Roses aren't always Red

Almost Normal

I try to focus on the lesson going on in front of my in AP Chemistry, but I keep finding myself dozing off. Last night Rose and Casey were working on their project until 3:00 AM, naturally, being as loud as they possibly could while they were at it. I look at the clock hung up in the corner of the room for the millionth time. Just ten more minutes I think to myself.

"Arianna, can you give us the answer to number thirteen?" My teacher, Ms. Adams asks me.

"I, uh, sorry, no I don't know it," I answer uncomfortably, knowing that the whole class was looking at me.

"See me after class, can anyone else tell me the answer," she says giving me a look. I groan internally knowing that I was going to get a lot worse. I really just wanted to sleep. I think to myself, sighing to myself quietly. The bell rings out eventually and I sit up, avoiding the looks being thrown at me by the rest of the class as they leave.

"Ms. Stroker, could you come to the front please?" Ms. Adams says when the last person leaves the classroom. I hook my bag over my shoulder and walk up to the front, standing in front of her desk while trying to look everywhere but at her.

"You have amazing talent Arianna, but you can't afford to let yourself fall behind. Sleeping in class isn't an option for you and I won't tolerate it. Do you understand?" She asks me.

"Yes Ms. Adams. I'm sorry, it won't happen again" I say looking down at my feet.

"I won't punish you for this, but if I see it again I'll have to do something about it. Go on now, go get some rest if you can" she says kindly.

"Okay. Thank you Miss" I say relieved. I smile at her thankfully and say goodbye, leaving the room. I close the door to the class and walk, without looking where I was going. I run straight into someone, who drops the books they were holding.

"Damn it, watch where you are going next time," the girl said angrily bending down to pick her books up. I bend down to help and end up bumping my forehead into hers. I looked up embarrassed, and of course it's Isabelle.

"I'm so sorry, I'm such a klutz, oh my god" I say handing her the rest of her books feeling like a complete idiot.

"You always have been Ari, don't worry about it. But could you help me bring some of this up to my room? Since you sorta knocked me over?" She says, guilt tripping me into it.

"Yeah, ok fine," I say taking some of the books back from her, sighing a little knowing it's just one more thing before I can go sleep.

"So why were you down here anyway? I thought you were on the more combat oriented path," I say, making conversation while we walk.

"Yeah, but Alex and a couple other people were down here for a project. We have to work with the technical side a lot before doing anything. It's to get the smart people to tell us what to do and the plan for things and then we go out an do it," she says lightly, joking slightly about it.

"So us smart people lead the show huh?" I laugh as she shrugs agreeing as we get up to the dorm areas.

"I can take it from here. I don't want Casey to get pissy again for you hanging around me," she says but I shake my head.

"No, that's fine. I'll help you bring them to your room. It's a lot of books and I did knock you over in the hallway. Let me help you at least," I reply.

"If you say so," Isabelle says skeptically and I smile and nod encouraging her to lead the way to her room.

"So why were you coming out of the class late?" She asks me curiously.

"I was falling asleep in class and since I'm one of the new kids who managed to end up one of the smartest kids here I guess I have to set an example or something. I was just really tired" I say sheepishly. Not really trying to seem like I care about being labeled the new genius of the school.

"Since you won the hide and seek game you've been all the hype you know," she says as we reach her dorm room and she keys herself in with her ID card.

"You can just put them on the desk over there. Thank you so much Ari" she says as I put them down where she motioned.

"It's not a problem. Don't worry about it, I had to come up this way and it was a lot for you to be carrying. Plus I knocked you over and I felt bad about that," I say shrugging.

"True, hey, do you think you could help me with some work sometime? Alex hasn't been helpful much and honestly I have been doing really bad in my classes and I have gotta get my marks up" she says looking down embarrassed.

"Yeah, for sure. I can tutor you. How bout we start tomorrow? After last classes are out I can meet you in the library," I say, happy to help her out.

"Yeah, that works out great. Thank you so much Ari" she says looking relieved. I feel my phone buzz in my pocket and check it. Casey sent me a text. I decide not to open it and give Isabelle a hug.

"I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to go now, but make sure you're there tomorrow. Got it?" I smile at her and she nods, smiling back. I wave as I leave the room. Alex sees me come out of the room as she turns around
the corner. She stops dead and I just keep walking towards my room, right where she is standing, knowing I did nothing wrong.

"Can you move so I can get past you please," I say looking Alex dead in the eyes. She glares at me and for a moment I think she is going to stay in my way, but she moves aside.

"Thanks," I say, my voice full of spite. She say nothing and just walks past me, bumping her shoulder into mine purposefully and I clench my fist to control my anger. I walk away and just go to my room. Casey is sitting on my bed and I say hi as I close the door.

"Where have you been?" She asks, not looking up at me. Her voice shook a bit.

"I was helping Isabelle bring her books up here. I knocked her over and felt bad so I carried them for her" I say sitting down next to her and putting my hand on her back. She looks up at me, her eyes bloodshot and her face streaked from dried tears.

"What happened?" I say softly, my hand under her chin, making her look me in the eye.

"Did you get my text?" She says quietly.

"I didn't open it. I was on my way here when I got it. I'm sorry baby, what's wrong?" I say apologetically.

"I got into an argument with Rose again. She won't talk to me now and she said she's not going to until I figure out what I did, but I didn't do anything" she says quickly, sounding scared. I rub her back and she lays her head on my shoulder.

"I'll talk to Rose okay? Tomorrow I will confront her. For now, just stay with me and calm down for a bit okay?" I say, holding her closer.

"Yeah, ok" she says quietly. We sit in my bed for a long time, just holding each other. At some point we lay down and fall asleep in each other's arms, knowing for that moment things were almost normal and tomorrow we would have to face things being different for a little while.

[AN] Next one is going to explain what happened. Hope y'all enjoy (: