Oh, Heather

Chapter Ten

The cold November breeze passed Miley and Leo as they made their way through the park. Miley checked the time on her phone, realizing they made it much earlier than they had planned to.

“Don’t you think it’s weird that Heather’s not here? She’s usually pretty early,” Miley asked.
 “I’m not sure. It is kind of odd that she isn’t here yet,” Leo replied.
“What about Vance? Do you know when he’ll be here?”
“Nope. He has to finish practice, but they have their first home game tomorrow, so I imagine it’ll take longer.” He said.
“Are you gonna go?”
“Watching sports isn’t exactly my cup of tea.” He responded.
“But he’s your boyfriend. You have to go.” She said.

“It would be weird. Plus, I don’t have the money to get in.” He said.
“I could pay.” She suggested.
“But you hate football.” He mentioned.
“Okay? I want you to watch your boyfriend play. I’ll put my thoughts about the sport, and the guy, aside and we can all go together.” 
“Really?”
“Really.” She smiled.

Just as they finished up their conversation, Heather walked over. She sat down, laying her head down into her arms.

“You okay Heather?” Miley questioned.
“No.” She groaned.
“What happened?” Leo asked.
“Remember how I got paired up with Jada for the chemistry project?”
“Yeah?” They both replied.
“We have to study up for the review at the end of the week and she isn’t giving us any class time for it,” She complained.
“I’m so sorry.” Leo replied.

“I mean, couldn’t you just study alone? ” Miley answered.
“Or she could just not continue studying.” Leo suggested.
“Are you crazy? I’ll definitely fail this chemistry test if I don’t.”
“Then like I said, you could study for it alone.” She said.
“We get extra credit points if we do it with our partner.”
“It’ll just be a few points that you don’t get. Just study for it and I bet you’ll do great. Plus, how are they gonna know if you studied or didn’t study with your partner?” She said.

“God, you sound like my mom,” Heather joked.
“Your mom is a very sweet woman, so I’ll take it.” Miley countered.

The rest of the afternoon went by, falling into the early evening, but Vance hadn’t shown. They decided to just go home, it was getting far too late for them to be out. The next day, Heather made her way to her second class, sitting in front of her friends.

“Hey Heather, I’ve got a question.” Leo said.
“What’s up?” She asked.
“Do you want to go to the football game later tonight with me and Miley?” 
“I don’t think I’m doing anything tonight, so why not. What times does it start?”
“7:00. By the way, Miley’s paying for our way in.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind paying for myself.” She questioned, looking at Miley.
“Heather, It’s fine.” Miley answered.

Heather smiled, putting her focus back on the teacher. The rest of the students walked in, including Jada. She thought about inviting Jada to study with her. She could use the extra credit, but it didn’t matter, because she wasn’t going to agree. But, Heather was going to try anyway.

“Hey Jada?” 
“What?” She replied.
“Do you wanna study with me at the park after school? For the chemistry project.” She asked.
“I know what it’s for,” 
“But I guess.”

Heather narrowed her eyes in confusion as she watched her walk off. Later that afternoon, Jada made it to the park just as Heather arrived. She was dressed in a black, loosely fit tank top that she had tucked into a pair of dark blue jeans. Her butterfly locs rested down the front of her body, falling just below her waistline. Her usual demeaning expression sat on her face as she sat in front of Heather. Heather was dressed in an oversized sweater with an autumn tree placed in the center and a pair of black leggings. She smiled as she sat, determined to get a few extra points, even if she wouldn’t know that they worked together. Heather pulled out the notes she already had from chemistry class and went over them with Jada. 

“There’s 118 different elements, not 112.” Jada said.
“What are the others?” Heather asked, pulling out her pencil.
“Tennessine, arsenic, phosphorus, dysprosium, copernicium, and thorium.” 
“Oh. Thank you.” 
“Yeah. Though, how did you miss arsenic?” 
“I told you I wasn’t good at chemistry.”
“Arsenic is an easy word to remember, and not only that it’s one of the first 50 elements. Even if you're bad at chemistry you should at least be able to remember those.” She jeered.

Heather bit the inside of her cheek and brought her attention back to the paper. She reached the end of the page, flipping it over to the next.

“So was this just review or what?”
“We’re going back over what I already had so we can make more efficient notes.”
“We?”
“Yes, we.” Heather replied, moving only her eyes to look at Jada.
“And how are you wearing a tank top?” She questioned.
“What do you mean?”

“It is maybe 50 degrees outside, and the wind is blowing excessively so again, how are you wearing a tank top?”
“It’s not even that cold.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Okay whatever. What else do we need to go over so I can go home?”

Heather rolled her eyes as she wrote down everything she remembered from class today, turning the paper towards Jada to let her write some.

“Your handwriting is very pretty.” Heather said.
“Thanks.”

Jada filled the rest of the page and the next with things she missed and other extra details she could remember. She immediately walked off, wasting no time to get as far from Heather as she could. She wasn’t sure what a bottle and a half of tequila and a crush would have her doing, and she didn’t care to find out.
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This was fun to write!