Chapter 3
Deceit
And they lived happily ever after. Aria read this line to herself over and over from her old fairy tale book, Sleeping Beauty. She felt as though she had starred at it all morning. Is this her happily ever after? After slaying the dragon and defeating Myrtle in battle, Aria felt as though she had been ripped off like buying something off an infomercial only to find that the product did not function as well as it appeared on television.
"Aria?" Elizabeth called. "Are you almost ready? Vanessa should be here any minute now."
"I'm coming," Aria responded as she grabbed her school bag and walked down stairs.
Sure enough, at that moment the doorbell rang. Aria peered out to window to see Vanessa right outside the front door. She bade her mother farewell and went outside to greet her best friend.
After the two exchanged greetings, Vanessa asked, "So what was it you wanted to tell me?"
Aria recalled last night once she got home she sent Vanessa a text saying she had something important she needed to tell her. She then went on to explain everything about the ball and how she could not go to the dance.
"Wow, that does suck," Vanessa commented. "Maybe you could ask Derek to take you to the ball instead."
Aria sighed as the two continued to walk up the street. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. After all, this ball is about me possibly choosing someone to marry. I don't want Derek to feel like he has to propose to me or anything."
"I thought you said you didn't have to actually select someone to marry."
"I know, but it's just that the idea of marriage is too much and Derek seems to have a difficult time with commitment. You claim he still likes me but he can't even bring himself to ask me to the dance."
"It seems like he's not the only one with commitment issues," Vanessa pointed out.
Aria sighed. "I suppose you're right. I guess I just don't want rush things with Derek. I mean I fell for Edmund way too fast and we both know how that turned out."
"That was completely different, Aria. Edmund was just using his charm to manipulate you." Vanessa paused for a moment then added, "Look, I think you and Derek just need to talk. Just be honest with him."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Aria replied as the two girls arrived at Sheerwood High.
Aria spotted Derek along with the rest of the popular kids sitting in their usual place, the steps right in front of the school. The moment Derek saw Aria he got up and walked over to her and Vanessa.
"Hey, what's up?" He greeted both of them and then looked at Aria. "Um, can I talk to you in private for a second?"
Aria nodded and Vanessa waved goodbye and headed inside the building.
Derek fidgeted a bit nervously before saying, "Look, I know this is a little late, but about the Homecoming Dance, I was wondering if…"
"Derek, wait," Aria interrupted, holding up her hand. "I'm really sorry. I know you probably wanted to ask me to the dance, but the thing is, I actually can't go."
"Oh." Derek voice seemed disappointed. "You can't go at all? Why not?"
Before Aria could stop herself these words came out, "It's my mother's birthday that day, and it would really mean a lot to her if I was there. I'm so sorry."
Derek looked confused. "When you say your mother, you mean the queen?"
"Shhh!" Aria hushed holding her finger to her lips. "Not too loud, and yes, I do mean the queen. It's just that I've been with her on her birthday so…"
Derek nodded, understanding. "It's okay. You should be with your mom. I guess we still have prom in the spring."
"Yeah, we do," Aria agreed, hoping there would be no balls on that day and maybe if her parents saw that she and Derek were still together, they would be more accepting of their relationship. "Thanks for understanding, Derek. I guess we should probably go to homeroom before the bell rings."
Without another word, the two of them walked together to homeroom. Derek then went to sit next to Ian, while Aria headed over to Walter and Vanessa, who were apparently having an argument.
"I told you, Vanessa. I'm not going to just give you the answers."
"It's just a lousy homework assignment!" Vanessa protested. "I'm not asking you to help me cheat on the test! I just need to memorize as many answers as I can from the homework and hopefully I will pass the test."
"The biology test!" Aria remembered as she sat down in the desk in front of Vanessa. "That's this week, isn't it?"
Vanessa nodded. "Yes, and my brother, Aaron, said this is Mrs. Steven's hardest test. More than half of his class failed!"
"You're more likely to do well if you pay attention in her class and take notes," Walter pointed out.
"I do pay attention!" Vanessa snapped, ignoring his comment about the note taking. "It's just too much information to remember. Not everyone is a genius, Walter! You're really not going to help me?"
Walter sighed with exasperation. "I can help you study, Vanessa. Just bring your text book to lunch today and we can start then."
"I don't have my textbook," Vanessa said, looking down at her desk.
Walter eyed her. "Did you lose it?"
"I don't know. It's just gone. I don't remember when I last had it."
"We can share mine," Aria suggested. "Then you can come over after school and study with me. The only thing is I have band practice today so it will have to be after that."
Vanessa let out a frustrated sigh but nodded.
"Class, please quiet down," Mr. Stone's dull voice came from the front of the classroom.
"Man, when is Mrs. Norbert coming back?" Vanessa complained in a whisper. "I don't think I've stayed awake in English since he started substituting."
