Love, Ali

Chapter 3

Math class must be the most boring and the most difficult class I've encountered. Mrs. Quisenberry is preparing us for college so she's teaching us Trigonometry in advance. That's like algebra at a whole new level, I think.

I can't sleep through the class like I do in almost all my other classes.

By the sound of Mrs. Quisenberry's name, she seems nice but in reality, she's pure evil. Once, she gave us all a failing grade for our recent quiz that the whole class took just because her second husband divorced her. I don't blame him though. I don't know why anyone would want to marry Mrs. Quisenberry in the first place. Now, she's married to Ronald Ewing, our principal. But she didn't want to inherit Ronald's last name because she thought that 'Quisenberry' sounded much better than 'Ewing'. And she thought it would give us students a hint that she may be nice but then she'd surprise you and show you a whole different side of her. As I said, pure evil.

When the bell rings, I jump out of my seat along with everyone else and ignore the last few instructions Mrs. Quisenberry gives. But just when I was about to leave the classroom, she calls out to me and gestures me to come and take a seat on the armchair right in front of her desk. Connor Qualls sits there. He's so unlucky.

"Hello Miss Iglehart," she starts. "How are you doing?"

I pause for a while and clear my throat then say, "I'm fine."

"Everything all right in school?"

I shrug.

"Sure, you can say that."

She stands up from her chair and sits on the edge of her desk. She clears her throat as well and says, "I've been informed that you haven't been paying attention to any of your classes lately, including mine."

I stray away from the direction her eyes are leading me and sit upright to jiggle off the awkwardness stuck to my body.

"Um," I hesitate. "I know I've been-"

"Listen," she says cutting me off. She stands up and places her hands gently on the armchair's table/arm and continues, "You are failing all your classes, Alison."

"I can explain," I say. Who am I kidding, I can't explain.

She sits back down and sighs.

"I don't know what to do with you. You've just gone too far. Everyone may see you as nice and innocent but to me, you are no goody-two-shoes."

"I don't understand. Why did my teachers come to you? Why didn't they approach the school board?"

"Because," The tone of her voice thickens and I move further away from her desk slowly. "Your principal recommended me for head of the school board."

I snort. She notices my lack of respect.

"What was that?" she asks. Her eyes become bigger, allowing herself to look right through my soul.

"The principal is also your husband which is the only reason why you are now head of the school board."

At first, she stares me down but then she just bursts into laughter.

"Oh please. Don't even get me started."

She flips her hair back and continues to act all lady-like. She sickens me. Whenever I see her face, the food I ate for lunch travels up my stomach and forces itself out of my mouth. But I manage to keep it in. Although, I turn green every time that happens.

A moment of silence occurs then I ask, "Can I leave now?"

She flattens her slacks as she stands up. I can tell by the expression on her face, that she really hates my guts.

"You better up your game, Miss Iglehart, or you won't be graduating this year." She almost sounds certain that I won't be able to graduate because her face lit up when she said it.

I hurry out of the classroom and am glad that the day's finally over. Well at least another day of being a nobody ends.

I run out to the football field and position myself to sit on the bleachers, hoping that after what happened today with Luke, he'll notice me or at least say hi.

After witnessing thirty minutes of a boring football game and surviving the constant glares that Kayleigh was giving me, I decide to talk to Luke before Kayleigh also decides to rudely interrupt our conversation again like last time.

So I run down the steps and approach Luke. I'm getting ahead of myself here. I'm actually confident about talking to Luke.

"Hey." I start. I didn't know whether to call him 'dude', 'amigo', 'quarterback', or just his name, so I stuck with 'hey'.

He smiles.

"Hey. How are ya?" He replies.

"Since the last time we talked? Just fine."

There's awkward silence in the air. I just stand while he shoves his sweaty clothes in his duffel bag.

"So..." I mutter.

He finally finishes packing his stuff and looks right at me. I can almost feel the sweat coming on.

"I actually have to get going but," he says to me. I look around, trying to see if Kayleigh's about to come in and interrupt us again but I don't see her anywhere. "How about we grab something to eat or something to drink. Maybe we could get a smoothie sometime?"

My cheeks light up in a pinkish glow. I look at my back just to see if he's talking to someone other than me. He's not. He's actually asking me out.

"Won't Kayleigh get mad?" I ask.

"Kayleigh? We broke up."

"Oh. Why?"

"After I saw the way she treated you a while ago, I had to break up with her."

Outside, I give him a look saying that I'm actually sorry about their breakup, but inside, I'm just screaming and jumping joyously.

"Then yes." I answer. "I would love to go out with you."

He smiles and I smile back. I guess I was wrong. This day can get better and it just did.