Notes: This chappie is kinda shorter than the others… I dunno why. I never noticed until I split the story up.
Chapter Ten
I watched with pleasure as everyone's mouths dropped open. Emma swanned into the lunchroom. In the line she only ordered a fruit salad and a tub of yoghurt. I got my usual. All eyes were on us as we walked to our table and sat down. Lori got up from where she had been sitting and came sat next to us. Then another girl got up and sat at our table.
"Hey people," Emma greeted everyone as a group. There were now six of us at the table. I felt proud. I looked over to Kari's table. Maxine was on her feet and her mouth was open in an expression of horror. I laughed. Kari sat there stirring her yoghurt.
"So, what has everyone been up to?" I asked, starting a long conversation.
When lunch had finished, Emma and I were the last ones to leave. I definitely felt better. But Tai's words of wisdom still niggled at the back of my mind. Would Kari ever talk to me again?
That afternoon we had double Maths. I sat there drawing pictures of Patamon in my book while the teacher droned on about square roots and irregular triangles. Emma sat next to me on the right. I glanced to see what she was doing. She had out a different book to her Maths one. She was taking notes:
TK likes normal. TK likes Emma, not Angel. TK has the cutest smile. TK loves Emma.
I felt a twinge of guilt. She'd changed for me.
"Mr. Takaishi, will you answer the question?" Mr. Neshkoro said loudly.
I jumped and looked up. I heard someone giggle.
"Uh… can you repeat the question for me Mr. Neshkoro?" I asked timorously.
More giggles.
"Seeing that you seem to be hard of hearing Mr. Takaishi I will repeat the question for your benefit and for the others that may have missed it in this class," Mr. Neshkoro smirked at me. "What is 32 – 17 squared?"
I looked around nervously. I had no idea what he was talking about. Everyone looked at me expectantly. Now they look at me, the one time I want to be invisible.
"I don't know sir," I murmured.
"What was that? I didn't quite catch that," Mr. Neshkoro said, visibly enjoying watching me squirm.
"I said I don't know," I said a little louder.
"You don't know? How can you not know when I have just spent 20 minutes of this class explaining it to you," Mr. Neshkoro raised an eyebrow.
"I guess… I wasn't paying attention," I squeaked.
"Oh really? Then what exactly have you been doing for this entire lesson?" Mr. Neshkoro inquired.
"I…uh…ah…oh…" I stuttered.
"No, don't tell me now, you can tell me this afternoon after school. It seems fair to tell me then seeing you now have detention," Mr. Neshkoro barked.
I wished that right then a big hole would open up under me and suck me into it and make me disappear. The class laughed except for Kari and Angel.
When Mr. Neshkoro turned back to the blackboard I sighed with relief.