Chapter 5 – I Need a Proper Scolding
Monday
“What are you doing?” Sophie asked as we both sat down in the back of the classroom.
I clicked “order” on my phone and looked up. “Sending Axel soup.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, I always do when he misses school. You know that.” Just in case he was actually sick.
“Scar, you have to stop sending him soup.”
“Why? I sent it to him when I was only fake dating Jacob and you said it was fine.”
“Because you were only fake dating him,” she said. “Everything is different now.”
“But it’s a friendship soup. You said that was a thing.” Or was it RJ who had said that was a thing? And I certainly shouldn’t be trusting RJ about anything...
She sighed. “So let me get this straight. You want to stop talking to the kiss thief but you want to keep sending Axel cute gifts when he ditches school?”
“It’s not the same. Axel and I are still friends...”
“It will probably make Jacob mad.”
Oh. “You really think so? Jacob knows I always send Axel soup on sick days.” But I didn’t want to upset Jacob.
“Yeah, there’s no way Jacob’s not being territorial after you told him Axel has been spending the night in your bed every night.”
I pressed my lips together.
“You didn’t tell him?” she hissed.
“I just didn’t get a chance to yet. I was grounded all day yesterday and phoneless.”
“Okay.” She slowly nodded. “Okay, yeah. Let’s just not tell him.”
“Sophie, that’s not what I just said. I have to tell him.”
“Why? Wait. Is Axel still spending the night?”
I’d explained what happened Saturday night in my email to her. If she wanted to know those details she could read it. “He didn’t show up last night. I told him not to. So maybe he just listened. But now I’m thinking he actually might be sick. I hope he’s okay.”
“Cancel the soup order,” she said.
“What?”
“Undo what you just did. You need boundaries.” She reached for my phone.
I pulled it away. “But he’ll be expecting soup. What if he really needs it?”
Sophie reached for my phone again. “He’s going to think you’re still in love with him.”
“He never knew I was in love with him.” Yes, I’d told him I’d saved my first kiss for him.
But he’d never really brought it up again.
At least not when he was sober. He was probably drunk the night I’d confessed it to him too.
Axel didn’t know. That’s what I had to believe.
Because if he did know and had treated me the way he had for the last several years, I wasn’t sure I could even consider him a friend anymore.
“Are you sure about that?” Sophie practically fell out of her chair as she tried to snatch my phone away again.
“Friends need soup too.”
“No they don’t. You never send me soup, you whore.”
“Miss Hunter and Miss Hunter,” Mr. Halifax said.
Sophie and I both froze. I hadn’t seen him walk in.
“No phones,” he said. “It’s time for class.”
I’d never heard him so stern before. But I’d be stern too if my face was as swollen as his.
“How am I supposed to show him my tasteful picture if I can’t have my phone out?” Sophie whispered.
A few other people were whispering too. Probably about the state of Mr. Halifax’s face.
“Miss Hunter,” Mr. Halifax said firmly, ignoring everyone else whispering. “Are you planning on speaking during my whole class?”
Sophie smiled and shook her head.
Mr. Halifax turned to the board.
She seemed pleased that he’d singled her out. She winked at me. “He’s obsessed,” she mouthed silently at me.
No, I was pretty sure he was just pissed at both of us because of what had gone down at homecoming. Sophie was being a bit delusional.
I tried to pay attention to what Mr. Halifax was saying.
I truly did. But I’d somehow gotten super behind in calc.
And trying to figure out what to say to the kiss thief was very distracting.
Everything I thought of just sounded harsh.
And I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I’d really enjoyed getting to know him.
I frowned. But had I really gotten to know him? I didn’t even know his name.
I made sure Mr. Halifax wasn’t looking and pulled my phone back out. I slid on my glasses and sent RJ a text asking him to tell me who the kiss thief was. I took off my glasses and put them back in my pocket.
RJ responded right away even though he was in class too: “Just wait for it, baby doll.”
I was going to kill him. I was dying to know who it was. And yet...did it really matter? I was starting to think ghosting my kiss thief was the best move.
Mr. Halifax kept droning on about derivates.
I stared at my phone beneath my desk. I’d gotten a notification about the soup being delivered.
And yet...Axel hadn’t said anything. He usually thanked me right away.
Or at least acknowledged that the soup had arrived.
How sick was he exactly? Maybe Aunt Hails had to stay home with him and she’d answered the door instead?
But he’d have to be pretty ill for that to be the case...
“Pst,” Sophie said.
I looked up to see Mr. Halifax walking down the aisle toward me.
Shit. I slid my phone under my thigh. Fortunately he was handing out the grades and didn’t see me on my phone.
And even though Sophie had warned me to put my phone away, she pulled hers out.
“Sophie,” I whispered. “Don’t do it.”
She ignored me. And I assumed she pulled up the picture of her bashful nipple or whatever the hell she’d called it. She placed her phone on her desk, not trying to be subtle at all.
I would have hit it onto the floor, but Mr. Halifax had just stepped between us.
This was going to be a disaster.
Mr. Halifax handed me my quiz. “Great job on this one, Miss Hunter. This should help bring your grade back up a bit. Keep it up.”
What? There was no way I’d done well on that quiz...
I turned it over and stared at the 97 at the top of the first page.
A 97? I’d seriously gotten an A? But as I stared down at just the first page of red ink correcting the problems, I knew there was no way.
I’d probably gotten a C at the very best. And yet that 97 was staring back at me.
