It was past midnight when I looked away from the book.
"Wow, you didn't even eat." I thought to myself. The work was really intense, much harder then any workout I had ever done, even the three hour brutal ones Coach Stevenson gave us that left even me feeling pain for days. My brain hurt from trying to process all the random words and facts from the biology book, and my eyes were watering from reading those tiny letters. But I think I was finally starting to get it. For the life of me, I had no idea why someone would need to know this stuff. But I was willing to believe that it was important, and I just didn't know the answer. Although I had to constantly condition myself to continue with thoughts of Quinn in the beginning, I found that the more I read the book, the less I needed to do so. It was actually quite the challenge, and the fact that it was hard was motivating me to complete it.
"That never happened before." I thought. But I didn't consider that thought for very long. I couldn't hold very much in my head, and, other then football plans and the bits and pieces of information I knew about Quinn, this biology stuff was going to stretch my head.
"And now, tomorrow, we'll see if it all pays off."
Quinn was answering questions again in Mr. O'Neill's class after he handed out the book we'd be reading. He had mentioned it was a romance novel, and once he did, I was two steps away from throwing it out. Who wanted to read those stupid chick books? But Quinn started discussing violence and ghosts and other stuff the book apparently had, and I found myself amazed. Maybe "romance" novels were different back then.
In sixth period, Barch seemed angrier then ever. She swung a wooden pointer around in her hands, paced angrily back and forth. It was a bit intimidating at first, and I thought to save trying to impress Quinn until tomorrow. But I had to move quickly. Football started next week, and my time would be occupied quickly. I needed to establish myself to Quinn as someone who knew his stuff.
"There are three different types of biomes." Ms. Barch started to talk. "Who here knows what they are?" She asked. Quinn rose her hand first and answered "ones on land."
"Technically, it's terrestrial, but very good, Miss Morgandorffer. Do you know the others?" Barch cracked her first smile. Quinn tilted her head and started to think.
"Ummm...I remember the word marine." She responded after a quiet moment.
"That's very good." Barch replied. "And the last?" Quinn started to think again. There was another quiet moment as Quinn started to think. I rose my hand.
"Mister Mercer, do you need to use the bathroom? Well, go ahead. Say the rhyme." Barch scowled and teased. I frowned. "The rhyme" was something Barch made all the guys say if they tried to leave the room, a humiliating little ditty that made pissing one's pants only slightly more embarrassing than actually saying it.
"I don't need to use the bathroom, Ms. Barch, I wanted to answer the question." I replied. Jamie looked at me strangely, and I heard a few whispers between lab partners. Quinn turned around to look at me.
"I could use a laugh. Go ahead." Barch was expecting me, or maybe just hoping, that I would fail.
"The last one is freshwater." I answered, confident that I had the answer right. "Marine systems are just saltwater." Barch's eyes widened, and I knew I was right. She only ever looked that way when guys got answers right.
"That's correct, Mister Mercer." She stated. "But can you give me ten examples?" Barch was angry now, and determined more then ever to see me fail. I'd been wrong plenty of times in her class before, but I couldn't back down now. I looked at Quinn, and she seemed intrigued. She had a slight smile on her face as she sat backwards in her seat.
"Watch this, Quinn. I'm going to be your knight in shining armor, finally!"
"Tundra, taiga, Mediterranean forests, temperate forests, tropical forests, littoral zones, coral reefs, cold seeps, hydro thermic vents, and the endolithic zone." I started. I was be reciting words I never knew before yesterday, and not just that, words that weren't in the textbook, things I knew from my computer research, just in case Quinn read the book too, and wouldn't be impressed. I knew that these were right, and I was pretty sure I said everything correctly. Quinn's eyebrows raised in amazement. She figured I was right, even before Barch said anything. I scanned the room, and all of the eyes were on me. Jamie's jaw dropped. Barch looked extremely pissed.
"What's the difference between an ecosystem and a habitat!" She shouted in a cruel voice, pointing to me with the pointer, leveling it just in front of my nose.
"The...the habitat is just the environment, and the ecosystem includes all the creatures?" I posed it like a question. Barch scowled, and I was now 3 for 3. I sat back down as Barch fumbled in quiet silence. No guy, at least none that I knew of, had successfully stood up to Barch and her barrage of questioning like that. I think the guys would have all been silently cheering the fact that someone slew the dragon if they weren't looking at me as if I had grown several heads. Different lab partners soon started muttering things to each other.
