Chapter 7 #2
We don’t talk. We just lie there, and I can’t help but wonder if that was us getting back together or if that was the end.
Briggs seemed reluctant to do it. It’s like he was fighting with himself since the moment he got here.
He didn’t want to come inside, and when he did, he made it clear we couldn’t be friends, or anything more.
So was this some kind of goodbye, a way to end what we started?
“I should probably go,” he says, running his hand over my hair. He keeps doing that, and I like it. It’s soothing, comforting, like something a boyfriend would do.
“If you’re worried about my dad, he’s not coming home until late.”
“Are you saying I can stay?”
I look up at him. “If you want to.”
“Have you eaten yet?”
“No. I was about to when you got here.”
“Let’s order something in. Whatever you want. It’s on me.”
I smile, happy he’s staying.
“Then maybe after dinner,” he kisses me, “we could come back here and do this again.”
I get up from the bed and get dressed. “I’ll go get the takeout menus.”
“Don’t get something cheap,” he says. “I’m buying.”
“I only have menus for cheap places.” I go to the kitchen and get the menus, bringing them back to the bedroom.
“Go online,” Briggs says. “Find an expensive place you’ve always wanted to go and order from there.”
I watch as he gets dressed. “What’s going on with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re being really . . .” I stop to think how to say it.
“Nice?” he says with a smile.
“Yeah.” I smile back.
He comes up to me, his arms going around me. “I want you to be happy.”
“With food?”
“With everything.” He kisses me. “Order whatever you want. I left my wallet in the car. I’ll be right back.”
He’s staying and buying me dinner? Does this mean things are good with us? We’re back together? What about the valedictorian thing? Is he going to keep harassing me about it? I want to ask, but there’s a chance just bringing it up will ruin our night, and I’m loving this too much to have it end.
We order dinner from a fancy seafood place. It’s really good and something I never get because it’s expensive and my dad hates seafood. After dinner, we end up back in my room, in my bed. When he leaves at nine, I don’t want to tell him goodbye.
It was a perfect night, almost too perfect. It makes me worry that something bad will happen to take it all away.
* * *
Monday morning, I get to school early and go to the AP Chem room. Ms. Higgins is at her desk, grading papers.
“Ms. Higgins?”
She looks up at me and smiles. “Ella, what are you doing here so early?”
“I wanted to use the library before class. I found what I needed so I thought I’d stop by and see how I did on Friday’s exam.”
“I just finished grading them.” She shuffles through the stack of exams, pulls mine out, and hands it to me.
“An eighty-five?” I say, shocked that I didn’t do better than that.
“You missed the first few questions, but it’s still an excellent score. The average on the test was seventy.”
“I thought I had all the answers right.” I look over the questions I missed. “Are you sure this is wrong?” I show her the exam, pointing to question two.
“Yes. If you remember, I said in class that you’d need to account for all the variables. That was a tricky question. I had a feeling a lot of people would miss it.”
She’s acting like this is no big deal, but to me, eighty-five is a low score. I almost always get above a ninety.
“What was the highest grade?” I ask.
“One person had a perfect score.”
“Who?” I ask, but I think I already know.
“I’m not allowed to say, but I’m sure you can guess.”
“Briggs.”
She just smiles.
Briggs got a perfect score? That irritates me, but also turns me on. I love that he’s smart. It makes him even hotter. But I’m disappointed I didn’t at least get close to his score.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Ms. Higgins says. “You’re still first in the class.”
“I know. I’m just sick of Briggs always getting what he wants,” I say, starting my subtle investigation to see if she’s the texter, but I’m still not confident she’ll tell me anything.
“You make it sound like he didn’t work for it,” Ms. Higgins says. “That’s not really fair, Ella. Briggs had to study just like everyone else.”
“I know. I’m just annoyed in general, not just with Briggs, but everyone here. I’m tired of all these rich kids getting everything they want and doing stuff and getting away with it.”
Her brows draw together. “Like what? Are you talking about something specific?”
“No, but don’t you ever get tired of it? All these rich kids with their fancy clothes and fancy cars living a life of privilege?”
“It’s not my place to judge. If their parents give them those things, that’s their choice. It would be nice if they’d give some of that money to charity, but maybe they do.”
She wants them to give to charity. That was one of the demands. Is that a coincidence, or does it make her the texter?
“It’s not just that,” I say. “It’s the way they’re always picking on people. It’s wrong. Briggs bullied me for years. And Finn and Parker are always bullying the tech guys and they never get in trouble for it.”
She nods. “We’ve talked about that in our student advisory meetings, but there really isn’t much we can do unless we actually catch them in the act.”
“I’m sure there’s something you could do.”
“If you have ideas, let me know.” She looks down at the stack of papers on her desk. “Ella, I’d love to keep talking, but I really need to finish grading these before class starts.”
“Do you need this back?” I hold out my test.
“You can keep it. I’ll be handing them out today.” She looks up at me. “Don’t worry about your score. You’re still far ahead of anyone else in the class.”
“Yeah.” I force out a smile. “See you later.”
As I walk out to the hall, I notice Briggs coming my way. I race to hide my test in my backpack, but the zipper’s stuck.
“Ella,” I hear Briggs say.
I look up and see him in front of me. “Hey. You’re here early.”
“I’m going over some plays with Coach.” He glances at Ms. Higgins’ classroom. “You talk to her?”
“Yeah.” I lower my voice. “She didn’t say much, but I don’t think it’s her. I’ll tell you later.”
“What’s that?” He points to the test in my hand.
“Nothing.” I fold the test in half so he can’t see the grade.
“Is that the Chem exam?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I have to go.” I turn to leave.
“Wait.”
“What?” When I turn back, I see him checking to make sure we’re alone.
He walks up to me and smiles. “You want to meet up later?”
“Maybe,” I say in a flirty tone.
The classroom door opens, and Ms. Higgins comes out, stopping when she sees us. “Oh! I didn’t realize you two were out here.”
“We were just talking about our assignment,” I say.
She smiles at Briggs. “You did very well on your test last Friday.”
“Really?” he says, sounding surprised.
“You were the only one to get a perfect score,” she says. “I need to get something from the office. I’ll see you both at class.”
As she goes down the hall, Briggs looks at me. “I got the highest grade?”
I shrug. “That’s what she said.”
“I thought I got like an eighty on it, or eighty-five. I wasn’t sure about the first few questions. What’d you get? A ninety-nine?”
“It doesn’t matter. I need to look something up in the library so—”
“Ella, what’d you get?”
I sigh and show him the grade. “I don’t know what happened. I thought I got everything right.”
“It’s just one test. You’re still way ahead of me.”
“Chadwick!” a man barks. I look behind Briggs and see the rugby coach coming toward us.
Briggs turns around. “Coach. I was just coming to see you.”
“You’re late. Hurry up!”
“We’ll talk later,” Briggs says to me, taking off to meet with his coach.
I was just about to talk to him about ending this valedictorian fight, but the stupid coach interrupted us before I could.
I’ll have to do it later. I don’t want to put it off.
I feel like it keeps coming back and making us fight.
I need to find out why Briggs keeps pushing this and how to make him stop.
Maybe now that we’re back together, he’ll finally let it go.
I worked hard for that title. I’m not giving it up.