The Riveting Lives of Russell and Sal

Chapter 6

Sal used to hate English, but now he looked forward to it more than any other class. He'd taken to speed-walking there, Russell beating him every time. But that could be because Sal always stopped by the bathroom for a quick hair check.

"I finished grading your group papers," Mrs. Norandi said at the end of class one day, holding up a stack of papers.

While she passed them back, Sal poked Russell with his pen. "I wonder what grade we got."

Russell turned around to face him. "Seeing as I did all the work, I expect nothing less than an A," he said, head held high with a gleam of intellectual superiority in his eyes.

"I did work. You just didn't want to turn it in."

"Because you typed it in Comic Sans."

Before Sal could respond, Mrs. Norandi dropped their paper on Russell's desk.

"Oooo, what'd we get?" Sal asked, peering over Russell's shoulder.

Russell flipped to the last page and frowned. "See me."

"C-minus? You said we'd get an A!"

"Not C-minus. See me. As in, she wants to see us after class."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Russell chewed his thumbnail.

Sal rested his chin in his hand, gazing at Russell. He couldn't help but smile as he studied the side of his face, and the way his jaw moved at every chew. I never thought nail-biting could be so attractive. He mentally added it to his new "Reasons to Love Russell" list, which he was going to keep off paper. No way would he risk somebody finding out about his new crush.

Russell stopped chewing and turned back towards him. "What are you doing?"

Sal tore his eyes away from Russell. "What do you mean?"

"You were staring at me."

"No I wasn't." Sal picked up his pen, and scribbled random shapes in his open notebook, gaze lowered. "Why would I ever stare at your ugly face? I was daydreaming."

"You were smiling."

"Cuz I remembered something funny."

"Must've been pretty funny, seeing how red you are."

Sal slammed his pen down. "I am not red!" he shouted, capturing everyone's attention.

Mrs. Norandi let out a sigh next to Mary and Ashley's table. "Sal, stop making so much noise."

Sal's warm face turned hot.

After the bell rang, Russell and Sal walked up to Mrs. Norandi, who sat at her desk, organizing papers.

"You wanted to see us?" Russell asked.

"Yes." Mrs. Norandi clasped her hands together as she looked up at the two boys. "I couldn't help but notice that your paper looked like Russell wrote everything."

Chest tightening, Sal stared down at his black Converse. This was it. Russell was going to tell the teacher all about how he did it all, and Sal did nothing but play video games. He opened his mouth to speak, but Russell spoke first.

"Sal wrote some of it. I typed it up though, and did some editing on his behalf. I must've gotten carried away with it."

"Don't be afraid to tell the truth. I know Sal has a habit of slacking off."

"I'm telling the truth. He helped."

"Okay." Mrs. Norandi still sounded dubious. "I only wanted to be sure that he contributed, before grading it." She opened what appeared to be a grade book, and wrote something down in it. "I'm giving you an A."