Betty

Past, Present, and Silver Stars

It was the next day, which of course meant a new set of trends and gossip to keep up with. Not like Betty was actually paying any attention to her friends that were crowded around her talking.

What did catch Betty's attention was the slight curve of James' lips when she was smiling. The girl did it so rarely that it fasciated Betty. Made her think that there was more to that quiet demeanor. There was, considering the drastic change in personality during their study sessions. Then again, the same could probably be said for herself.

James was clearly entertained by something on her phone as she was grabbing something in her locker.

Then a group of boys passed her, rowdy ones. The mix of athletes and rich boys that everyone in this school seemed to adore for some reason. As a result, James' books hit the floor. It was too far in the distance to hear what they said to her right before they rudely walked away. James was right to be upset from what happened, but her face was now unreadable.

Only one of the boys in the group was actually nice enough to help James pick up her books. It was Elian.

"Betty, are you even listening?" Brie asked.

"Hmm? Uh yeah."

Inez seemed to follow Betty's line of sight and smirked. "You know I hear that he's gonna do a promposal for some girl. I bet it's you," Inez said.

That's when Betty focused back on her friends.

"I really hope not," Betty said without thinking.

All of them stared at her like she was an alien from space. Or possessed by a ghost.

"I- I mean I just don't like all the attention. It's a bit much for a simple question," Betty added.

"Really? Cause I'd kill to be noticed by a cute guy like that," Abigail said.

"Oh we all know that hun," Cassie teased as the bell rang.

Everyone chuckled as Abigail pouted.

*****

During chemistry class the grades and feedback was given back. Betty watched as the class quickly dissolved into disorder as people chatted, complained, and compared marks.

One person from each pair was given the grades back. Betty was the one who got her and James'. She honestly couldn't wipe the look of surprise off of her face when she saw the 'A' and '89%' at the top corner of the rubric sheet that showed how many marks were given for each piece of criteria.

"Ugh, Miss. C marked so hard on this one," Brie complained. The other girls agreed. Betty had seen theirs and heard the echoed chatter around the room, most people got C's and a few even D's, the lucky few a low B.

"What did you get Betty?" Abigail asked.

"Uh..."

"Come on it can't be that bad," Brie said as she leaned over her shoulder to see. "Holy... How the heck did you get an A?"

"What?!" Abigail exclaimed as she looked too. This seemed to have gotten the attention of other students and lots of people clamored to see what seemed to be the only A graded project in the class. The bell rang which had Betty finally bread out of her state of shock and shoved the paper into her backpack and away from preening eyes. It seemed that Miss. C hadn't bothered to reorder the class since it was almost the end of the day.

It took a moment for Betty to escape that crowd that happened to surround her. When she did she found the seat at the far corner of the room empty.

She quickly headed out of the room and managed to catch sight of dark hair round the corner. Betty followed.

"James!" Betty said as she jogged to catch up with her.