The Good, The Bad, and The Genius(ON HOLD)

You're Smart, Right?

The bus finally came after I had my little episode. My brain's functional again by the time the bus came to my stop. I walked on the bus like nothing had even happened and all day tried my hardest to act like everything was normal, trying my best to forget what happened this morning. But I couldn't.

In second period, Tyler asked me if everything was okay and I nodded and then stayed silent for the rest of class. But I wasn't so lucky in fourth period. Almost immediately, Tanner came up to me and asked me what was wrong. I told him that nothing was wrong but he wouldn't leave me alone and wouldn't give up.

"Just tell me what's wrong!"

"No"

"Please. Maybe I can help."

"No"

"I'll give you my chocolate chip cookie if you tell me."

I paused but then shook my head. "No"

Tanner huffed and fell back in his seat with defeat and began to whimper. Was he attempting to...cry?

"Stop," I demanded and finally looked up from my math worksheet and looked at him

"I-I can't" he pretended to cry as he put his head on the desk and covered it up with his arms so that I couldn't see his face "I just want to kn-know--"

"You're pathetic." I rolled my eyes and continued to work on my worksheet. But something was bugging me, I could feel someone's eyes on me. I turned and saw that Carli was eyeing me carefully with distaste. What did I do?

I continued to work on my sheet, trying my best to focus on the ticking of the clock (because I could no longer rely on Tanner's untrustworthy breathing) and ignoring the sad, fake whimpers of Tanner.

I finally finished my worksheet and looked over at Tanner, who finally stopped whimpering. He was resting his chin on his hand as his arm leaned lazily on the table looking at me intently, with a sort of sad expression on his face. An actual sad expression on his face.

"What?" I asked, confused.

He sighed and looked down at the table. "You really don't like me, do you?"

I raised an eyebrow "You're just now figuring this out?"

"No," Tanner said, still avoiding eye contact "I mean you...hate me."

"Well," I sighed and looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, thankfully Carli finally got back to working on her worksheet "We're not exactly best pals, Tanner. But, no, I do not hate you. I just don't, um, trust you, you understand? I mean you're nice, I guess. But I can't just pour out my feelings to someone I barely know, okay?"

Tanner paused for a moment, made a small, dimpled smile and nodded in understanding. I gave him a slight smile and began packing my things into the backpack before the bell would ring in 2 minutes and 28 seconds.

Tanner had joined his preppy, gum-chewing friends in the back corner of the room by the time the bell rang. Apparently they were making plans to go golfing after school today but Tanner declined because he apparently had something important to do afterschool. Golf? What, are we 60? I shook my head and got up from my chair as the bell rang.

I finally had something to do as Office Assistant today. Ms. Baker, the snotty front desk lady who's face had met Botox way too many times in the past year, assigned me to go to the computer coding classroom, give Mr. Sanders a flash drive, and come immediately back to the office, no wandering around. I simply rolled my eyes, snatched the flash drive and took off.

I knew that this wasn't an actual errand and she was just too lazy to get up from the desk and do it herself, but I was tired of being cooped up in that room anyway. Plus Ms. Baker has decided to try out some new perfumes this week and today's choice was Moldy Chez. Okay fine, no it wasn't, but it sure as heck didn't smell like cherry blossoms.