Small Town Girl (Farkle Minkus)

Chapter Thirty-Three: Girl Meets Exhibit A

When Mr. Matthews walked into class the next morning, the class was divided, girls on one side, boys on the other.

"Oh, boy. Where are the boys?" The bell rang and they all came in. "Boys! I'm very glad to see you, because I thought there was a distinct possibility you could be...what's the word I'm looking for? Dead."

"We didn't' do anything. And we don't deserve to be dead."

"Or to be dumped." Farkle through in, looking at me.

"You broke up?" Mr. Matthews asked.

"Kind of, sort of, not really."  I replied, glaring at them. Zay walked over, leaning on Riley's desk.

"Not understanding the current climate of the room, Zay chooses to sit here. Men, am I right?"

"Get out!"

"Now I get it. "

"Alright, does someone want to explain to me how we got here?" Mr. Matthews questioned.

"We were in science class-" Farkle started.

"She will talk." Maya said, pointing at me.

"I will listen."

"Ok guys, calm down. Now, today's lesson is about the battle of Panipat. There were three battles of Panipat. The first was called, the first battle of Panipat."

"You don't respect us." I said, standing up.

"How can you possibly think that?" Lucas asked.

"Exhibit A." I said, pointing at Farkle. He stood up, so did Zay and Lucas.

"You can't put him on trial, Skipper."

"Why not? Not only did he make a judgment about me, he told me that he preferred me to be inferior to him." I argued.

"We are really unprepared."

"Yeah, see ya, buddy." They sat down, leaving just Farkle and I in the middle of the room.

"Skipper, I'm just better than you at this."

"Farkle, if you cared about me, you would want me to improve. I like science, I'd have to, I'm dating you! Why else wouldn't you want me to get better?"

"I do. There's no situation where I wouldn't want that for you. I do care about you. I will always care about you."

"I know."

"I'm sorry." He said.  "Our failure isn't your fault. Our failure is on me. I should've had more faith in you." I nodded.

"So  you don't want me to be inferior to you?"

"Of course not. I don't want you to be a genius because that's not who you are. You're Skipper." I sighed, suddenly feeling a bit stupid for reacting the way that I did.

~~~

When we got back to the lab, the boys and girls were still separated except for Farkle and I. The girls were making a sludge volcano, while the boys tried to figure out the experiment. I looked around the room.

"Wait a minute." I grabbed the marble, smelling it.

"What are you doing?" Farkle asked.

"This is just mud. The marble doesn't matter. Farkle, he's pulling a Mr. Matthews on us! Mr. Norton, we have a new hypothesis."

"Do elaborate, Ms. Jackson." 

"There's more to this experiment than you've been telling us. "Farkle added. "Also, ladies your volcano looks angry." The sludge started bubbling over. "Goggles on!" We all grabbed our goggles, and just seconds after I put them on, the sludge exploded on us. "And dive under your desks. Did I not mention that?"

"No...I don't believe you did." I said, grabbing a beaker of mud and splashing it on him.

"Yeah, I should've mentioned that."

~~~

Farkle came back to my house and we got cleaned. I threw a towel over his head, drying his hair. When I pulled it off, he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"I told you I'm sorry, right?"

"For not believing in me, or for letting me get attacked with mud?" I asked.

"Both."  I nodded.

"Then yeah, you did. A couple times."

"Well, I'm sorry."

"I know. I'm sorry too."

"What did you do?"  I sighed.

"It's possible I overreacted a bit."

"You almost broke up with me." He reminded me.

"We almost broke up...over a science project..." I moved away from him, sitting down on my bed. "It was that easy..." I looked up at him. "What does that say about us?" He sat down beside me.

"If it's that easy to tear us apart, then...maybe our relationship isn't as strong as we thought."

"Why not? Why isn't it?" I asked. "I mean, we've been through things that most kids our age couldn't dream of."

"What if that's not good enough?" I stood up, looking down at him.

"What are you saying?" He looked upset.

"I'm saying...what if we don't make-up next time."

"That won't happen. It can't."

"It almost did." I stopped.

"So what are we gonna do?"

"I just don't want anyone to get hurt. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Well, what does that mean? Are you...Are you breaking up with me?"

"I don't want to. I'm just saying, maybe that's the best way to save everyone's feelings-"

"No! Farkle, no!" I told him. "That doesn't save anyone. Our relationship isn't that strong yet, so we strengthen it. We have an argument, both say things they don't mean, so we fix it. We don't just give up!"

"Yeah, of course. Of course. I'm sorry I said anything." Tears welled in my eyes. He stood up, hugging me. "I'm sorry I scared you."

"I can't lose you too." I mumbled into his shirt.