Ahh! My deepest apologies! I don't really blame writer's block this time. Just a severe lack of motivation. Admittingly, I didn't plan for the ending of this chapter to happen so soon but I've decided now is a good a time as any. So I guess there actually was some writer's block involved…. Sorry for the wait but I hope you enjoy!

El's POV

Holy. SHIT.

I stared at the sheet of paper in my hands, unable to believe it. A smile almost broke onto my face, but I was quick to catch it. I haven't seen such a small amount of red pen marks on a returned test in a long time. I also don't think I've ever seen a letter grade so close to the beginning of the alphabet on a science test.

But there it was. That bright, bold "B".

Any facial expression I made went unnoticed over the alarm ringing, telling us all that it was time to change class. This time around, I sprinted out of the room for an entirely different reason.

I felt so damn proud and all I wanted to do in that moment was to share the good news.

Keeping my cool though, I didn't run around the school like some sort of crazy person. Gently holding onto the paper, I let it sway besides me as I walked to and down the hallway, searching for the person I was looking for.

When I did, I was glad to see that he was, once again, alone.

"Mike!" I spoke as I approached him. I couldn't help but notice the excitement in my tone. I hoped that he did too.

"Uh, hey, El," he answered, not jumping in surprise this time.

"So…. guess what?" If the fact that I was talking to him didn't get his attention, I knew my eagerness would.

"What?" He turned his body towards me. Without saying a word, I held up the test in front of my face, making the letter grade front and center.

"Oh. Wow! That's- that's awesome! This is your chemistry test right?"

"Yes!" I cheered, lowering the paper. "I thought I wasn't going to do good. When I had it in front of me, nothing looked familiar. I thought back to the study guide and everything we went over and- I just got it at the end, I guess."

"That's great." He adjusted his glasses with his index finger. "That's really awesome El."

"Thank you!" I blurted out, not only saying it in response to what he said. "For your help. I- I couldn't have done it without you." With a shrug, he replied.

"You took the test yourself. I just did my job in making sure you knew what you were doing."

"Guess I'm not totally hopeless then, huh?" I tilted my head to the side.

"N-No. I mean, you were struggling at first but that's what the tutori-."

All of a sudden, Mike's body slammed against the lockers, his things fell all around the floor, and laughter was heard throughout our area of the hallway. Turning my head, it was no surprise to see Troy Johnson, the class idiot, with a huge grin on his face.

"Gotta be more careful next time, Wheeler!"

Before Mike could say anything, not that it seemed like he would, I spoke.

"What the hell is your problem Troy?"

"Aww, El, what are you doing hanging around this loser anyway?"

"That's none of your business. Now answer my damn question."

"Wheeler and I are just playing around. Aren't we?" He actually had the balls to reach for him.

"Leave him alone." I shoved him away.

"Pfft, whatever babe."

"Don't call me that." I ordered. "Why don't you fuck off and get outta here?" With a roll of his eyes and not another word, he did just that. The same couldn't be said for the crowd he left behind. Drawing my attention to them, I yelled. "Show's over!"

As everyone scattered away, I turned to face Mike again.

"You okay?" I reached down to pick up his things since he was still rubbing his shoulder where it met the lockers.

"Yeah. Uhh, thanks. You didn't have to do that." He mumbled, not meeting my gaze.

I shrugged as I handed everything back to him.

"Troy's an asshole. I don't know why he goes around picking on everyone."

"Heh. You get used to it."

"Dude, are you alright?" I heard the voice from behind me, but I couldn't make out who it was. Based on the direction in which he, and two other guys, came, I assumed they must have seen the crowd that was breaking off and decided to follow it.

It took a couple of seconds, but I managed to recognize the three of them. They're friends of Mike's. I sometimes see them in the cafeteria sitting together and I'm pretty sure one of them also does the tutoring program at a table close to ours.

"Yeah," Mike answered his curly haired friend. "Troy was just bothering me, like always. El seemed to scare him off though." He glanced at me with a small smile. Then, as if Mike saying that caused his friends to notice there was someone else with him, they all turned to look at me.

"Hey," I nodded. Their eyes widened at that and they looked at me like I had two heads.

To try not to make it any more awkward, I thought it was best to leave.

"So umm, I have to go." I faced Mike again. "Thanks again. For everything. And uh, if Troy gives you any more trouble, just let me know okay?" Out of my entire encounter with Mike, I felt like that was the one thing I should not have said.

"Sure," he replied. "And uh, thanks." I nodded, letting him know it was no problem.

"See ya," That was directed at his friends and at least this time when I spoke to them, they managed not to look like they just wet themselves.


I rode with Kali to school this morning and since we're hanging out with Max right after, I had her stop by my house so I could grab a jacket. Just before I got out of her car, she and I looked at each other, questioning the unfamiliar car in the driveway.

Deciding not to worry about it too much, I went into the house where the mystery of the other car was… kind of answered.

"Oh, uhh, hey kid," Jim called out from his position on the living room carpet. He was in his sheriff's uniform, sitting with one leg bent towards him and the pulled up to his chest in front of the coffee table. A nearly empty box of pizza was on it.

And there was a woman sitting next to him.

"You're home early."

"It's after three."

"Already?" Instead of answering, I looked away, knowing the only other option was to look at his guest.

"El," he cleared his throat, like he was about to say something important. "This is Joyce."

