8: Grade A Material

With her father absent more often than not, Izzy found her house a silent fortress instead of a boxing ring. She couldn't remember it ever being quieter. It was a nice change, while it lasted – the shouting matches still existed, they'd just moved to late in the evening when her father came home drunk and unhappy.

Unfortunately, whether fortress or ring, the fact of the lack of air conditioning remained, and as the week became warmer so did the house. It was an uncomfortable sort of heat; the sort you could live with, but could never learn to enjoy. The Wheelers', in comparison, was a piece of climate controlled heaven in her opinion – she was pretty sure there wasn't a room in the house not set to a specific temperature. As usual, she spent a lot of time there, though now there was Storm to play with as well.

School was a neutral zone, with rooms that were slightly cooler than the air outside, but somehow still managed to be stuffy and choking. By the end of two lessons straight, everyone was craving the fresher air of outside again, forgetting just how warm it was out there. At the sound of the bell that signalled the end of the lesson, there was always a rush to the door and a collective breath of relief at the wave of fresh air no matter how warm. Maths was no exception.

Instead, the exception was that as she tailed the crowd, the teacher pulled Izzy aside and asked her to wait until the crowd disappeared. She caught Shawn's glance back to see where she had gone and shrugged at the question in his eyes, watching him leave the room as clueless as she was. "Izzy," the teacher said gently, catching her attention. "How are you going with this class? Are you struggling with the material we're studying?"

She shook her head, paused, and then shrugged, not really sure if she was lying or not. "I'm okay. My friends have been helping me. Why?"

He turned back to his desk, shuffling papers into a neat pile. "Your friends," he mused, pausing to think. "Shawn Wheeler and the Bolts boy, right?" She nodded, not liking the frown on his face.

"Izzy, I'm concerned about your grades," he continued. "They're not nearly high enough for you to pass this subject, and you have to pass in maths to move up a grade next year. I've spoken to your other teachers as well, and they seem to be having the same problem." He turned to look at her, with what almost looked like pity in his eyes. "You're a smart girl Izzy, and I wouldn't want to see you kept down and separated from your friends."

She eyed him for a moment, trying to ascertain if he was here to help, or just to give her bad news. "What should I do?" she asked finally, trusting him.

The teacher turned back to his packing. "Well, we have a test coming up next Thursday, which could really help bring your grade up again, and a lot of hard work after that will keep it up. If you fail this test though, it'll be a lot harder to bring your grade up to a pass afterward."

"Okay," she said with a nod, setting it in her mind. This time, she'd pass; there was no other option.

When the weekend finally came around again, it brought with it a fresh heat wave, sending the temperature soaring. It didn't take much to convince Julie to let her sleep over again; just the mention of a lack of air conditioning had her convinced that it was a good idea (fending off Wayne's air conditioning expertise when she lied about hers being broken was a good deal harder, but somehow she managed that as well). Sleeping over meant that she could finally catch up on the sleep she'd missed all week, tossing and turning restlessly through nights that were just too hot to afford a good night's rest, and she took full advantage of it despite being relegated to the couch. She slept right through the chaos of breakfast at the Wheelers, and probably would have slept on through lunch as well if she'd been given the chance.

Instead, Shawn shook her awake at half past ten while Storm paced back and forth in front of the couch in excitement. She groaned at the sunlight streaming through the windows, blinking rapidly and turning away to save her eyes. Unable to contain himself any longer, the puppy barked and jumped up to her, landing right on her stomach and jolting her awake. With a cough and loud noise of protest, she shoved the dog off her and sat up, rubbing her eyes and frowning at Shawn's laughter.

"Worst way to wake up ever," Izzy managed to mumble, glaring at him and patting the dog, who had crept back onto the couch in search of forgiveness. She would readily forgive Storm of any wrongdoing. Shawn, however, would have to put in a bit more effort than just laughing at her.

"Shawn, I said leave her alone," Julie called from the kitchen.

"Sorry Nan," he shot back immediately, not looking the least bit sorry.

"What d'you want?" she asked with a yawn.

He shrugged. "Bored. I dunno. Come play video games or something."

"Oh, fine." With a victorious grin, he practically bounded across the room to set up some racing game she'd never played before, and then returned, handing her a controller as he slumped down next to her on the couch.

"What'd Mr Fraser want yesterday?" Shawn asked as they played (she'd just figured out how to accelerate, but she just as quickly forgot at the mention of their maths teacher).

"He uh…" Shawn flashed past her on the screen, lapping her, and she grimaced, trying to find the right buttons. "He said I'm failing? Doesn't want to have to keep me back a year."

Shawn's otherwise flawless gameplay stuttered a moment. "You're failing?" he said, a little too loudly. Izzy just shrugged, found the right button to accelerate, and started playing in earnest.

She couldn't escape Julie's attention though – she was round the kitchen bench in an instant, looming over them. "What's this about failing classes?"

