Chapter Three
Raven ran into school late the next day, heavy bag jarring painfully against her shoulder. She cursed her own slowness, but the events of the previous evening had not only made motion difficult; they had required an extreme amount of cover-up on her face and the backs of her hands. She had smeared her eyes with mascara to make herself appear tired and forged her father's signature on a late note. If the secretary in the office knew that something was amiss, she never said. Rather, she looked up at Raven quizzically over the top of her magazine, as if to ask her if she could ever be on time, and scribbled out a pass for Raven's late arrival to English.
She dropped hurriedly into her desk, feeling the burn on the back of her thigh as well as on her cheeks as the English professor, a tall, slender woman by the name of Ms. Gunthrie, turned to give her a quizzical look. Ms. Gunthrie loved Raven and her ambitions to be a writer and a teacher, and was always sympathetic to Raven's lateness as long as there was a pass involved. Raven handed her the pink slip and marveled at the fact that, while all of this had transpired, the woman had never once stopped talking.
"…Handing back your tests," she said to the class, picking up the thick stack of poetry tests. There were a series of groans from different parts of the classroom, which were promptly ignored as the woman picked up the stack of papers and began to distribute them.
"Another excellent essay, Ms. Roth," said Ms. Gunthrie quietly, handing Raven her paper face-down. Raven picked it up nervously, only to find that her teacher had splashed a garnish sticker with a 'Way to Go!' next to the 100%. Smiling to herself, Raven looked over, worriedly, at Kori. Kori's eyes were focused on the paper nervously, waiting for the teacher to reach her. Raven had helped them with the last series of essays too, and was hoping for the best.
She saw Kori's face light up and knew she had done the right thing. She tenderly touched the bruise on her left shoulder and reminded herself that this, if nothing else, was what made life worth it.
She ran through the essay test with no particular clue what she was writing and joined Kori at the end of class. Dressed in another bright sundress and open-toed shoes, Kori appeared to have no clue anything was wrong with her friend. "Friend Raven, I have done it! I believe I have finally aced an English test!"
"I'm proud of you," Raven said in-between grimaces of pain as Kori hugged her tightly. "Really, I am."
As Kori was about to open her mouth, undoubtedly to say something cheesy she'd learned from a popular show about teenage friends in high school, Raven saw Richard and Victor walking up the hallway, heads bent together as Richard made an angry gesture towards where the girls were standing, his hands thrown in the air in exasperation.
Upon spotting Raven, both stopped talking, which led her to wonder if they had been talking about her. She shook her head calmly, as if to clear it of such a stupid thought, and waved to both of them. They waved back, and Richard came over to Kori's side. Victor stood next to Raven, looking calm and collected as ever. It was as if the argument between he and Robin, or whatever it had been, had never happened.
"Hey girls," he said, smiling. Victor was, all things considered, quite a lady killer, but he thought of Raven and Kori as more of his sisters than potential dates. "Raven, are you on one of those diets where girls try to sweat off all their weight or what?"
"I'm cold," Raven replied tonelessly, her voice quavering a bit.
"How can you be cold?" Asked Richard. His tone was light, teasing, and Raven assumed she must be crazy to think they had been talking about her. There was no accusation in it. "And do you own any other sweaters?"
"Its easy and no, I don't." She found herself becoming annoyed and decided to promptly switch the topic. "Where's short and annoying today?"
Anyone else might have raised their eyebrows at her, but conversation among the five friends was as natural and easy as breathing, and Victor answered instantly. "Downstairs in your calculus class about ready to cry all over his notes. You have a test today, remember?"
"I see by her face that she didn't," Richard observed casually. Raven pawed at her bag, trying to grab the calculus bag out of it without putting any additional strain on it.
"I have to run!" She yelled as she was running, leaving her three friends standing in the hallway. She barely made it to math in time. Looking down at her over the edge of his glasses was her math professor, whom she and her friends had named Mad Mod. Mad Mod earned his name from talking endlessly to his whiteboard and completely ignoring his student's questions or pleas for help. She slid into her seat next to Garfield, who looked over at her. As Victor had predicted, however unkindly, there were tears already in his eyes.
"Dude," He said to Raven, looking over at her with his lamplike brown eyes practically awash in tears, "I don't know any of this!"
"Did you study?" She asked coldly, trying to sound disinterested. She studied Garfield- His hair unkempt, his Guitar Hero t-shirt hanging around him loosely, he was the stereotypical image of that nerdy, funny guy that everyone liked- Or, more typically, liked to make fun of.
"No! I was playing video games with Victor last night!"
"I swear you two are soul mates," she said coldly, looking over the book. She bit back the panic in her mouth and looked down at the equations. According to her notes, y could be equal to any number of things, and she had no idea how to find it.
"That was cold, Rae!"
"How many times have I asked you not to call me that?" She hissed at him, studying intently as Mod stood up and banged his little cane off the desk, calling an end to their conversation.
Garfield infuriated her in more ways than she could count. He was hysterical at times, but for the most part he was just a geeky guy she hung around with. He had taken her to dances and out to other school functions before, but she could not bring herself to regard him with anything other than a kind of well-practiced contempt in public.
She blushed slightly, knowing there was a reason the contempt had to be so well-practiced.
"Today you will be taking your calc test. No talking, swearing, chewing bubble gum, sneezing loudly, or asking to be excused before the bell, okay, duckies?" A class of fourty-two groaned their displeasure, but Mod did not seem to notice as he passed out the papers.
Raven found herself looking over at Garfield, who was concentrating on the test. He was by far the smartest of her friends, and she found that kind of general innocence appealing. However, she also found that she was annoyed by how easily the test seemed to be coming to him.
She left the classroom sure that she had not gotten a single question right. Garfield babbled the whole way up the stairs, but she was ignoring him.
"…Hand?" His question, coupled with the startled look on his face, jerked her back to reality. "What happened to your hand?"
"Nothing."
"You know," he said, suddenly all seriousness, "I really worry about you, Rae…"
"Shut up," she told him, but something inside her was touched that he would worry at all.
(Sorry this is so short and I've been so lax on my updates. Bad month sums it up quite nicely. Kara, I'm praying for you... This is your story as much as it is mine.)