Varsity Boy and The Prep

11

The first thing that hit me was the yelling. Yes, two distinct voices were in a match at the foot of my bed. Not wanting to get involved, I closed my eyes and tried to distinguish the different parties. Once I did, everything made sense.

Jessa and Gabrielle hated eachother.

"You're just an emo, trying to hide from the world by sleeping with guys!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Admit you're a virgin then."

There was a silence. I wanted to continue pretending to be asleep and listen to their fight, because they honestly got in fights about the littlest things. I had to break them apart, though.

"Emerson should just move in with me, so she doesn't have to experience your pigly, disguisting lifestyle. She's-"

I slowly reached up to stretch my arms.

"Oh good, Emery. You're awake. I bet you weren't aware that your roommate was having sex with Jason Sprightmond, last night. In your room."

My jaw dropped open. Jessa and Jason? They'd met a few times when Jason came over to do a project, but had never really talked to eachother. Both Gabrielle and Jessa were staring at me, intently.

"J-Jessa." I said, sounding more tired than I'd felt. "Nothing can get you out of this. Gabrielle's been crushing on Jason for more than a year. Just apologize and go to breakfast."

Jessa gave me a look and grabbed her backpack. "There's no way in hell that I'm apologizing to this rich girl who's mommy's an actress, so she thinks that she's the shit. So, goodbye and have a lovely day, Emerson."

When she slammed the door, Gabrielle rolled her eyes and then crossed to my bed to take a seat. "Jessa Maybelle is a unfortuante, sad, little girl who somehow lost her way on a path to becoming emo, and made some friends, probably by buying them drinks." she said. "That girl won't pass the SATs if she took them a hundred times. Which reminds me, today's the day. You need to get ready and dressed, Emerson Williams. You already missed breakfast, but I smuggled a vegetarian omelet, made special by Chef Banks."

An unladylike word slipped out of my mouth, but Gabrielle stuffed a jacket in my hands before I could say anymore. Had I really forgotten that I was to take the two most important tests of my high school career? Surely, it must've been Jessa and Gabrielle's argument that threw me off.

"Let's go!" Gabrielle insisted, shuffling out the door, before I could even do my hair. I decided to ponytail it, like I had so many times.

"How late are we?"

Gabrielle half-jogged towards the library on west campus. "We have five minutes."

The two of us continued to jog, until we were in front of the library, and out of breath. There wasn't a huge line, so I felt confident that we were going to get in. Just a few paces away from the doors, an unfriendly face purposely bumped into me.

"How's it going, Emerson?"

Lukah. My arch-nemesis in running and in life, was taking the SATs at my school.

"You ready for the meet?"

Gabrielle seemed to notice the tension and stepped between us. "Good luck on your tests, Cranleigh Kid." she said, pulling me by the arm. We dodged past a few people and finally made it to the long tables that lined the library. Lukah and I's two second conversation replayed in my head, until it was hard for me to get into my seat. I hated that kid. He always had some way or another of getting in my way and making me nervous. My hands clung on to both of my number two pencils, and an elderly woman stood at the head of our long table.

"In a few moments, you will have the opportunity to show colleges your readiness for college success. To promote this, the college board firmly believes that each student should have an equal opportunity to show their knowledge." The lady set her script down on the table. "You all are very bright students and I don't think that you need me to read a pre-written script. That's for public school students. If you're in this room, you have signed up for both the SAT and ACT tests to be taken today. Don't leave or get up after either test. If you cheat, you're out. And don't try to fool us, because there are thirty five teachers in this library who are here to watch you. I'll pass out the test booklets and we can get rolling on this thing."

I took a breath. My head was spinning. And not because of the test, but because of everything else in my life that had taken over my mind and made it difficult for me to focus. Looking down the long table, I spotted Carson and Lukah, across from eachother, and Gabrielle in the other direction. She saw me too, and motioned for me to breathe.

Just breathe, Emerson. Breathe and everything will go perfectly, as planned.

Poor Emerson. Not a lot of updates in the next few weeks bc finals.....