INSTA-Daddy

45

Wes and I strutted through the school corridors until we noticed a large number of students were crowding up  in front of a wall connected to where the staircase leading to the second floor was.

Out of curiosity, both of us fastened our pace and shoved our way towards the front of the crowd where we caught right up to Liz.

On the wall, there were papers pinned against it. There were four papers, and each of them had names scribbled on it. Headlines were: Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, Senior.

Liz had her eyes scanning through the paper where it said Sophomore. Her focus was to preoccupied in scanning the paper that she failed to notice Wes and my presence.

Then it hit me.

These were the lists of students that passed the exams.

I glanced towards Wes and he had already began to scan his eyes on the paper as well.

As I was about to check if my name was on the list, Liz suddenly shouted with enthrallment.

"Look Gab! I'm the third highest amongst the sophomores," she exclaimed. So she had noticed my presence.

Wes smirked confidently. "Yeah well.... I wasn't in the zone during that exam so... Yeah," he said, sliding his hand inside his pants' pockets and shrugged.

"Well at least you passed, Wes," I uttered while keeping my eyes scanned through the list. It wasn't the Sophomores though. It was the Seniors list.

I haven't checked for my name yet, but I am confident that my name really is in the list. The exam wasn't that hard... if you studied..  which I did.

While scanning through the list, of course Margie's name would be number one. It has been like that forever so it no longer surprised me that much.

But what I do want to know is if Tom did.

I found his name and all of a sudden, a mixture of astonishment, bewilderment, and proud enveloped the pit of my stomach.

My jaw was left dropped as I processed whether his name on the list was real or was just my imagination...

Until somebody behind me screamed.

"No way! Dirty Tom made it on the top 10?!!"

My eyes circled and rechecked on the first page that I didn't really paid attention to. He was right.

10. Thomas Bradley Henderson

Wes, Liz, and I exchanged glances with each other, all three of us looking baffled. We weren't the only ones surprised. Literally everyone was surprised.

"No way," I heard a soft mumble behind me. When I turned my head to look behind my shoulder, I hastily faced back to the wall. Cameron was standing behind me.

I grasped for Liz' hand and squeezed her palm gently just to repress my anger and tension. She responded by patting the small of my back.

"You must be so proud Gab," Cameron whispered near my ear. My body stiffened unintentionally and there was no way for me to bring back my composure any time soon.

I know I love Tom now but for some reason, Cameron still had that effect on me. I don't appreciate though.

"O-of course," my voice stammered a little bit. I hope he didn't notice.

It's the truth. I really was proud. Tom worked hard to pass this sem's exam, and I worked hard to resist my jealousy.  In the end it was very much worth it.

During the remaining four days, when Margie's presence vanished, Tom did his own study session. I even caught him one night doing an all-nighter. I pretended to go drink water in the kitchen back then and he did his best to hide his notes and faked slept. But I knew exactly what he was doing.