked, throwing up air quotes yet again.
  "Never mind." I could do it on my own, I just didn't feel like it.
    He grinned and his cheeks displayed the universal color of love, red. "Relax, it was just a joke. Here..." He slid the lab over to my side of the table.

     The bell finally rung and he got up, not even bothering to look at me.  He walked out of the door, as if he were stalling, but then he turned left and completely disappeared like April raindrops that evaporate during the warm month of May.






   

***

   "Okay class so what do we know about triangles that can help us solve this problem?" Mr.Huff asked, looking around the sea of unenthusiastic students until his eyes landed on me. "Ahh yes Melody, please enlighten your classmates."
“ We already have two of the angles, and the angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees so you can set up an equation to find the measure of the missing angle.” I don’t know why but math was that one thing that actually still made sense to me. There were no tricks and exceptions the answer was either incorrect or correct, and you could always check your answers.
“Very good, but could you possibly tell me more?” He asked as he looked back up at the board.

I looked back down at the paper, realizing that the question wasn't just asking about the measure of angles, it was asking about the lengths of the sides too.
He had already moved on now, pointing to another student who had their hand raised. “Yes?”
“There’s a median in the middle of the triangle so side AE and side EF have the same length, you can also add them together and find out the length of side AF as a whole.” A warm voice said from the right side of my shoulder.
I peered over my shoulder to see that blonde haired, grey eyed beast look back at me. My eyes scurried away from his and found their way back to the board.

"Set this equation up and solve for x, ladies and gentlemen." Mr.Huff turned to the board, writing out the proper way the equation should look. He took a quick glance at the clock. "Hmm. Never mind guys, we'll finish this up tomorrow."
Everyone started throwing their notebooks, pencils, pens, and other school related shit inside of their bags.
I gathered my belongings, turning towards the aisle between the desks, but I was blocked. My foot stopped dead in its tracks and my eyes ran up to the person standing right in front of me.
Denver lifted his hand out towards the side, gesturing for me to go as he flashed his million dollar smile. I could only imagine the amount of girls he pulled in with that smile, it's  a shame I was almost one of them.
We stood there just looking at each other for a moment. I shook my head, insisting that he go instead but Mr.Huff called out to me. "Melody may I have a word with you?"

Finally something to break this awkward tension, I was pretty sure we would've started doing the awkward dance if Mr.Huff hadn't intruded our little awkward encounter.
Denver walked out the door in a swift manner and I just stood there staring at Mr.Huff. I guess he didn't have any classes to teach this period because no one else was entering the room, and that made me feel uneasy.
I walked over to his desk slow and cautiously, thinking about what he could possibly have to say to me.  Did I fail that test we took last week? Did I look at him the wrong way?What the hell did I do?
"It's a pleasure to finally be able to talk to you in a more quiet and personal environment Ms.Wiggins" He said gingerly.
My eyes roamed from the ceiling, to the board, to the desk, and then finally back at him. "Yeah, it is." I murmured, grabbing my forearm with my freehand.

He kept smiling at me, which completely threw me off. I guess I didn't do anything wrong after all.  "I know you're probably wondering why I want to speak with you."
"Yeah, I'm pretty confused right now." I giggled nervously, even though he didn't say anything even remotely funny.

"I just wanted to talk to you about that test we took last week and give you a consideration that you should strongly think about." Oh God, I was wrong, he was definitely going to grill me for completely bombing that exam.
He reached over to the pile of worn, and faded white papers , pulling out one  that had a red marking on top of it and my name on it, it was my exam. Surprisingly it said 99% so what was his issue?
He pointed at me. "You passed with flying colors on last weeks exam Ms.Wiggins and you weren't even here for a whole month! That's amazing." His smile slightly twisted a little bit "Although you did lose a point for a silly mistake with a double negative- but other than that holy cow...I'm impressed."

I was a Christopher Columbus 2.0, taking credit for something I wasn't even worthy of, and doing horrible things people would shun me for. I probably just got lucky anyways, that exam seemed pretty hard when I took it. "Well thanks, I guess." I looked up at the ceiling again. "That exam was pretty difficult."
His eyes widened. "I know and that's why I nominated you for our math team, The LakeWood Radicals. Only honors students can get in and you qualify although I'm not sure why you never joined on your own." He looked at me funny, and I did the same.
Did he seriously just say what I think he said?! "I'm not that smart, I just study hard...And besides they probably do complicated things I can't even understand, there's no use in me joining if I can't be of use to them."

He placed his arms around the sides of my shoulders. "Well their next meet is tomorrow, you have to make up your mind because after that they're going to start preparing for more competitive opportunities...You can do it, I know you can." It felt so awkward having someone believe in me. My own mother never said anything like that to me, I pretty much motivated myself half the time when she was barely around.

I walked over towards the door, bringing the conversation to an end without even verbalizing it because, I knew he would only try and persuade me some more. Ugh but why did he have to say all of that? I hated that. It felt like he was pushing me to push my self and right now I didn't want to push myself, I wanted to relax. And besides if he thought I was so worthy, why did he wait until now to say all of this crap?

"If you say you can't do something without even trying it first, then you've already failed." He walked back over to his desk and pulled out some more withered papers and a red pen. I headed for the door but before I left he looked over at me, not smiling nor frowning, he just looked stern. "Enjoy the rest of your day Ms.Wiggins, I hope you make the wise decision."