Amelia High School
Cincinnati, OH.

88 Days Until Graduation

It didn't take long for word to get around about Cara and Jon's situation. Over the course of a week, Cara had been asked a million questions about Jon, who was a gossip enigma. She'd also heard more things that he'd allegedly done than she cared to, but when asked if any of it was true, she simply shook her head and said, "I don't know. I'm just tutoring him." Silently, she would add "if that" because the truth was Jon was difficult. He exclusively showed up late, and when he did show up, getting him to pay attention seemed impossible. He spent the whole time either in his head or finding some new way to annoy her. Plus he never stayed the whole time, he'd always vanish saying that he had to go train, whatever that meant.

When Friday came around, Cara sat in the library alone, watching the clock.

1:30
1:45
1:50

Jon hadn't show up at all. As Cara packed her things away, ready to be defeated once and for all, she decided she had enough. She was going to find him, and give him a piece of her mind. If she couldn't convince him to just do what she asked, she'd at least at least tell him just how she felt about him. The only problem would be finding him. If he was on campus, which she hoped he was, he could only be a handful of places. Her first instinct was the gym. He'd always mentioned training, so she figured this was the best starting point. However, when she arrived, he was nowhere to be found. She checked every hall, the cafeteria, the auditorium, and the shop outside. He was nowhere. "You win, Jon. I give up," she wanted to shout to the world. This was the one impossible task she was assigned. She had gotten through every obstacle in her life with as much grace as possible, but this was too much for her. I'll go to Mrs. English in the morning, and tell her that I just can't do it, she thought as she made her way back inside the school.

"That'll be twenty, dude."

Cara stopped. She knew that voice. Looking around, she tried to catch where it had come from. She found Jon between the outside of the cafeteria and another building connected to the school. She watched him reach into the hoodie pocket and pull out a bag of only a few pills, although she had no idea what they were, and exchange it with money from a guy standing across from him. After the transaction was complete, the guy with the pills walked away, spotting Cara but making nothing of her presence. Shortly after Jon counted the money, he attempted walk away, but Cara stopped right in front him and backed him up into the space he came from.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said after she deciphered what had been going on.

"You don't know what -," Jon tried to say. However, Cara was quick to cut him off. "No, I'm sick of you doing this. I am trying to do something with my life, and I try my best to deal with your shit. Yet, you walk around acting all big and bad, like the rules don't apply to you. You're such an asshole," she fumed.

Jon smirked, "And what do you think you're going to do about it, sweetheart? Tell on me?"

Cara paused for a moment and considered her options. "Actually, yes. If they think for a second you're dealing on campus, everyone will be watching you. So if you don't come to our meetings and treat me with respect, I'll tell everyone and don't think they won't believe me." Checkmate. Jon looked furious. She beat him, and a rush of power rushed through her momentarily.

"Fine, I'll go to your dumb tutoring shit, but stay out of my business. You got that?"

She smiled and stepped out of his way, "Monday, on time or I go to Mrs. English."

Washington Residence
Wyoming, OH

Every second Saturday of the month meant one thing to Lyndsey and Cara - sleepover. As kids, it was a weekly thing (schedule permitting), but as they had developed schedules of their own, it evolved to biweekly usually consisting of three things: talking, sleeping, and eating. It was the trifecta as far as Cara was concerned however sometimes, like this Saturday, they actually accomplished things. With her new found upper hand, she needed to make battle plans. She'd gathered all the information she needed to help Jon's grades, but now she just had to put it together, and she needed Lyndsey's help.

"For someone you sure as hell don't like, you sure are putting a lot of work into this," Lyndsey commented as they looked down at the spread of papers now sitting on Lyndsey's floor.

"This also benefits me, ya know? Not really doing it for my health." Cara also felt bad about what he was currently holding over Jon's head, but she didn't mention that yet. That was a conversation for 2 a.m. not the middle of the afternoon.

Later in the night, Cara finally decided to bring the issue up. However, she needed to start with a disclaimer, "Lyndsey, when I tell you this, you have to swear on your life that you will not say anything to anyone."

"I caught Jon dealing drugs," she said quietly. Lyndsey gasped in response. "Don't say a word to anyone," Cara reminded her.

Lyndsey nodded repeatedly, "I won't. I mean I'm not really surprised after all I've heard, but still I'd like to things those things aren't true. So what'd you do when you caught him?"

"I - I may have used it as blackmail to get him to come to study hall," she said. "Looking back on it, I feel really bad about the whole situation, but it was really a power rush in the moment. Like, there's gotta be reason for it right? What if he's like in trouble or something. I just snapped at him," she admitted. She buried her face in her pillow and groaned. "Why do I feel like a terrible person?"

Her friend shrugged, "Because you are a terrible person." Cara shot up from the pillow and looked at her friend with offense. "I'm kidding. Maybe you should just talk to him about it."

