Chapter 11: nerd
He couldn't get his head together. All he could do was think about how screwed he was now. It had been a while since he talked to Fionna, but it helped that it was the weekend now so there was no way he'd run in to her. His head was pounding, and he couldn't get his thoughts to make sense. Something was telling him he needed to do something. He couldn't quite remember what, yet he just knew he had something to do. The boy sighed and stared up at his ceiling. His mother was at work today, and she had a longer shift than usual. She wasn't expected to be back until possible 8 o'clock tonight, and she left at 6. It was Saturday and Marcy said she was going out with a friend today. He had a good idea who this "friend" was, but didn't bother to big her about it.
The teen sighed and bit his lip. He barely survived their last study session, how could he possibly live through the next three months? He absolutely refused to admit he liked her. There was absolutely no way! She was a total book snob who only cared about her school performance, and her style was totally wacky. She was rude and punched him sometimes (although he knew he deserved it), and was totally too pretty for her own good. It was screwing with him how she managed to get so far in life being a virgin. He didn't even know if she had ever a boyfriend at all. All he knew was she made him angry from how oblivious she was. Oblivious to her laugh, and her hair, and her smile…it was too distracting. He groaned, and sat up rubbing at his eyes for no particular reason. She was flooding his thoughts more than usual. Probably because he had no one to talk to and nothing to do…except his homework. He glanced at his backpack and considered opening his math notes…but he was also considering never opening his backpack ever again. Just as he was about to reach for it he felt his pocket buzz and instantly pulled out his phone.
"Hello?" He answered a little too eagerly.
"Hey, Marshy. What's up?" Jimmy replied. Marshall let out a sighed and flopped down on his bed again.
"I think you were right, man," he said.
"About what?" He questioned. There was a clicking noise in the background. It sounded like he was playing with his butterfly knife.
"About…me liking Fionna," he confessed.
"Of course I'm right. I always am," he said a bit condescendingly. Marshall rolled his eyes.
"Whatever, I need your help."
"Oh, no problem bud. She's at the skatepark," he told him. Marshall blinked. He didn't want to know that.
"What? That's not what I meant, and how do you know that?" He asked.
"I'm looking right at her. She's with some blond dude helping him fix his board or something," he reported. Marshall's body instantly tensed.
"What! Who is he?"
Jimmy chuckled.
"Wow, you really do like her. I can smell the jealousy from five miles away," he teased. "I don't know the kid. I've never seen him before."
"I'm not jealous, I just…ugh."
"You wanna come down here. It's like right next to your house right?"
"No. Jimmy, when I was asking for help I was asking for you to help me get over this. I dunno what's gotten in to me, but this is just a silly little crush-"
"Oooooohhh, he touched her! Skin to skin contact happening right in front of my own two eyeballs," he interrupted. Marshall felt himself boil with anger and nearly rip his bed sheets.
"Shut up, Jimmy! That's not helping!"
"You better get down here, he's gonna make a move on your girl," he warned.
"She's not my-!" He groaned and sat up. "She's not my girl, and I-I'm not going down there."
"Seriously though, Marshall. You should embrace this. If you're genuinely interested in her this whole thing would be easier. Plus I'm not lying, this guy is way too chill with her," he said. Marshall sighed and pushed his hair off of his forehead.
"Fine, I'm on my way," he grumbled and hung up the phone.
Marshall got off his bed and rushed downstairs in to his garage. He dug out his skateboard and rode out of his neighborhood and down the street to the skatepark. It's been a while since he skated, but that was because driving was a lot more convenient. Riding over jogged his memory enough to get the hang of it again and spot Jimmy on the top of one of the slops. He waved at him and spun his knife with the other before disappearing off to the side. Marshall groaned and swerved with the side walk in to the gate and was surprised to see Jimmy near the entrance next to one of the benches.
On the bench sat Fionna and on the ground was a guy around the same age with a helmet and knee pads on. He was screwing around with his trucks while talking up to Fionna, and Marshall didn't like it. He picked up his board and made his way next to Jimmy. He winked at him and offered the cigarette that was in his mouth.
"Hey, glad you finally got your butt over here," he greeted as Marshall stood behind Fionna on the bench. She twisted her head around and glared up at him. He did his best not to notice as he took a huff of smoke.
"Yeah, took me a while to dig this old thing out," he replied.
"I thought you forgot about it ever since you started driving."
Marshall shrugged and handed him back the cig. Fionna coughed and he looked down at her.
