Say you'll remember me
Standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe
Red lips and rosy cheeks
Say you'll see me again even if it's just in your wildest dreams
Part II: Season 5
Chapter 18: Gauge
"Ready?"
Sherry fidgeted in the car seat, tugging absentmindedly on the strap of her dress. "Nope. Not ready." She leaned away from the car door, her stomach full of butterflies. "This is dumb. Let's go home."
Parrish punched her lightly on the arm. "It's the first day of school. Everyone is anxious."
She shook her head quickly, her straight brown hair flying into her face. "No. This is different. I haven't really talked to anyone since June." She sank into her seat. "I'm sure they all hate me now. And they're all seniors. Why would they want to talk to a sophomore like me?"
"You're overreacting," Parrish coaxed. "You're part of their group now. And Liam isn't a senior."
Smirking, Sherry muttered, "The last time I saw him was the night before I left - it was a full moon and he was running through the streets naked in wolf mode."
Parrish grimaced. "Yeah, that was a fun one to explain to people." He glanced at Sherry, sighed, and got out of the car on his side. Walking around to open her door for her, he tried to set a firm, authoritative tone. "Please remove yourself from the vehicle."
Huffing, she dragged herself out reluctantly. "Fine, Deputy." The sound of students and people hit her ears like a tidal wave and she pouted, eyes darting nervously around the campus for any sign of her friends.
Parrish pulled her into a hug, which involved him stooping down noticeably to get to Sherry's height. "Have a good day." He let go, sauntering back to the driver's side door. "Love you."
Her throat tightened. "Uh, you too."
The car spluttered to life and Parrish drove off, leaving Sherry standing alone on the sidewalk.
A hand clapped her on the shoulder. She spun around, jumpy. "Mason?"
The boy grinned, his dark skin almost glowing and his eyes full of sparks. "Haven't seen you in forever. Almost didn't recognize you, what with-" he waved his hands in the general direction of her hair.
"The pink?" She giggled, running her fingers through her dip-dyed locks. "Hong Kong was great." She squeezed Mason in a hug and flicked his ears. "Missed you tons. And love the earrings."
He laughed, swinging his arm around her shoulders as they made their way to the front doors of the high school. "What's your first class?"
"AP Bio, then multi-variable math," she answered. His eyes widened in shock. "Yours?"
"History with Mr. Yukimura," he said. "How are you already taking multivar? You must be as smart as Lydia."
"I'm not smart," she defended. "My old school went way faster and I work hard."
Mason shook his head. "Nah, you're smart."
"Oh my god, honey, what did you do to your hair?" A strawberry blonde leaned her chin into her interlaced fingers, judging Sherry with one eyebrow lifted.
"It's called 'My aunt and uncle in Hong Kong are very liberal and think it's wonderful to express yourself in any way you choose...' but I think they were more going for a caramel color, not bright pink." Sherry beamed at the sight of Lydia, who looked as perfect as she always did.
"Well, I don't like it."
Kira and Scott passed behind Sherry, taking the two open first row seats. Lydia and Sydney, the girl who fell during the PSAT, had the other two.
"You took my seat, Scott," Sherry said, tapping him on his shoulder.
He stared at her and quickly scrambled out of the chair. "Sherry! I'm sorry!"
She shook her head. "I'm kidding. Miss me?" She held out her arms and Scott grinned, hugging her.
"Totally." He sat back down and pulled out his textbook, setting it on the table. Immediately, Kira and Lydia seemed to notice his presence, exchanging strange looks with each other, seemingly confused as to why Scott was there.
"Scott," Kira finally started, "Are you in the right class?"
Scott nodded. "AP Biology."
"Do you know what AP stands for?" Lydia pressed, a concerned expression on her pretty face.
"Advanced Placement," Scott smiled, opening his textbook to reveal two highlighters and a new notebook. The textbook pages were streaked with yellow, highlighter covering nearly every letter of the text.
Kira and Lydia looked surprised to see the amount of preparation Scott had put into it, not unjustified considering his participation in chemistry last year. Still, Sherry reasoned, he had shown that he could handle almost anything.
The teacher, Mrs. Finch, a woman with lightly styled auburn hair, began moving toward the head of the classroom, so Sherry quickly scrambled to find the last open seat. She pulled her own textbook out of her bag and spread out her things in front of her just as the teacher began to talk.
"Welcome to AP Biology!" she announced, looking stern and not at all welcoming. "Let's see who's awake." She pressed her lips together and leaned back on the edge of her desk, surveying the classroom. "Can someone tell me what plasmids are?"
Lydia answered immediately. "Circular, self-replicating DNA molecules often used in cloning proteins."
"Nicely stated, Lydia. Now, can you tell me what vitamin is absorbed in the stomach via parietal cell production of a glycoprotein?"
Sherry racked her brain for the answer. The first question was easy, but she was stumped on this one.
"Uh," Lydia said. It seemed that no one else knew the answer, either.
"B-12," Mrs. Finch stated. "Mr. McCall, did you know the answer?"
"Um," he said. "No."
"It's a common test question. What's your number one college pick?"
"Um..."
"Stop saying um," Mrs. Finch reprimanded.
"Sorry," Scott answered, shaking his head quickly as if to clear his thoughts. "UC Davis."
"Good choice. It's the best school on the West Coast for biological and physical sciences. You're in the right class if that's what you're hoping for." She turned her attention to the rest of the classroom. "Who else thinks they're in the right class?"
The boy sitting next to Sherry, who had pretty brown hair and a sweet smile, was the first to raise his hand. Everyone stared, but when he just smiled back confidently, everyone simultaneously followed suit. Sherry raised her hand too, glancing between Scott and the boy. They seemed to know each other.
