The Silver Rose

Problems to be Probed

Roxanne's POV-

   Their a lot of things I wanted to do today. Getting the attention of Cynthia was not one of them. As I made my way out chemistry I saw her her eyes harsh. She strode up to me and looked me dead in the eyes.

   "Walk with me." She commanded and turned from me. I knew better than to refuse her, it would only go badly. I shuffle after her and take my place at her side. I don't know how I pissed her off but if I'm being honest I could be something as I breathed to hard in the same room as her.

   "W...What is this about." I say slowly resigning to my fate.

   "Not yet, we talk in private." she says, her voice quiet. After about a minute we reach the girls bathroom farthest from the English room, she strides in and after about thirty second a few girls are thrown out. Cynthia step out and pulls me into the bathroom.

   "You really had to do it, didn't you?" She asks deadpanning to me.

   "What, I've been trying to stay away from you as much as possible how did I manage to piss you off?" I ask trying to think of how I made her mad. Her expression sours.

   "You really are clueless huh. Mia, you just had to drag her down with you Roxy." she says leaning against the wall her eyes locked on me.

   "What! Oh come on Cynthia, you heard me the first day she got here I warned her, hell even you warned her. I honestly think she just doesn't care about status." I say starting to get frustrated.

   "That doesn't matter she gave you the option to decline so you should have refused." her voice still calm but laced with anger.

   "You saw the look she gave you she partnered with me just to spite you, trust me when this project is over she won't want anything to do with me." I start to run it through my head.

   "Trust you.... Why the fuck should I trust you. After all the shit you pulled when we were kids" she says gritting her teeth and stepping towards me. I stay silent and just looking at her. I don't know what she's saying and I'm desperately trying to understand. She looks at me then sighs.

   "Just do what you do best," she starts to walk out of the room, "Push her away." and she starts to walk towards our English class. I followed after her in silence. When we reach the class she walks in the anger from our previous conversation gone. I take  my seat as she sweet talks the teacher, and I'm not even going to ask where she got that note from. 

   As soon as Cynthia sits down the whispers start, I've gotten pretty good at ignoring them but after what she said, I guess she struck a nerve cause their word reached me. They all where putting bets on what I did to make Cynthia mad or how long it would be before I snapped. It was the usual stuff but, for some reason right now... it hurt. 

   "You okay?" Mia asks her words laced with concern.

   "I'm fine." I say trying and probably failing to reassure her.

   "I wont push you but... I know your lying." She says flat out and I take a quiet but sharp intake of breath. Well this will make the project more interesting wont it.

   I walk out of school towards my car pulling out the slip of paper that Mia gave me, and plug it into a GPS. I turned the car on and pulled out of the student parking lot trying and ultimately failing to prepare myself for this meeting.

   " Its going to be a long afternoon." I mumble to my self as I pull into her driveway. I stopped the car and slowly step out into the crisp November day and make my way to the front door. I ring the doorbell and wait my heart rate speeding up against my will. Why am I so nervous? The door abruptly opens and I see an eager Mia looking at me the shine still in her eye.

   "Come in, come in," she say pulling me through the threshold into her house the smell of honey and lavender hitting me instantly, "I made tea for us and I have snacks ready in my room!"

   "O-okay." I stammer out following her through her house to what I assume to be her room. She opens the door and steps inside motioning me to follow and I do after a moments hesitation. Its covered wall to wall in posters and drawings and things are sprawled about on her desk and bed mostly snacks and the aforementioned tea. she throws herself on her bed and just stand there awkwardly for a good minute before she pats the bed next to her. I take a seat and start to assemble my things in silence pulling out my laptop and a few notebooks, all while Mia watches me with a curious look on her face. Like she just discovered something and with a dopey grin on her face.

   "So for the physics stuff we can start in the area where you have the most difficulty and we can move from there." I say to her starting to map out a beta schedule for this to try and organize this.

   "Well I was thinking we could talk more about the English assignment first." she asks taking a sip of her tea.

   "Sure... I still don't know how its structured but I guess we can start with a 'get to know you' game like 20 questions or something like that." I say having that beta schedule shattered.

   "Sure! Do you mind if I go first, and feel free to skip any topics you don't want to explore." She say her voice dripping with excitement.

   "Go ahead." I say mentally sighing to myself .

   "First question. What is your sisters name?" she asks calmly testing the waters I presume.

   "Katlynn, Katlynn Marie Rose... As for my first question, do you have any siblings." I say looking out her window enjoying the view on the suburb.

   "I don't, I am an only child. Now my second question is, what is your favorite class this year?"

   "Robotics, and I'll ask you the same question."

   "Art or Band, It goes fifty fifty for me. Now my third question will be and be mindful you can skip but what's the deal between you and Cynthia?" She asks carefully but still hopeful. Where do I even begin to answer that question, it gives me a headache just thinking about it. One day we were really close then she goes away for a year and when she comes back she hates me, and that was years ago. Its weird.

   "Skip... Cause I don't even know if their is a good answer to that." I say looking back at her and she just nods and study's my face in silence not saying a word, like she's trying to read of book but she doesn't know the words in front of her mean.

   "Anyway... you should get you physics homework done I can help but I'm not going to give you the answers." I say grabbing my backpack and rummaging through it for my homework.

   "Sure." she says and grabs the paper off of her pile of papers on her desk. I start to explain how the formula is applied to the problem being methodical and stopping periodically to make sure she understands and giving affirmation where needed. After about thirty minutes I think she has it down. I was looking over her paper for flaws when my phone goes off, Dad's calling.

   "Yeah?" I ask calmly

   "I need you here now." He says his voice irritated.

   "Okay, what happened" I say, packing my things up. I have an idea what happened but I hope I'm wrong.

   "You need to play therapist... again." He says his voice slowly calming back down.

   "Ah shit I'll be their ASAP back up is on its way repeat stay sheltered till reinforcements arrive" I say throwing my last text book in my bag and hanging up.

   "What was that about?"  she ask mild concern in her voice.

   "My sisters home, and her boyfriend broke up with her...Again."