Let's Get Ethan ✔

Prologue: One Year Earlier

Linda always knew the answer to a question, and she never made jokes, so when Ethan asked her are you breaking up with me, it was more for his own introspection than hers.

"Well, yeah, I thought that was pretty obvious. What do you want from me?" Linda questioned, jarred by his clear lack of understanding.

"Obviously, a relationship?"

Ethan scoffed before walking off. Linda grabbed his shoulder turning him to face her.

"Oh, back again, Linda Watts here to rub salt into the wound!" he said, but his mouth wouldn't shut. It stayed open in protest; his disbelieving eyes checked her expression. He knew that she wouldn't shut her mouth either.

"Seriously, Ethan, I'm doing this because I want the best for both of us!" Linda shouted, her light eyes staring stagnantly into his dark ones. 

Ethan couldn't believe what he was hearing from his girlfriend of two years.

"Huh, best for both of us? So, I was in some masterplan for my life and yours. You've thought about my life, since you've been there for forever, right?" he said, his words scalded with sarcasm. She shook her head vehemently as if she was trying to convince herself of the next words.

"Ethan, be reasonable," she sputtered. Linda's blue eyes transformed, her prickly demeanor now in full force.

"Reason? How about we use a little common sense here too, you only dated me to humanize yourself," Ethan said, his mouth almost foamed with distaste for his ex-girlfriend. She formed the words before saying them, then looked at the skinny, brown-haired teen before her.

"C'mon, you know that isn't true," she lied.

Linda was a short, blonde girl with an abnormally intelligent family. Two genius brothers, with doctorates, and one single mother neurosurgeon. Linda took after this high achieving gene pool by attempting and winning the large-scale lottery of college. Linda would be headed to Stanford in the fall, along with all the other scholars in the world.

Ethan on the other hand had a complex relationship with academics. He felt his creative spirit leave his body the second he stepped into Pre-Algebra as a ninth-grader.

"You're impossible," Ethan said.

He led himself out of the wicked woman's radius and into the high school.  He stormed into the locker bay. The crowded halls did not deter him as he seethed, marching toward his blue, battered locker in the corner.

If Linda just wanted to prove a point by getting into a relationship with him, then she was, in fact, wicked. He hated that Linda was just so good, so nice, so smart, so respected among her peers. The kind of respect Ethan could only dream about. But if she was going to treat him like he was nothing, like the rest of the student body, she was a witch, a wicked witch. He grabbed his set of ratty old textbooks from the trash heap he referred to as his locker and slammed it roughly.

Ethan went to his first class, Calculus. He entered the nearly full classroom, full except for his Calculus teacher Mr. Pine, who was most likely hanging out in a cluster of his own peers. Even though Ethan hated math he was forced into Calculus by his parents. His mom and dad were hellbent on creating a setting of misery for each of his siblings and himself.

Monica, his younger sister, was already feeling the pull toward STEM. It was plain as day logically of course; she was getting the chance to attend a prestigious math academy with a full-tuition scholarship. She would also get her parent's approval for once in her life.

Ethan took out his homework from the night previous and set it on his desk. The white sheet was blank of any substance, evidence of missing work. His eyes scanned the paper trying to come up with ideas when a voice made her presence known.