Bittersweet (Jenna Ortega)

chapter four.

MONDAY

Maise's POV

"I'm sure you all had your fun over the weekend, but now it's back to reality. I'd like to introduce you all to.. a quiz!"

"Someone shoot me." I croak out.

"I'll do it." Jenna pipes up. I don't know what possessed her to take the desk behind me today, but I hate it already.

"Anyone in the world but you." I remark and face Liv. "Care to do the honours of ending my pathetic existence?"

"Hard pass. I just got my hair done, so I don't want to get brains in it."

"Don't worry, there's not a brain in that thick ass skull of hers to make a mess."

Liv betrays me by laughing at Jenna's lame joke.

"I'm gonna drown your cigarettes." I threaten which seems to be enough to shut her up.

Liv misplaces her belongings all the time. Usually it's nothing more than three dollar lighters, but she doesn't want to take the risk so she asks me to carry around her cigarettes.

"Take it easy." Liv diffuses. "Violence is not what we have to come to."

A paper lands on my desk before I had the opportunity to flip her off. My teacher squints his eyes in warning, then lowers his voice. "Eyes on your own test, Miss. Kennedy."

"Yes, Sir." I give him a lazy smile and roll my eyes once his back is turned.

"Remember when we wanted to learn sign language so we could cheat in tests?" I whisper to Liv.

"But you gave up after five minutes."

"So did you. We ended up eating a tub of ice cream and binge watching four seasons of The Simpsons."

"This quiz will be handled accordingly similar to exam conditions. No devices. No textbooks nor cheat sheets. And talking is prohibited. You will be escorted out if I catch you breaching any of the rules stated. You may begin."

I stare at the clock on the wall for ten minutes. I read through the whole quiz twice, wrote down the date, and my signature on the front page, but pretty much called it quits to advance further.

I lean back into my chair, accidentally bumping into Jenna's desk behind me. She smacks her lips in annoyance and kicks my chair leg as payback.

I'll give her something to be annoyed about.

I start drumming my pen against the desk. It takes only a couple seconds of constant tapping that she retaliates and kicks my chair again. Harder this time.

So I continue drumming.

Rather than abusing my chair, she yanks on the bottom few strands of my hair.

"Hey!" I whine, massaging my pulled roots.

"Is there something wrong, Miss. Kennedy?"

I can hear Jenna giggling under her breath.

"No, sir. Just got excited about one of the questions."

"Keep your excitement to a minimum, please." He advises and adverts his attention back to his computer screen.

I push my chair back an inch, forcing Jenna's entire desk to shift with my weight.

"Have you even attempted to answer any questions?" Jenna's whisper is laced with mock.

"Already finished. Not that you need to know that."

"I only recall you writing your name. I'm surprised you even gathered the brain cells to manage that."