This honestly hurt to make but at the same time I loved it...
Max reread the flash cards, his head spinning. They had to present next, in front of the entire class. He wished he could've skipped, but didn't want Chase's grade to possibly suffer.
"You don't have to memorize it all, no one else is. Just read the slide directly." Chase whispers softly to Max, not wanting the teacher to scream at them for talking and deducting points. A handful of people have already had that happen.
Maxwell nodded but wanted to disappear. It was hard enough for him to speak to Chase, hard enough for him to shake the other baseball teams hand, hard enough for him to walk up front to turn in a fucking assignment!
How the hell is he going to read 8 slides out, in front of class, for a solid 5-7 minutes! None of them has ever heard Max even talk! Only Chase has! And that wasn't very voluntarily.
Hell, Max doesn't even think the teacher has heard him talk. All he did was raise his hand for attendance and point to door for the bathroom.
"Chase and Maxwell, are you two ready to present?"
"Yep." Chase spoke, glancing over at Max, who's eyes were wider than the sky. His breath instantly became uneasy. Chase says softly to Max, "just read the cards, don't worry about anything else. I'm starting off."
Max nodded and followed Chase to the front of the class. All eyes were on him, some people were actually curious to hear Max's voice.
Chase hooked up his computer to the teachers large screen, the presentation slides displayed. He sent Max a reassuring smile that Max didn't return. He physically couldn't.
He was shaking. Trembling. He was gripping harshly onto the cards. He was sure everyone noticed his anxiousness.
Chase started the presentation, speaking clearly, loud enough for everyone to hear. Maxwell was in shock on how Chase could effortlessly talk without stuttering or getting afraid.
The dark haired boy went to the next slide, the slide Max had to talk about. His eyes flew to the crumbled cards, just to see the pencil had been smeared from all the sweat on his hands.
Everyone was waiting for Max to speak. The teacher was staring right at him, waiting impatiently. Max wanted to cry.
He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. It was like his voice box completely shut down.
Max hasn't never had to speak in front of a class in his entire life. He's always managed to talk the teacher out of it in exchange for a little extra work.
"T-th-the..." Tears pricked Maxwell's eyes, his chest was heavy and tight. So tight he could hardly breathe. An elephant was sitting on him. "T-th-the..."
He couldn't do it. He swore he heard a snicker or two. Everyone looked so bored and annoyed at Max for wasting time.
Max agressively shoved the note cards into Chase's hand, hurrying out the room, not letting a tear fall until the door shut.
"Shit." Chase whispered to himself, so quietly he could barely hear. "Do I continue or..."
"If you do, Maxwell gets a zero."
Chase scowled. Max did his fair share of work, a 50 was understandable. Of course he didn't want Max to get a 50 though, but if he couldn't present...
"Can I get him and then we do this last?"
The teacher rolled their eyes and nodded, waving Chase off to get Max. He was quick to disconnect his computer, putting it and the cards on the desk.