She took her face out of the pillow, "On a good day, that's usually as effective as repeatedly slamming my head on brick wall. I don't think it will be much easier now."

Lyndsey started applying an avocado based face mask on her skin. "Speaking of Jon, don't you think he's kind of cute? Maybe rough around the edges but definitely something charming about him."

"I've never really looked at him like that. Besides, if you think he's so cute,you go date him," Cara replied. "His eyes are a nice shade of blue, but that only makes up for shitty personality so much."

"So you've at least looked at him a little bit. I mean, he's got strong arms," her friend went on, throwing a small wink Cara's way, her typically dark skin now painted a pale green by the face mask."Also, I could never date Jon because he slept with a girl on the team, and although we do handle the same balls on a daily basis, I don't want to take it much further than tennis balls."

"God, you're so gross. He's literally so rude and yet here we are having this talk," Cara whined.

"But if he wasn't rude, you'd be interested?" Lyndsey raised an eyebrow at her, but Cara wasn't going to let her win this game.

"You're not going to put words in my mouth," she countered. "He's just Jon, who I tutor. He isn't hideous, but I'm not interested. I want an actual gentleman, not someone who talked about having coal up my ass the day I met them."

"That's amazing," Lyndsey said with a laugh.

Cara rolled her eyes jokingly, "We still have different ideas of amazing."

On Monday, Cara left lunch early to prepare for whatever was to come from her study hall with Jon. She carefully pulled out the somewhat comprehensive study plan that she had spent most of her Sunday designing with Lyndsey's help. There were packets of notes, worksheets, and all the information she had previously gathered from Jon's teachers, fortunately they had shared many of the same teachers so that wasn't difficult. After she set up, she sat and waited for Jon to arrive, keeping a watchful eye on the clock. If he doesn't show up, he's either crazy or stupid.

When the last bell rang, Jon burst in the door. Cara sighed a breath of relief, "You're here."

Jon gave her a curious look, "Did I have a choice?" He tossed his things on the floor, near the chair he sat down in. "So, I'm here. What now, warden?" His voice wasn't full of his usual taunting manner. Cara decided not to say anything snotty in return. "Well, I teach you now, and we're way behind already." Nervously, Cara showed him the study plan that she had created in reflection to where he was struggling. He stood there quietly, nodding, and not making any obscene remarks. It was definitely strange, but Cara hoped that she might be able to get something done for once. "So where would you like to start?"

Jon shrugged, "It really doesn't matter to me." Cara side-eyed him. Despite his cooperation, she really wanted to tell him to stop acting so weird.

She exhaled, trying to remain focus and calm. Looking down at the papers before her, she tried to decide where to begin. "Okay, well, then we might want to get the most boring stuff out of the way first," she began. "I don't know about you, but I hate math so let's end this now." She picked up her math book and started flipping through the pages.

"I like math," he said unemotionally. "I don't want to do that one yet. Start with history. I hate history."

She looked at him curiously, "I thought you said it didn't matter? And also, how do you hate history it is by far the best subject."

"Because it's in the past, it doesn't matter," he answered with another shrug. Cara's eyes widened in disbelief. "Doesn't matter? History is everything that led us here."

A small grin formed on Jon lips, "Then why don't you teach me why it's so amazing, isn't that your job?"

Cara smiled, "Fair enough. Alright so if you're in American History, you're probably talking about the Civil War and Reconstruction, which is one of the peaks of U.S. History because it established the foundation for modern day America. Seriously, this is the birth of industrialism, the 14th Amendment - arguably the most important of them all, and also we establish that Andrew Johnson sucks." Cara happily talked about the subject, and Jon listened and occasionally and much to her surprise asked questions. Despite the awkwardness, she had actually enjoyed the whole thing.

For the first time, they stayed until the bell rang. When it was over, Jon wasted no time trying to get out of there, but Cara called after him before got away. "Jon, can I talk to you for second?" She quickened her pace to catch up to him, but he didn't even spare her a glance. "Jon, please," she asked quietly. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. His blue eyes met her own, and Cara causing him to stop right in front of the glass door, but he didn't say anything; he just looked at her and waited. "I'm not gonna tell anyone about what happened," she confessed to him. She stood there awkwardly as Jon stared at her skeptically. She tried to keep eye contact with him, but she couldn't hold it up. Her eyes shifted from his eyes, momentarily looking at his shirt which was solid black, down to the floor, and back up to his face.

"Thanks," he finally said pushing the door open. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"You're coming back," she said continuing to follow him. "You did hear the part where I said I wasn't going to snitch, right?"

"I heard you, but I wanna hear more about that Andrew Johnson dude," he told her but still not paying her physical being much attention. "Catch ya later." Cara stopped following him and smiled to herself. Over the course of her academic career, she'd received many academic accomplishments, but this was something new she was secretly proud of.