I know I said I wasn't going to do any more angsty stuff, but I'm sad. Writing about why I'm sad makes me happy. So this will be the last angsty one. Or maybe not. Hope you guys enjoy, feedback is appreciated. Cross-posted on DeviantArt, because I'm slow.

As soon as she walked in the doors of the laboratory and saw Ollie on the floor, crawling around her self-reserved desk, Ivy knew that her day had just gotten ten times worse. She sighed, taking her bag off of her shoulders as she strode over. Out of all of the people in this class he could expose his weirdness to, why did he always come to her? She thought that she made it clear thousands of times that she wasn't a fan of such behavior, but apparent;y, the goof didn't know how to take a hint. She stopped a couple of inches away from his hand, her hands on her hip as she waited for him to notice her.

The redhead was distracted from his search for a pencil by a shadow looming over him. Craning his gaze, he locked eyes with a very pissed Ivy. "Oh, hey Ivy!" Despite her expression, he attempted to make things casual, giving her a small smile. Who knows, maybe some of his happiness could rub off on her? He hadn't seen her smile in weeks...it's not like he looked at her a lot, but yeah. She needed some positivity.

"What are you doing?" she asked softly, although the glint in her eyes told an entirely different story - she was not in the mood for any of his shenanigans, stupidity, or simply him in general. She was already having a hard week already, cramming a month's worth of information for a bunch of exams that were due today. She would be fine as long as she had no distractions, and she wasn't going to let Ollie ruin her train of focus. She didn't even want to imagine what would happen if he messed things up for her...she'd fail, and that putrid F would stick out from the rest of her picture-perfect grades. Her parents, especially her father, would be disappointed in her.

Ugh, she shouldn't even be thinking about other things right now. That would jeopardize her chances of acing the exam as well.

"I was searching the floor for a pencil," Ollie explained, sitting on his knees. "Cleo and Bern aren't here yet, so...yeah. Do you have one? I'll give it back."

He wasn't. He was so unorganized and forgetful, he'd probably lose the pencil after ten minutes. But honestly, Ivy couldn't care less at the moment. One pencil, two, twenty - he could have all of the pencils he wanted as long as he stayed out of her hair. He could even keep the damn thing for all she cared. Reaching into her bag, she grabbed a number two, satisfyingly sharpened pencil, shoving it in his hand. "Here, anything else? I have stuff to do."

"Nope, I'm good!" Ollie confirmed as he stood up, twirling the pencil in between his fingers. "Thanks, good luck with your...stuff," he paused momentarily, noticing that there was nothing on the girl's desk. He shrugged it off and walked back to his own area. About time. The entire exchange took a solid four minutes out of the thirty-second studying window. Half of the class sat cluelessly at their desks, having no idea that the exam was coming only moments away...she'd warn them, but it would only waste time.

She prayed that her hard week of studying paid off in the end...it would be an awful calamity if it didn't.

It wasn't too bad.

It was certainly less intimidating than what Mrs. Morris made it out to be. The end, admittedly, was where she struggled the most, but oh well. She couldn't have great efficiency all of the time, nobody was perfect. She had nothing to worry about - she felt pretty confident about the first half of the test, and the first half was pretty long. Yeah, she did great.

The blonde teacher passed out the graded papers, everyone on edge. Everyone except Ivy, and strangely enough Ollie. Although, she couldn't be too surprised. He was always this cocky and arrogant, wasn't he? No matter; he would get his piece of humble pie when he was greeted with a nice, warm F.

The teacher finally slid the paper on her desk. Excited to see her grade and proud of herself, she turned the paper over to reveal a big, fat, red circled…

D.

D?! She got a D?!

That had to be wrong, it just had to. There was no way that she of all people made such a low, disgusting, inhumane grade. Self consciously, she glanced around at other people's grades; 70's, 80's, there were some 90's as well, all of which were tremendously higher than her score. It couldn't be that bad, right? Somebody must've bombed this test too….like Ollie! Ollie failed, he failed for sure!

"I made a 97!" came his successful shout from the left side of the class, his best friends giving him mock, snooty claps in his honor.

No way...she did worse than him?!

What would her father think of her, knowing that a goofy boy who shoved pencils in places it didn't belong for entertainment scored higher than her? The most her mother would do was shake her head, silently letting her know that she was gravely disappointed. But her father, he was no joke. He wasn't a fan of any grade lower than a C - he wasn't even happy with B's a majority of the time. He expected nothing but the best from Ivy, and she gave him exactly that...even if it felt as if he didn't care. What are they going to do? Ground her? Make her study harder? Disown her?

"Hey, Ivy!" Brody's obnoxious voice luckily snapped her out of her worried thoughts right as she neared the brink of tears. "What did you make? Lemme guess, an A-plus plus?"

Everybody stopped buzzing and turned around, interested in the smart girl's response. Angrily, she took the test paper, crumbled it up, and shoved it in her backpack. "Shut up, Brody," she mumbled.

The brown-skinned boy looked offended at her rather harsh attitude. And for what, all because he asked a simple question? "Geez, man, I was just askin'...chill…"

"Everyone did...wonderful," Mrs. Morris glanced at Ivy, deepening her shame. "Nice job, class. Especially you, Mr. Allen."

