Airball

Chapter 15 - Survival Of The Fittest

January 6, 2020.

"That's crazy!" Austin exclaimed. "He has to understand that you're not trying to hurt him!"

"I know, I know," I agreed, trying to get Austin to calm down since I was sure Ms. Davis can hear us. We were sitting in math class, and I was filling him in on yesterday's events.

"Well the last thing you need weighing you down in someone's jealously. They say that's what happens when you hit the top. The people that you thought were your friends weren't really great friends at all."

"Even you?" I asked, smiling.

"Nope, not including me," Austin said with confidence. "I'm here ride or die."

"Yeah," I muttered, still smiling. "I know you are."

Math class flew by and it was biology time before I knew it.

"Good luck," Austin told me as we parted ways, and I needed it. I had been dreading biology because I knew I'd run into Cam in that class. We usually sat together, and that was bound to be awkward considering yesterday's falling out. I wasn't sure if Cam shared Nathan's thoughts toward me, but he hadn't done anything to stand with me yesterday, so I figured that it was safe to assume he did.

When I entered biology, Cam was already sitting in our normal spot. Just my luck. I started towards him, but hesitated before deciding against it. Instead, I hovered in the doorway and looked for other free seats. I didn't see any, and had rejected myself to sitting beside Cam anyway when I noticed Harper from the corner of my eye. She raised her eyebrows at me, wondering why I was just standing around, and I shrugged in response and looked over at the back of Cam's head. Harper seemed to understand and she pointed to an empty seat beside her. I looked back at Cam and made my decision, walking to sit beside her.

"Boy problems?" Harper asked immediately once I had sat down.

"What?" I shook my head. "Oh no, no problems."

She looked over at Cam and back to me, but didn't seem to buy it. "Okay drama queen," she said, going back to her work.

It was then that I noticed that there was an assignment on the board for us to be doing. I pulled out a piece of paper, realized I didn't understand what we were supposed to be doing, and focused on a particularly interesting spot on the wall.

Harper happened to notice this. She groaned and pulled my paper toward her. "Okay, I'm going to explain this once so listen up."

I learned that Harper was actually a really great teacher. She explained the biology material, but I actually sort of understood it. Maybe she had an inept talent, or maybe I might have been paying a little bit more attention than I would have the teacher.

We finished the warm-up and listened to the teacher's 30 minute long lecture. When she was done talking, she handed out a worksheet to keep us busy and then retreated to her desk. For the first time in that class, I felt like I understood the work, so I started on it and actually felt good about it. I was breezing through it when Harper spoke up.

"So," she said, starting up the conversation. "What's going on with you and the boy over there?" She pointed at Cam.

"You're not going to leave me be about that are you?"

"Not until you tell me what's up," Harper replied stubbornly.

"Well that's Cam over there," I started. "He's been one of my best friends since middle school. We're on the basketball team together. Anyways, I was hanging with him and some of our friends yesterday and they let me know that they thought I was working a little too hard to outplay them in basketball. It sounds sort of stupid when I say it out loud, but one thing led to another and now we're in an awkward situation."