"It's nothing," Izzy insisted, but she wouldn't have it, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

"Nonsense. Come on, spit it out."

With a frustrated sigh, the dark-haired girl dropped the controller into her lap and looked Julie straight in the eye. "I'm failing math, okay? But it's fine. I'm always failing. I just move around too much, that's all."

"No, it's not okay." She was adamant, crossing the room and switching off the TV, ignoring Shawn's howl of disappointment. "Study, you two. Now."

There was a long sigh from Shawn, and Izzy elbowed him hard – he'd been the one to get them into this mess anyway. "Come on, my books are in my room," he said, dragging himself off the couch and leaving her not much else to do but follow.

Thursday came around way too quickly for Izzy's liking – despite all the time she'd spent frowning over maths questions with Shawn, she felt about as unprepared for a test as she'd ever been. She'd fail for sure. She'd never done anything but fail.

Ready?" Shawn asked as they stood outside class waiting for the teacher. She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. He looked at ease with the whole ordeal, like he didn't care at all if he passed or failed this assessment. Granted, it didn't mean passing or failing the year for him, but still, with all the studying he'd actually put in, he should care at least a little bit.

"Izzy," he said, shaking her shoulder softly and trying not to laugh at the sight of her brain overheating. "You need to calm down. It's just a maths test."

"Yeah well, I really don't want to have to redo this year," she spoke finally, smacking his hand away lightly before he could shake her again.

"I'm going to be really mad at you if we did all that maths on the weekend for nothing," he warned her, and she was only half sure he was joking.

The teacher appeared at the door, ushering everyone in. "Izzy," he greeted her as she entered the room, offering her an encouraging smile that she didn't return. "I hope you're prepared?"

"Yeah," she replied absently, slipping across the room as fast as she could to claim the seat next to Nuts. Shawn already sat on his other side, some guy who usually sat down near the front of the room taking up the seat on the other side of him. A minute later, a copy of the test landed face-down on her desk. She stared at it, nerves rising in her chest again. Studying was supposed to make tests easier to sit, wasn't it? She was more nervous than she had ever been when going into a test without any knowledge of the subject matter.

"Start when you're ready," the teacher called from the back of the classroom. Throwing a quick glance down the row to Shawn and Nuts, who had begun immediately, she flipped the paper and stared at the first question.

Somehow, miraculously, Izzy knew the answer.

"Izzy; could you wait behind please?"

Glancing up, she spotted the maths teacher's eyes on her and nodded, shoving the rest of her books into her bag. "I'll wait outside," Shawn said to her as he passed, following the rest of the class out.

When the room was empty, she approached the desk at the front, behind which her teacher stood cleaning the board. At the sound of her footsteps in the empty room, he turned, dropping the eraser onto the desk and picking up a handful of stapled papers instead.

"I was going to give these back on Monday," he said, and suddenly she realised that what he was holding were her results from the test she had taken the day before. Her stomach did a backflip at the thought of it. Had he pulled her out to tell her she had failed? He seemed to sense her nerves, eyes softening as he held out the paper. "I thought you might want to see how you did as soon as possible though, with so much riding on this test. I wouldn't want to spoil your weekend."

Hesitantly, she took the paper from him…and stared. An A, marked down in bright red pen, grinned back at her, along with a myriad of ticks as she flicked through the paper. Hardly any crosses or corrections marred the paper – she'd done better than she'd ever expected.

"I was very impressed with your improvement," the teacher said. "Has someone been helping you with the work, or?" He left the question hanging open, and after a moment of stunned silence, she hurried to answer it.

"Shawn's been studying with me," she explained, handing the paper back to the teacher, who nodded thoughtfully as he placed it back with his other things.

"Well I'm glad you've made such good friends here." He motioned towards the door, which she took as her cue to leave, stepping out of the reasonable air of the classroom into a hot and dry afternoon.

"What did he want?" Shawn asked, and Izzy wasn't able to stop the huge grin that broke out across her face.

"He gave me my test result," she said. "I got an A."

"Really? That's awesome!" In her euphoria, she reached out and hugged him, surprising even herself. Instinctively, Shawn hugged her back, enveloping her completely (he was so tall). A moment later she pulled away, still grinning like a maniac.

"Thanks for helping me," she added as an afterthought, walking out towards their lunch area.

"You're my friend," he responded with a shrug, hands shoved deep in his pockets. They fell silent, until they sat down and he handed her a sandwich. Their silent lunch agreement had almost become a ritual. Izzy didn't think lunch would feel right anymore without Shawn silently handing her a sandwich as they sat down. One day, she'd pay him back somehow.

"You know what?" she said as they started on the sandwiches.

"What?" Shawn asked.

"That was the first A I've ever gotten." Nothing could wipe the smile off of her face, not even when the sun went down and she trudged back home.