Twinkling in the Dark | ✔︎

Chapter 7

I wasn't doing that bad.

Whatever, there's still more time left, I thought, tightening my grip on the yellow pencil. Here I was, in the middle of a chemistry pop quiz, close to pulling my hair out. How does Mr. Smith expect us to memorize the entire periodic table? I can barely memorize Olivia's Starbucks order!

"Time's up. Class is over in five minutes," our balding teacher announced blandly. "Hand in your quizzes."

I groaned, looking down at my quiz. About half of it was marked with my grey pencil, and the answers were probably incorrect anyways. I trudged to the front of the room, not eager to hand in my quiz at all.

"Ah, Miss White," Mr. Smith squinted his eyes at the paper he grabbed out of my grasp, "it seems you used invisible ink because half of this paper is empty."

I mumbled a "sorry" before retreating back to my desk. As I stuffed my books into my backpack which was falling apart at its seams due to the overwhelming amount of books, Olivia's high-pitched voice interrupted my thoughts.

"That was so easy!" She pulled on her pink backpack as we exited the bland classroom into the hallway. Laughter echoed in the halls, joined by energetic conversations about the latest gossip, which I can proudly say that I did not participate in.

I scoffed. "Easy for you to say," I sighed as we headed towards our lockers which were pretty close to one another. "I could just feel that paper burning in the pits of hell."

"Well I'm already there so I'll see your paper there I guess," she joked with a straight face. "But for real, just ask Xander for help. He's, like, a genius in everything."

"He never shows up! He didn't even show up today," I complained, flailing my arms in emphasis. "I mean, he's smart and all, but he doesn't know what will be on the quiz. Also, why don't you help me? You're smart in chemistry." Olivia loved the sciences since she's always held a certain interest in being a doctor when she's older.

"Because I'd be a crappy teacher. And he already said he would tutor you. I mean, who am I to ruin your moments with Xander?" she shrugged, inspecting her blue tinted nails.

"There are no 'moments' with Xander, whatever you mean by that," I narrowed my eyes at her with a small smile to let her know I was only joking. "Anyways, I've gotta get to practice. I'll see you at the dorms though."

She nodded before we turned to head our separate ways. Normally, I would be rushing to the girls locker room before Mckenna got there so I could avoid the awkward silence and her scrutinizing gaze that would linger on my appearance, judging every flaw about me. But today, that unreasonable rule hasn't allowed me to run in two weeks since my grades haven't been up to par lately.

I slammed open the doors, freeing myself from the crowded halls, only to be met with the pettiest of girls perched on blue tables outside and other girls crowding around them, desperate to be part of the "fun."

"Hey, Aurora," came Mckenna's snotty voice behind me as I made my way to the tracks. "You still go to track? You really must be desperate for boys if you resort to sports to talk to them."

I turned around to face Mckenna to see that she was one of the girls perched on the table. "Yeah, that's why I'm on the varsity team. At least I got on it because I'm actually good, not because my daddy is the coach," I spat with a smirk in her direction. "I assume you're skipping practice again, thankfully." A gasp left her lips along with the eruption of whispers as I turned back around to head to the field.

I rolled my eyes and adjusted the backpack that was pulling on my shoulder as I continued to the tracks.

"Hey, White," Coach Segal greeted as I dropped my things on the bleachers. I sat down to be scorched with the burning metal since it had been extremely warm all day.