"How was that, Quinn?" I thought to myself, not wanting to speak aloud and let Barch chastise me for talking in class. She would be looking for an excuse to punish now.
I wanted to talk to Quinn after class, but Joey and Jamie immediately came to me before I had even put my books away.
"Dude, what was that?" Joey asked.
"What was what?" I played innocent.
"You answered Barch's questions." Jamie added.
"So?" I replied. "Barch would have just assigned more homework if someone didn't answer them."
"But you never answer questions, man. You turning into a geek or something?" Joey posed, and that was when I realized I might have overdone it. Becoming a geek would have been a death sentence. We football players were not geeks, even Mad Mack, our captain from last year who did better on his grades then the entire team, never became a geek. And my answering, although impressive, was definitely geek material.
I had to deflect this fast. Quinn would never date a geek. Even if I tutored her, there would be no chance in hell of me turning a tutor session into a date if I was unpopular. She'd laugh at me. I wouldn't be her type.
"No way, dude. C'mon, you guys know me. If Barch assigned us more homework, we'd just have less time for Quinn." We started walking down the hall to our study hall.
"Besides, dude, wasn't it cool to see Barch so pissed off. You can't say you honestly didn't want to shove that nasty attitude of hers down her throat." I did admit, sticking it to Barch was pretty awesome, which made my excuse more believable. Much talk in the locker room after practice was about hatred of Janet Barch.
I saw Quinn as I left after class. Today was a Tuesday, and the guys and I were headed to the arcade, as we had done every Tuesday since elementary school. Quinn was waiting outside of the school, apparently waiting for someone. Maybe the rest of her friends.
I first thought I'd call to her, but I soon realized I didn't know how I'd gauge her reaction to my talking in Barch's class without asking her directly, and that would be pretty arrogant of me. Quinn didn't like arrogance in her guys.
"Bye, Quinn!" Was the only thing I said as I passed her, but I started walking slowly, slow enough so that Quinn could stop me.
"Hey, Jeffy!" She called. I turned around eagerly.
"Quinn, what is it!" I asked cheerfully.
"I didn't know you knew biology." She stated to me. Perfect. Let her lead the conversation.
"Yeah." I tried to act like it was no big deal. "But you would have definitely gotten that last question."
"No, I wouldn't have." Quinn dismissed, which was odd. Quinn had never before admitted something like that. She had really changed over this last summer. I didn't see her very much, since she had been working at Governor's Park, but whatever it was she had done, she was a different acting person. But she was still my beautiful Quinn, and she could make smarts look hot.
"Did you...ah...need a little help the class?" I forced a stutter to make my ask sound less rehearsed. Quinn paused for a moment, as if she didn't know what to answer.
"Well, I'm going to need help in more then just biology." Quinn commented absently, as if she was speaking to someone else.
"Quinn, you're plenty smart. You did really good in Mr. O'Neill's class." I praised.
"But that's not good, that's just bleh. I..." She looked like she wanted to say something else, but a red car drove up.
"Oh, that's my mom. I have to go, bye!" She immediately ran off to the car and got in the front seat. It pulled away before I could say anything else. Perhaps they were merely running late?
After going home to grab a few bucks, I made it to the arcade.
"You're late, dude." Jamie criticized.
"That's because I was talking to Quinn." I taunted, which made Jamie kick the floor in frustration.
"But I'm here now, come on! I'm kicking all of your guy's ass tonight!" Our nights at the arcade were a habit. Every Tuesday, we came here and played a few games, and then go for food afterward. The loser bought. Luckily, the loser was usually not me; Joey often got the short end of the stick.
"Dude, you've got no reaction time." I criticized when Joey kept getting shot at a light gun shooter. "I could beat you at this completely shitfaced."
"Yeah, but at least I don't drive like an old lady." He returned, criticizing how I usually came in last on the driving games.
"I still got my license before you did." I returned. Joey didn't reply to me, he was concentrating on the game again.
"You guys don't think I'm turning into a brain, are you?" I asked once we reached Pizza Palace. Jamie had lost, which was surprising considering he kicked our asses at the basketball shooting. Neither of them answered for a moment.
"No, dude, of course not." Jamie stated. "You just answered some questions."
"Good, cause that's all it was." I let the subject drop. The last thing I needed were rumors spread to kill my chances with Quinn. And these guys, much as I liked them, were not above doing such a thing. One of them even spread the rumor that I still slept with a teddy bear, just to make me look bad in front of Quinn. All was fair in love and war, but even I thought that was pretty low.
