Jovial Memories

Chapter 16

Mandy arrived at school the following Monday, unsure how she would react to seeing Roy and Iris. It had been odd and still unreal having them over at her house during the weekend. It had been so long since she'd had a group of friends over that the possibility of anyone coming over to her house had seemed doubtful.

While this remained in Mandy's mind, she was still, however, much more concerned with her Precalculus test, and during her entire morning routine, her head was swarming with numbers and formulas.

She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she barely her mother call to her a she exited the front door of her house.

"Mandy, did you hear me?" her mother repeated.

Mandy stepped back inside, away from the icy cold. "What?" she wondered.

"I told you have to a good day, and good luck on that test," her mother called from inside.

"Thanks," Mandy called, stepping back outside and beginning the familiar walk down to the bus stop. Still stuck in the middle of winter, heavy blankets of snow coated the land, with the exception of the recently plowed streets. The snow plow usually came by at the same time Mandy was just waking up in the morning. It was normal to hear the large tires rolling across the snow-covered streets in the darkened morning.

She trudged through the snow and climbed onto her regularly scheduled bus, finding her regular seat. Too nervous to notice or care, Mandy trudged right by Abby without even glancing at her, though she could feel Abby's eyes glued to her as she took her seat.

The bus took off and Mandy leaned back against her seat, watching the bus stroll by the wintery woods of Vermont. As Mandy watched as they went by, she realized she actually didn't mind going to school too much today. Of course, she'd rather be at home, but the terrible deed of dragging herself out of bed on a Monday morning seemed more bearable today.

Minutes later, the bus arrived at school, and Mandy hopped off, ready to begin her day. Her mind still thought to her math test though, which wouldn't be occurring until before lunch. She sighed, ready to get her early morning classes over with.

Upon arriving to English first thing in the morning, Mandy took her regular seat and was greeted, as always, by Roy and Iris.

"When's your test?" Iris asked as the rest of the class gathered.

"Before lunch," Mandy replied.

"Good luck," Iris replied.

Mandy nodded, thankful for her comment. Before she could reply, Mrs. Riggs burst into the classroom, ready to begin.

"Settle down class," she spoke sharply over the chatter between the students. "Class is beginning."

The class slowly fell silent, waiting for the teacher to speak.

"Your projects have been graded," she explained, which caused Mandy's heart to seize. Normally when her projects were returned, she felt more disappointed than proud.

"I will be returning the grade sheet today for you and your group to view," she continued, seizing a stack of white papers from her bag. She set it down on the wooden desk, the stack presenting an ominous tone.

The class remained quiet as Mrs. Riggs slowly handed back each of the papers. As more were passed out, groups were whispering eagerly, either mourning over their poor grade together or cheering over their success.

Mandy watched, her muscles tense as Mrs. Riggs handed the paper back to Roy. Roy glanced at it, his eyes widened.

"How bad was it?" Mandy murmured, wondering how much her grade would be lowered.