Discovering Spencer

28. The calm before the storm (Part I)

“Alright everyone, pencils down please.” Mr. Dawson announced.

I put my pencil down, placed my scantron form on top of the question set papers, flipped them over and pushed to the left side of my desk for Mr. Dawson to collect. This was very last midterm of the semester, European History and I was happy. Testing all week was taking a toll on me, it was so much. Before every test I was super anxious and after every test it got worse because I panicked over which questions I missed. My brain was fried so I was thankful to be done and over with midterms.

As I got up to walk out of class Mr. Dawson gave me big smile through his silver beard. He knew I passed with flying colors and something told me he couldn’t wait to pile more information in my head for the new semester. Well he was going to have to wait because I had a whole weekend before he could teach anything new. I needed that weekend to relax, to sleep, to__

“Spencer!” someone hollered my name.

I quickly turned around and there was Quinn walking towards me hand in hand with Jamie White. Yes I repeat, Quinn was walking hand in hand with Jamie White. Jamie was her mysterious boyfriend. She finally told me about him that day at the store after I spilled my guts out to her about Chloe.

They hooked up during winter break at his big New Years Eve party. At first, Quinn told me it was supposed to be a onetime thing but as they began hanging out it evolved to something more. I could see how happy he made Quinn and I was happy for them. It did bother me that Quinn was changing for him but she said she wasn’t changing for him, it was for his parents. Jamie’s parents were opulent and they had this high standard as to who their son should date and Quinn did not meet that standard. She had to change her style, readjust her attitude to be more reproachable to get his parents to like her.

Quinn was a girl who didn’t care what others thought of her but she did care about what his parents thought of her. She liked Jamie so much she was willing to make any type of sacrifice for them to be together. The old Quinn wasn’t completely gone, she still wore too much black, her makeup was caked on occasionally and she still made blatant statements about the things she didn’t like. That was the Quinn I liked and I had a feeling that was the Quinn Jamie fell for.

“Soooo,” Quinn said smiling when she and Jamie caught up with me. “Guess who’s taking you to the dance?”

Oh no, not the stupid dance again. I thought. I had forgotten all about it. I was so busy with midterms, it completely slipped my mind. It was this weekend, tomorrow to be exact and I still didn’t have a dress or a date. By the sound of it Quinn finally found someone for me but I wasn’t thrilled to hear who it was.

 “Who is it?” I asked gloomily.

“Justin Pratt,” Quinn said. “He’s one of Jamie’s friends. He thinks you’re totally pretty, he already purchased the tickets, and all he needs is a date.”

Justin Pratt wasn’t ugly, he was very good looking actually. He had this platinum blonde disheveled haircut that most guys at our school couldn’t pull off because they don’t have the high pronounced cheekbones Justin had. He was also tall, average body, tanned and has these pillow lips most girls would die for. There was only one problem with Justin; he was dumb as a rock. He was held back freshman year and had to attend an entire session of summer school to catch up with the rest of us. Every little thing he did and said was stupid, I didn’t know if he was dropped on the head as a child or if being dense came naturally to him.

If I was going to the dance and wanted to have some joy in my life I’d have to swallow my pride and go with Justin.

“Does he know we’re just going as, like, friends?” I asked Quinn.