Effortless

Two

"It's because right there is simple squamous tissue. It allows substances to pass through easily." Answered Javier to the teacher.

I was in anatomy class, a class that I shared with Javier. God, he was so annoying. Answering the questions with that stupid cheeky smile on his face that showed his perfectly straight, white teeth. His teeth were so white, they could have blinded a person.

Mrs. Smith, our anatomy teacher, responded with a grin. "Oh, good job Javier! You always know the right answers."

"You always know the right answers." I mumbled to myself in a mocking tone.

"Okay, and why does simple squamous allow substances to pass through?" She asked the class, awaiting an answer from one of us students.

"Because it's thin." I blurted out. Mrs. Smith didn't require us to raise our hands to speak.

Mrs. Smith's grin faded into a straight face. She looked at me and nodded once. "Correct."

Mrs. Smith did not dislike me as heavily as Ms. Corbett did. Mrs. Smith simply loved Javier more than anyone else in the class.

Javier, who was sitting in front of me, turned around for a brief moment to smirk at me. I resisted the urge to jump out of my chair and strangle him and his perfect fucking face.

The rest of class went by in a blur. I continued to try and answer more questions than golden boy in front of me. It was a way of competing with him. A way of proving that I am capable of beating him at something.

—

"I honestly have no idea what to do for my campaign this year." I complained as I talked to Ricky over the phone. "I gave out candy freshman and sophomore year, and I lost both times."

I took all of my things out of my backpack and put them on the kitchen table, as that was normally where I would do my homework. I did not have tons of homework that night, which meant I had time to focus on my campaign instead.

"Well, you have an unfair advantage. Javier is giving out gift cards to everyone, while you're giving out pieces of a five dollar bag of candy." Ricky explained.

I sighed heavily. "Yeah. Must be nice to have enough money to give everyone gift cards for a high school class election."

Ricky sighed as well. "You have to figure out some way to wow everyone. Last year you came really close to beating Cortez, so this year you just need to put in a little more effort."

"I guess." I said, a bit discouraged. "Let's just focus on putting up the posters tomorrow. You have a few made?"

There was a bit of static through the phone. It sounded like Ricky was moving and messing with the audio. He must have been moving somewhere else. After a few seconds, it stopped. "Yeah, and Kailey and Bella have made some too."

I smiled even though he couldn't see it.

Then Ricky gasped, he realized something. "Oh my goodness, I have the best idea. You—"

Abruptly, my aunt swung open the front door. I jumped and accidentally knocked my phone off of the table. I swiftly picked it up and ended the call with Ricky. I then set it back on the table and faced my aunt. She looked pretty unhappy to see me, but that wasn't new.

"Of course you're home." I heard her mumble.

I did not respond. I learned that simply not responding to her rude remarks was the best way to get out of the situation. If I did not provoke or engage with her, she would leave me alone.