"Look who it is, my favorite blond," he chuckled and ruffled her hair. She swatted his hand away and coughed some more.
"Put that thing out! It's so gross," she ordered. Marshall signaled to Jimmy by waving his hand flat in front of his throat as if he was cutting it to put out the cigarette. He did so and blew the rest out of his mouth away from her.
"Sorry, bookworm. Didn't realize you weren't a fan," he said and straddled the bench to sit next to her.
"You should've assumed. That stuff smells so gross, I can't believe you do that," she complained. Marshall laughed.
"Marshall doesn't smoke as much as the rest of us, but he does occasionally whenever we do," Jimmy informed her.
"It's still disgusting," she mumbled and took a breath of fresh air. "And it makes you smell bad."
"Doesn't taste very good either," Jimmy added. Marshall nodded in agreement.
"Then why do you do it?" She questioned. Jimmy shrugged.
"Nothing better to do," Marshall answered.
"Helen smokes, but only outside because it bothers dad," the boy on the ground spoke up. Marshall looked down at him and resisted glaring at him. Instead he gave him a peculiar look.
"Uh, who are you?" He asked.
"Oh, this is Finn. My twin brother I told you about that one time," Fionna introduced. Marshall blinked. He felt both stupid and relieved at the same time, but he blamed Jimny for making him anxious. That and he did kinda forget that she mentioned a twin brother. That was when he made her blow up. He leaned down and offered his hand.
"Marshall Lee, but you can call me Marshall," he greeted and smiled. Finn accepted his hand and shook.
"Nice to meet you. Fionna has told me a lot about you," he replied. Fionna flinched and glared at her younger brother.
"Shut up, Finn. I told you about him once," she hissed.
"Yeah, for like half an hour," Finn pointed out. Marshall looked over at her with a cocked eyebrow.
"I did not!"
"You're right, it was closer to an hour," he continued to patronize her. Fionna turned red and frowned at him. Marshall laughed and held out his fist to Finn. The blond boy bumped Marshall's fist with his own and grinned up at him.
"Nice, you're cool," he told him. "As for you, Fi, I had no idea how obsessed you were with me."
Fionna redirected her glare to him and pinched his shoulder again.
"Ouch!"
"Shut your mouth…I was just telling him how I was helping you study because you're a complete imbecile. That and how annoying you are," she told him sternly while he rubbed his shoulder.
"You are insanely strong for someone who looks so small, Jesus Christ that hurts," he whined. Fionna rolled her eyes.
"Whatever, I don't care. Did you get your homework assignment done?" She asked.
"Uh, which one?"
"The one Mr. Williams gave us yesterday…and all the other ones your teachers gave you. You should really be trying in all your classes."
"Uh, I started the history assignment last night-"
"I know, I helped you."
"Right, and then I didn't do anything else."
Fionna groaned.
"God, you're helpless without me, aren't you?"
He shrugged.
"It's only Saturday. It's not due until Tuesday," he reminded her.
"If you have that attitude you'll never get anything done and you'll do everything last minute. I'm not gonna help you with the last few questions. You're on your own," she sassed. Marshall frowned. How in the world did he like her? There was no way, probably just infatuation. He couldn't possibly like someone who told him off like this.
"I can do it. I don't need your help to finished a couple questions," he retorted. Fionna appeared to be shocked by his response, and so did Jimmy. Finn noticed their shocked expressions, but didn't know Marshall well enough to react a certain way.
"Holy shit, Marsh, are you actually gonna do your homework?" Jimmy laughed. Marshall felt a bit embarrassed. Jimmy's parents didn't give a shit about him, so he usually copied.
"Is there something wrong with that?" He challenged. Jimmy continued to laugh, but Fionna's surprise turned in to doubt.
"I dunno. I agree it sounds a bit unrealistic," Fionna said. Marshall frowned.
"What? Do you guys think it's impossible for me to do homework?" He questioned.
"Kinda…yeah," Fionna admitted.
"I remember when you used to do homework. You were such a nerd," Jimmy chortled. Fionna looked back and Jimmy.
"Doing homework automatically makes him a nerd?" She questioned Jimmy managed to settle down enough to look down at her and speak.
"Look, I mean no disrespect, but he was a total nerd. He used to be in advanced geometry, and he was in AP biology. It was so funny, I couldn't take him seriously," Jimmy told her.
"She doesn't need to know that," Marshall grumbled.
