Dauntless High School

Chapter 30

TRIS

I find the secluded corner behind a trophy case in a dead-end hallway less than ten minutes before class is to start. Four found this spot yesterday, and I was supposed to meet him here to almost ten minutes ago. We don't want anyone to suspect that we have become more than friends, but haven't liked waiting until third period math class to see one another away from our friends' eyes, either.

"Kept me waiting," Four teases, leaning down to kiss me. "Good morning."

I take his hand and lean my opposite shoulder against the wall. "Morning. Yeah, sorry about that. Marlene stopped me in the hall." Four nods at me to continue. "She wants to sleep over at my house tomorrow night. Her parents are out of town this weekend and and I don't think she likes the idea of being alone in the house."

His face falls. "But we were going out tomorrow night," he pouts.

"I couldn't very well tell her that, though, could I?

"No, but you could have just said you were busy, like I did with Will yesterday."

I roll my eyes. "That would have been suspicious, I'm not usually all aloof and snappy like you sometimes are. Everyone may be used to you giving away nothing, but I've been friends with them since grade school, Four."

He sighs. "Yeah, that's true, I guess. Maybe I'll tell Will that my plans changed."

"That's a good idea. Besides, I wouldn't have felt right turning Marlene down, anyway. She's seemed... I don't know... not herself lately."

Four nods. "I've noticed, but Shauna said she's just taking it all really hard. She's just worried about Uriah."

"I know. We all are. So, maybe we can hang out Sunday, instead?"

"Sure." He grimaces hearing the warning bell. "Guess our time is up. Can I come over after the game tonight?"

"Course."

After a lingering kiss we part ways, him to Chemistry class with Zeke and Marlene and me to U.S. History where I will sit alone at the table I used to share with Uriah.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Ms. Graham makes her way around the room placing Wednesday's chapter tests face down on the desks. Four picks his up right away and I spy the red "28/30 - A" jotted in the top right corner. I, on the other hand, am holding my paper face down against the desk.

Four nudges my arm. "You gonna look at that?" I just bite my lip. "It's not going to jump off the desk if you let go of it, you know." He puts his hand on my knee under the desk and sighs. "Not seeing the grade won't change anything, Tris. I bet you did fine, you've been catching up."

"Not well enough for this test, Four," I say, shaking my head. I've turned in nearly all of my missing homework now, but I still feel a little shaky on my understanding of the last few chapters. And I really need to do well on this test and all the others upcoming; I can get partial credit with the late assignments, but Ms. Graham won't let me retake the tests I did poorly on.

Four gently moves my hand and slides the test paper out from under it, his eyes on mine the whole time. "Ready?" I sigh and he holds it out. "You got a B, that's great, Tris."

I sigh. He's being generous; it was really a B minus, I got 24 questions right out of 30. It's a lot better than the grades I've gotten earlier in the semester but I really need to be acing all my exams. It's just not good enough.

Four sees the look on my face and puts his finger under my chin, tilting my head up to look at him. "You can't expect to catch up on two months of material in less than two weeks, Tris. You were averaging a D before, this is an improvement. You'll get there. Talk to Ms. Graham again about extra credit, maybe she'll give you a little more leeway now that you had to miss so much school after the accident. I'm sure she can see that you're trying, Tris."