Smile.
Cameron.
“So Cameron…why did you come to this school if you knew you’d get teased?” The boy across the table questions curiously and although I know he didn’t mean any harm with it, the question had me wanting to grab his head and pound it into a desk.
I keep myself from doing exactly that by raising an eyebrow and sighing. He obviously doesn’t understand although to me it is completely obvious. It is Sage though, he’s an idiot. Then again, there are other reasons I don‘t expect him to know, like my family reasons, still. “It’s a good school and the fact that I made it here by grades alone will look amazing on a college resume.”
“That’s not really a good answer…I mean, what kid cares about schooling?” Sage laughs and just hearing that makes me glare. Of course he doesn’t care about schooling. He has money and he’s set for life. His parents will always give him the money he needs while I will have to work for it.
“I obviously care.” I spit at him angrily.
Unlike that idiot I have to work for what I want. All he has to do is ask his mommy or daddy and they’ll use their loads of cash to get him it.Lucky son of a bitch.
I feel myself growing angrier and I know that if I stay any longer I’ll blow. I take this as a good time to leave and stand up, quickly grabbing my things and heading for the door. “It’s late, go home. We’ll continue Friday.”
“But-” He tries to speak, but I don’t want to hear him. Just hearing his voice makes me unusually angryand envious.
“Goodbye, Sage.” I exit the library, slamming the door behind me and stalking off. I know there will be no relaxation at home, but it’ll be a hell of a lot better than here.
~
The chaos around me is the same as usual. The little ones are crying and begging for my attention. They all want me to do something else. The older ones are pleading for help on their homework or with something going on in their life.
They’re all begging for food. They’re all wanting me to do something, anything with them, and I sigh. Chelsea is sitting in her high chair, slamming her hands against the plastic and speaking some form of baby gibberish. She’s gurgling and spitting, which has me scolding her, but she’s too cute to stay mad at so I lean in and kiss her head as a form of apology.
The night is chaotic just like every other, but thankfully dad gets home and I’m able to go to my room. Although I share it with my brothers they don’t come in until bed time, giving me about an hour of time to study in my room. When they do lay down to go to sleep I go into the living room where I can stay up until one in the morning.
School is everything. I have to make good grades. I have to keep my grades up. I need to keep the straight A’s and perfect attendance. I have to get into a good college and get an amazing job, that way I can provide for everyone and finally give dad a break…
I want to be able to stabilize our family like it was not even a year ago.I want mom back.
Sighing, I shake my head and pack my things for school tomorrow. The clock tells me it’s almost two in the morning and I groan, rub my eyes and finally head to bed where I curl up under the covers on my mattress. I clench my eyes shut and easily allow sleep to over take me.
~
“Again, seriously?”
“He’s always getting the best score!”
“I know, it’s so suspicious.”
“Come on, you know that he slept with the teacher. He can’t possibly be doing this on his own!”
Although I hear all their cruel comments and rumors I still feel proud of myself for getting, yet again, the best score on our first nine week test. We have four nine weeks in our year and we have a test at the end of every nine weeks in every class. I always get the best score.
“Well done,” Mrs. Lycer’s, our history teacher, smiles at me. “I’m not surprised.”
Neither am I. “Thank you.”
She continues handing out one paper after the other. I can hear the whispers around me. When Mrs. Lycer’s exits the room I wait patiently for it and you bet it came.
“So Cameron,” Dale chuckles, making his way to my side where he takes a seat on my desk. “I hear you got the best score, again.”
“I guess your ears have worked correctly for once, because you heard right,” I scoff, tucking my test into my folder, which ends up getting ripped from my hands and thrown across the room. Just as it hit’s the wall the papers fly everywhere.
“You’re such a slut,” Dale growls, grabbing me by the shirt. “You think you can continue sleeping around with the teachers just to get a good score!”
“Dale, leave him alone!”
Every eye in the room turns to face Sage, the boy I’ve been seeing two times a week for the last four weeks, who is making his way to Dale’s side. Dale looks about ready to ask what he’s doing, but Sage’s first making contact with his face both shocks him and sends him to the floor. I stumble backwards, but Sage quickly grabs my wrist, keeping me up.
I swat his hand away because I hate him touching me.It sends a tingling sensation up my arm.
“I’ll have you know that Cameron is really smart!” Sage shouts angrily. “He’s been tutoring me for the past four weeks and I’ve seen him. He studies all the time and he understands things easily. You’re all just jealous that he actually has a brain!”
The room erupts with sounds of shock and curiosity. They’re just as surprised as I am to hear Sage standing up for me like this, and even insulting every one in the room.
“Just leave him alone!” He screams and it’s the first time I see him glare. It’s actually kind of…frightening, seeing his eyes go so dark and hearing his teeth grind. I don’t blame everyone for falling silent. He sounds and looks like a wild animal.
After the class has settled down and no one is looking at us any longer Sage turns my way. He smiles once again and it looks so right. I actually don’t want to see him angry like that again.
I sigh and rub my wrist where he had a hold on me for only a second.It’s still tingling.
“Thanks…you didn’t have to…do that,” I mumble more to myself than him, because it’s embarrassing to thank Sage for anything.