Why had he given me a grade I didn’t deserve?
“Miss Hunter, what did I say about phones during class?”
“I’m sorry, sir,” Sophie said. “Sometimes I need a proper scolding for it to get through my head.” She bit her lip.
Jesus, Soph.
“That’s it. I’m confiscating this until the end of the day.” He grabbed it from her desk.
Wait. Had he seen what was on it? Was he taking it because he wanted to look at that picture?
I leaned back in my chair to get a better view of what was happening.
“You can pick it up at the end of the day.” Mr. Halifax was about to slide the phone into his pocket when he must have finally looked down at the screen. The phone fell out of his hand and landed on the floor. He cursed under his breath and grabbed it.
Sophie was smiling so hard.
He quickly shoved it into his pocket, this time without looking at it.
“Oh darn,” Sophie said. “I forgot to set a passcode on my phone. I hope you don’t look at any of my photos from this weekend. That would be like...totally embarrassing for me. And such a violation of my privacy since I’m barely wearing anything in my photos.”
Mr. Halifax ignored her and slammed her quiz down on her desk.
He walked away without acknowledging her comment.
The bell rang and Sophie grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. I held my quiz tight to my chest. Seriously...why had Mr. Halifax given me an A?
“I can’t even believe it,” Sophie said. “He told me to meet up with him after school!”
“Did he?”
“Yes! Why else would he have taken my phone if he didn’t want a moment alone with me after all the students are gone?”
“He didn’t say come alone...”
“And I think he got hard when he saw my picture. Did you notice when he bent over?”
“Ew. Soph. Stop. He’s our teacher. And I didn’t see a boner through his khakis.”
“Since you’re an expert now.” She waggled her eyebrows at me. “God, I can’t believe this is actually about to happen. Do you think he’ll take me on his desk or against the chalkboard? Or in his car? Oh the forbiddeness of it all!”
“Nothing is about to happen. How about you let me go pick up your phone after school?”
“Why?”
“So you don’t get expelled, Soph.” And I needed to ask him about this grade...
“Mr. Halifax would never report me. He’s in love with me.”
“Look, I’m not saying that he’s not. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. But that doesn’t mean you should act on it now.”
“That’s not what your mom would say, am I right?” She lifted her hand for a high five.
I laughed and high fived her. “Whatever.”
“So how did you do on your quiz? I purposely got one question wrong so Mr. Halifax could reprimand me when we hook up. But a 94 is still an A.”
“I...um...did okay.”
“What did you get?”
I shrugged. “Just the usual.”
Sophie made a face. “Another C? I’m sorry.”
“That’s not my usual grade. It’s just been a rough year for calc.”
“So you didn’t get a C?”
“No, I got an A too.”
“You did?” She looked shocked.
“Is that so hard to believe?”
“I mean...no. You did fine in pre-calc last year. But you’ve been struggling this year. So you didn’t even get one whole problem wrong?”
“Nope.” I knew my voice came out weird.
“Let me see your quiz.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because quizzes are personal, Soph.”
“Why are you being so weird right now?” she asked.
“I’m not.”
“You are. What did Mr. Halifax do? Did he slip you his number or something?”
“No...”
She snatched my quiz from my hand.
“Soph...”
Her eyes grew round. She flipped to another page of the quiz and looked up at me. “You did not get an A, Scar.”
“It says I did.”
Soph sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “I swear to God, if he’s giving you an A because he’s secretly in love with you...”
“That’s not what’s happening.” I snatched my quiz back. “He’s not my kiss thief.” I hope.
“I would literally die.”
“Your brother could just put me out of my misery and tell me already.”
“I’ll get it out of him at lunch,” Sophie said. “But seriously...why else would Mr. Halifax give you an A all randomly like that? He definitely wants to get in your pants.”
If he was my kiss thief he’d already been in my pants. Yikes.
“I swear if he thinks he’s going to get both of us...”
“I’m not interested in Mr. Halifax.”
“Everyone is interested in Mr. Halifax. Unless you’re suddenly blind.”
I shook my head. “There has to be another explanation. Maybe...” I shrugged. I had no idea why Mr. Halifax had given me an undeserved A. “Maybe this was part of the deal he made with my dad as part of how they’re both still teaching? Even though both of them should have been fired.”
“Did your dad know how badly you were doing in calc?”
I shook my head. “I feel like it must have to do with my dad though. Somehow.” I didn’t want it to have anything to do with my kiss thief.
“Oh my God, I got it!” Sophie said. “You’re brilliant. It’s all about your dad. Mr. Halifax is giving you an A because he doesn’t want your dad to hit him again.”
I mean that was as good of a theory as any. “Yeah, that could be it.”
“That must be it. He’s giving you an A so your dad doesn’t hurt him. Duh. That’s definitely right.”
“If you say so.”
“I do. Because he’s not your kiss thief. He can’t be. Speaking of which, give me your phone.”
“Why?”
“Trust me.”
I handed her my phone.
“Gah. Where are your glasses? Unlock it for me.”
I sighed and pulled out my glasses. I unlocked my phone and she started typing. “What are you doing?”
“There. Done.” She handed it back to me.
She’d responded to my kiss thief: “Tell me who you are or I’m never speaking to you again.”
Okay, yeah, that was better than anything else I was going to say. The kiss thief would most likely not reveal his identity. So it gave me a reason to stop talking to him.
And none of that mattered anyway. Because RJ knew my kiss thief’s identity. I just needed to wait until lunch to finally unmask him.