“Only two more months.” She patted her stomach gently. “But Lord, I’m ready any day now.”
Now Raegan wipes her brow with the back of her hand. “Did this really have to happen during my junior year? I don’t know how I’m supposed to study for the SATs if she’ll be crying all night.”
“Typical,” Lin comments. “You’re worrying about problems that don’t even exist.”
Whitney and I laugh. Our eyes meet briefly, but she’s quick to turn back to her work.
It’s hard to not take offense to the obvious distance Whitney’s placed between us. She hasn’t exactly been super forthcoming whenever we’re together. Even though I’m back on the team, she doesn’t seem like she really cares. It’s as if she’d rather have me back in Portland, and that hurts.
“Ohmigod.” Whitney whips her head up, a sly smile playing on her lips.
“What? Did you mess up?” Raegan leans over to examine her work. “I told you to use a pencil—”
Whitney rolls her eyes. “No, chill.” She sits up a little straighter. Her glossy brown hair is pulled back into a perfect ponytail. “I was only wondering if y’all heard what happened in Mrs. Donaldson’s class yesterday?”
I freeze, the paint pen hovering over theYI’d been coloring. I had been trying to put the Radical Races mishap behind me, but it sounds like my incompetence is already circulating through school.
My heart sinks. It isn’t fair. I was the target of gossip last year after the intersection incident with my dad. Do people really have to talk about the fact that I can’t solve an algebra problem? I bet there will be rumors on Monday that I’ll have to be put into remedial math. Which—no.
“Mrs. Donaldson’s class?” Lin repeats as she colors theAinMONDAYon the slick poster board.
I stare at Whitney, silently begging her not to tell our friends.
But my telepathy doesn’t work because she goes on. “You know Alex Ramos?”
Wait… Alex?
Raegan shakes her glitter pen. “Yeah. He’s always late to homeroom.”
I tilt my head, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. I don’t understand. I wasthere. What does he have to do with anything? Alex solved the problem while I couldn’t. Unless he made fun of me behind my back when I stormed out of class.
Oh god. Please, please,pleasedon’t let that be the case.
Whitney’s eyes light up like they do when she’s the first to spill gossip. “Okay, well, apparently he was up at the board doing those algebra races Mrs. Donaldson makes her class do sometimes. But instead of solving the problem he solved for the square root of ‘SUCK IT.’ Like, that’sliterallywhat he wrote on the board! Can you believe it?”
My anxiety drains from me. Did he really write that? I’m not sure. I never looked at his answer. But if Whitney’s telling the truth, then the class wasn’t laughing at me. They were laughing at him.
Lin’s eyes widen in amusement. “Are you serious? I hate Mrs. Donaldson, too, but I wouldnever.”
Raegan shakes her head in disapproval. “Why would he do that?”
Exactly. Whywouldhe do that? Was he pissed because Mrs. Donaldson caught him sleeping? It’s safe to say everyone hates Radical Races, but he has to put up with her wrath for an entire year. I don’t know why he didn’t just solve it.
Unless.
Unless he knew I couldn’t work the problem out for myself. But that doesn’t make sense. Why would he willingly put an unnecessary spotlight on himself? That’s unlike him. Besides, it’s not like he has a reason to be nice to me.
Lin looks at me. “Aren’t you in that class, Kira?”
Everyone is staring at me now. I open my mouth to reply, but I don’t want to tell them why I booked it out of there.
Whitney shrugs. “That’s what I heard from Kayla Walsh, anyway.”
Kayla is in my class. She’s not one to spread unnecessary gossip. I decide she’s a trustworthy source. “Yeah, I am,” I say. “It was unexpected.”
Raegan draws a few swirls with her gold glitter glue. “People shouldn’t disrespect teachers like that.”
Whitney playfully throws a marker at her. “Oh, lighten up. It was funny.”
