A Lovely Life

Chapter 8: Academic Issues

The next morning I woke up, yet again tired. It had been going on for a while now, it seemed like no matter how much I slept I was not rested. My eyes hurt even after eight hours of sleep, it was a bit much.

I went on with my days as normal, when I was on my way to lunch Henry stopped me to talk. It was our tradition to talk to each other for a bit in between lunches since his lunch was right before mine. We just stopped in front of a locker, and talked.

"You look tired, sleep okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, a whole eight hours. I don't know, maybe I'm getting sick or something"

"Oh, well I hope you feel better." He said, and we went on with our day.

Since it was getting too cold to be sitting outside we found a table to sit inside.

"Not eating again?" Kurt asked

"No, I'm not that hungry." I told him.

"You haven't been eating anything lately, just go get milk or something." He said. I agreed, and got up. I was hoping to see Jackson, but I couldn't find him. Since we weren't sitting at our regular spot I had to tell him where we were, but he was nowhere to be found. I bought a carton of milk, and drank it in no time.

On my way to the bus Jackson showed up out of nowhere, and scared me.

"Riding the bus?" He asked

"Yeah, it's too cold to walk." I said. He smiled because I was finally accepting the cold "Are you riding the bus?" I wanted him to say yes, but I knew that him asking meant he was not going to be there.

"No, getting a ride." He smiled. In the distance we heard someone yell 'hurry up bitch' the voice didn't have to be close for me to know who it was coming from, it was Cole. Jackson stopped smiling, and clenched his jaw. He turned to me with an angry face, and said bye. He walked in the direction Cole, and Jackson's brother were. I kept walking to the bus alone as I often did.

The days went on, and before I knew it, Thursday arrived. I was talking to Henry about the ACT happening at the end of the week.

"You're going to do fine on the test." Henry said.

"Honestly, I don't even know why I'm stressing out. I'm not planning on going to college, so unlike a lot of people taking the test my future does not depend on the score."

"Wait, are you really not thinking about going to college?"

"I mean, not really. I'm just taking the test for a full High School experience."

"But you have so much potential. You could be someone of importance in the future. I mean it's cool if you don't want to go, but you should give it some thought before you make a final decision."

"I guess you are right." I said. I didn't know how to tell him that I didn't see a future for me after high school. With everything that was happening in my life I couldn't see a life after high school. And I was okay with it. I didn't know how to tell him all that was going through my head. I was never good with saying things out loud, and seeing him worrying about me didn't make things better. I had to find a way to make things better, and stopped worrying others.

The next morning we received an email from the principal.

Dear parents, and students. Due to recent threats made to our school, we will reinforce our security for everyone's safety. We will be sure everyone feels safe on campus, and we are doing our best. We are investigating the source of the threat, and until we find who is responsible, we ask that everyone helps with any information if available, or simply be cooperative with our officers. Safety is our number one priority, and I can assure you our school grounds are safe for all of us to attend classes.