"Pop test!"
Jocelyn cringed as she heard the echoing "WHAT!" from the back of the room and the sound of a pen snapping, ink splattering onto a well-stained desk. Ms. Riley sighed. "Adam, do I need to write you a referral?" Adam growled and muttered a few words that shouldn't be said in front of a highschool teacher, but sat back down and crossed his arms. Jocelyn took deep breaths, tuning out Felix's incessant babbling about how he didn't study and how apocalyptic this was. She was good at tuning things out, but strangely enough the quietest of sounds could punch through her mental walls. Like that of the soft sigh coming from the seat next to her. She turned and saw Samantha looking forlornly at her desk, dejected expression on her face. Her heart going out to the girl, she reached out and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Don't worry. We've got this." Jocelyn said, grinning and giving Samantha's shoulder a hopefully comforting squeeze. Samantha only glanced at her and sighed again. Jocelyn would have said more, but the test was out and talking would result in a very unpleasant grade, and her Chemistry grade wasn't spectacular to begin with.
Jocelyn leaned against her locker at the end of the day, putting a few teeth marks into her newest pen as she thought. As another girl in her Chemistry class walked by, Jocelyn grabbed her arm and dragged her to the side of the hall. "Diana, have you ev-" "Get your disgusting sweaty hand off of me!" Jocelyn quickly took her hand off of Diana's arm, watching as the girl pulled a rather large bottle of hand sanitizer out of her bag and vigorously applied it to where Jocelyn's hand was. "Anyway, have you ever seen Samantha smile?" "What's it matter to you?" "JUST…just answer, OK? Think about it." Diana stood there, in a too-stereotypical-to-be-serious thinking pose before saying "No, I don't think I have. Goodbye." Jocelyn gaped at her retreating back. That was incredibly rude. But it did prove her point. As she turned to look down the hall, she saw Samantha standing at her own locker, expression unchanged from the test earlier that day. As soon as Jocelyn noticed, she made it her solemn duty to make Samantha smile, even if she had to hit her with laughing gas to get it.
Although she was joking to herself about that laughing gas thing, it was quickly looking like her only option. When attacking the bespectacled girl with apparently bad jokes (knock knock jokes ARE funny dang it!) and joyous words, she moved to spying on the girl until she got her locker combination, then proceeded to leave gifts in Samantha's locker to cheer her up. When that didn't work, she upgraded her gift game, and sometimes left more-than-friendly gifts (sure, roses and a heart shaped box of chocolates might be weird, but who doesn't smile at those?!), even then to no avail. For the first time in her life, Jocelyn was running out of ideas on how to make someone happy. And it was really getting to her. The fact made brutally clear to her when her History teacher passed back their tests to study from, and Jocelyn saw the red 35 circled at the top of her paper. She stared at the number, a tear falling down her face. She'd never gotten below a 74 before, and come on, no one got that Trig test! As the final bell rang, she numbly shuffled of to her locker, collected her things, and trailed out of the building, not seeing the worried set of eyes following her. She sat on the curb in front of the school, not worried about the busses going by, knowing she had her keys in her bag. She looked out over the parking lot, then put her head in her hands and sobbed quietly, shoulders shaking ever so slightly. She almost didn't hear the soft thump of a person sitting down next to her. She looked up and saw Samantha sitting next to her, concern visible in her eyes. "What happened?" Jocelyn was too emotional to process that the girl she was trying to get to crack a smile was sitting next to her, openly talking to her. "I, I g-got a 35 on a test! That's g-gonna k-kill my grade!" She blubbered out through her tears and runny nose. Samantha didn't comment though, only handed her a tissue and said "It's OK. You're grades will be good enough to take the hit." "R-really?" Jocelyn stuttered out, much dryer after wiping her eyes and blowing her nose, shooting the tissue into a nearby trash can. "Yeah. You'll be fine." Samantha said, putting her hand on Jocelyn's knee in a gesture meant for comfort. And then she let out the smallest of smiles at Jocelyn, the corners of her mouth only slightly lifting. But it was more than enough for Jocelyn. All that time trying to get her to smile, she never imagined what the girl would look like while smiling. She was gorgeous. All of her sadness rushed out of her, and now she stuttered for a whole other reason when she said "Th-thank you." Samantha nodded, then looked over to where the busses were. "Drat. I rode here." "I'll drive you!" Jocelyn said a little too quickly. "Are you sure? I mean, what if it's really far out of your way, or-" "It's OK! I don't have anything scheduled all day!" This time, when Samantha smiled, Jocelyn was smiling too.