A/N: thanks to the three reviewers who reviewed this story. I love getting reviews, especially good ones. If you've got any suggestions, feel free to offer them to me!
Inner Struggles
Chap. 2
They each took their seats, and waited for the Prof. to start the lesson. They had been studying John Steinbeck, and had finished, in theory, reading The Pearl on their own. Today, they were discussing it.
"Who here read the book?" the Prof. asked, looking for an honest answer, which Reid was not willing to give him. He raised his hand with the rest of the class, who were more than likely, also lying. "Wow, that's what I wanted to see. Now, who would like to comment on something they found interesting?"
Several of the ones who actually wanted to be in this class raised their hands. He pointed to a girl sitting next to Reid, Tory. She was actually not that ugly, but since she was such a know-it-all, no one liked her. "Just that fact that Kino's, of for those of you who haven't read it yet," she looked at Reid scornfully, "the main character, people were trapped by their lack of education. The Spaniards in the town had a lot of power over them because they couldn't fight back."
"Very good Tory," he complimented. He went around for about 5 minutes asking willing volunteers for their opinions, before moving to the ones who refused to raise their hands. "Garwin, what did you find interesting?" he asked with a knowing look, a look that knew that he hadn't read the book.
"Well," he began. He knew for a fact that Tyler had read the book, since he saw him reading it one time during lunch. He decided to probe his mind, to make sure Tyler was paying attention to the conversation. "I thought it was, intriguing, that in the end, everything Kino had hoped for was lost, with the death of the baby," he answered with mock confidence. Instantly, he was bombarded with warnings, and scoldings, in his head.
"Wow, Mr. Garwin, that's a very good point," the Prof. said, surprised. Reid smirked over at Tyler. He mouthed the word, 'thanks'.
Once class was over, Reid made record time getting out of the room. He knew he was in for another lecture. Part of him knew he shouldn't have done it, but the other part was incredibly pleased with himself.
"Garwin, where the heck do you think you're going so quickly?" Pogue yelled. Caleb was walking next to him. "I've never seen you so eager to get to Algebra 2!" he said sarcastically. Reid hurried his pace, but was quickly shoved into an empty classroom.
"Oh sorry, I didn't hear you. Were you saying something?" he asked innocently, feigning curiosity as to what this was all about.
"Shut up. You know we all know what you did in there. Pretty soon, you're gonna get caught, and then, you'll be in huge trouble," Caleb said.
"Seriously, Reid. This isn't how it works You can't just use when ever it's convenient," Pogue agreed. Reid wasn't gonna take this. How dare they gang up on him like this! He shoved his way past them, and stormed out the door, with out a word. There was no point in going to Algebra 2. He was just gonna go back to the dorm and rest.
This wasn't getting any easier. Every time he tried not to use, his body completely disagreed, but when he did use, his friends completely disagreed. It was a never ending cycle. With every time he used, it was harder to reach that 'high' the next time. It was like a freakin' drug! He might as well be addicted to cocaine or something.
As he was walking back to the dorms, he was distracted from his thoughts when he saw a girl casually strolling around the center courtyard. He'd seen her around, but he'd never seen her alone before. This was his chance. No one could steal this girl away from him, because they all sorta had someone else.
"Hey," he strolled toward her. "I do believe you should be in class right now, miss." He put on his best charming act.
"I do believe you should too," she said, turning around, curious as to who said that. "Hey, you're Reid right? I've seen you and your friends around. Incase you don't know, I'm Emma," she said.
"I knew your name!" he lied. "I think your in my US History class."
"Yeah, I am. I sit next to your friend Pogue. What class are you skipping?" she asked, sitting down on a bench.
Reid went to sit down next to her. "Algebra 2, you?"
"German. I hate that class. It goes way too slow," she said. "Algebra 2, huh. Wow, I can't believe you can get away with skipping that one. It moves so fast!" she said.
"I have my ways. So, German goes to slow? I'm practically drowning in first year Spanish!" he said. "What year of German are you in?"
"Third. I love the language, I just don't like having to wait for my class to comprehend simple things. I tried Spanish for a while. German is way easier." She said, not wanting to sound like a know-it-all, bragging about how easy things were for her.
"Sure, you wanna go do something, we could go down to Nicky's. It's the last class of the day and all, we could take our time there.
