Touch of Hellfire (Pocket's Version)

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"Okay, shopping for school supplies? At least pick something exciting, Rory!" I scolded her.

"I need legal pads," Rory told me. "What colour?" I asked her. "The colour legal pads are!" she exclaimed, hitting me with her list. "Ouch, uncalled for!" I whined. "But different coloured paper is not all bad, it's better for remembering things."

"What happened to being consistent with white paper?" Rory asked me. "Andrea recommended colour coding, which includes paper as well," I said throwing in different colours into my basket.

"Ton of pens," Rory read out next and we both grabbed handfuls of pens and dropped them in. "Number two pencils, three highlighters, an eraser, a staple remover and a folder."

"Why three?" I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why not just get a whole pack?"

"Because one will run out and one I will lose," Rory explained to me. "I'm getting a pack," I told her, rolling my eyes. "Hezzy, you need to abide by this, trust me!" Rory insisted. "You're listening to your friends more than me, I mean, why can't you listen to me? I excel better than you...."

I widened my eyes and I turned around. "What did you just say?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Rory murmured. "That's the posh way of saying that you're smarter than me," I grumbled, turning on my heel. "Well..." Rory gulped and I widened my eyes at her. "Oh, my God! I can't believe you!"

"Hezzy...."

"No! When it came to academics, I was always in second place right behind you," I ranted, grabbing random things off the shelf. "And I was fine with it, you're the bookworm, I'm the film buff, I'm okay with that but for you to actually say that you're smarter than me, even though your GPA is 0.1 above mine, is a new low!"

"Andrea knows Chilton," I told her, walking up to register to pay for my things. "Look, Andrea gets Chilton and like you said, you excel better than I do, so I need the help, so I'm going to take the help that's being offered to me, Rory, because I can't do this on my own. Maybe you can but I can't, so, yeah, I'm taking her advice over yours."

I paid for my stationery and stormed out of the shop.

***

"Decent effort, by most," Mr Medina praised us. "Good effort, by some, exceptional effort, by two. Miss Geller, Miss Grant. Ms. Graham. Miss Gilmore," he handed Rory her paper then handed Andrea's and mine. I looked at my paper and I saw a red B+ on it. I was partially relieved and a little annoyed.

"Take these home, learn from your mistakes. Look at the large red circles around various parts of your paper as friendly reminders that to err is human. And that here at Chilton, we try to beat that humanity right outta ya! Okay, next up. The test."

The whole class groaned in unison.

"The dreaded test. Shakespeare! The man we've been droning on about for the last three weeks, finally comes back to haunt us on Friday. This is a big one, my friends, multiple choice, with an essay section that will count for 20% of your grade for this semester," Mr Medina told us. "And don't be fooled by my kind face and charming personality. This test will be hard, and there will be no makeups...."

He was cut off by the bell ringing and we all began to gather our things.

"Refer to the study materials that I gave you at the beginning of the month and those extensive notes I know you've been taking," he told us on the way out.

Andrea whipped her head around. "How'd you do?"

"You're gonna BE proud of me," I laughed. "Nice one!" she smiled. "A B+, I'm so proud!" she grinned and we got up and rushed out of the classroom. "So Shakespeare test Friday? You ready?"