Ready or Not

Chapter 22

Looking at yourself in the mirror, you are happy to say that the awful bruising on your face has now completely resolved and you are looking like your old self again. But the part that most excites you about the bruise being gone is that you no longer have to explain how you got the bruise. In the past two weeks, you and Austin avoided having to go out in public together. That's because when the two of you went out on a date about a week after you had the fall, the look that Austin got from strangers made both of you quite uncomfortable. Trying to ignore the judgmental stares, Austin whispered to you and said, "I think everyone in this restaurant is convinced that I did that to your face. I've never felt such strong urge to defend myself to strangers when I haven't even been accused of anything."

Chuckling, you replied, "Maybe we should hang out at home until my face recovers completely."

The last two weeks flew by in a blink of an eye. With some forethought and planning, you were able to get all of the projects and papers completed so that the last week of school can be spent studying for your final exams. Currently, your GPA is 4.0 and with some luck, you hope to maintain the same GPA, even after the final exams.

The winter holidays are only three weeks away and you had initially planned to return home for a few days to visit with your father over Christmas. However, your father reached out to you last week to ask if it would be okay for him and Helena to go to Turks and Caicos over the Christmas break and return home after the New year. You are beyond happy that your father is finally moving on with his life and you tell him, "Dad, do not worry about me. You know I've never been a holiday person. Go and have a great time. I am so happy that you are doing this. This probably is the best Christmas present I could have ever asked for. I love you dad and let me know if I need to do anything at the house while you are gone."

When you told Austin that you'd be staying around for Christmas and New year's day, he was beyond ecstatic. Because of his work, he wasn't going to be able to visit his folks in Connecticut, so he had assumed that he would be spending the holidays alone. You plan to make Christmas dinner for the two of you at his place. The weekends are spent together and both of you enjoy the other's company thoroughly. The two of you have been together for about three months now and you don't have any complaints. He still cannot seem to get enough of you and is needy for you every time you are together.

You haven't heard from Namjoon since that night he drove you home after your last tutoring session. Eric texts you every once in a while to say hello and to see how you are and you're pretty sure he is giving Namjoon updates on you. Often, when you are alone, your thoughts drift to Namjoon. You don't know why. You are happy with Austin, but for some reason, Namjoon feels like unfinished business and when you think of him, you can't help but feel melancholy.

Today is Tuesday and you have your tutoring session with Marissa. Last week's session was cancelled on account of Marissa not feeling well. You have been putting off finding out more about her Geometry teacher, Mr. Faraday, but what you hope to do is to do some research of your own this afternoon to see if there is anything that you would need to find out about him. The hunch you had about Marissa's teacher having something to do with her near failing grades was one that you couldn't shake. And instead of disregarding the idea as preposterous, you will spend some time on the internet to see if you can find out what kind of a teacher he is. You remember Marissa telling you that Mr. Faraday was new to the school, so there are no upper classmen amongst your current students to ask about him.

Walking out of your second and last class for the day, you head to the university library. You figure you'll start with something broad like a google search of the teacher's name. You have a vague recollection of Marissa saying that the teacher's first name is Derek. So, you simply type in Derek Faraday in the Google's search box and press enter.