Aria shrugged unsure of how long maternity leaves usually last. Mrs. Norbert, their English teacher, recently had her baby and while she was on leave, the class remained with Mr. Stone, otherwise known as the man who can put caffeine to sleep. Aria supposed she should just be grateful that at least Ms. Malone, to her known as Myrtle, was not their substitute anymore. After all, Mr. Stone was never a threat to her life.
Yawning, Aria did not know whether it was due to her lack of sleep or just listening to Mr. Stone's voice, but either way she felt incredibly sleepy. Her tiredness continued throughout Latin class and now in History.
Derek, noticing his girlfriend's eyes drifting suggested, "Hey, if you want to take a nap, I'll tell you what you missed."
Aria smiled but said, "I can't sleep during class."
Derek shrugged. "Why not? Ian does it all the time, and usually either Kendal or I have to tell him what he missed in class."
"I don't think I could fall asleep if I tried."
"Don't worry," Derek teased with a grin. "If you fall into a deep sleep, I'll just kiss you and you'll wake right back up."
Aria smiled, but before she could say anything, Mr. Mosby started the class. After he finished with the lecture, he passed back last week's test. To Aria's surprise, she managed to barely pull off a B.
"See, I told you, you'd do alright," Derek said to Aria as he saw her grade. "And you always think you're going to fail."
Aria smiled relieved. "I bet you got an A."
Derek grinned. "Well, I'm not one to boast, but yeah. Besides, it doesn't really matter. It's only history. Honestly, I really don't see much point in studying the past."
"What a second this can't be right," Ian interrupted staring at his test. "Ben Franklin was president, right? Why did Mr. Mosby mark that wrong?"
"Dude, Ben Franklin was not president," Derek told Ian.
"Sure he was," Ian protested. "We talked about him a lot when we were on the chapter about the revolution."
"I think he just played a big role in the revolution, that's all," Aria added trying to sound comforting. "I almost put him down on my list of presidents too."
xXx
In Biology, Aria recalled what Vanessa told her about this next test so she tried to best to pay attention to Mrs. Steven's lecture and actually take notes. Even at her best effort, Aria could barely concentrate. Every few seconds, she found herself yawning. Maybe she should have taken her mother's advice about getting some sort of sleep remedy.
The rest of the day did not improve much. During lunch, Vanessa and Walter continued to argue over the biology test. It was the same sort of argument they would always have before a test. Walter would tell Vanessa that she was not trying hard enough and Vanessa in return would accuse him of calling her stupid even though he never said anything of the sort. This time, Aria did not contribute much to the conversation. Instead she mostly yawned, too tired to play mediator to her friends, yet again.
In gym they played basketball. Aria decided to go with her most effective strategy, to touch the ball as little as little as possible. That seemed to get her threw the period without much trouble. She still did not understand why she was more coordinated in Galatia than she was here.
The next thing Aria knew, she was back in Mr. Stone's classroom, only this time for English.
"Oh, man!" Aria heard Ian grown as she sat next to Derek. "We're still doing grammar? It's been over three weeks! Why can't we do something more interesting?"
Aria silently agreed with him. Just hearing a lecture solely on grammar was already dull enough as it is, but Mr. Stone somehow managed to make it even more boring. Today, Mr. Stone wrote sentences on the board and while holding the class attendance sheet he randomly called on students to answer his questions
"Miss Lewis," he began pointing at a certain part of the sentence he wrote. "What do you call this phrase at the end of the sentence?"
"A preposition," Kendal answered in a bored voice, her head resting on her hand as she returned her gaze to the window.
"Correct." Mr. Stone did not even bother to turn away from the board as he continued, "Miss Rosenberg, what punctuation is missing at this point in the sentence?"
"Um," Aria stared at the sentence break, unsure. She supposed it could be a comma.
"Semicolon," Derek whispered.
Aria mouthed thank you before repeating his answer out loud, which happened to be right. She then felt a twinge of guilt about lying to him about the ball. After all, Derek has been incredibly nice to her since they started dating, not to mention there was that thing Vanessa said about honesty.
"Mr. Harris," Mr. Stone continued to call on students. "What does the word, 'or,' function as in this sentence?"
Aria glances at Ian to see that he had fallen sound asleep. Kendal looked at him, rolled her eyes, and then turned her head back to the window.
"Mr. Harris?"
Derek put his hand in front of his mouth and answered, "Conjunction."
"Thank you, Mr. Harris." Mr. Stone continued to write as Aria shot a grin in Derek's direction.
The class was then dismissed but not before Mr. Stone assigned them several pages of grammar homework, which resulted in a grown from the entire class. In Band practice, Aria still did not feel very awake. She kept nearly missing her cue for her solo. After practice, Mr. Spooner pulled her aside and lectured her about getting plenty of rest and making sure she was prepared for the winter concert. Aria only nodded before leaving.
Wanting to catch up with Walter, Aria walked down the school hallway behind a boy with spiky blonde hair she assumed was he. As she got closer, she found that the boy she followed was actually taller than Walter. He still seemed oddly familiar to her. As the boy turned to briefly face Aria, her heart pounded heavily as she saw whom it was, Edmund.
