Take Me Home (Revised)

Chapter Twelve: Ely

     There's absolutely no way I'm asking her to prom now. I don't think anything has hurt this much. Brei rejected me without even knowing it. The girl I've loved for years didn't feel the same, and there was nothing I could do about it. She clearly didn't feel the same if she blamed the whole thing on spiked Mountain Dew. I could never tell her now. I felt like a little girl who just lost her favorite barbie doll. A gorgeous barbie doll with a perfectly quirky personality and beautiful blue eyes to match. How could I have lost her before I even had her? She waved goodbye before we could even say hello as I jerked away and slammed the door behind me.

     "Elyjah Tyler Scott, get your ass in here!" Mom's voice screeched from her office. She was PISSED! I didn't know what she was mad about, but whatever it was, I was NOT in the mood to deal with it. I threw my bag up the stairs and raced into her office.

     "What's wrong?" I asked. I saw my grades pulled up on her computer monitor. I almost shit myself. She wasn't supposed to see my grades until I brought them up for mid-term!

     "Care to explain why you have two 'B's, son?" Dad was actually home for this? The one time he's home and actually pays attention to me, and it's to cuss me out for a passing grade. It's a fucking 'B'!

     "I've been busy with football and stuff. I'll bring them up." I replied, breaking into a sweat. Mom and Dad hated when I didn't have all 'A's. They say that "I'm capable of more," but it's just an excuse to bitch-boss me.

     Apparently my ability to go to a decent college depends on my earning merit-based scholarships for all 'A's. Dad made too much money to qualify for need-based scholarships, but not enough to comfortably pay for college. I live in that crappy in between area. They never even considered letting me go out for football scholarships. If I get caught with anything below an 'A', they get royally pissed off like this. Why else would I never tell them about the 'B's in Trigonometry and Chemistry? They'd lock me up for good.

     "That's it. I'm done with your excuses. We're benching you from football until you bring those up and keep them up. And you're grounded for a month." Mom scolded. No football?!? Grounded for a month?!?

     "What?!? Mom, you can't do that! The team needs me!" By now, I didn't even care that I was losing my video games for a month. I was going to need football to get over Brei.

     "Oh, yes I can! Don't make me take your car away, young man!" Mom threatened in her fire-breathing demonic dragon voice. I didn't dare argue with her now.

     "We've already emailed your teachers asking for extra credit, and there are some more applications on the table for you to fill out. And no friends over until you've improved." Dad added. He wasn't in much of a better mood. What the hell? They can't just email my teachers for me, it is so not their place!

     "Do what you want, Brei won't be coming over for a long time." I grumbled, leaving the office and grabbed the new stack of college and scholarship applications off of the table and trudged upstairs.

     "What do you mean she's not coming over for awhile? What happened?" Mom's voice softened a bit. When it came to Brei, she understood where I was at and how I felt. She was in love with her best friend too, the only difference was that he loved her back and she married him, and had four kids with him.

     "I don't want to talk about it!" I yelled, slamming my door behind me.

     "Damn it!" I threw the applications on the desk and flopped onto my bed. Why couldn't I have fallen for one of those vain cheerleaders who never stops flirting with other guys? Even that would have been easier than this. Brei's not liking me back was a huge kick to the gut, and now Mom is just salting the cuts by taking me out of football. We may just be in conditioning mode now, but every practice counts when you're the state champion team. I dragged my Chemistry book out of my bag and opened it up to chapter twenty-seven. After all, all I had left to do was convert to moles at this point.