4: Arguing
Age: 16
Riley yawned, stretching her arms over her head. "Mate, I reckon that's all I can take for studying tonight. What do you say we take a break and finish up next arvo or something?"
Cody held up a finger, signaling for her to wait a minute, and then turned the page in his textbook, alternatively scribbling something into his notebook. Around him, Max, Tapeworm, Rhuben, and Crystal all started to pack up their own belongings knowing it wasn't going to make a difference; no matter if they stopped Cody was going to study until he felt he took in everything he needed. Not like he even needed to study in the first place.
God knows he has everything in the entire world memorized, Riley thought with a small smile, resting her chin on her crossed arms as they rested on the coffee table. Too bad he can't figure out how make studying that much easier for the rest of us. Catching her twin sister's eye she tried not to laugh at Cody's antics, starting to put up her own things. Behind her there was a light snore and she rolled her eyes. Of course Zack had been the only one to conk out about a half hour after they got started. Sure, Cody could be a bit overzealous with his studying schedule but it wasn't that bad.
"All we have left to study for tomorrow is American Literature and United States History," Tapeworm said, slinging his backpack over his shoulders. "Cody and I can handle United States History…if Zack ever wants to wake up." He tilted his head to his side, chuckling as Zack let out another snore. "Does he always snore that loud?"
Finally, Cody lifted his head and looked at his brother with disdain. "You have no idea," he said. "I keep trying to tell him that he has sleep apnea or something but you know Zack. He thought I was talking about some kind of food and then stopped listening when I tried to explain further." He reached out and poked his brother on the cheek with a pencil, laughing when Zack batted his hand away. "I've given up. You can try waving a brownie under his nose."
"Sorry." Crystal held the plastic-wrapped plate closer to her chest. "These are going home to Dad and the boys. You know they'll be mad if we didn't bring any back to them." She thought for a minute. "Especially Syd and Aaron…and my Dad…and Pat."
"Pat would probably sniff them out before you can even get through the door, cuz," Rhuben pointed out.
"Chances are he already knows that you have them, yeah?" Riley added. At another blast of Zack's snores she placed her hands on the front and back covers of her textbook and slammed her book shut, causing him to jerk awake.
Zack lowered his arm from behind his head, breathing deeply through his nose. Opening his eyes, he sat up, settling in the corner of the couch as his eyes darted around taking in the loose papers, notebooks, pens, pencils, and the textbook that lay open on his chest and his friends that were standing over him all with different expressions of amusement on their faces
"What?" He asked in a gruff voice, filled with sleep. Then he blinked and looked down at Riley, who sat cross legged on the floor, straightening her things. "We're done studying already?" He asked, rubbing at his eyes.
"You've been asleep for the past two hours," Riley replied, pulling her hair behind her ear. She leaned back against the couch, stretching her arms over her head as she did so. "So I'm not sure how much studying you managed to get done with your eyes closed."
"You'd be surprised how much I've managed to retain while asleep," Zack replied. He looked thoughtful. "Maybe I can invent something like that. You go to sleep and still learn."
"That's a little counterproductive don't you think?" Cody asked, nose wrinkling.
"Actually there's some basis in it," Tapeworm spoke up, eyes lighting up. His eyes shifted back and forth for a minute, as it always did when he started to get too far into his thoughts. "See there are some people that are auditory learners, and some that are visual learners. What about those that are neither? Or they don't prefer to be in a school setting. I think you have something there, Zack."
"Great!" Zack got to his feet, tugging down the bottom of his sweatshirt. "You invent it, I'll get the money for a patent and we'll split it 60/40."
"I should've known there was going to be some money involved," Max remarked, placing her hands on her hips. "But if you want to use his brain,"—she motioned towards Zack—"then it's gotta be an even split. 50/50."
"Or what?" Zack crossed his arms.
"Or she'll beat you up," Rhuben called out as Max raised an eyebrow and started to take long, deliberate strides towards him. Zack immediately moved behind Cody and grabbed onto his shoulders to use him as a human shield. He had been on the receiving end of one too many threats by Max to know she'd do it if she had the chance.
"Okay, okay, fine," Zack said. "50/50."
"Even though Max is probably going to end up with half of that anyway," Crystal teased. She laughed along with the others, brushing her hair behind her ear. "Well, we have to go. It's my turn to make dinner and these guys have been blowing up my phone for the last hour." She waved her phone for proof before heading towards the door.
Riley slid her books into her backpack and reached behind her to pull her pigtails free from the straps. She turned to Tapeworm, pressing her palms together, fingers outstretched. "Back to what you suggested before; you and the boys got history and we have English covered. At our place."
"You're just saying that because English is your best subject," Cody pointed out.
"No, I'm just saying that because that night is Rhu's turn to make dinner," she said and leaned out of the way as Rhuben went to slap her on the arm.
"Right. I'm ordering pizza," she declared.
Riley and her friends started laughing again. She brushed her red strand of hair out of her eyes and looked over at Zack as he sat back on the couch, lifting his cell phone up and looked through it. Twisting her mouth to the side and crossed her arms over her chest. "So are you going to help us next time or just sweet talk your way to an easy 'A'?"
