On Monday, Melissa and I pretended that our little meeting never happened. I was quite happy with this silent agreement because I was too busy freaking out over my latest D in Biology.
"I DON'T GET D'S!!!" I screamed for the third time in the bathroom shaking the culprit quiz. I'm a fairly intelligent person; it comes from having civil engineers for parents. All of my report cards are quite impressive and I've always gotten awards for academic achievement. So you can see how a D just wasn't acceptable for me. Sandra rolled her eyes and Kim let a little sigh.
"Ashley, I think you can afford one D. You've got a 3.6 average, this isn't the end of the world!"
"I'm already getting a B in this class Kim! I can't have a D! This means I'll be getting a B- or something!" And all of a sudden Kim and Sandra found my situation strangely hilarious. They fell over each other laughing and drunkenly staggered around the tiny room.
"Oh no! A B!" Sandra leaned against the tiled walls for support while she caught her breath.
"This isn't funny you guys!"
"A B! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!" yelled Kim from the floor where she had collapsed. Sandra had another burst hysterical laughter and she slid down the wall to join Kim on the floor.
"You guys!!! Stop laughing!! This is serious!" I felt the prick of tears behind my eyes and the image of Sandra and Kim started to blur. I think Sandra noticed my unnaturally shiny retinas because she elbowed Kim and they quickly shut up.
"I'm sorry Ashley, but you can't freak out over one D. You're allowed to fail you know. You're only human." said Kim seriously.
"Yeah." added Sandra.
"I suppose… But I have to meet Mr. Stevenson after school about it! What if he makes me tell my parents about it? Ah, I'm freaking out again!" I started to nibble on my nails but Sandra slapped my hand. She knows that I'm trying to get over my bad habit and takes gross pleasure in 'helping'.
"Just don't think about it! We've got the fieldtrip tomorrow so relax!" We were going to Chimfunshi, a chimpanzee orphanage in the north western part of Zambia. We would be staying there for three days, three days of potential hook ups, note taking and smelly chimp enclosures. Whoopee.
"I guess… Oh my god I haven't packed yet!"
"Me neither!" exclaimed Kim.
"Oh my god you guys, I packed three days ago!" I laughed at Kim's horrified expression when she heard Sandra.
"What is wrong with you?" Kim asked. Sandra got defensive and the two began to argue. I took no notice of the quarreling girls, I usually let them sort it out themselves, and I started to think about how much Michelle had been hanging around Amira and Tania lately. Amira and Tania are o.k. but we don't usually mix with them. I wondered whether Michelle would share a room with them or us but my thoughts were cut off by the sound of the bell.
"You guys, the bell." Sandra and Kim ignored me and continued to argue about whose house they had left Kim's ipod at, although I don't know how the conversation had gotten there. I sighed and rolled my eyes. We obviously weren't going anywhere until they figured out where the ipod was. Finally they agreed that it was at my house, which it was I just hadn't told them because it was amusing to see them struggle with the problem. Sandra, Kim and I parted ways reluctantly, our math classes were split into higher level and standard level and Sandra and I were in the higher. When we arrived at our classroom, we were greeted by a closed door. I tried to open the door but to no avail. Sandra's green eyes widened and my brown ones did the same. We were locked out.
"Is he allowed to do this?" Sandra whispered to me.
"Well he's doing it, so yeah, I guess so." I whispered back. I jumped up and down trying to look through the window and I saw the class going on as usual. I groaned, "Today is so not my day!"
"What are we going to do?" Sandra asked her face filled with fear.
"Knock?" I suggested. Sandra raised her eyebrows,
"Knock? Are you serious?"
"What else can we do?" Sandra relented and apprehensively knocked on the green door. Nothing happened. More firmly, she knocked again. There was no answer. She shrugged at me and sat down against the wall. I joined her and put my head in my hands. The door creaked open and I looked up to see Mr. Greenfield. I think that was perhaps the first time that he's ever had to look down on someone; he's quite short.
"I'll talk to you ladies after class, but for now you stay outside."
Crap.
"What now?"
How were we supposed to know that Mr. Greenfield was paranoid about time? We were only 5 minutes late, a normal teacher would just give us a warning, but no! Mr. Greenfield has to be a psycho. Sandra and I spent the rest of the period playing hand games and spying on other classes. I was a bit worried how this incident would affect my semester grade, but Sandra convinced to forget about it. After class, Mr. Greenfield gave us a lecture about how we weren't wasting his time, but our own time and that we should take every second in his class as an opportunity to learn. I think that basically he meant that we shouldn't ever be late for his class. I wasn't very sure though, it's hard to understand him because regular English isn't his first language, Math is. I bet the first letters he learned were x and y. That night I dreamt I was in a room full of x's and y's. I saw a door from across the crowded chamber, but as I made my way towards it, the giant letters blocked my way. I struggled to push through, but I lost sight of the door. Then a hand reached out towards me. It was Brown Eyes.