"No way, advanced geometry? I heard that's way harder than normal geometry. What was it like?" Finn asked. Marshall focused on him and noticed how excited he was.
"Uh, it wasn't that hard. Just a lot of homework. I had a friend in regular geometry and he said I had twice the homework he had," he answered.
"What class did you take next?"
"I took…regular algebra 2."
"And got a C," Jimmy added. Finn's smile faded.
"But…you were doing good in geometry. What do you take this year?"
"Tech math. I have a B."
"Tech math is the easy class, man. You should be in precalc," he said. Marshall shrugged.
"I just never got in to it," he replied dimly. Now Finn was frowning.
"But it's alright. That stuff is boring anyways. Who wants to deal with a bunch of numbers all day? That just sounds like a headache…" Jimmy complained. Fionna couldn't help but notice the distant look on Marshall's face. He didn't look sad…just disappointed.
"You okay?" She asked while Jimmy continued to bitch about numbers to Finn. Marshall looked up at her and nodded.
"I'm a bit tired, I think I'm gonna go home," he replied and stood up.
"…and not even that-" Jimmy stopped at he noticed Marshall standing up and walking away.
"Yo, Marsh. Where are you going?" He called.
"Home, I have things to do," he answered and walked out of the gate with his board under his arm. The three of them stayed silent while they watched him walk away and disappear in to his neighborhood. Fionna felt kinda bad for him. Based on what her mom said and the conversation they had just now he really enjoyed doing school work. Something must've happened…or someone. It was awkward for a few moments until Jimmy broke the silence.
"Was it something I said?"
Marshall wasn't lying when he said he had stuff to do. He approached his house slowly and tossed his skateboard back where he found it. Marceline was still out with her "friend", so he fixed himself something quick for lunch. Once he was fed he went back up to his room and grabbed his backpack. He pulled out his history and math homework and tackled the history first. The answers were ridiculously easy considering he actually remembered what Fionna had told him the past week. He found the subject mundane and boring, but easy enough that he didn't feel like he was wasting time. When he opened his math notebook the past three assignment immediately slid out. They were all unfinished, but when he looked through them he was able to finish each worksheet in fifteen minutes. He laid back when he completed the last problem and ran his fingers through his hair.
He was back where he started: staring up at the ceiling and thinking about Fionna again. Except now he felt different. He felt kinda empty after what Jimmy had said. He knew that he only got a C last year because he purposely didn't turn in his homework. He did it in his free time because he enjoyed it, but he knew that Brady and Jimmy and Carter would've teased him about being a mama's boy. He knew how sensitive they were when it came to a stable family and a stable mother despite the imperfections of his home. They didn't really understand that his grades didn't really have anything to do with his mother. He tried to convince himself that he failed his classes so his friends wouldn't feel bad, but now he was more convinced he was pressured to do it. After what Finn had said, he felt down. He didn't like failing those classes, so why was he doing it anymore? The guys should just deal with it. He was starting to feel like he belonged less and less to that group, but he also felt like they were claiming him. Like they wanted him in the group. He sighed and decided to rest his eyes for what felt like a minute when he heard and knock at his door. He yawned and sat up.
"Come in," he allowed and looked down at the mess he made on his bed. He was surprised to see his mom open his door and walk over to his bed. Did he sleep the rest of the day? He knew he didn't spend a lot of time on his homework.
"Mom? What time is it?" He asked as he rubbed at his eyes.
"It's almost 9 o'clock. Were you asleep?"
"I think so. How was work?" He asked.
"It was good. What's all this?" She sat down on the side of his bed and looked through the papers on his bed.
"Math?"
"Yeah, I finished up my history and decided to take a swing at this. It's so easy though. I was kinda disappointed," he told her and yawned again.
"Wow, you're actually doing your homework. Who are you and what've you done to my son?" She teased and tussled his messy hair. He laughed.
"I dunno. I had nothing better to do," he lied.
"No? You didn't hang out with one of the boys?" She asked.
"I hung out with Jimmy a little bit, but he had someplace to go," he replied.
"I see. Well I'm glad that you did your work. I'm proud," she said and kissed his forehead. He smiled and started stuffing the worksheets back in his notebook and back in to his backpack.
"It's nice to get it over with," he said and cleared off his bed.
"That's good. I'll let you get back to sleep, you sound absolutely exhausted," she said and got up off his bed. He nodded and laid back down. She turned off the lights as she left his room, and he fell asleep staring up at his bedroom ceiling again.