Jawbreaker

School was dreadful.

The kids who had attended the funeral were devastated, still mourning in black. While life just passed them by, they stood still in time, recounting the memories they had shared with Abby. Everyone else around them went on with their own lives, not even knowing that a tragedy had occurred among them.

I was one of those people, going on with my own life.

I passed by my old friends, walking briskly with my tiny Coach purse slung over my shoulder, trying to catch up to my new friends.

“Hey, Luce,” said Bridget, a tall blonde, looking down at me.

“Hey,” I answered, walking along with her and two other friends, Natalia and Jenna.

Bridget held flyers in her hands.

“What are those?” I asked her.

She looked down and smiled. “Oh, this is for the winter formal. We’re putting up flyers around the school so that people buy their tickets on pre-sale. Want to help during study hall?”

I shook my head at her. “Can’t. I’ve gotta go talk to Carrington about a test I missed in Chemistry yesterday.”

She smiled as she said, “That’s fine. How was the funeral?”

She acted as if it was some social gathering. Something that people went to everyday.

Then again, funerals were just as popular as weddings I guess.

“Fine. It was…pretty much a funeral,” I responded.

She put an arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry about what happened to your friend, Lucy. I’m here if you ever need to talk to me.”

I just walked along with her.

“Sure.”

I reached Carrington’s, walking past her door as I prepared myself to make up the test that I had missed yesterday during the funeral. She stood at her desk, talking to some boy. The boy shot a look in my direction and then looked back at Mrs. Carrington, completely disregarding my presence. I stood at the end of her elongated desk, surveying the entirety of her classroom. There were only freshman in her study hall. I knew no one.

“I’m sorry Mr. Folds, but I don’t give away test questions so easily,” she said to the boy.

“Oh come on,” said Folds, “don’t be like that, Mrs. Carrington. You and I both know that I’m going to ace this test. I’d just like to know what the questions will be about, that way, I can get my mind focused onto the right material that I’ve studied all last night when my father was ill at the hospital.”

She lowered her eyes at him. “I thought it was your grandmother…”

I watched as the boy backtracked in his own words.

“Right, right, right! You’re so correct. I guess the lack of sleep really did me, didn’t it? Ha ha, well…about those test questions--”

“Enough!” she said, handing him the stapled test. “Go over to that table back there and take it. No fooling around.”

He took the test, grumbling as he headed to the back table. He bumped into each table on the way as he made little freshmen jump.

The teacher let out a huff, rolling her eyes at him. I went over to where she was standing as I said, “Mrs. Carrington?”

She looked over at me.

“Oh,” she said, as her features softened. “Lucy.”

“Can I take that test now?”

She nodded, flipping through her huge, white binder. She looked up at me. “Chapter five test, right?”

I nodded. Sure, why not?

She whipped out a stapled test to me. “You can use your periodic chart on it, if needed, and a calculator. If there are calculations that need to be done.”

I nodded, taking it for myself. I was not prepared for this test at all.

“You can sit in the back,” she said. “Right next to Mr. Folds.”

I looked over at him, seeing that he was writing away at his test. He must have not been joking when he said that he could ace it.

I walked over to where he was sitting, scooting the chair from underneath the table and sitting down. I took my purse, zipping it open so I could pull out a pencil. I settled my things down while looking at the test in front of me.

Name.

Lucy Holden.

I looked at the first question, tapping my pencil on the table as I did. I circled choice A, not really caring if it was right or not. I could afford to bomb this test. My grade was high enough, anyways.

The boy next to me was itching his hair, concentrating on the question he was on. Then, quietly, he looked up, surveying the classroom around him. He looked down, slowly pulling something out of his notebook. I watched him as he pulled out the corners of a cheat sheet, looking at a formula that was written on there.

He quickly scribbled down the formula onto his own test.

I watched as he did this for every other question.

After a certain amount of time, he looked straight at me. He watched me as I looked back at him, not saying anything. I noticed his eyes were blue.

And then he smiled.

And winked.

He stood up, collecting his test and notebook. He looked over at my own test and saw what question I was on.

“B,” he whispered, heading back to Mrs. Carrington’s desk.

I watched him walk out the door with ease, clutching the notebook under his arm. I looked down at my own test, quickly circling letter B.

For the first time in my life, I had cheated on a test.

And I didn’t feel too bad about it.