Flower Boy

Chapter Five

            It had taken a lot of pleading and a lot of help from mommy, but daddy finally let me go to school. By then I was at high school age, so I had a few choices. My dad wanted to go to the cheapest school, but I wanted to go to the school that Donavan went to. Donavan and I were still in touch after all this time. We met at the park at least every other weekend. He helped me forget about the fighting and the yelling at home. Of course, I never told him about it. If I did, daddy would find out somehow and he would abuse me more than he already did. We officially started going out and I finally felt like I was having a normal childhood. I was making friends, complaining about tests and homework, and I had an amazing boyfriend. Of course, my father was still very strict and during my sophomore year my mother got a divorce and left me with my father. Even if he did yell at her a lot, he took the loss badly. When I came home some days, he was passed out on the couch, or he waiting to pounce and yell at me for any little thing. He was really strict about grades, saying if I got worse grades at school than when I was at home, he would take me back to homeschooling. I didn't mind that threat. I never got good grades at home anyways.

I reached up in my locker to pull out my math books and English books.

"Rosa!" I hear someone call and I turn to see Serena running up to me. I smile, shifting my books to one arm and waving at her.

"Rosa, you ready for the quiz?" She asked and I frowned.

"Quiz? What quiz?" I mentally scrolled down my list of tests and quizzes and none of them were today.

"The math quiz! Mr. Brown told us about it like, a week ago." She said, her smile fading.

"Did you forget...?" She asked solemnly. I nodded.

"I'm sure I'll be fine. I feel pretty good about this unit." I said, reassuring her. Her smile came back and she gave me a quick hug.

"What was that for?" I asked, laughing a little.

"For good luck. Bye!" She waved and ran off towards the math room. I waved back and closed my locker. A math quiz? Truth is, I don't really get what we're doing in math right now. If I fail this quiz, dad's going to give me hell about it. I've got to focus.

I pulled my notes out as I walked down the hall, trying to cram some last-minute studying in when I bumped into someone. My books went flying and I cried out

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" I got down on my hands and knees, hurriedly picking up my books and notes when I noticed that the person I bumped into was also on his hands and knees with me.

"Th-thank you." I said, smiling. He looked up at me and grinned. I gasped.

"Didn't recognize me? You must have been really out of it." Donavan said, still grinning.

"Donavan, I'm sorry. I was just trying to study..." He held up a hand.

"It's fine, I was just teasing. You'd better hurry, 6th period starts in about a minute. I'll see you after school, right?" He waits for my answer. I nod.

"Sure. See you later!" He hands me my books andwaves. I hurry off to the math room, frantically scanning my math notes for anyuseful information. Finding none, I sighed and opened the door, bracing myselffor the difficulties ahead.