"Yeah. Let me go change. I'll meet you back here in 10 minutes." She got up and walked away, looking over her shoulder with a smile. Reid hurried to his dorm so he could change of the stuffy uniforms. He really hated the dress code. It prohibited fingerless gloves, which were his trademark.
Precisely 10 minutes later, Reid was sitting on the bench, and Emma came walking up. She had changed into a casual, yet really cute, pair of jeans, and a simple black T-shirt, and black converse. What surprised Reid the most was on her hands, she had black fingerless gloves, which made him like her even more.
"Ready?" she asked, pulling on a jacket and a scarf.
"Yeah, we'll take my car," he said, standing up and walking out the parking lot next to Emma. They approached a black mustang convertible and got in.
"Nice car," she said. That's what she liked about this school. Everyone had money, and therefore, had nice things. "It's like mine, but mine's silver. So, tell me something about yourself."
"Well, I grew up here. My ancestors, along with the ancestors of my friends, founded Ipswich. Our families have been close for ever," he explained. "What about you?"
"Hmm, my parents moved here when I was born. We're originally from New York City, but came here to get away from the city life. Which is funny, because the city life sounds very nice after growing up here. A year after we moved here, my mom was diagnosed with cancer, and when I was eight, she died. She was a really strong woman. She put up the fight for seven years." She paused. "My dad did a pretty good job raising me, but I still turned out tom-boyish." She laughed.
"Wow. That must have been hard. Yeah, my dad has been fighting a chronic illness for a while too. He contracted it when he was eighteen. It's not nearly as serious as cancer, but I know how hard it is to see someone you love suffer. What are your hobbies?" he asked, doing them both a favor and changing the subject.
"I like to write, and listen to music. I also enjoy playing foosball when I'm at Nicky's," she said, which Reid interpreted as a challenge.
"What a coincidence. I like foosball too. We should play. I'll go easy on you, seeing as I rock at that game." They got out of the car and walked up to the door. "Do you want some food?" Reid asked once they were inside.
"Yeah, I'll have fries and a Mountain Dew, thanks," she said, walking over to the foosball table. Reid went up and put in his order and walked back to where Emma was putting on her game face, pumped for the game.
"Aw, how cute. You think you're gonna win," he said sarcastically.
"You're funny! Let's not get ahead of ourselves. You can be cute once you win, if you can manage that," she said, surprisingly not kidding. She was serious about this, which made Reid grin.
"Ok, let's get on with it!" He took his place on the other side of the table, and launched the ball.
The game went on for ten whole minutes, in silence. They were both concentrating too hard to carry on a conversation. In the end, Reid lost by one point, which really bothered him.
"Our food's been waiting up there for like five minutes. We should probably eat it before it gets too cold," he said, attempting to distract the sore winner with food. He couldn't believe she'd beat him. Now, he had to play her at pool, his specialty.
"You're not getting off that easy Garwin, I haven't had a chance to rub it in yet," she laughed. She paused for a moment before, oh so immaturely, saying, "You got beat by a girl, HA HA HA!" she skipped up to the counter and grabbed the food.
She walked calmly over to the table, all her excitement over winning out of her system. Reid sat down bitterly, and starting eating the fries he'd ordered. "So, what are your plans for the weekend?" he asked. It was Friday, and he now had something to look forward to besides sleeping in.
"I was planning on just hanging around campus, enjoying the peace and quiet of a roommate that's always out of town. Unless you can come up with some things for us to do," she said, taking a sip of her Mountain Dew.
"Well, we could come hang out here, and, that's basically it," he suggested. He wished he could come up with something better, but he was drawing a blank on all forms of entertainment.
"I've had a great time today, so, sure, sounds like a plan," she said. "Lets go play pool." She got up and grabbed a cue. Reid followed her, ready to beat her so bad that it would make up for the fact that she beat him at foosball.
"This should even up the score of the night," he said, lining up his first shot.
They played for a while, until at last, Reid won. He smirked and went to grab his coat. Emma followed him. They left Nicky's, and went out to Reid's car.
"Congratulations on winning," she said. "See, even though I'm a sore winner, I'm a gracious loser." Reid laughed. They got into the car and laughed and talked the rest of the way back to the campus.
When Reid arrived at his dorm, he reflected on the night. First of all, he'd met a girl that he really liked, and secondly, he had had a great time, and until now, didn't even think about using, which made it harder to resist.