Beautiful Disaster

Chapter 4

Aria only looks at the paper long enough to see the circled red 64% and the underlined "see me" written beneath it. She scoffs at the message and quickly closes her notebook over her test. Only she isn't as fast as she thinks, and when she looks up she sees Emily next to her her giving her a sympathetic look.

"Aren't you gonna go see him?" Emily asks as Mr. Thomas, their history teacher, dismisses the class.

Aria rolls her eyes and stands to begin packing up her bag. "There's nothing to talk about. I didn't study. End of story," she replies, throwing her bag over her shoulder.

Emily nods and begins packing her own bag. "You know, next time just come over to my house. We can study together—"

"Aria? May I speak with you?" Mr. Thomas calls out from his desk.

Emily snickers and Aria lets out a heavy sigh, dropping her bag back onto her desk.

"See you at lunch?" Emily offers.

"Yeah."

She sits back in her seat as Emily and a few other students exit the room. Mr. Thomas comes to the front of his desk and leans back against it. His thinning dark hair is slightly spiked up in the front with gel—a hilariously pathetic image for someone in his 40's—and the angle of his arms on the desk reveals the dark stains on his shirt beneath them. There's a small line of sweat just below his hairline that seems to never go away and Aria has to try her hardest to keep from smiling, because the idea that this is the man who is about to give her a lecture on how to be successful in life makes her want to cry of laughter.

"Aria, you're a smart kid," Mr. Thomas begins with a sigh, rubbing his sweaty palms over his thighs.

"Your point?" Aria says sharply, though she already knows where this is going.

"My point is, lately you've been slacking off with your work. This last test is proof of that, and your research paper is about to be three weeks late as of tomorrow."

Aria groans internally. She completely forgot about the research paper, the same research paper that she has yet to get started on. "Yeah, that's coming along," she lies. "I've just been busy, but I'm almost done with it."

Mr. Thomas sighs again, like he knows she's full of shit. "Aria, you're a very bright student, one of my favorites, which is why I'm trying so hard to help you, but there's only so much I can do. I can't keep letting things slide, and this research paper is going to count for forty percent of your final semester grade. If it isn't in by the end of the week, it's going to be a zero. And even if you do get it in, unless you pick up your test scores it won't make a difference. History used to be one of your best subjects. I don't want to see you fail, Aria."

Aria bites her lip. "I know. I'm sorry, things have just been... hectic," she says softly.

"Look, I understand that this year hasn't been... easy for you, Aria. At all. I can only begin to imagine the horrors that you and your friends have faced during your time here at Rosewood High, and I am incredibly sorry what you've all gone through. That's another reason why I've been so willing to loosen up when it came to your work, but Aria, I also teach Spencer, Emily, and Hanna. I gave them the same treatment, allowing them the time to sort through things and get their lives in order, but they've all been caught up for weeks now. Your past is no longer an excuse. I just think you need to start putting in more effort. You have too much potential to waste it on not trying. You can't keep blowing off your work if you want to pass this class."

Aria stares down at her desk. She wants to tell him that she is trying. She doesn't know how to explain the fact that whenever she sits down to do her work it feels as if there is a physical force preventing her from getting anything done. Maybe if she could explain what goes on in her head at night he would understand, but then again, deciding whether or not she should keep breathing is not a valid excuse for a late assignment.