And They Were Roommates(20)

Another one of Xavier’s buzz-cut friends reaches for a shampoo bottle, glancing my way. Presence detected. No towel covers him. Not even a washcloth. “You good?”

I try to form a sentence. A word. All I manage is a honk. I sprint past the lockers and into an empty bathroom stall. As I bundle my uniform and towel against the scars on my chest, my insides clump into knots. There’s no time to shower in my room. Calc starts in eight minutes.

The stall door rattles.

“You done yet?” a voice calls.

“Just a second!” I say so unnaturally oddly, I sense the guy back off entirely.

I scramble to change. Even though I wipe my face with toilet paper and layer on six days’ worth of deodorant, an obvious workout stench seeps from my oil-clogged pores. I bust out of the stall, keeping my head low, and walk onto the field.

Ms. Nallos passes by me on the sidewalk. Her even breathing and perfectly symmetrical braids make me even more painfully aware of my uncontrollable panting and messy hair.

“Ms. Nallos?” I say.

She stops, eyeing my greasy body up and down. “Yes?”

“Can I verify how many laps you put me down for today?”

She checks her clipboard before looking back with a frown. “You were trying your best?”

Ouch.

It’s not like my body can’t conceivably handle the same number of laps as everyone else’s. But while I was sitting at a desk all year during online school, they were apparently running like gerbils. “If your concern is that I didn’t put in genuine effort, I promise, I did.”

Ms. Nallos sighs. “Valentine’s grading stance is strict about this. As long as you don’t have a doctor’s note from Health Services, it’s about results.”

Even if this is a private academy, this has to break some law. At least an ethical one.

Unspoken Guideline 6: Valentine can do whatever the hell they want.

I ask the dreaded question. “How much will this drop my grade?”

She rechecks the clipboard. “As of now, you’re at a C.”





Chapter 10

GREAT EXPECTATIONS




WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

SECOND-YEAR LISTINGS

1. Jasper Grimes

2. Robert Walker

3. Bingo A. Dixon

4. Nicholas Burton

5. Reese Collins

6. Frankie Schultz

7. Gabriel Acosta

8. Frederick Brown Jr.

9. Andrew Parker

10. Alessandro Beasley 11. Uriah Clayton

12. Ishaan Kapoor

13. Joseph M. Briggs

14. Kamari Barrera

15. Cody Wilson

16. Liam Yun

17. Sebastian Mitchell 18. Gideon Mittelman

19. Edward Lobb Jr.

20. Alexander Davis

21. Luis Gabriel García Perez 22. Jackson W. Zang

23. Matthew St. Paul

24. Isaiah Lim

25. Kade Cervantes

26. Alexander Young

27. Zachariah Wilson

28. Samuel Baker

29. Jack Reid

30. Derek Gonzales

31. Michael Aguilar

32. Lucas Banas

33. Carson Giles

34. Zain Chang

35. Jacob Christensen

36. Eiji Nakahashi

37. Patrick Kennedy

38. Leonardo Evans

39. Emilio O’Hare

40. Andrew Huang

41. Thomas Shaw

42. Xuan Ma

43. Matthew Davidson

44. Griffin Li

45. Charlie von Hevringprinz 46. Aiden Alston





Chapter 11

BORROWED DREAMS




WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

Less than an hour after the weekly grade announcements, Maverick the Residential Retainer informs me that Mom would like to have a word.

Over the backdrop of Mozart’s “Rondo alla Turca” playing from the gramophone, Ms. Lyney hands me the phone over the counter. “Five minutes. Communication with family outside of emergencies is unfortunately supposed to be kept to a minimum, love.”

I take the phone. “Hel—”

“You’re second to last on the grade rankings?”

Arrow to the heart. “Hello, Mom.”

“Hi, sweetie. How are you doing?” From her warbling voice, I can already picture her sitting behind the Bibliobibuli Bookstore register, tugging on a blouse she bought from Q Train Vintage two blocks from our apartment.

I clutch the phone harder to keep my emotions together. After coming in at forty-fifth place, I expected the sensation of failure to eat me alive during this call, but not only two seconds in. “I’m fine.”

“The top five scholarship requirement is for each term. That’s coming up soon. Are you still thinking you’ll be able to handle this? You can always come home and visit on a weekend, you know. We can even reconsider this.”

I wince. “I know. How did you hear about my grades already?”

“A notification was sent to my email.”

Unspoken Guideline 7: Technology is only used to snitch on students to their parents.

“Are you having a hard time?” Mom says when I don’t respond, only to pause when a yawn overtakes her. A con of never taking a day off from the bookstore. “Or are you just not adjusting to living alone?”

I’m not living alone.