That Stupid Little L-Word:

Chapter Fifty Nine:

The second period bell rings. As I start to pack my things, I hear Ms. Henry's voice float above the endless chit-chat around me. "Alice," she calls. "Please come up and see me before you leave."

I glance up from my desk and nod. Her smile is warm, comforting. I can't help but smile back. I push my notebook into my backpack and then stand. As the last student rushes out, I walk toward her desk. "Is everything alright?"

Her grin grows. "I want you to take a walk with me," she says, standing. She snatches a key-lanyard from her desk and starts toward the door. She leads me out the door and down the hallway.

I follow, becoming suspicious. "Am I in trouble?" I don't feel that I am, because she's smiling like a crazy person. But at the same time, I can't help but worry. There are only a few months left until graduatation. Thanks to my abundance of sick leave and horrible grades, I'm not sure I'll graduate. The last thing that I need is another offense added to my record.

"No," Ms. Henry says. "No, it's nothing bad, I promise."

I follow her past a throng of students, out the building door, and toward the main office. As I walk across the courtyard, I feel beads of sweat trickle down my spine. I wipe at my forehead with the back of my palm. "This heat is intense," I grumble under my breath. I'm not used to it being so hot in May.

Ms. Henry hears me. As she opens the door to the main office, she says, "It'll only get hotter."

I sigh. I realize that she is leading me toward the principal's office and, for a moment, I become uneasy. Last time I went into that room I was screamed at by Blue-Eyes's psychopathic mother.

The principal sits behind his desk as we enter. I pause in shock when I see my mother siting in one of the chairs in front of him. She smiles widely at me.

I squint suspiciously. "What's going on?"

Ms. Henry moves around me and walks toward the desk. She greets my mother and then moves to stand beside the principal. I wobble toward the empty chair. She and my mother help me sit down. Then all eyes turn to me.

"So we have some good news," the princpal starts. He smiles at me too. I'm kind of getting creeped out by all the cheerful smiles. He shuffles through some papers on his desk and then passes a sheet toward me.

I pluck it from his hand and scan over it. It looks like a report card.

"What's this?"

"Your current grades."

My mouth runs dry. While a few of my grades survived my "too obsessed with my boyfriend to do my homework" phase, most did not. That included Ms. Henry's class.

But as I look at my grades, I realize that the low scores have vanished. I now have almost completely straight A's.

"Can I cry?" I whisper.

My mother laughs. Ms. Henry grins and crosses his arms over her chest. The principal smiles. "You did it, Alice. You can walk across the stage."

I lower the report card and set it on the desk in front of me. I wipe at my eyes and start to laugh. I'm going to graduate. I'm actually going to graduate.

"You did it, baby," my mother says. She wipes at her own eyes, pearly tears glistening at the corners of her eyes. She leans forward and hugs me close.

I nod. "I can't believe I did it."

"You worked really hard, Alice," I hear Ms. Henry say. I shift backward in my chair so I can look at her. She smiles at me. "All those lunches and packets paid off."