Under a Paper Moon

When Alex woke up Monday morning, his head was pounding, his stomach was in knots, and his mouth felt so dry and chalky. He swung his legs off the bed, and padded to his parents bedroom. Feeling like this, he was definitely going to try skipping school.
"Mom, dad?" Alex knocked softly on the door, pushing it open.
"Alex? Hmm, what do you want? It's 6 AM." His mom; Isobel, groaned.
"I don't feel good, mommy." Alex threw the 'mommy' in there, hoping for some brownie points. He was rarely allowed to stay home from school.
"You've already missed a lot of school, darling." Isobel said in a stern voice, one that said that this wasn't up for discussion.
"Six days isn't a lot of school." Alex complained.
"No. You're going to school. Go get ready."
"But-"
"That's final. Get dressed." His dad; Peter, cut in.
Alex sighed and closed the door, sadly trudging to the bathroom. He took a quick piss, and dry swallowed some ibuprofen, willing for the headache to go away. He slowly walked back to his room, clutching his stomach the whole way. He slipped off his pajama sweat pants, and put on a new pair of sweat pants, and pulled on a black hoodie. He ran the straightener through his hair, and headed down the stairs into the kitchen.

"Shit." Alex groaned, stuffing his school work into his backpack. He pulled on his shoes, and headed out the door for the bus stop. But not before hearing,
"Have a wonderful day at school, sweetie!"
*
Walking into school sick on a Monday morning has got to be one of the worst feelings ever, Alex decided. He inwardly groaned as his chest racked with a coughing fit, causing his head to throb. His coughing was to the point where he was almost gagging in the school hallway, but of course he couldn't do that in school.
He walked into his Global class and sat in his assigned seat.
"What's up, man?" The kid who sat next to Alex; Spencer, said. He held out his hand for the usual 'bro slap' guys did.
"Nothing, whats up with you, bro?" Alex returned the question, and the slap.
Spencer was a nice kid, kind of a douche, but nothing Alex couldn't handle. He was funny, and liked to talk a lot. Perfect friend for Alex.
"Same, trying to finish stupid French homework." Spencer sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Ha, glad I took Spanish. Barely get any homework." Alex gloated, sitting in his seat.
"Ah, fuck you." Spencer smiled, focusing on his homework once again.

After the bell rung, and the awkward pledge of alliance, global class was finally about to begin. Their teacher; Brady, whose real name was Mr. Szuhaj, but he told everyone in the beginning of the year to call him Brady, stood at the front of the room with a stack of papers.
"Pop quiz!" Brady announced with a smirk, going down the rows to hand out sheets.
"Are you serious?"
"You've got to be kidding me."
"Fuck, on what?"
Could be heard all around the classroom, with collective groaning.
"it's on World War II, and it's open notes, so stop pouting ya big babies." Brady snickered, sitting back at his desk.
Alex groaned along with the class, mostly at his headache, but the pop quiz is pretty shitty too. He opened his WWII packet, and quickly found the answers to the ten question quiz. When he finished, he looked around the room to see he was the first to be done, and rested his head on the desk. He looked up to see only five minutes had gone by, and there was still 75 minutes of class left. He contemplated if he should go to the nurse and sleep, or power through this class with three of his organs working against him. He decided to waste a pass, and head to the nurse. He grabbed all his binders, because, fuck no, he was not coming back to class.

Walking into the air conditioned health office, Alex moved quickly to the separate room where the nurses sat. The main nurse looked up from her computer to see Alex sheepishly standing there.
"Oh, hello dear! What can I help you there." She said with a surprised tone.
"Uh, I don't feel good." Alex said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"But it's only five minutes into the school day." The other nurse butted in, giving Alex a look of disapproval.
"Yeah, that still doesn't change the fact that I don't feel good." Alex snapped back at her, regretting it right after. He tended to get a bit short tempered when he felt sick.
"It's okay bud." The main nurse assured him. "Now, whats the matter?"
After Alex told her what he was feeling, answered all the awkward questions, and got his temperature taken, he was waiting to see what the nurse would tell him what to do. There were always two options, get an ice pack, no matter what was wrong, and head back to class, or go lay down and rest on a cot.
"Alright sweetie, go pick a cot out there and rest." The nurse smiled at him, Alex smiled back and walked over to the cots. It seemed like lady luck was on his side today, he thought as he laid down and drifted off to sleep.
*
"Alex, dear." A soft voice broke into Alex's subconscious mind.
"Hmph, what is it?" Alex woke with a start.
"It's second block, hun. You've got to go to class." The nurse gave Alex a sad smile when he nodded and ran a hand through his slightly messy hair. "I'll sign your pass for you."
Alex nodded once again, following her into the separate room where she signed his pass.
"Thank you." Alex smiled, and turned to head out the door.

He was feeling a bit better than before, his headache had gone down considerably, just a gentle thumping feeling, and his stomach was no longer doing acrobats. He frowned walking up the stairs into hell, also known as; Geometry. He wasn't particularly fond of walking into class late, because everyone stares at you like you're covered in blood or something. But, Alex got lucky again, because when he walked in everyone was working in partners doing busy work, and no one seemed to notice him walk in. He quickly showed his pass to Mrs. Tanski, and headed to his seat.
He was in a fit of giggles before he could even sit down at his desk. You could see a dark, bold line across the desk from two aisles over. Alex smiled and shook his head as he sat down.
"Alright class, now that everyone is here." Mrs. Tanski paused to look at Alex, and he flipped her the bird in his mind. "We can start our pop quiz."
And really, Alex was about to lose his shit. Two pop quizzes, in one day, right after another, on a Monday. So maybe, Alex wasn't really all that lucky today.
He looked down on his desk and contemplated whether or not he should draw a rope hanging from the other rope, and have himself hanging inside it. Okay, maybe that's a little to gory, and assholish, but that's really how Geometry made him feel. Like he wanted to fucking kill himself.

"Dude, you're going to get in so much shit for that." The kid in front of Alex said, handing him the pop quiz.
"Dude, you're going to get in so much shit for that." Alex mocked him in a goofy voice, waving a dismissive hand.
"Fuck you, Gaskarth." The kid smiled, and rolled his eyes.
"Awh, I love you too, Grieco." Alex smirked, picking up his pencils.
Alex's eyes skimmed over the quiz, and shit, maybe he shouldn't of googled all the answers to his homework. He didn't know shit.
"Is this going for a grade?" Came a voice from the front of the room.
"No shit." Someone muttered from behind the kid.
"Language! No talking, this is a quiz, boys and girls!" Mrs. Tanski shushed them.
Alex rolled his eyes, and started chanting his test motto in his head.

When in doubt, pick C.
*
Once class was over, and everyone was just chatting, waiting for the bell to ring, Mrs. Tanski walked over to Alex.
"Mr. Gaskarth." She raised an eyebrow.
"Yes?" Alex looked back at her, giving her his best bitch face.
"Block five after school today." She said in a tone like it wasn't up for discussion, before turning away.
"Wait, why?" Alex stood up, ready to argue with his teacher. The whole class went silent, watching to see what would happen.
"Vandalizing a school desk with fellow classmates is usually a detention, you're lucky you're only getting a block five." The class giggled, and Alex's face flushed a bright red.

"Told you so." Grieco teased as the bell rung.
"Fuck you." Alex flipped him off, heading out the door.
"I love you too!"