Chapter Ten

Next Tuesday rolled around before Paulina knew it and that day ended up being a crazy one for her.

It all went down during Mr. Lancer's first period class. Everyone was working independently on their warm-up assignment, but that didn't stop them from discussing their answers quietly to whoever was sitting adjacent to them. Luckily for Paulina, she and Star patched things up a few days prior, so she was able to read and copy what she had written down.

About five minutes into the assignment, Mr. Lancer stood up from the swivel chair behind his desk and slowly walked towards the front board. "All right, pencils down. Pass your warm-ups down and towards the center person in the first row."

Paulina neatly tore her warm-up sheet from her spiral notebook and handed it to Dash, who was occupying the desk in front of her. He took it from her and she watched as he passed it down the row. As she looked on, she cast an absent glance to her right, where she saw Danny passing up the worksheets he had collected.

Sam had her head down on her desk, which was definitely uncharacteristic for her. Danny was usually the main one who fell asleep during class or who always had his head down. Next was Tucker, though it was much more rare, but it was barely ever Sam.

Paulina didn't think she was asleep because immediately after Danny handed the papers to the person in front of him, he turned around and leaned towards her. He seemed to be whispering to her and she was for sure saying something back. Whatever it was, Paulina shrugged it off and shifted her attention back to Mr. Lancer as he cleared his throat.

"Today, you all will be working with one other person to complete a worksheet," he informed his students. "Then, you'll both come up before the class to share your answers." Paulina and Star glanced at each other and grinned, but then frowned immediately once he added, "When I call your name, come up and draw a name from the box."

Star rolled her eyes and groaned. "Why don't we ever get to pick our own partner?" Paulina grunted in agreement and listened as Mr. Lancer called on Dash, who smirked and started walking towards the box. He stuck his hand inside after Mr. Lancer shook it and pulled out a tiny slip of white paper.

"I got Fentonio." He looked up at Danny and his smirk increased into a grin. "Sweet." Danny didn't look too pleased, but he still got up and pushed his desk closer to Dash's. Paulina's eyes followed Dash as he moved back to his seat, but Mr. Lancer reverted her attention to him once he called on Star.

Star quickly rose from her seat and made a beeline for the box in his hand. She closed her eyes and reached inside, pulling out a slip of paper and opening her eyes to read it. When her face sank and her expression shifted to one of disgust, Paulina's brows flattened as she wondered what name the girl got.

"Foley." Star dropped the slip of paper onto Mr. Lancer's desk and reluctantly crossed the room over to Tucker, who was wearing a toothy grin that nearly took up his entire face. Paulina narrowed her eyes and was just about to ask him why he was smiling when Mr. Lancer called her name.

She got up from her seat and went straight for the box just like Dash and Star did. She turned her head to the left and reached into it with her right hand, feeling around for a paper to grab. She chose one somewhere in the center and pulled it out before looking at it.

"Great." Sighing almost dejectedly, she looked upward at nothing in particular and scoffed. "Why does this keep happening to me?" Mr. Lancer's eyebrows skyrocketed, but she didn't say anything else as she placed her paper on his desk and walked back over to her own.

She didn't sit; instead, she grabbed her backpack and pushed her desk closer to Sam's until the sides touched one other. The movement of their desks connecting made Sam aware that someone was beside her, so she slightly raised her head and looked over at Paulina.

"Uh, we're partnered together for this assignment," Paulina told her meekly. She said nothing in response, but she nodded her head and cleared off her desk. Paulina sat in her seat and repositioned her notebook as she closely studied the Goth beside her.

Her skin was paler than usual, her eyelids were droopy, and she overall looked exhausted. Paulina opened her mouth to ask what was up, but then she decided against it and clamped her lips together. Mr. Lancer came by to pass out the group worksheets, and as soon as Paulina received hers, she scanned her eyes over it.

The worksheet was simple, as it was only divided into two sections. One section required them to match up the vocabulary words to the proper definition and the other one required them to use those same vocabulary words in a sentence.

She was only going to do the first section and leave the second one to Sam because she didn't feel like doing the most time-consuming part, but then she decided to just do the second section in order to cut the girl some slack because she looked like hell.

"I'll tackle the second section." She peered down at the worksheet and picked up her pencil. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam slowly put her head back down on the desk. Paulina was certain that she was ill, but she was also certain that she wouldn't admit to it, so she simply chose to mind her own business.

She was on the fifth sentence going onto the sixth one when Sam took the paper from her. "I'll do the rest." She could've protested, but Sam seemed adamant on doing the rest of the work, so she just let her do it. While that happened, she figured she'd speak to Star, who was somewhere at a desk behind her.

The two of them conversed for about fifteen minutes, talking about cheerleading and gossip until Mr. Lancer called for everyone's attention. "Time's up. It's time to present the second section of your worksheets." Paulina turned around in her chair and spread her arms out on the desk. "Mr. Fenton, Mr. Baxter, take the wheel."

Danny and Dash got up from their seats and started towards the front of the class. Dash, who was holding onto the worksheet, held it up a bit and cleared his throat. "The word we chose for our first sentence was laceration. Kyle was covered in many lacerations after falling off of his bike."

Mr. Lancer smiled and marked something down on his clipboard. Danny took the paper from Dash and read the next sentence. "Dash could have an A in English, but because he's too complacent, he doesn't."

Dash scratched his head and snatched the paper from him. He squinted at the words, brows furrowed, before his expression shifted to a glare. "Hey! That sentence isn't on here."

A few students in the classroom laughed as Mr. Lancer slapped his forehead with his right hand and mumbled something underneath his breath. Paulina smirked and leaned back in her seat, finding the scene before her amusing. Unfortunately, they were finished reading all ten sentences in less than four minutes, so the moment of entertainment was cut short.

Mr. Lancer called for Paulina and Sam to come up next, so Paulina grabbed the worksheet from the desk and skipped to the front of the classroom. Sam trudged her way up there, making them both look even more like complete opposites. Paulina leveled the paper in front of her and began to read.

"The first word we picked was distraught. The young woman was very distraught after the death of her husband." She clicked her tongue and was about to read the second sentence, but then she leaned over and held the paper before Sam to let her take a crack at it. "You can read the second one."

But she didn't read the second one. Paulina waited for her to start reading, but she didn't say anything. She glanced over at her and saw that she was squinting and blinking several times. Almost nervously and sounding concerned, Paulina asked, "Did you hear me?"

"Yeah, I..." Sam's words died in her mouth as her expression went blank. Her eyes then rolled shut and she crumpled towards the floor, but Paulina dropped her worksheet and hastily curled her arms around Sam to catch her before she hit the floor.