Can you Remember? #Wattys2016

Chapter 29: What's Up With You

"I can't believe all this junk I need to catch up on," I muttered to myself walking into the school library. "I literally have almost no clue what any of this is! Honestly what is the Quadratic Formula? When am I ever going to use this in life?" I go over to an empty table in the back of the library so that I'm not in the line of sight for anyone who walks in. I wouldn't be caught dead by people who know me in here. I do have a reputation to uphold after all of the perceived "bad girl."

I'm only in here because the school guidance consular recently told me I might not pass the eleventh grade. Personally, I don't really care too much because I rather be traveling with my friends, but I know my parents would have a cow and put restrictions on what I do by watching me like a hawk.

Now it's already hard for me because I have no recollection of the past seven months including school work, but I'm trying to make an effort. To avoid being watched like prey from my parents, I've decided to spend three days of the school week catching up on school work and trying to actually understand what is going on in class instead of feeling like a fish out of water. Today, I'm attempting to look at Algebra II, English III, and French 101.

"Come on Kade, you've got this," I say pepping myself up, "How hard can this really be? I'll try for at least two hours before giving up and leaving."

I decide that the hardest for me will be French 101, so I'm doing that one last along with Algebra II since I absolutely loathe math. With English III being the "winner," I start sorting through the heavy stack of papers given to me by Mrs. Periwinkle.

She's a good teacher from what I can remember. When someone's phone went off in class, she didn't take it away; she only requested that they turned off their phone in her class. She was also pretty lenient with heavy assignments like long essays. We were allowed to eat as long as the food didn't leave a big mess and that we cleaned up after ourselves. She also doesn't mind us talking and gives out both guys and girls relationship advice if they ask for it. All in all she's a pretty chill teacher that I genuinely like.

Mrs. Periwinkle has a great sense of humor because last year, she dyed her hair a periwinkle color. She also keeps her nails painted the same color because she finds it so amusing. Her skin is very pale, so she sometimes puts on eye shadow to match her hair if she feels like it. She's very young at age 24 and married her husband two years ago, and they are now expecting their first child.

You see, I like her a lot and would ask for help with everything, but I'd feel ashamed. She's so young and is always trying to motivate us, so I'd feel like I've somehow failed her.

I don't want to make anyone feel like that.

After I had finished close to 1/4 of the stack, I heard a lot of voices near me. At first I got freaked out then realized it was teachers, but I freaked out again since I'm basically failing all my classes. I started to try and scrunch myself down in my chair to hide, but I happened to look at the librarian's office and saw the sign ENGLSIH TEACHERS MEETING.

"Nope! Nope! Nope! NOPE!" I whispered to myself shrinking down more. I listened to the sound of footsteps moving past me and a door opening and closing. Slowly, I peeked my head out over the table like a turtle to see Mrs. Periwinkle standing in front of my table.

"Hello Kade," she said smiling at me, "Do you mind if I talk to you for a minute?"

"What about your meeting?" I asked her unfolding my body and sitting up like a normal human being.

"I'm sure they'll be fine without me," she says waving her hand at the door.

"Well then I guess it's fine then." She nods her head and takes a seat in the chair in front of mine so that she's facing me.

"I've been meaning to talk to you for a while now," she starts off. "There's been changes in your behavior over the course of this year. At the beginning of the year, you had an air of 'I don't care' about you. Your assignments were late and lacking substance. Then it was like a switch was flipped. You started working harder, and your grads improved greatly. Now all of a sudden, your grades have dropped back down, and you seem to be struggling. I get that your accident has affected you greatly, but I'm becoming worried about you. Most days you just stare out the window in my class and seem a bit down in the dumps, so I wanted to know if there's anything you're willing to talk to me about."

"Well, I've just been confused lately. I don't understand anything going over here or outside. Since losing my memory, I've been feeling like I'm missing something important, and I've been going crazy trying to figure it out," I confess to her hanging my head down.

"You feel like people are hiding something from you?"

"Yeah, and it's been hard because my parents are all weird about it. Like they have a weird attitude about it."

"So in a way, they aren't supporting you though this?"

"Yes."

"Well I can help you catch up on school work and help you understand what's going on in class. About your other problem, I don't really know how to help you. My advice is to just wait for everything to become clear and not get mad at anyone because they may think they are trying to help you," Mrs. Periwinkle says getting up and walking towards the door to join the meeting. "If you ever need anything, you can talk to me."