Oh, man, Darry was going to kill me.
Making it through the school day was tough already. It started off rocky when I walked out without one of my shoes and only realized when I was three blocks from home and past the park where we used to play football. By the time I went back home to get it, I was already ten minutes behind. Then I left the house again, only to go back and fetch a few aspirins for the headache that came out of nowhere. I was kind of a mess today, but I've been living like that for a while now. I was getting better since I was now able to actually think about Dally and Johnny, but I had parts of my mind I couldn't get back.
Anyways, running late to school caused me to get some points docked from my first period; which happened to be Biology. I wasn't doing so hot in Bio, since I was always getting my facts mixed up. There were too many things that sounded the same or stuff that was really easy to forget. My memory isn't so lousy, but no matter how hard I stared at my notes or paperwork, I seemed to be mixing up body parts for other body parts. I'd read the textbook without actually reading it. It actually got me kind of frustrated because I never let that kind of thing happen to me.
Well, I got my test back from the latest unit and just about stuffed it into my bag somewhere that I wouldn't remember where it would be throughout the rest of the day. I ignored the letter I got since I've never even gotten a mark like that before. There was a hunk of ice in my stomach, and I felt a wave of cold sweat strike me like a pulse. I didn't want to think about it. That kind of stress makes me so sick to my stomach, and that was just about how I was going to bring my grade back up to an 'A'. I didn't even think about Darry until the way home. It was either going to go one of two ways: He was going to make me spend the rest of tonight chipping away homework, or he was going to skin me and then make me do homework. He didn't get how hard it was to be me sometimes, and he never took the time to understand how it feels to be lousy without wanting to be. I'm supposed to be smart. That was the only thing I had, and it was being taken away from me. You can bet that doesn't make me feel too hot.
I tried thinking if there was any excuse I would have for not coming home early from school. In all honestly, the only thing I could say was that I wanted to get a Pepsi and cool off. I didn't even know if I deserved that at the very least, but I was itching for it. Sodapop and Darry cut me off from cigarettes because I had got coughing fits, so it was my last resort. Man, I'd just about die for a Pepsi right now. I wasn't exactly excited to have Darry find out about my grades from Biology just after I got my English grade back up. I hoped to put him in a good mood by maybe tidying up the living room a bit before he got home. Maybe I could persuade Soda to cook up something hearty since Darry seemed to dig stuff like that; We could try corn beef hash even.
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Friday passed quietly. Actually, my test grade completely slipped my mind. I guess I'm pretty good about not thinking about the stuff that bothers me. Somebody told me a long time ago that I shouldn't let it hurt me. You toughen up, and it doesn't get to you. I was still trying to get better about not running away from my problems, but I couldn't help it. You try coping by only drinking Pepsi, it's not exactly the easiest thing ever. I completely forgot about it, I was distracted that entire night. Sodapop came home early from work to check up on me and take me to the arcade since he managed to arm wrestle this one guy trying to show off and won a couple of bucks off of him. It was this big ordeal because they were showing off to girls. I didn't get it at all, seemed kind of stupid to be losing money over showing off to girls. When I said that, Sodapop told me I would understand it in a year or two, but I don't think I'll get around to understanding anytime soon. We came home pretty late, and Darry was in his armchair reading the paper like he always does. It's clockwork with him, and that's his favorite place to be. Soda checked up on him too, but I didn't pay a whole lot of mind to it at the time.