"Good," Mrs. Finch said. "Then you should all be prepared for the test tomorrow."
There was a unanimous groan, but Sherry's exhalation was more like a sigh. She'd expected as much from an AP course.
"Don't be so disappointed. This test is specifically to help you determine whether you should actually be in AP Biology. You have two weeks to drop." She stood up, making eye contact with each student. "Tomorrow's test will just weed out the ones who shouldn't be here. And that could be any of you."
Sherry couldn't help but notice Mrs. Finch's lingering glance at Scott. Why did everyone underestimate him?
The teacher began to hand out the class syllabus, placing the blue papers in front of students as though they were top-secret files.
"Hi," said the boy next to Sherry. "I'm Theo."
She smiled at him, her cheeks feeling warm. "I'm Sherry."
"I don't mean to be rude, but," he said, lowering his voice, "Are you still sure you're in the right class?"
Sherry plastered on a grin, certain this wouldn't be the only time today someone would ask her that question. "Yes. I'm ahead for my age. Are you sure your people skills are up to par? Because that was definitely rude."
His face fell. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"
Sherry laughed. "Joking." She held out her hand. "Lovely to meet you, Theo."
She walked into 10th Grade Honors English for her third class of the day and immediately wished she hadn't. Liam and Mason were in the middle of the room, talking animatedly about something Sherry couldn't hear. Liam looked up the moment she stepped into the room, frozen as he stared at her. Mason waved, beckoning her over to the empty seat left in front of them. Sherry took a desk at the front of the room.
Not a moment later, she could feel Mason behind her, that sharp smell of his cologne giving him away. "Hey, come sit with us!" he exclaimed.
Sherry glanced at Liam, who still was watching blatantly. "I don't know."
Mason frowned. "Did- did something happen between you and Liam that I'm not aware of?"
"I just haven't talked to him since like the end of May."
"When school let out? Come on, he's not going to bite or anything!" He pulled her arm. "Come on."
With one last longing look at her front-row seat, Sherry sighed and picked up her stuff. "Fine, but if I fail English because I'm not sitting at the front, I blame you."
Mason slid into his seat next to Liam and Sherry, making an uncomfortable face, made herself at home in her new desk. "Hi, Liam."
He nodded. "Your hair is pink."
Mason snickered. "Obviously."
"You keep your clothes on yesterday?"
Liam reddened. "I thought you were in Hong Kong during July."
"Wait, what?" Mason balked. "What is this?"
"Nothing!" Liam interjected. He glared at Sherry. "Wow, thanks."
"Hello, class! Can you please lower the volume? Please? Thank you!" The teacher was blond, skinny, and wore suspenders that lifted his khaki pants up far too high. A pair of expensive sunglasses balanced precariously over his thinning, gelled hair. "My last name is long and Russian, so you can call me Mr. S. How many of you did the extra credit summer work?"
Sherry's hand shot up into the air, but it was the only one out of thirty students. "There was extra credit?" Mason whispered, crestfallen.
Mr. S rubbed his hands together, a disappointed look on his pale face. "Well, then, um, what's your name?"
"Sherry Ming."
"Like the wine or the 1920 novel by Colette?"
"The wine," she said. "The song, actually, is what I'm named after."
"Right, then, Sherry, can you give the class a brief synopsis of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street?"
"A neighborhood of people think monsters are out to get them, so they start blaming one another until nobody trusts anyone. The situation only escalated because of the mistrust and it turns out that there wasn't really a monster. The whole thing plays on the flaws of everyday people."
"Very good. Can I get the first person in each column to pass out copies of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings? This unit, we will be learning about human flaw and its various impacts."
"Good job," Liam said, trying to look supportive of Sherry.
She gave him a weird look. "Thanks? I just did my homework."
At the start of free period, she found Liam banging his head against his locker with only a maroon jacket as padding between his skull and the metal. He wore school P.E. shorts, which seemed to Sherry to be a very strange choice for a first day of school wardrobe.
"Where are your pants?" Sherry questioned, concerned.
"I don't want to talk about it."
She nodded slowly, concerned. "Okay... Where's Mason?"
"Hey, can I ask you a question?"
She froze. "Make it quick."
"You've been avoiding me since I got poisoned."
"That's not a question," she bit out tersely.
"Well, why? You nearly saved my life."
"I didn't help save your life at all," she retorted. "I didn't take a bullet for you. I couldn't save you from the wolfsbane. I didn't really even do a good job of getting you out of the cabin to get you help."
"Yeah, but," Liam fidgeted, twisting his fingers. "You tried. And you helped drag me out before the house exploded. So if you cared then... why are you trying to ignore me?"
"Not everything has a simple answer," she said. "Why don't you use your werewolf senses to figure it out? Smelling all those chemical signals and whatnot?"
Sherry remembered the talk she'd had with Scott back in May, when he'd come to her house after school to check if she was okay. You love him. Could werewolves smell that? Or was Scott just extra perceptive? She hoped it was the latter, but she couldn't help wishing that the former were true. That Liam would finally figure it out and confess his love or something else highly unlikely along those lines.
"I'm not really good at that yet."
She sighed. "Where's Mason?"
Liam shoved his jacket into his locker, on top of a crumpled pair of blue jeans. "Out on the soccer field, staring at the shirtless players."
Sherry nodded. "Thanks. I'll catch you later."
"Yeah," he responded doubtfully.
A/N: SEASON FIVE! I'm planning on making a ton of changes from Jeff Davis's version because tbh his storyline makes no sense and so many characters are acting OOC. So if I don't cover some parts of the story, assume they stay the same. If things end up to be much more different, then know that was intentional.
What are your thoughts on Liam in this chapter? And who else ships Mason and Brett?
Don't forget to review, favorite, and follow! xx