“No problem. What are friends for?” He laughs, but I can’t say anything in response, because he just implied that we’re…
Friends.
I keep myself from doing exactly that by raising an eyebrow and sighing. He obviously doesn’t understand although to me it is completely obvious. It is Sage though, he’s an idiot. Then again, there are other reasons I don‘t expect him to know, like my family reasons, still. “It’s a good school and the fact that I made it here by grades alone will look amazing on a college resume.”
“That’s not really a good answer…I mean, what kid cares about schooling?” Sage laughs and just hearing that makes me glare. Of course he doesn’t care about schooling. He has money and he’s set for life. His parents will always give him the money he needs while I will have to work for it.
“I obviously care.” I spit at him angrily.
Unlike that idiot I have to work for what I want. All he has to do is ask his mommy or daddy and they’ll use their loads of cash to get him it.Lucky son of a bitch.
I feel myself growing angrier and I know that if I stay any longer I’ll blow. I take this as a good time to leave and stand up, quickly grabbing my things and heading for the door. “It’s late, go home. We’ll continue Friday.”
“But-” He tries to speak, but I don’t want to hear him. Just hearing his voice makes me unusually angryand envious.
“Goodbye, Sage.” I exit the library, slamming the door behind me and stalking off. I know there will be no relaxation at home, but it’ll be a hell of a lot better than here.
~
The chaos around me is the same as usual. The little ones are crying and begging for my attention. They all want me to do something else. The older ones are pleading for help on their homework or with something going on in their life.
They’re all begging for food. They’re all wanting me to do something, anything with them, and I sigh. Chelsea is sitting in her high chair, slamming her hands against the plastic and speaking some form of baby gibberish. She’s gurgling and spitting, which has me scolding her, but she’s too cute to stay mad at so I lean in and kiss her head as a form of apology.
The night is chaotic just like every other, but thankfully dad gets home and I’m able to go to my room. Although I share it with my brothers they don’t come in until bed time, giving me about an hour of time to study in my room. When they do lay down to go to sleep I go into the living room where I can stay up until one in the morning.
School is everything. I have to make good grades. I have to keep my grades up. I need to keep the straight A’s and perfect attendance. I have to get into a good college and get an amazing job, that way I can provide for everyone and finally give dad a break…
I want to be able to stabilize our family like it was not even a year ago.I want mom back.
Sighing, I shake my head and pack my things for school tomorrow. The clock tells me it’s almost two in the morning and I groan, rub my eyes and finally head to bed where I curl up under the covers on my mattress. I clench my eyes shut and easily allow sleep to over take me.
~
“Again, seriously?”
“He’s always getting the best score!”
“I know, it’s so suspicious.”
“Come on, you know that he slept with the teacher. He can’t possibly be doing this on his own!”
Although I hear all their cruel comments and rumors I still feel proud of myself for getting, yet again, the best score on our first nine week test. We have four nine weeks in our year and we have a test at the end of every nine weeks in every class. I always get the best score.
“Well done,” Mrs. Lycer’s, our history teacher, smiles at me. “I’m not surprised.”
Neither am I. “Thank you.”
She continues handing out one paper after the other. I can hear the whispers around me. When Mrs. Lycer’s exits the room I wait patiently for it and you bet it came.
“So Cameron,” Dale chuckles, making his way to my side where he takes a seat on my desk. “I hear you got the best score, again.”
“I guess your ears have worked correctly for once, because you heard right,” I scoff, tucking my test into my folder, which ends up getting ripped from my hands and thrown across the room. Just as it hit’s the wall the papers fly everywhere.
“You’re such a slut,” Dale growls, grabbing me by the shirt. “You think you can continue sleeping around with the teachers just to get a good score!”
“Dale, leave him alone!”
Every eye in the room turns to face Sage, the boy I’ve been seeing two times a week for the last four weeks, who is making his way to Dale’s side. Dale looks about ready to ask what he’s doing, but Sage’s first making contact with his face both shocks him and sends him to the floor. I stumble backwards, but Sage quickly grabs my wrist, keeping me up.
I swat his hand away because I hate him touching me.It sends a tingling sensation up my arm.
“I’ll have you know that Cameron is really smart!” Sage shouts angrily. “He’s been tutoring me for the past four weeks and I’ve seen him. He studies all the time and he understands things easily. You’re all just jealous that he actually has a brain!”
The room erupts with sounds of shock and curiosity. They’re just as surprised as I am to hear Sage standing up for me like this, and even insulting every one in the room.
“Just leave him alone!” He screams and it’s the first time I see him glare. It’s actually kind of…frightening, seeing his eyes go so dark and hearing his teeth grind. I don’t blame everyone for falling silent. He sounds and looks like a wild animal.
After the class has settled down and no one is looking at us any longer Sage turns my way. He smiles once again and it looks so right. I actually don’t want to see him angry like that again.
I sigh and rub my wrist where he had a hold on me for only a second.It’s still tingling.
“Thanks…you didn’t have to…do that,” I mumble more to myself than him, because it’s embarrassing to thank Sage for anything.
“No problem. What are friends for?” He laughs, but I can’t say anything in response, because he just implied that we’re…
Friends.