Counting To Fifteen [Grey's Anatomy]

chapter fifty two - surnames

Daisy and Mark were good.

They were better than good, actually.

Mark talked to Daisy all the time, and he always said goodnight to Daisy—no matter how late at night it was. Mark was attentive and open to talking and available, and Daisy felt happy. Daisy and Mark were good.

So Daisy wasn't sure why things weren't getting better.

She had sort of pinned every single problem in her life onto Mark and her strained relationship with him. Daisy had it drilled into her mind that once they repaired their relationship, everything else would magically fall into place, and things would be a lot better.

Yet Daisy felt worse than she had before. Daisy felt guilty, and she couldn't figure out the exact cause.

The sensation in the pit of her stomach had begun one night at the dinner table, Mark and Daisy both leaned over a textbook of seventh grade Algebra problems.

Mark was a relatively mellow person, but Daisy's math homework tended to make him the grumpiest person alive.

"I can't do it that way." Daisy argued for what felt like the billionth time as Mark frowned.

"But why not? I got you the right answer ten times quicker."

"I won't get any credit."

"But it's the right answer."

"But I won't get any credit."

Mark said nothing, only repeatedly circling the numbers he had written down in an excessive manner to prove his point. Daisy immediately groaned, and Mark merely shrugged.

"What? It's the right answer."

"I can't. I have to use grouping, or I won't get credit."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, your teacher sounds awful," Mark mumbled out. "Are parent-teacher conferences still a thing?"

"No." Daisy was quick to provide Mark with false information, not wanting her math teacher to hate her because Mark had taken it upon himself to scream at her over some numbers.

Daisy thought that Mark was sort of the most embarrassing human being sometimes.

The girl pulled her textbook away from Mark and toward herself, the man immediately frowning as Daisy made it clear via non-verbal communication that she didn't want his help anymore.

"Come on, I'm helping."

"You're gonna make me fail math." Daisy mumbled, scrapping the piece of paper they had been working on and starting fresh with a brand new loose-leaf sheet.

Daisy wrote her name neatly in the top corner of her paper as she always did, small letters spelling out her name.

Daisy Sloan.

It was only June, but the girl was trying her best to prepare for August. She had been writing the new name on all her assignments.

It was a strategy Dr. Perkins had suggested; if she practiced writing the new name out as many times as possible, she wouldn't be so shell-shocked and anxious when the change occurred officially on a court document.

Mark was staring, and Daisy knew that Mark had seen it because he looked happy. The girl knew he certainly wasn't happy about algebraic equations.

But Daisy grimaced, because no matter how many times she wrote the name on her school papers, it just felt all wrong.

The guilt began tearing away at her stomach, a funny feeling that Daisy couldn't shake off.