noted → calum hood | #Wattys2015

four

"C.H.,

I looked through last year's yearbook Friday night and assuming you are in the same grade as Luke and I, your name is either "Cole", "Cody", "Calum", or "Christian".

This kid Ashton got paired up with me for the math project and I'm really not excited for it. Not that I mind Ashton, I just don't like math (we've been through this).

Anyway, when Luke found out he would have to work alone due to the class having an odd amount of students, he was practically fuming. I'll wind up helping him though, because I understand this class a bit more than he does. Plus he and I are best friends, it would only be fair.

Most of the class is still taking today's test. I finished it and we only have twenty minutes left in class so I decided to write to you.

We've got this little tradition of leaving each other notes, I shouldn't break it now, right?

Anyway I wish you the best of luck on this test, I found it kinda easy for the most part.

Surprise, surprise, I'm not bad at math.

Luke's skipping class Wednesday to go see All Time Low and I'm really jealous. I've seen them twice but they're just one of the few bands that I'll never get sick of.

Luke and I never go to concerts without each other, due to our music tastes being pretty much symmetrical.

Maybe I won't help him with that math project, just because he left me at school while he's gonna be off seeing ATL.

How are you, though? These notes always seem to have me as the focus; I don't thinks that's exactly fair to you.

-Melanie

ps: I lied about being good at math, I actually got a 82% on the last test. That's not bad, I know, but it's no A+ either."

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Melanie taped the note to the place she and Calum always did, under the desk in the center on a piece of tape that's lost most of its adhesive abilities.

»

When Luke met Melanie back in Chemistry, he took his assigned spot in the back by a boy named Michael.

Melanie could've sworn that Michael's hair had met more chemicals than there were in the lab, but that was just her opinion. Luke was lucky he was good at science, because Michael constantly messed around in class. His instructions to the fluorescent-haired boy were simple: "Let me do the work. Don't touch the experiment unless I or Mrs. Bell ask you to." Given than Michael listened to him, Luke would write his partner's name at the top of their paper without a second thought.

Melanie, on the other hand sat next to Alexis Marcep: average student with a better than average personality. When Melanie was feeling down Alexis would pick up on it right away and try to make her feel better.  She was the type of person that would bring in nice little gifts for a select few friends of her choice on holidays.

Melanie loved people like that, because she was one of them.

Alexis and Melanie weren't close friends by any extent, but rather the type that wouldn't talk outside of class, but would still greet each other if they spotted the other at Target.

"Was Luke able to finish the lab from yesterday?" Alexis asked as she wrote down her name atop the worksheet that had been passed out.

"I think so," Melanie began to shade in the top left corner of the page. "He didn't say anything about it, really." Alexis nodded and hummed a quick "mmhm" to acknowledge Melanie without having to continue on their conversation as Mrs. Bell began to speak at the front of the room.

"Can anyone tell me whether or not the equation on the board is balanced?" She didn't look around the room for a raised hand before picking on a pupil to answer. "Lucas! Is it balanced?"

Luke had given up on requesting Mrs. Bell not to call him "Lucas" by the second week of school; it may have not been his name, but in this class it was. "It is."

"Lucas, if one side of the equation has three carbons, and the other has five, is it balanced?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then why do you even think for a second that it is already balanced?"

If secondhand embarrassment were an actual feeling, it was occurring in Melanie right about now. "I wrote it down wrong."

Mrs. Bell sighed. "You're lucky you've got Mr. Clifford over there helping you with the labs. God knows that without his help, you'd probably be failing this class."

Luke sighed and slumped in his seat, a look of sympathy from Michael glancing at him.