Kissed by a Rose✔️

1) Honesty

"So as you can see, it's not a matter of who or even what you are. It all comes down to who sticks by you by doing the right thing in the end." She finished proudly, admiring her work and then looking towards us. The whole class remained silent, the same look plastered on all of our faces. Darlington stood at the front of the room, beaming nonetheless.

I looked over at our teacher, to see if she was buying this. Mrs. Edly scrunched her face up in confusion, which made her wrinkles pop out even more than they already did. She was quiet for a while, I guess trying to decide if she was doing this to joke around or was actually being serious.

"Is that it?" Our teacher finally decided to say. Darlington's smile faltered a bit, but she remained beaming as she nodded. Another silence filled the room.

"Does that mean I got an "A"?' Darlington jeered, trying to get some kind of reaction out of our puzzled teacher. Mrs.Edly ignored her comment and studied her again, her eyes darting between her and her project she proudly showed the whole class. She paused before saying " I'm afraid I don't understand."

Darlington seemed to beam brighter at hearing these words. "Well you see, my project tells the readers that despite what trouble you are in, and no matter what obstacles you face, friends always will be there for you. Staying strong, showing concern, and being their best self in order to help their friend!"

Oh barf.

Mrs. Edly looked at her once again before returning with "You had Charlotte's Web." Darlington nodded. Another pause. "The book about a pig and a spider." Darlington's eyes grow wide.

"But it's so much more than a book. The reader goes through an adventure with two childhood friends who bring out the best qualities in one another and eventually give them their dying wish." Silence. "It was a beautiful book, thank you for choosing it for me, Mrs.Edly."

This girl gives me a bigger headache than reading my book did. And I had Great Expectations, which seemed highly unfair to me. I rolled my eyes when she let out an awkward chuckle. Does she really think this is the right time for buttering our teacher up? Everyone has read Charlotte's Web at least one time before, it was about as classic and simple as possible. Maybe Mrs. Edly wanted a straightforward answer from Darlington for once, but now she realizes that's sadly not an actual possibility.

I guess Mrs. Edly gave up because with another look of defeat, told her star student to sit down. Her attention went to her clipboard, marking down the 110% Darlington would be receiving.

As usual.

I looked to my right to see my best friend picking at her nails. She always fidgeted when she was bored. And her idea of entertainment was about as far away as possible from listening to Darlington drone on about whatever she did this morning, ate for lunch, or how she only received a 97 on the quiz.

"Careful, Andrew hasn't shared his yet either. You might have to resort to toenails if you keep it up." I whisper to her. She looks up at me and chuckles. Both of our eyes zone in on a boy in the front of the room, who just so happened to sit next to Darlington. His poster was bright and had a bunch of words on it that imagine nobody would want to hear.

"You and I both knew I wasn't walking out of here with fingernails." She whispers back after we see the extensive amount of effort he put into the poster.

"Ok," Mrs. Edly announces, stopping us from our conversation. "Ms. Kazler you're next."

I sighed, of course, it was me. I lazily got out of my chair and reached the front of the classroom at a slow, uninterested pace. When I got to the front, I pulled my white poster board out from the back of her desk. I look at the middle of the classroom where Mallory sat. She gave me a thumbs up.