Chapter 20 #3
Her dad called. Gross, my hands are all sweaty. Yuck, this never happens. Okay, so did her dad not mention calling my mom? Or is Tabitha waiting for me to say something? Ugh, I don’t wanna know, so I’ll just skip it.
“What subject do you have now?”
“Social studies. You?” she replies.
“History. Figures why you can text as easily as me.”
“My teacher’s no biggy. It’s Cammy I gotta watch out for.”
“How many classes are you stuck with her?”
“Too many, lol.”
“Does sitting next to me in chem not look so bad now?”
“Psst,“ Tyler whispers from the side of his mouth. “Dude, are you texting her right now?”
I pocket my phone. “Cool it. Don’t get me caught.”
“Gentlemen?” our teacher props his head up from his book. “Something you wish to discuss?”
“No, sir,” we reply in unison.
Tyler shrugs at me. “Sorry, man.”
I grin. “No problem.”
Phew.
My phone buzzes again. Dang, I wanna check it. But suspicions are too high, and I don’t want to waste my time in detention. I check the clock on the wall, and it’s too long until the next bell. I wonder if I can get a bathroom slip.
I shoot my hand up.
Our teacher huffs. “Yes, Mr. Nelson?”
“Can I go to the bathroom?”
“We’ve only been in class for ten minutes.”
I cross my fingers. “Is that a yes?”
“That’s a no, Mr. Nelson. Please return to the discussion questions. Everyone, you have another five minutes to answer the questions, then we are opening them up to the class.”
I look down at the scribbles on my page.
I don’t know why they ask us to fill out answers when kids are gonna call out the answers later.
I always just fill in whatever turns out to be the answer our teacher deems correct.
It’s a gamble whether I’ll get called on, but I can always wing an answer.
The teacher will do his usual thing of telling me I’m wrong.
Maybe, one of the sheep in this room will become a truth seeker, but I doubt it.
Then someone else in the class will explain the school-sanctioned correct response.
Heck, I don’t even think I need to write anything down because our teacher won’t be collecting our notes. So, this class is a joke. I can coast through. I’m cool with that.
I pan around the classroom at the students quietly writing their answers. This is my last shot. I’ve got five minutes until everyone is looking up, and our teacher is standing and staring at us.
I pull out my phone and read Tabitha’s last text. “Iguklbg.”
What the?
I’m risking getting caught for a bunch of gibberish?
“What?” I text back.
I pocket my phone, and soon the class is open for discussion. My phone doesn’t buzz for the rest of the lesson. It doesn’t matter because I’m moving on to chemistry, anyway.
I get into class first, which I’m kinda bummed about. Tabitha usually beats me here, and I was looking forward to seeing her as I walked up the aisle to our bench.
She still hasn’t arrived by the time Mrs. Field instructs us to get our experiment supplies from the cupboard. By the time Mrs. Field drops off the chemicals we need at our lab bench, Tabitha dashes into the classroom.
“Sorry I’m late, ma’am,” she says, panting. The girl really needs to work on her form. “Here’s a note from Mr. Myers, excusing my tardiness.”
“Very well, Tabitha,” Mrs. Field says, taking the note. “Looks like your lab partner has all your gear ready to go.”
“Thanks,” Tabitha replies, sitting and catching her breath.
I slide a pair of safety glasses across the table to her. “Here.”
She blushes. “Thanks.”
“You had to run here?”
“I got busted,” she whispers.
“Huh?”
“Texting,” she murmurs, cupping a hand over her mouth as a soft blush highlights the apple of her cheeks. “Mr. Myers caught me and confiscated my phone.”
I smirk. “So that’s why you didn’t reply.”
“Correction: it’s why I sent you whatever my thumb mashed against the keyboard.
” She giggles, and the cuteness drives me crazy.
“I wanted to send you something before he ripped it away from me. Then I realized I should lock the phone before he had complete control over it. You texted nothing back, right?”
“Just the word, what?”
She chews her bottom lip, and it looks as soft as a marshmallow. “Okay, so Mr. Myers has seen your name on my lock screen. Maybe I should hide notifications while at school.”
I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “Ashamed to be seen texting me?”
A dainty cough comes out of her, and then she clears her throat. “I thought you didn’t want to be seen talking to me.”
I tap the desk, thinking about it. “There are worse things I could be accused of doing.”
She leans in. “Will your friends think so?”
I glance at Camila’s desk. “Will yours?”
Her gaze flicks toward Camila and then back to me. “I was panicked that Cammy was gonna see me texting you.”
I fidget with a test tube in its holder. “And what would’ve happened if she saw?”
“That’s the worst part,” she whispers, filling a beaker with saline. “You never can tell with Cammy.”
“I don’t know how you can stand it.”
“Well, when we’re on the same side, she’s amazing. Especially in the last few years before her mom and dad’s marriage broke down. Cammy was an unstoppable force, and it was intoxicating being around her.”
“So, she wasn’t always a nasty piece of work?” I ask, measuring out the purple chemical.
“No, of course not,” her voice stays low. “I would’ve ditched her by freshman year if that were the case. But deep down, she’s not a bad person. She can be kind and buy me cute jewelry.”
“I guess I can understand feeling loyal to her when you’ve been friends for this long.”
“Do you have any friendships like that?”
I shake my head, readying the green liquid. “Nope. There’s no bad blood with my friends and we don’t need to buy each other off.”
“That’s not what I was saying.”
“I didn’t mean to make a dig at you. Just saying, my friendships are different to yours. Heck, I even let Tyler in on the fact we’ve been texting.”
Her chin drops. “Seriously? I saw you walking with him, and it seemed like you didn’t want him to know we’d been hanging out.”
“I was fence-sitting. Something I never do. So, I just spat it out.”
“Wow. And it was okay?”
“Yeah, he didn’t really care. He was glad he wasn’t me when we talked about Jamie finding out.”
Tabitha sighs. “She hates me.”
“She doesn’t know you.”
“She knows the girl who’s said nasty stuff to her.”
“But you’ve said nothing in ages, right?”
“Right.” She grins and lifts her pinky. “To teamwork?”
I reflect her grin and latch my pinky around hers. “To teamwork.”
“Wow,” Mrs. Field remarks giddily, stopping at our lab bench. “This is a much improved development.”
We quickly unlatch our pinkies before other students gawk at us.
Mrs. Field smiles and nods. “Keep up the good work, you two.”
When our teacher moves away, Tabitha pushes her curls off her shoulders and clears her throat. “That wasn’t half embarrassing.”
“At least she isn’t nagging us,” I joke, wishing I could’ve savored the moment my skin connected with hers.
Tabitha fixes the safety glasses against the bridge of her nose, and I can’t help thinking just how good she makes them look.
She smiles at me. “What is it?”
“Oh, nothing. Just glad we’re sticking to the truce.”
Her smile grows. “Me too.”