Growing Pains

Chapter Twelve

Gwen

There were three things that were making me want to bang my head against my desk. Repeatedly. The first, I was in physics. The second, it was Monday morning—the first day back at school since thanksgiving weekend—and a rather cold Monday at that, which made it suck even more. The third, I was in a class full of idiots.

"Uh, can I use the bathroom?" Owen loudly asked the teacher for the fifth time this period. Owen had been annoying me all class period, along with his psycho girlfriend Izzy. Owen was a nice guy, don't get me wrong, but he was just a lot to handle. And most of the time, I couldn't handle it.

However, he was a lot better than the Queen Bitch and her idiot minion. Heather and Lindsay sat in front of me, Heather, the bitch, and Lindsay, the idiot, and they were some of the worst people I had ever met. Heather was cruel and mean for the sake of being cruel and mean. She was even running against Courtney for student body president out of spite. She just wanted to beat Courtney for no reason at all, but from the sounds of it, Courtney was winning. That's what some of the early polls said anyways, but we wouldn't know until the end of the semester.

Lindsay was nowhere near the diabolical mastermind of her leader. She was pretty, blonde, and dumb as a box of rocks. She once asked me if physics was a psychic class, and no matter how many times I explained it to her that it wasn't she still didn't understand. In fact, right now she was shuffling through her deck of tarot cards. Like I said, she was an idiot.

"Owen, I said you had to wait until after class," Mr. Reeves, our teacher, scolded.

"But my tummy hurts," Owen whined as he rubbed his stomach. A loud grumble came from him and then he said, "See? Its barking at me."

Mr. Reeves frowned, making his wrinkly face fold even more, "Your stomach cannot bark, Owen." Owen let out a big sigh and mumbled something, but laid his head on his desk in defeat. Mr. Reeves continued on with his lecture of Newton's Third Law.

I started doodling as his monotone voice filled up the room. Half the people here weren't paying attention, and yet, I was one of the only ones that failed that stupid test. Even Lindsay passed, but I think she seduced one of the nerds into getting her the answers.

I knew I should have been paying attention, but I couldn't find the will. All I could think about was how that every passing second brought me closer and closer to leaving physics and being in art class. I only had ten more minutes of this misery before I was done. And then, I'd be surrounded by bright colors and the smell of fresh paint and clay.

Cameron, a sophomore who was smart enough to be in this class, nudged my shoulder with a pencil. I looked up, startled from him. He wasn't one to chat in class. He was probably one of the only sane kids in this class, if it weren't for his slight aversion to germs and touching and breathing near people.

I quirked an eyebrow at him in question, but he simply pointed me in the direction of the teacher who was glaring at me with his beady eyes. "Miss Ryans? Do you care to answer the question or shall we all go on waiting?"

Heather turned around, a nasty smile on playing on her lips, "Yeah, Gwen. Unless you're too busy doodling your boyfriend." She was too quiet for Mr. Reeves's old ears to pick up her snarky words, and honestly, I was glad for it. I didn't need him to be announcing my private life to this group of idiots.

"Uh..." I trailed off, searching the board for some sort of answer to my question.

Cameron leaned in and whispered, "Centripetal force."

I repeated his words loud enough for Mr. Reeves to hear, "Centripetal force."

His frown deepened, if that was even possible, "Very well. Miss Ryans is correct. Centripetal force is..." His voice blurred away as I turned to Cameron.