Start a Revolution

An F.

Drew got an F on her History test.

The moment the paper was handed back to her and the large menacing letter was slapped beside her name in a bold red, she was crying. She tried to conceal it by putting a hand by her face, but she knew that the person sitting behind her would know she was in tears by the way her shoulders were shaking.

Just as the bell rang Drew was jumping out of her chair and running out the door. She bypassed her locker, ignoring the calls Joey was throwing at her, and falls into the girl's bathroom.

Lisa was already in there.

"Hun?" her best friend asks, her voice wavering. "What's wrong?"

Drew looks up at her friend, wiping away the thick tears streaming down her face. Lisa curses and goes over to Drew, getting on the floor beside her. "What did Joey do to you?" she asks, her face hard as she pulls a tissue out of her backpack and gives it to Drew. The dark-haired girl blows her nose and composes herself before answering.

"It wasn't Joey," she sniffs. "I got an F on the test."

She throws the paper at her friend. Lisa grabs at it, scanning over the grade and the questions that were marked wrong. "Oh, Roo..." she exhales, "how did you manage to fail this?"

Drew throws her arms in the air, forcing herself to get to her feet and go over to the mirror. She plops her bag down on the sink and rummages around before producing her make-up wipes. "I don't know," she mutters, smearing the running mascara and eyeliner out from under her eyes. "All I know is that I'm a mess. A fucking mess and I can't—" She loses grip on her eyeliner pencil and she groans in frustration. "I don't know what to do, Lees!"

Lisa sighs and grabs hold of Drew's shoulders. She looks her dead in the eye. "All right. Here's what you're gonna do. Are you listening?"

Drew nods pathetically.

"You are going to forget about what happened. Okay? Can you handle that? You are going to move on and you are going to live your life instead of acting pathetic and miserable. Life is life and it's unfair and chaotic so just get the fuck over it, all right?" Lisa sighs heavily and grabs Drew's eyeliner. She gently begins to apply it under Drew's eyes. "And don't date Joey. That's what you're gonna do."

Drew snorts. "Well, that—"

"Shit," Lisa curses as the bell rings to signal the end of the passing period. "I'm late for class. Can you pull yourself together? Good."

Then she was running out the door and down the hall.

Drew blows out a breath and looks back in the mirror. She didn't like what was looking back.

After a few more minutes of chastising herself, Drew puts everything away and slings her bag back over her shoulder. It was her free period and she planned on spending it in Toybox. She hadn't seen the kids in what felt like forever since she'd avoided the room as much as possible. But Sandra told her earlier that John never came in either, so Drew knew it was a safe zone.

She was opening the door of the library minutes later, smiling as she sees the kids running around per usual. She drops her backpack down on the ground, knowing it was the only way she'd get out of having to answer Joey's texts.

A couple kids run over, calling her name. She grins, crouching down to say hi back.

"I've missed you!" Katie was telling her, hugging her legs. "Where did you go? John was also gone for awhile! Sandra said you two were on a break."

She couldn't help but laugh even though a sliver of ice was piercing her heart. "Don't be a silly. I'm here now! What do you guys wanna do today?" Soon, the kids were in their respected areas, some coloring and some reading. Drew was walking over to grab a book to read to Katie when she looks across the room and catches someone's eye.

Her footsteps cease, her mouth going dry.

Sandra was walking by just then, a little redheaded boy in hand. Drew reaches out and grabs Sandra's arm, pulling the blonde in close. "I thought you said John hadn't been coming in," she mutters, a burning sensation hitting the back of her head. John was still looking at her.

Sandra swallows. "Well, he hadn't. But like you, today is his first day back."

Drew curses under her breath once the blonde moved away. She takes a deep breath and turns back around, her body having a start when she almost connected with someone else.

A hand shoots out to grab her arm before she could fall over.

She was up-righted smoothly, her gaze searching the spinning room before landing on John in front of her. Her throat turns into a desert upon being this close to him again. Katie had run off to find a book herself, leaving her to her own devices with the O'Callaghan boy.

"So..." he begins, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking away.

Drew couldn't not look at him, his green eyes flecked with some kind of inner emotion. She didn't want to assume it was sadness or longing; for all she knew, he was fine with their break up. His mocha brown hair as in his face, per usual, and she wanted to reach out and push it away from his forehead. She wanted to ask him about the band and about his family and how he was. But she gulped down the words that were on the edge of her tongue, instead looking away.

"How are you?" he asks, the awkward tinge to his voice obvious. Drew shifts uncomfortably, clearing her throat to try and bring some moisture back to it.

"All right," she murmurs, her eyes trained on the floor. "You?"

She briefly looked at him to see his nipping at his bottom lip. "I, uh, I'm fine. I guess."

Another silence falls upon them and Drew felt like she was drowning in it. When did it come to this? A tense meeting between the two who used to stay up into the wee hours of the night talking on the phone, discussing everything and nothing at the same time. John and Drew, who used to have tickle fights and built a fort out of pillows and blankets in John's living room when his parents had been out of town.

And now?

They could barely make eye contact.

"Good," Drew finally responds, a delayed reaction. John licks his lips, looking as if he wanted to say something but was holding back. "I, uh, I better get back to Katie. She wants—"

"Who are you going to Prom with?"

Drew snaps her head up at the sudden question, her mind going blank. Her jaw opens and closes as she struggles for words. Finally, she takes a deep breath. She has to prepare herself as she sees the waiting look in his eyes.

"Uh...Joey. I'm going with Joey."

John feels a pit of hate burn inside his stomach. She's going with Joey fucking Rhimes. Why didn't he see this coming? Of course Joey would snatch her up now that John was out of the picture.

"Oh." John doesn't say anything else, but the grim set of his mouth gave it all away.

Drew didn't seem to notice. "Yeah." She clears her throat, averting her gaze once more. "Are you going with anyone?"

John hesitates, then looks around. "Yeah. Sandra."

Drew grinds her teeth together. They used to have a thing, Sandra and John, so she wasn't surprised he picked up one of his old lassies to go to Prom with. "I see," she says. "I, uh, I gotta get going. I have to meet Lisa in her class to talk about...a project."

Then Drew was running out of the library like her life depended on it.