Just a Scratch

Chapter Five

"So then you just divide each side by 6 and then you get x which you plug back into the equation," I explained to the freshman that sat next to me. She had bouncy red hair and large glasses that made her eyes look very big and very cute.

I remember when I was a freshman. Ah, bad times.

A group of us seniors sat around tables with our respective underclassmen who we were going to be tutoring this semester. There were so many young faces that I'd never seen before and it reminded me that these kids were going to be the upperclassmen for Abi.

"Is this it?" May, my redhead student, tilted her paper and showed me her answer.

"Perfect!" I said and sent her off onto the next problem. The sound of pencils scraping across paper and quiet discussions littered the early morning air. A few other students lingered in the hallways but other than them, us tutors and our students were the only ones in the school.

May worked furiously as I grabbed my bag to take out a piece of gum but out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and glanced over to see the one, the only, Will Taylor walk out of Mr. Howard's office. They nodded to each other and Will turned to walk away. With his book bag slung over one shoulder, he shoved his hand in his pocket and was about to leave but he caught my eye instead.

I glared at him.

Two days ago I would've done anything to stay off his radar but yesterday he had declared war on me and my friends, and we were NOT going down without a fight.

Will returned the glare and disappeared behind a corner. I jumped up from my chair, startling May, and told her I'd be back in a couple seconds. I walked quickly over to where Will had gone and as soon as I turned the corner he appeared, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of sight from the other tutors.

"What are you doing?" He asked harshly. I tore my arm from his grip and took a step back.

"Don't touch me."

"Well what do you want? You obviously approached me for some reason." His dark eyebrows were furrowed in annoyance as he looked at me.

My mind went blank at that moment and I panicked. Why did I approach him? It was a sudden and unplanned decision that I made and I had no explanation for it so I flipped the question back on him, "what are you doing with Mr. Howard that's so secret? You having an affair or something?" I mentally cursed at myself. Sometimes my dumbass mouth didn't know when to shut up.

"Listen," his voice was deep and intense, "I thought we agreed that I would forget about you scratching my car if you didn't bring that up."

Oh shoot. He did say that.

"So what I need you to do is listen very carefully to my next words," he moved closer to me and leaned towards my face intimidatingly, "Mr. Howard is helping me study for English so don't you dare start spreading rumors about me. Also, now that you've brought it back up and you know what's going on, I expect full payment for my car. AND," he took another step towards me, "if you ever mention this to anyone I will ruin you."

Well shit.

He turned and walked away. Instead of going back to May and keeping my mouth shut, I jogged towards Will like an IDIOT.

"Hey," I called to him, "I'm sorry about-"

Will spun around and looked at me with such a vicious scowl that it stopped me dead in my tracks. "Fuck. Off."

"Damn," I muttered as I walked back towards the student commons. If there was one thing I was good at it was getting myself into problems. Now not only did Will hate me even more, but I had to pay him for the damages I did to his car.

Well shit.

-

"Daaaaaaaaaamn Lilah. You dun fucked up," Alexa said while she threw some popcorn into her mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I said, not happy about the reminder. Emilee and I sat on my couch while Alexa stuffed popcorn in her mouth as she sat on the floor. A superhero movie played on in the background while we chilled, partially watching the movie, partially doing homework, and partially talking.

"You guys are honestly idiots," Emilee piped in.

"What?!" Alexa gasped, "how am I included in this?!"

"Uh, you confronted Rosa yesterday and made a huge scene," Em rolled her eyes.

"Oh, true, true," bits of Alexa's popcorn piled up on the floor.

"You better clean that up," I said to Alexa. She just nodded. "Well besides that I have some other news." The two girls leaned in curiously. "Abi's going to be at the high school next year."

"Whooaaaa! Really?" Alexa looked at me with wide eyes, "when was that decided?"

"Apparently a while ago," I said bitterly.

"Do you think people will be fine with her autism?" Alexa said, not bothering to mince words.

"Alexa!" Emilee kicked her but it didn't trouble me too much.

"Yeah. It seems like Caroline and my dad talked to the school about it. They want her to join me for some classes this year to get her more acclimated to public school," I explained. Our school didn't have many accommodations for those with learning disabilities which is why Abi was homeschooled for her entire life. They had the minimum state requirements but other than that, it wasn't very accepting.

"We'll do anything to help," Emilee smiled at me.

"Yeah," Alexa agreed, "seriously. If you need anything, just ask."

I stared lovingly at my two friends. No matter what happened, we'd always stick together.

-

A/N

So! I decided to submit this book for the Wattys! I think it'll give me more motivation to keep up my writing :)

Picture of Will by:

MIZY MIYAJIMA

https://twitter.com/MizyMiyajima

https://www.instagram.com/mizymiyajima/

http://miyajimamizy.tumblr.com/

I love Love LOVE her art and highly suggest checking out her stuff.

ALSO, if you somehow find my book, I'd love to know how you did!