falling for 13 || Johnny Kavanagh

Something's Up

J O H N N Y

The Christmas were over, and I was back at Tommen, dragging my feet into school on the first day back. The air was icy, and my breath came out in puffs of steam as I walked from the car park to the main entrance. The Christmas holidays had been a blur of family dinners, rugby training, and trying to avoid doing any real study for the Christmas tests. But now, back in school, reality was settling in hard.

I made my way through the corridors, which were buzzing with life. Everyone was back from their break, either thrilled to be reunited with their friends or dreading the return to classes. I fell somewhere in between. The lads and I were back to our usual banter, but I could already feel the weight of school hanging over us—especially today. We were getting our Christmas test results back, and while I wasn't particularly worried, I could tell from the vibe in the halls that others were stressing out.

Gibsie met me at my locker, a big grin on his face. "What do you reckon? You think Mrs O' Leary's going to fail me on purpose just for being an absolute legend?"

I laughed, shaking my head. "If you failed, it's not because you're a legend, Gibs. It's because you didn't open a book for the entire month of December, and you spend the entire class staring at her tits."

He shrugged, unfazed. "Who needs books when you've got charm?" He waggled his eyebrows, and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, charm's really going to help you pass French," I said, slamming my locker shut.

We made our way to the first class of the day—French, of course. The room was already filling up when we got there. I spotted Grace sitting near the window, Clara, Orlaith and Aoibh beside her, deep in conversation. Grace was laughing at something Clara had said, but when her eyes met mine, her smile faltered for a second. I gave her a nod, and she quickly looked away, going back to whatever they were talking about.

I slid into my seat next to Gibsie, who was still going on about his exam strategy—or lack thereof. He wasn't worried about the results, but I could tell most of the class was. Mrs O'Leary entered the room with a stack of papers in her hand, and the chatter died down. Everyone sat a little straighter, suddenly interested in what she had to say.

"Alright, lads," she began, her voice brisk and no-nonsense as usual. "I have your Christmas test results here. Some of you did very well, and others... well, let's just say some of you could use the next few months to improve."

Gibsie gave me a sideways glance, muttering, "Here we go."

Mrs O'Leary started calling out names, handing back the tests one by one. I wasn't too worried about mine. French wasn't my best subject, but I'd managed to cram enough in the days before the test. When she handed me my paper, I glanced down at the grade.

B.

Not bad. I could live with that. Gibsie, on the other hand, groaned when he saw his.

"E," he whispered, shaking his head. "Charm didn't work."

I smirked, about to make a joke, but then I saw Grace out of the corner of my eye. Mrs O'Leary  had just handed her test back, and her face was stony as she looked at her grade. Clara leaned over to see, and Grace quickly shoved the paper into her bag, her jaw tight.

That was odd. Grace was usually pretty solid in class, always on top of her work. Whatever she'd gotten, it was bothering her. A lot.

Mrs O'Leary continued handing out the rest of the results, droning on about how we all needed to work harder if we wanted to improve by the end of the year. But I couldn't stop glancing over at Grace. She looked tense, her eyes fixed on the front of the room but not really seeing anything. When the bell rang, she practically bolted out of her seat, leaving Clara, Orlaith and Aoibh behind.

"Grace," I called out, but she didn't stop, disappearing into the hallway.

"Kav, let her be," Gibsie said, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "She probably just didn't do as well as she thought. She'll get over it."

But I wasn't so sure. Grace didn't seem like the type to get worked up over a bad grade, so something else was clearly off.

***

Later that day, I was heading to the canteen for lunch with the lads when I spotted Grace sitting alone at one of the tables. Her friends weren't with her, which was weird. Normally, they were like four peas in a pod, always together during breaks. I hesitated, wondering if I should just leave it, but something pulled me over.

I my bag and made my way to her table, sliding into the seat across from her. She didn't look up, just kept poking at her sandwich.

"Hey," I said, keeping my tone casual.

She glanced up, her eyes briefly meeting mine before dropping back to her food. "Hi."

"What happened back in French?" I asked, leaning back in my chair. "You looked like you wanted to punch something after you got your test back."

She shrugged, still not looking at me. "It's nothing. Just... wasn't what I expected."

I raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Grace. What's really going on?"

For a moment, I thought she was going to brush me off again, but then she let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. "It's just... I don't know. I thought I did well. I studied, I put in the work. But it didn't matter. I barely scraped a C."

I frowned. "It's just a French test, it's no biggie."

"I know," she muttered. "I don't know what happened. It's like everything just... fell apart. I've been trying to keep on top of things, but it's like no matter what I do, it's not good enough."

There was something in her voice, something that told me this wasn't just about school. But I didn't push. I knew Grace well enough by now to know that if I pushed too hard, she'd shut down completely.

Instead, I just nodded. "You've got the rest of the year to make up for it."

"Yeah, I know," she said, but she didn't sound convinced. She picked at her food again, clearly not interested in eating.

I opened my mouth to say something else, but before I could, Gibsie and the lads appeared, plopping their trays down around us. They immediately launched into their usual lunchtime banter, completely oblivious to the fact that Grace was in a mood.

"Johnny, tell me you've sorted out that bet with Feely," Gibsie said, jabbing a thumb in Feely's direction. "The lad still thinks he can take me in a race."

"I'd beat you easy," Feely shot back, grinning. "You're all talk, Gibsie."

The conversation quickly spiraled into the usual nonsense, and I could see Grace getting more and more withdrawn. She was barely listening, her eyes fixed on the table in front of her. Eventually, she stood up, grabbing her bag.

"I'm going to head outside," she said quietly, not really looking at any of us.

Before I could say anything, she was already gone, disappearing through the door of the canteen. I watched her leave, a knot of worry tightening in my chest.

"She alright?" Hughie asked, raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged, not really sure what to say. Grace wasn't alright, but I didn't know why. All I knew was that something was wrong, and it wasn't just about her test results.

But trying to get Grace to talk about her feelings? That was going to be a challenge.

***

After lunch, I had two more classes before the day was over. I kept thinking about Grace, wondering if I should've tried harder to get her to open up. But what was I supposed to say? It's not like we were best friends or anything. We had a weird friendship—if you could even call it that— a friendship, I mean. We spent more time making sarcastic comments at each other than actually talking. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was really off. And I wasn't sure what to do about it.