His Rotten Apple

33 ~ Finals Week

"Sorry... Sorry!" Zailey said to the random bodies she collided with as she rushed through the halls.

As she reached the door to her first period, she spotted Connor who was leaning back on the door frame.

"I'm impressed. You're not carrying your study guides."

"I wanted to change it up. Use the study guides before the test and not during."

"Well, I've seen them in your hands enough these past few weeks," he took and held onto both of her hands.

Feeling a bundle of jitters, she tried to contain an over-excited smile. "Why haven't you gone in yet?''

"Because the sign says no talking, and I had something important to say to you."

"Hm?"

He gently placed his hands on her cheeks and planted a kiss on her forehead, "Don't fail."

"Very supportive."

"What? It's not like you need luck."

They walked into the testing room and casually made their way to their seats.

"Alright, that was the bell," Mr. Presa walked in with a stack of test papers. "I explained the instructions yesterday. Once you receive your test papers, you may start. Best of luck."

***

"Five minutes left," Mr. Presa said.

Zailey, who was already done with her test looked to her right, seeing Connor scribble to finish his paragraph.

"Time!" Mr. Presa exclaimed. "Pencils down right now or I won't grade it!"

Connor finished in the nick of time, setting his pencil down and leaned on the back of his chair.

Zailey chuckled, "Are you sweating?"

"Seriously, who asks for 3 essays about the same quote?"

"Right?! How does he have time to grade all these... Talk about having no life."

"By the way, I saw you staring at me earlier," he said. "Do you know how hard it was to focus?"

"Your 'thinking face' was just too adorable," she said.

"Don't say that, it'll be hard to get mad at you if I fail that test."

"Hm... Now that I think about it, I've never seen you mad," she pointed out. "I wonder how you're like."

Connor shrugged and looked at her, interlocking his fingers with hers.

She furrowed her eyebrows at their hands before meeting his stare, "What?"

"Nothing, it just feels good."

"Well, you know what won't feel good? My hair getting pulled out by the thirty something girls glaring at us right now," she nudged her head towards the rest of the class. "Let's get out of here."

***

Zailey knocked out on the studio floor, as she waited for Gavin to arrive. After about ten minutes, Gavin walked through the doors to find Zailey sprawled out on the floor. He bent down and poked her cheek, in which she reacted to by giving him a drowsy glare.

"Great. You're not dead. Now get up, we only have an hour today," he stood up, extending his arm out to her.

She sat up and pouted, "Hey, have you taken the Calculus final?"

"We don't have the same teacher, but yeah. It was my first period."

"I was murdered... And they didn't let me through the gates of heaven because that test was actual hell."