I decided to look over at her, mostly because I knew Jim would say I was being rude later if I didn't.

"Hi," she spoke quietly.

Joyce had on a small smile, almost as if she were nervous to meet me (not that I can imagine why). She was sitting crossed-legged, so I couldn't really make out how tall she was. Her hair was the same plain brown color of nearly every woman her age in town and ran a little past her shoulders. She also didn't have on any makeup.

"Hey," was all I could think to say. "I-uh just stopped by for a jacket," I explained to Jim. "I'm going out." I walked in the direction of my room, not giving him too much of a chance to say anything.

Marching into my room, I let the door close shut behind me. I grabbed my jacket that was at the foot of my bed and tried not to think about the feminine laughter I heard from the living room or whatever stupid joke Jim must have said to make it happen.

Deciding to fix my eyeliner, I spent a couple of minutes in front of the mirror getting that done. A part of me knew that I was trying to avoid whatever was going on in the other room. Since I had Kali waiting for me though, I knew I couldn't just hide in here forever.

With a deep breath, I opened the door and made sure to close it before I walked into the rest of the house.

It's not that I thought they wouldn't be able to see me, but that didn't stop my eyes from rolling when Jim spoke.

"Don't be home late."

"Yeah," I replied, not looking back.

"It was nice to meet you, um, Elizabeth."

Surprised, since I wasn't really expecting her to say anything, I turned back around.

"Uh, yeah. You too." Without another word, I left.

As I walked to meet Kali at the end of the driveway, I dug out my box of cigarettes from my jacket pocket and pulled one out.

"Did you find out who that is?" She nodded in the direction of the other car as I opened the door and hopped back into hers.

"No," I shrugged and reached for the lighter in her glove compartment "Don't worry about it. Let's go."


"So, what do you guys wanna do this weekend?" Two weeks have passed since I got my chemistry test result and saw Jim with his new friend. I took a history test earlier today and to take my mind off it, I asked the girls what they wanted to get up to.

We were by the bleachers out on the track and I spoke to them as I laid down on one of them, dangling my cigarette on my fingers.

"I'm actually going to visit my grandma with my folks," Max said as she pulled the crust off her sandwich and dropped it on the ground. "We're leaving Friday after school to get there by dinnertime and we'll be there all weekend." I could tell by her tone that she wasn't all that excited about it.

"Shit," I answered. "What about you?" I asked Kali, who was sitting on the same bench I was using and gently nudged her with my foot.

"I'll be out of town too," She took another drag. "We're going to go visit my brother in Chicago since he has some internship and won't be able to come down for Thanksgiving." I let out a frustrated sigh. "Sorry."

"Nah, it's alright," I sat up, reaching into my backpack for the lunch I packed. "I'll just… find something else to do."

As if hearing neither of them would be here this weekend wasn't bad enough, I had another tutoring session with Mike today after school. Seeing the look on my face after he asked how the history test went was plenty for him to not mention it again and for that, I was grateful.

I slouched in my seat as Mike went over the assignment I had just finished, barely paying attention. I could think of hundred other things I'd rather be doing than Spanish classwork.

A couple of tables down, I caught his friend, one of the ones that was in the hallway the day of the Troy incident, staring over at us from a few tables away. I raised my eyebrow at him, silently asking him what he was looking at. He glanced away, not seeming embarrassed at all.

"Okay, good," Mike started, causing me to sit up. "Couple of small errors but it's better than last time."

"Cool, thanks," I replied as he handed me back my notebook after closing it.

"Looks like it's time to go," he nodded up to the clock on the wall while putting his things into his backpack. After a quick look at the time, I followed along.

As we've been doing for that past couple of weeks, since we head in the same direction anyway, we left the library together. Mike dragged on about the improvement he's seen in certain subjects and something on how he wants to know about the history test whenever I'm willing to talk about it.

Soon we were past the front doors of the school and just before we separated, him towards the bike rack and me towards the parking lot, he spoke.

"So I'll see you on Monday."

"What?" Before I could say anything else, he pushed his glasses up his nose for the third time since I've seen him. "I thought we are meeting this Friday. Because we didn't last week."

"I mean, everyone else is, but uh, I have- I have something to do."

"Oh. What?" It might have been nosey, but seeing as he has never said he was going to take a day off tutoring, I can't really be blamed for being curious.

"It's um…. It's actually my birthday."

"Ohh!" I exclaimed, probably a little too loudly, as I playfully crossed my arms. "I see. Well, I wouldn't want to come in either," I shrugged. "How old are you turning?" I asked, even though it could only be so many options.

"Eighteen," he spoke with the smallest amount of confidence ever.

"Nice," I nodded my approval, not that he really did anything. "So you're going to party?" Even though I knew the answer, I figured it'd be polite, not to mention, funny, to ask.

"Umm, no. I just would rather not come in for tutoring. Especially since it's a Friday. No offense or anyt-."

"No, it's cool. I just said I wouldn't have come in either."

"Oh okay," he looked down at his shoes.

"Well, if I don't see you until then," which I likely won't, "have a happy birthday. You definitely deserve it."

"Thanks," he smiled. "Have a good weekend."

Moving my hair out of face, I replied, "Bye Wheeler."

It may not seem like it, but this is the longest chapter of the story so far. There's been a lot of progress made, if I do say so myself. Next chapter is super exciting, so I hope you guys will stick around for it. Once again, I'm so sorry for taking so long! Please review if you can!