Farm Tag

Chapter 12. « Difficulties. »

"Another F, Miss Madden. Do you enjoy collecting them?"

I look at the F on my exam, surrounded several times by exclamation marks with Disastrous!!! written in red.

"Are you really in the right school program, Miss? You should think about changing class and go to the special needs one."

The other students laugh.

"What's so funny? None of you got an average!"

The bell rings and we head for the canteen. Danbi and Judy come running up to me, both lucky enough to be in the same special needs class.

"What's the matter, girl?"

"I got an F again, my mom's gonna kill me."

"Would she really mind if you came to our class?"

"She won't admit that I'm not cut out for school. She's convinced that I'm going to do great studies and be the assistant to a great CEO even though I've had a difficult start and I'll be loved for it."

"She's basically traced your whole life." replies Danbi.

"Pretty much."

"Private tutoring is so expensive... I have a math teacher, but I can't understand a thing he explains to me. It can't even be good for you."

I nod at Judy's words.

"The only good grade I got was on the French conjugation exam."

"What did you get?"

"A+."

"No way?"

"Yeah."

"Holy shit! Did you smoke before you studied or something?"

"Something like that."

"You should tell your mom about our class, it'll reassure her that Judy's in it." Danbi suggests, biting into her baby carrot.

"I'll try."

"My parents told me that you won the auction this weekend, that's incredible!"

"What auction?"

I look at Danbi.

"Every weekend, there's an auction. It's a bit of a tradition, like a garage sale but better organized. You should come with Judy and me to the next one."

"Yeah, sounds great."

"By the way, are you still on Kimberley?"

"She blocked me after the DM I sent her. She's beautiful but I don't know if it's worth it."

"She's dating someone, you should give up."

"Ryan?"

I shake my head, looking at Judy.

"Who?"

"Quentin."

Judy widens her eyes, then calms down so as not to alert Danbi.

"Too bad she prefers a straight guy."

"Hey, I might have a weird question."

"Let's hear it, pretty girl."

"How do you tell the difference between a moan of pain and a moan of pleasure?"

Judy bursts out laughing, then regains her seriousness.

"Wait, you heard someone moan? Was it the soldier?"

"Oh boy, I'm interested!" says Danbi.

"You both know he's had an accident. His physio advised him to blow on his shins to stimulate his muscles."