"You know, how come whenever you lose, Jamie, you don't just take us back to your house?" Joey asked.
"Hey, yeah! Why don't you do that." I joined in. Jamie's parents were chefs, and, if I remembered, would be opening their own restaurant within a month. He didn't just eat food every night, he ate cuisine. We'd get much better then pizza if we went over there.
"Because the rule is the loser pays. That's not paying." We had asked this question of Jamie before, and he always said the same thing.
"Anyway." He immediately reversed the table on us. "It's not like you guys invite me over for a home-cooked meal when I win."
"Dude, how can the stuff my mom cooks compare to that?" Joey replied.
"My dad doesn't get home until late anyway." I deflected.
"And when he is, he's passed out or just about there." I kept silently to myself. I never invited anyone over to my house unless I was certain my father was out of town. It was just the two of us there after my mom left twelve years ago, and, between the beer cans on the floor and my father's drunken nonsense, it would have been enough to make anyone hate, or worse, pity me as soon as they saw it. We three guys were together each and every day, but we almost never went to each others houses, but we never pressed it much either. I had my reasons for not doing so. They must have had theirs too, although for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was. Joey and Jamie still had both of their parents.
I walked home from the Pizza Palace since the sun was still out. On my way, I mulled over what I heard Quinn talking about outside the school.
"Well, I'm going to need help in more then just biology." She had said. There'd be no way I could learn everything in that short period of time. It was hard enough just learning biology.
"Now what, genius?" I thought. Quinn didn't want someone to just help her in one subject, and she wouldn't take someone who could just do that. Was it just a stupid idea, like so many other ones I had?
I heard a clinking sound on the pavement, and realized I dropped one of my leftover quarters. I bent down to retrieve it, and when I paused, I noticed I was standing in front of a bookstore. I don't remember the last time I had been in a bookstore, maybe to get a gift for my aunt about five years ago. It was definitely very big, but this one didn't have CD's in it like the other bookstore, so I normally wouldn't have even bothered. But I needed a smart idea to figure out how I was going to get Quinn without devoting all of my time to studying. I wouldn't h ave been able to figure everything out even if I didn't have football. But there had to be some trick to it, some way I could win.
"Coach always said if you can't rush, pass. If you can't sack, make them throw incompletes. It's got to be the same thing here. Just plain studying won't work, but maybe I can try a different path."
The bookstore was very clean and organized, but I didn't know what exactly I'd be looking for. I looked in the section with all the study aides, but those seemed to just be books for cramming. I could just use the textbooks if I wanted to do that.
So I decided to check the self-help section. These books were all pretty depressing. Trying to overcome abusive relationships, ways to make money which seemed like scams, why anyone would need this sort of crap was beyond me.
"And here you are." My mind criticized myself. I tried to ignore it as I read the book spines. Just when I thought this was going to be a complete and total bust, I saw a book that might work. The title was Effective Studying Habits. It was certainly blunt into what it promised, so I sat on the floor and read the first couple of pages.
I didn't know the first thing about effective studying habits, mostly because I never studied before. Or rather, I did study, but I did well enough to stay off academic probation and that was all that really mattered to everyone else: Coach, the rest of the team, dad. Being on academic probation meant you couldn't play football, and that happened to our team every so often, especially to our quarterback, Kevin Thompson. He was actually in the grade ahead of ours, but, through his absolutely horrible academic performance, he was held back a year. We'd have taunted him about it if we cared about that sort of crap.
The book told me some pretty interesting things. Eat a half an hour before studying, study for shorter periods rather then long ones, don't study before sleeping, or before a class. Plan things out.
"Hey, this stuff is pretty easy. Why didn't I think of that?" I thought to myself. I started to walk to the register. Thankfully, the person that worked there was a college student, and wouldn't know me. The last thing I needed was for someone to see me.
If I was caught with a book like this, I'd be over. I'd be the new Mayor of Geekland. And I wasn't a geek. I liked football, and I was still good at it. I liked having friends, I liked going out. I liked parties, and I liked dating. Quinn was the only girl for me, but I went out on dates with other girls as practice, to make sure I didn't screw things up when I was with Quinn. But taking the chance to get Quinn to notice me out of anyone else was worth the risk. That was what I told myself. And I was surprisingly eager when I made my way home. Dad was passed out, so I was able to get a quick snack of chips and Ultra-Cola so I'd be alert, like the book said, and resumed where I had left off.