JACKIE'S POV
This is it. I told myself. There's no reason to be nervous...
But there was a reason to be nervous. This test would determine the entire next year of my life. Most importantly, if I passed, I'd be able to be with my crush in high school. The pressure was seriously on.
I felt a buzz from my phone. I pulled it out and saw a notification from him. "Good luck Jackie.. We all believe in u girl!! :) xoxo"
Xoxo? Whatever, I was probably just over-thinking it. Josh and I had been best friends forever, but now I wanted more than that. Honestly, other than the fact that my mom thought I was a super-genius, he was one of the only reasons I was taking this test in the first place.
"Jackie Morrison." A woman in a navy blue uniform and thick, round glasses stepped out of the room with a clipboard. Her nametag was empty and her hair was pulled back in a tight bun. I stood up from the metal chair (which at this point had become pretty uncomfortable) and extended an arm out to her. She looked at my hand, then back up at me. "Follow me." She turned, ignoring my invitation for a handshake.
I stepped into a white room with a single table in the center. There were two chairs on either side of the table, but I assumed I was the only one testing today. Crap, I thought to myself. I forgot to respond to Josh. I pulled my phone out, but it was quickly taken away by the woman who had escorted me to the pale room. "Absolutely no use of phones or other devices, young lady." She pulled out a chair, which I assumed was for me, but quickly sat in it when she realized I was walking in its direction. I sighed, turned around, and sat in the other chair on the other side of the table.
"You must have a reason to be here." She broke the silence like a knife cutting through bread.
"Y-yes," I stammered. "I'm an honors student. I feel like I'm in the wrong place."
She murmured something inaudibly and reached under the the table. She slammed a file down in front of her and reached inside. She grabbed a white sheet of paper and glanced at me quickly.
"Tell me," she looked at my application to remind herself of my name. "Jackie Morrison... What is a rhetorical fallacy?"
"R-rhetorical fallacy?" I stammered. I had no idea it was an oral test. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought.
JOSH'S POV
I stared at my phone, waiting for a text from her. It had been 20 minutes since I sent her the good luck message.
"God, I'm so stupid," I whispered to myself. "Xoxo? Come on Josh, what's wrong with you?"
Everything I knew depended on her passing this test... I didn't know what I'd do if I had to go to high school without her. She meant the world to me, and I didn't know how to tell her that. There's no way that she liked me, because my personality was really dorky. I tried dropping small hints, but I wasn't very good at the "lovey-dovey" stuff. Still, I wanted her to come to the 9th grade with me. Maybe then things would change and I'd finally get enough courage to ask her out.
JACKIE'S POV
"Well, that could've gone better." I laid against the car door as my mom drove me home.
"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself," she told me. "I'm sure it was fine."
Yeah, fine. I told myself. I was very unconfident in how my test went. I made up most of the things I said and I couldn't remember anything at all. I was horrible at oral tests.
We got home and I napped for a while, but when I woke up I had a crazy idea. Like, really crazy.
I grabbed my phone, and before I could change my mind, texted Josh:
I'm thinking about you right now, and how much better my day would be if you were here. I know this is sudden, but I really like you. I want to be with you.
Send.
"What," I whispered, "DID I JUST DO?"
JOSH'S POV
Finally, about an hour later, Jackie texted back.
