𝙴𝚗𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍 ||𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚘𝚗

1

"Miss Hargrove, would you come up and answer the question on the board?" I jolted awake as Ms. O'Donall stood staring at me with a disapproving look. Everyone in the room was looking at me at this point, giggling and whispering among themselves. I got up from my seat and walked up to the board. I looked at the problem while Ms. O'Donall began scolding me as I started working it out on the board. "See, if you actually stayed awake in my class, you know how to work out this problem." I turned to her as I finished the problem and smiled. 

"This is the right answer, isn't it?" She looked over my work and I made my way back to my seat. I looked around and everyone took their eyes off of me, except one person. Fluffy brown hair and brown eyes. He was leaning back in his chair and had his arms crossed in front of him. I looked back up to Ms. O'Donall and she looked at me, shock in her eyes.

"That is correct, Elizabeth." She moved to her desk before looking at me again. I rested my head on my hand as I looked down at my notebook and began doodling. She continued lecturing before the bell rang and I quickly grabbed my things before walking to the door. 

"Miss Hargrove, a word please?" I stopped at the door and slowly turned around. She motioned me to come closer to her and I trudged over to her. 

"Yes?" I asked quietly, trying not to look at her. 

"You need to stay awake during class, you are missing vital material." She pointed at a paper on her desk and I looked up to see it was a test from last week. "Did you cheat on this?" My eyes quickly moved to hers. 

"Of course not. Why would you think that?" I asked, my voice shaky. 

"It's just, you are barely paying attention during class and you got one hundred percent? That doesn't seem right." She tapped her finger on the table and my eyes began to water. 

"I didn't cheat." I pleaded. "I just understand the material, that's all." She shook her head. 

"If you say so, just try to stay awake, please. I don't want to have to call your parents." I panicked and my eyes shot open. 

"No, please, you don't need to call them. I will do better, I promise." She handed me the test before turning back to her desk. 

"You can go." I grabbed the test in my hands before crumpling it up as I walked out of the classroom. I spotted Billy down the hallway with his arm around a new girl. I walked to my locker and hid my face in it, as a tear rolled down my cheek. 

"Beth, hey," I heard my best friend Robin say from behind me. I wiped my tears away before turning to her with a smile. 

"Hi, Robin!" She got into her locker next to mine. 

"I missed you in bio this morning, where were you?" She dug through her messy locker as s few things fell out of it. I crouched down to grab them for her.

"Uh..." I tried to think of an excuse. "Oh, Max had a doctor's appointment and I needed to take her." 

"Shouldn't your dad or her mom do that?" She asked grabbing her lunch bag. 

"They had work." 

"So you were late to school because you had to be a parent?" I nodded as I closed my locker. Nobody knew the truth about how messed up my family is. My brother hates my guts. My stepmom is very absent. My dad is an abusive alcoholic. And my little sister is the only one who really cares. Robin and I walked to the cafeteria as we found our seats. 

"Did you hear 'The Hair' and Nancy broke up?" Robin asked as I opened my bag. I nodded along mindlessly, acting like I cared. "Beth? Hey, Beth?" She was waving her hand in my face and I snapped out of it.