"On the student council trip," I said.
He shut his locker door and looked at me, his face forming into a frown. "What? No, Eli, you have to go."
"You know that I want to, but—"
That was when I heard the sound of something hitting the locker behind me. I jumped and swiftly spun around to see what happened. Much to my dismay, it was Javier leaning against said locker. He had that same stupid smirk on my face that he always wore, and it instantly pissed me off.
“I need a favor,” said my academic rival.
I ignored Javier and turned back to my friend who was stifling a smile, the reason unbeknownst to me. I hoped he would take the hint and walk away, but I knew my wish was not granted when I felt him poke me in the shoulder. With a huge sigh, I swatted his hand away and looked at him with a scowl.
“Why are you touching me?” I gritted through my teeth, my tone low.
He ignored my question and then repeated himself. “I need a favor.”
I glanced at Ricky, thinking that maybe he too was just as annoyed as I was, but he simply shrugged. Stopping myself from rolling my eyes, I gave Javier a sarcastic smile. “I would love to do a favor for my favorite person ever!”
“I know!” Javier exclaimed, his enthusiasm obviously fake and only matching my energy. He cleared his throat. “So, my sister wants to try out for the cheer team next year. She’s never cheered before and our team is competitive, so she needs someone to help her out.”
Ricky busted out into laughter. “And you want Eli to help her? He is the absolute last person you want to teach anyoneanything athletic. Do you not remember that time during our freshman year that he passed out after running one lap around the track?”
“That was one time, and I was dehydrated,” I defended myself. I glared at my blabber-mouth best friend for a moment before turning my attention to Javier once again. “He is right, though. What do I know about cheerleading?”
“I’m not asking you to help her yourself, I could teach my sister better than you could,” Javier said cockily.
I rolled my eyes. “Okay then why the hell are we having this conversation?”
“Your sister is on the team, yeah?”
“Yeah, and?” As soon as I said that it clicked. “No. No, Emerson is not going to teach your sister.”
Javier frowned. “Why not?”
“There's, like, twenty other girls on the cheer team, can’t you ask someone else?”
“Gabriela has a liking for your sister for some reason. She’s afraid to ask Emerson herself, but she knows that I know you. She asked me to ask you since we all know that you can’t say no to me.”
Emerson was not the mentor type. She was good at what she did, but she was not good at teaching it to others. Even if she was, I did not want to ask her for any favors. Javier would have a better chance of asking Emerson himself than having me ask her.
“Emerson is going to say no so there's no point in me asking,” I said with a shrug. As I said that, the bell rang, and I felt a wave of relief. I took a step forward, but stopped to say, “By the way, I have no problem saying no to you.”
“Can you quit being so stubborn and ask your sister?” Javier asked, his grip tight on my wrist. “Please?”
I stared at his hand around my wrist, tight and unrelenting. It took a moment, but once he noticed that his hand was still wrapped around my wrist, he let go. I straightened out my shirt awkwardly. “I’ll think about it.”
Javier’s lips curled into a soft smile, a silent thanks before he left to go to his own class. Ricky and I went to ours, and he did not acknowledge Javier’s odd request. He kept giving me weird looks, but I paid them no mind.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. The most entertaining thing that happened was when one of my classmates disrupted class because he thought arguing with the teacher was a smart choice. They spent a solid five minutes arguing before the teacher got fed up and sent him out of the room. Even then, he continued arguing until she threatened to call someone totakehim out of the classroom, since he would not willingly go.
Now I was in biology class, and we had just finished taking a test. The tests that we took in that class were on the computer, so the moment we clicked the ‘done’ button we received our scores. I sometimes hated it because if I knew that I did not do as well as I hoped, I did not want to see my score immediately. However, when I knew I aced it, I was happy to see that grade right as I was finished.
I clicked the button and 94.72% popped up on the screen. That wasn’t a bad score, it was anA. It could have been higher, but I was satisfied. I just wanted it to be better thanhis.
The classroom was silent while everyone was testing. If our teacher thought for a second that a student was cheating, that kid would instantly get an after-school detention. However, once everyone was done taking their test we were allowed to talk freely. The last person, who annoyingly took almost the entire class period, finally completed their test.
The class erupted into chatter. I was checking my grades in all my other classes, it was something I did during class when Ihad no one to talk to. I was wondering why my history teacher gave me two points less than I deserved on our last quiz when the empty seat next to me suddenly became occupied.
Javier propped up his elbow on the desk, rested his chin in his hand, and faced me with a smirk on his face. “What did you make?”
