The Unexpected Deal

✿ Marilyn: The Turning Point ✿

"MARILYN?" I blinked, opening my eyes. Mr. Choi, my teacher for literature and composition, was towering over me with a damaged book of Robert Frost's collected poems in his hand. The room was silent all around us, and I could see that everyone was watching me. "Yeah?"

"Did you hear the question?" He shifted the book to his other hand, then lifted his glasses off his head and put them on while flipping a few pages with his fingers. "I asked you about the symbolism of the ice and fire in Frost's 'Fire and Ice by Robert Frost.'"

"Oh," I said, looking down at my own book, which was closed, and frantically flipping through the pages, the words blurring. "I'm sorry, I don't know."

"Page one-​eighty-​four," Kai whispered next to me. "Bottom of the page."

"Right," I said, One-​fifty, one-​sixty-​two, one-​seventy-​four. Where the hell was it? "Um, the mermaids. Well-"

A few rows back, someone snickered. Then I coughed. "Yes, Sabrina." Once more, Mr. Choi removed his glasses. With a tired expression on his face, he asked, "Can anyone help us out here? Yes, Sabrina."

"Fire and ice represent desire and hate," Sabrina said, and the same person in back snickered again, at her which in return she shot them a glare, making them shut up. "This is because of the feelings invoked by the two. Desire is exactly like fire. You start with the initial feeling of wanting something. The spark has been ignited and it slowly spreads. Like fire, the desire grows in you, slowly taking up more space in your heart, consuming every other logicality. Within some time, like fire consumes a large forest, desire has taken over. Anyone who was paying attention would obviously know this."

When I finally found the correct page, I quickly scanned the poem: To say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice. I was too anxious about what I needed to tell Kai, so I didn't feel like arguing with Sabrina or attempting to lower myself to her level. He was staring at him and closely studying me for my next move, and I couldn't help but notice it. It made me uncomfortable.

Just as the bell rang, Mr. Choi clapped his book shut and remarked, "Well put, Sabrina. As you read, get ready to talk more about the poem since we didn't finish the discussion due to the bell ringing. Remember that papers are due in one week as well!"

With books closing, bags zipping up, and voices and shuffling emanating from the corridor via the open door, everyone was now interacting. I put my notebook away and got up, glancing out the window at the parking lot and the dark sky above it, which perfectly captured my mood. Kai muttered a bye to me as he walked out the classroom with a guy I didn't know. I was about to dash out of the classroom and chase after him and just tell him the truth but it seemed like the wrong time to. Instead, I watched him go in disappointment, knowing that I ruined my opportunity to tell him.

"Marilyn." I looked up. Mr. Choi, now behind his desk, was watching me. "Yeah?"

"I've noticed you've been distracted lately. Get back on track," he said. "Okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, okay."

I walked out into the hallway, past the lockers and into the girls' bathroom, which was thick with the smell of cigarettes mixed with perfume. A group of girls were crowded by the mirrors, checking lipstick and gossiping, but I pushed past them and went into a stall, locking it behind me. "My point is," one of the girls by the sinks was saying, "I just can't even think about the prom yet." There was a hiss of hairspray, and then someone else said, "I heard Sabrina has a prom dress, which was like almost two thousand dollars. Can you believe the audacity of some girls at our school?"

"So, it's not like she's going to go get asked by August or Kai," the first girl said. "It doesn't matter if you spend a million on your dress if you can't get a date." I sat down on the toilet, then reached over to grab my phone from my pocket, checking my messages: zero texts so far. "Well," another girl said, "all that matters is that we have dates. It'd be a shame if you didn't have a prom date either."