Sixteen

Most of my classes were the same as last year, except Robotics, which was replaced with Cooking, and Astronomy, which was replaced with Statistics. Thankfully, Poetry Analysis was a year-long course, because Gideon and I had no other classes together. 

When I walked in the door of my Statistics class, the teacher, Mr. Andrews, greeted me. He started lecturing the second the bell rang.  

“Alright, welcome to Statistics. Now, like I mentioned last week, this isn’t going to be an easy class. This is going to be a lot harder than making a silly video wrapping the word ‘Statistics’ and ‘Yup’ over and over.”  

The class immediately started laughing. I don’t know why.  

“Statistics are important,” he continued. “If you think you can’t handle my class, then you might as well drop out of high school now. Approximately 1.2 million high school students drop out every year. No one will judge you if you become one of those statistics.” 

The class was silent as everyone stared at the passive aggressive bald man at the front of the room. 

“Anyone?” 

We stayed quiet.  

“Alright then. Sounds good.” He then continued his lecture.  

 

 

~ 

 

 

January flew by fast, but I guess that’s how it goes. I completed projects, took tests, cooked food, the usual. Val seemed to be okay, considering Adrian’s departure. At the beginning of February, the student council started selling Valentines roses. Basically, what happens, is that you send a rose to your crush or girlfriend or something like that, and they’ll deliver it on Valentine’s Day. The problem is, you’re only allowed to send one because they didn’t order enough roses. 

I walked up to the booth, and before I could speak to the girl behind the counter, I felt a hand on my shoulder.  

I looked behind me and saw Gideon. “Hey.” 

“Who you buying that for?” he asked, smirking. 

I smiled, but I wasn’t sure. I hesitated, but he answered for me. “Buy one for Val. Since Adrian’s not here.” 

I looked up at him. “You’re only allowed to send one.” 

He nodded and smiled. “I know.” 

I hesitated, but then shrugged and wrote Val’s name on the paper and handed it back to the girl.  

“Thanks. Now move along,” the girl said.  

Gideon walked with me up the stairs, and then we went our separate ways. 

“I’ll see you later,” Gideon said. I waved to him and walked to my next class. 

 

When I sat in my chair in European History, my teacher slapped a paper on my desk. The top of the page read, POP QUIZ. 

I sank back into my chair with a sigh.