LIMERENCE | Abby Littman

𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

[𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝]

"JUST WHAT KIND OF TEACHER WOULD I BE IF I DIDN'T GIVE YOU A SURPRISE POP QUIZ?"

Abby let her head slam against her desk and let out a groan. Beside her, Solange hadn't looked up from writing. What she was writing about, Abby had no clue, class had just started and there were no notes to take because there was a quiz.

"Your quiz is going to be on the things you should've at least glanced over in your research this far," Padilla continued. "It's nothing too difficult, and it will be taken in the format of two truths and one lie."
The classroom broke our chatter and giggles, Abby looked up. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, her and Solange had actually done research after all. "Silencio, por favor. I have made at least three individual flash cards for each chosen country. When we get to your country, choose the lie and you're good, 100%. Fail to identify the lie correctly and your score is automatically a 60%. But, let's say you fumble on your question but you know the correct answer to someone else's. If they fumble, you raise your hand, I call on you, and you answer that question correctly then 10% is added onto your grade. The quiz is over once I'm done with this entire stack," she produced a stack of flash note cards from her desk. "Any questions?"

For once, Abby was ready for a quiz in Spanish. She was pumped and motivated, all she needed to do was answer one question correctly, she was ready. "You paying attention?" She asked Solange.

"Uh huh."

"Good." She wasn't paying attention but it didn't even matter because Abby had it.

"Julian and Harley," Padilla called out. "You two are first with your country of Bolivia. Una, la ciudad de La Paz es una de las ciudades más altas del mundo con una población de más de un millón de habitantes. Dos, Bolivia está rodeada de agua. Tres, Bolivia tiene dos capitales."

Abby did not have it.

She could piece together something about a city, one million, capitals and a problem, but she could not put it all together. "Fuck." She muttered to herself.

She reached over and tapped Solange's desk to get her attention, "you're going to have to pay attention for real, I don't have this by myself."

The cards weren't going in any particular order so Abby was on the edge of her seat, waiting for their names to be called. Almost everyone had gone before it happened. "Solange and Abby with Equatorial Guinea?"

Abby's heart rate picked up. She shouldn't have been so afraid because she knew it was coming, but still she was. She hadn't answered a single other question that someone had messed up and Solange wasn't even paying attention, they had to get it right.

She nudged Solange's knee with her's causing the girl to finally look up.

"You two ready?" The teacher asked.

"Yes," Solange answered. Abby let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Alright, Uno, Guinea Ecuatorial es el único país de África donde el español es un idioma oficial. Dos, Guinea Ecuatorial consiste en una región continental conocida como Río Muni y una región insular llamada Isla Bioko. Por último, tres, Guinea Ecuatorial es el mayor productor de petróleo de África, superando a Nigeria en exportaciones de petróleo."

Abby got lost in all of the sounds that her teacher had made with her mouth. She was staring at her lips well after the woman had finished, trying to to make sense of what was said. But she was stuck.