"If getting an 'A' was so easy, I would have every female teacher wrapped around my finger, Sweet Thang," Zack replied, lowering his cell phone and smiling.
Normally Riley would have two distinct reactions towards Zack smiling at her. One of quick happiness and another of slight irritation. Irritation due to knowing that he probably still had feelings for Max whom he had broken up with earlier that year for her to go out with Tapeworm and was masking his own sadness by focusing his sights on her. And happiness because he was showing her positive attention, which would then turn to her own confusion, having pushed his feelings aside for so long. This time, however, she went straight to irritation. Here they were spending the entire night trying to study for some big tests coming up and he didn't do any work, fell asleep, and expected to skate by and find a way to get around studying.
Again.
Nothing made her frustrated more than seeing someone waste their own potential. Especially someone she cared about. They were close friends while they were constantly going in circles of who liked who when. Okay, so maybe her own reasons for not saying anything weren't some of the best, nor could she always rationalize them and maybe it made her a little crazy and…sort of irrational at times. And she knew keeping things bottled up for so long didn't help either. But it was true to be said that when she had something to say she wasn't afraid of saying it.
"So should we expect to see you in summer school again?" She asked. "The year's almost over and you're not making much progress, but now it looks like you're sitting at a C. You're acting like the losers in the back of the class that pretend to care and then blame the teacher for their failing grade."
"Ooh," Tapeworm said before he could stop himself, slapping his hand over his mouth.
"Oh boy," Rhuben and Max said at the same time, already knowing what was coming.
Cody immediately got to his feet and started to usher his friends towards the door with giant sweeping motions of his arms. "Hey, thanks for coming over and subjecting yourselves to my study plan. That was fun wasn't it? Let's do this again soon, alright?" He gently grabbed onto Riley's elbow and pulled her towards the door. "That was out of line," he muttered to her.
"What? It's true."
Zack pushed himself off the couch and slid his phone into his pocket. "That's hysterical, Riles," he said, crossing his arms. "Considering you were the same way when you first moved here. Or do you think that you're now better than everyone else that doesn't get as good grades?" His eyebrows twitched upwards.
Riley's eyes narrowed. That was a bit of a low blow. When she first moved to Boston school wasn't the top of her priorities compared to other important things. But since moving in with Crystal's father, Riley's Uncle Christian that had turned around. "I don't think I'm better than anyone else, but at least I'm trying to make something of myself."
"Did you hear that?" Cody asked. "I think that was Mom. She said she was going to be home soon."
The two teens ignored him.
"Who needs to make something of themselves? Everyone's got to work for someone else," Zack pointed out. He placed a hand on his chest. "And the way I see it, the phrase 'choose a lazy person to do a hard job because they'll find an easy way to do it' is probably one of the smartest things ever said."
Riley threw her hands into the air. "Well, that's just your motto for life, isn't it?"
"Well at least I'm a good person. At least people like me because you're just mean."
That made Riley falter, made her eyebrows come together and nose wrinkle slightly. Of all of the things that managed to hurt her the most that made her the most insecure, being disliked was certainly one of them. But to be called mean…a jerk she could handle, she could admit she was a jerk sometimes but mean? "I'm not mean."
"You just called me a loser, Riley!" Zack shouted, face turning red from the effort. He moved his hands into his hair and let out an incredulous laugh. "You just called me a loser."
"I didn't call you a loser; I said you were ac-ting-like-one!" Riley snapped back. "There's a difference."
"Like that matters," Zack said.
"Guys—"Crystal started then rolled her eyes when she was cut off and ignored.
"But you are! Every time it gets to a point you can do something for yourself you end up feeling sorry for yourself or comparing yourself to Cody. And when you do that you shut yourself down instead of doing something about your problems! It's like you want everyone around you to fix you and that can't happen if you don't want to do it for yourself."
"Fine. Whatever, Riley. Just get out!" Zack turned on his heel and walked away from her, going a few paces before he stopped and placed his hands on his hips. Maybe in case he would change his mind so that he'd be close enough to stop her.
If he wanted to.
"Fine." Her voice was just as cool but her resolve was quickly breaking. "Have fun failing like you always do." Sniffing, she flipped around and strode quickly out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her. She only made it halfway down the hallway, backing away so Esteban didn't run her over with a full luggage cart when she heard the door open and close behind her, causing her to turn around. "What?" She asked, seeing her friends looking at her.
"Really?" Max asked, tilting her head to the side. "I mean, I know you guys fight a lot but that was really…"
"Unnecessary," Crystal broke in.
Riley shrugged and turned away, wiping a tear off her cheek. "You think I don't already know that?" She asked. "Hey you know me and you just said it yourself. We fight a lot. Normally its fun but…" she trailed off, shaking her head.
Rhuben put her arm around her sister's shoulders. "It's alright, sis. It'll come good."
Riley nodded.
A/N: I should probably also mention that at times this story does a UA (universe alteration) like Save Me From Myself and Help Me, Save Me has done so that SLOD characters are in the SLOZAC universe. I almost forgot to say that.
Thanks for reading.
