Shadows of Yesterday

Chapter 12: Kisses for a Ghost

"What? What do you mean we failed?"

I stared down at the rubric in front of me, filled with confusion. We'd gotten the scores for our presentation today at the end of class, and Liam had insisted on being the one to grab ours from the teacher, citing that since he was closer to her desk, it only made sense. I hadn't expected a perfect score--I knew for a fact that my Spanish accent had all the strength of a piece of Wonder bread--but this was ridiculous. 70%. That was all our hours of hard work had gotten us? A measly C-? I looked back up to Liam, hoping he could offer some sort of explanation.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Medina said that since our presentation went overtime by a minute, we didn't deserve the passing grade."

"What?! How does that make sense? That just means we did more work--if anything, we should get extra credit!" The red pen on the paper in my hands filled me with such an unexplainable sense of rage that I wanted to shred it to pieces and eat it, just so that it could feel the heat of my wrath firsthand. 

"I know," he glared at Sra. Medina over his shoulder, "but apparently, 'they won't tolerate this in college, so why should she?'" His attempt to imitate her tone was so awful that I almost laughed. Almost.

I handed the score sheet back to him, resisting the strong temptation to crumple it into a little ball before anyone else could witness this injustice. "That's ridiculous," I grumbled. "And not even true."

 "Agreed. My coach is not going to be pleased. Whatever, at least it's Friday."

"Tomorrow being the weekend doesn't make this any better, I hope you know that." I doodled a little picture of a C with a knife in it on the corner of my empty note sheet. "Plus, it's Friday the 13th. Isn't that supposed to be... I don't know, unlucky or whatever?"

Liam fidgeted with one of his backpack straps, suddenly the picture of quiet anxiety. He smiled at me, but there were nerves behind the attempted confidence. "That's just superstition. Today won't be totally horrible. Hopefully. Maybe. Probably."

"Wow. Your confidence is astounding," I said flatly, shoving my belongings into my backpack and preparing to leave.

His smile turned more genuine. "Are you going to be home tonight? Say around 8ish?"

I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. "Why?"

"No reason," he said too quickly, shrugging and rocking back on his heels.

I stood up and headed towards the door. Just as I was about to leave, he shouted after me, "Just check your texts tonight, okay?"

Suddenly, I had a very bad feeling about today.

----------------------------------------------------------------

"So," Mat greeted me after school, slinging an arm over my shoulder, "I'm thinking you come to me and Liam's game on Tuesday, and then we all do something afterwards."

I shrugged his arm off me. "Is that a command or a request?"

"Depends on which one will actually get you to go." He grinned.

"Neither," I said, sidestepping his attempt to block my path, "I have homework. Besides, I'd rather not watch the sports version of a health insurance speedrun."

He pouted and followed after me as I continued through the parking lot to where Declan's car was waiting. "Aw, come on, that's not fair! I haven't broken anything! Yet." He stopped to think for a moment. "This season."

"I hope you know that's not exactly reassuring."

"Just come. Please? I'll even pay for food afterwards!" He made a pleading motion with his hands.