"It was easy, really," Ollie scoffed with his hands behind his head. "It was exterior angles that I struggled with, but I pushed through it."

That was just like him...running his glory through the depths of the earth. It irked her.

It also invoked jealousy within her. How? He didn't study at all, he didn't even know that there would be a test today. She was willing to bet that he had copied Bernie's answers...the little liar.

After class ended, she'd have time to worry about what to do once she arrived home. Hiding the paper was out of the question; they knew every single educational event that went on in there. If she was right, they would wait for her at the door to collect her test. So she had to show it to them, she had to lower their expectations.

Praying for mercy wouldn't do much.

"What's this?!" her father bellowed, his voice full of disapproval and anger as he clutched the already wrinkled paper. "A D? You're supposedly a whiz at science and math, and you go up there only to bring me a D?! What's worse...you let that Allen boy outdo you?! What was wrong with your head today, young lady?" he threw the paper down on the table, a loud smack echoing throughout the kitchen.

"I...I guess I zoned out."

"Zoning out isn't going to get you through school, now is it? C'mon, Ivy, we expected better from you...this is disappointing, you know that?" rubbing his temple, he handed the paper back. "Here, just...just go to your room and look over every single one of those problems until you get yourself straight, got it?"

"Fine."

Her mother wasn't there at the moment to pile onto her degradation, but that didn't make things any better. The rejection still stung. When she reached her room, she slammed the door shut before frustratingly ripping the paper to shreds. Why did it even matter if she studied them or not? It was too late now, the grades were already in the computer...perfect. Now, she most likely had a C average, and she would have to work twice as hard to bring it back up.

Pointing out the fact that Ollie had cheated wouldn't help her case, he would still refuse to hear all of it. His thoughts on her were already set, and she knew that wouldn't change unless she made some major improvements.

"I don't hear any studying!"

Coldly snaring at her door, as if her father was right there, she grabbed some papers and rustled through them, resisting the urge to ball them up and throw them at the window. That wasn't a very nice thing to do. Excellent girls didn't break windows.

"That's more like it!"

What more did he want? She had A's in every other class, why was this one so important and bitter? It wasn't her fault - she tried, she tried her best with every single question, only for her to fail. Sure, those were those moments when she took a break when she felt herself on the bridge of some kind of anxiety attack, but she never pondered for too long. On top of that, Mrs. Morris's vision was so poor, she could barely make out a stick from a line, so her grade might've been a total mistake. She was going to check the problems she got wrong, but she remembered that the paper was now reduced to nothing but shreds...oh well. She was certain that there was a mistake in the system, she was…

Oh, who was she kidding? She did worse than Ollie. What did that tell her? Maybe if she had given him that pencil faster, she would've had more time to study. She would've aced that exam, and she would've met her parent's stupid standards. She couldn't do any of that...and it would take forever to get back to where she was.

At least she didn't have to live up to their standards in the comfort of her own bedroom. She could be a relatively normal person - with feelings and emotions. Maybe she could even slip out a laugh when they weren't around. Most importantly, she could cry her heart out for hours on end - at least until she got herself together and came back to her senses. She made no attempt to stop the fat trail of tears, only recklessly wiping them away.

Her parents often looked down on crying as well. It made people look weak and vulnerable, and according to them, Ivy wasn't either of those things. Not now, not ever. Crying was something that they would call an imperfect trait.

But honestly, she didn't care. Being perfect was hard, and she wished she could muster up the courage to walk up to them and tell them no. But doing so would end up with her being parentless. So she had to keep it up...just for two more years. They couldn't force her to be the best when she was 16, could they? Hopefully, that would be the case.

Being the best hurt, it hurt a lot. Not only was she known as the smartest kid in the class, but also the rudest. Most of her snarkiness was simply a part of her personality, but she also feared that some of it were coming from her home life. Apparently, Ollie thought so too. He had some nerve last Monday, walking up to her and asking if there was something wrong at home. What did it matter to him? As usual, she gently rejected his concerns and showed a fake smile...but...it was strange. He sounded genuinely concerned for her well-being, and she hadn't heard such a tone in anyone's voice for years.

There was the 50% chance that he really cared about her - even if it made no sense considering that they barely talked much. It was somewhat assuring, but not by much. It wouldn't change much.

It wouldn't change anything.

Besides, his concern for her wouldn't last for much longer. With his new grade, he presumably thought that he was better than her, and no longer wanted to affiliate himself with some average girl. He was at home, receiving praise from his mother, and was happy.

While she was in her room, crying, and miserable.

"If you act the best, you get the best."

Sure enough, her efforts to be noticed by her teachers paid off in ways in which she would never take for granted. Science camp, tuition, scholarships, everything she could ever dream of. But she only got that stuff by being what her parents wanted her to be. If she didn't do it, she didn't get anything. It hurt.

Even when she had no more tears to cry, it still hurt. It was nothing but a cycle, a toxic cycle, and she didn't know if she would be able to take it much longer.

She did know, however, that she didn't want to be the best anymore.