Chapter Thirteen - The Results Are Out

"How does working here while waiting sound?" Ace asked.
"Do I get paid?"
"No."
"Bummer. Whatever, yeah," I agreed.
"Hey Matt, she's helping out," he said to the guy next to him.

Ace took me around behind the counter and showed me how to operate the cash register and count prize tickets. "So, which job do you want?" He asked.
"I like counting prize tickets. I don't have to talk to people," I laughed.
"I see. Antisocial."
"Pfft...Whatever Ace."
"Well, I'll leave you to it. I am getting paid so I should at least do my job."

The first customers had started to stream in and only one prize claimer had come to the counter. Ace passed me the long string of tickets and I fed the into the counting machine, watching as the numbers on the digital screen rose.

The image of Archer walking into the cinema flashed back into my mind.Archer had changed. I wasn't stupid enough to think that I was the only one, but there was some weird hope in the back of my mind that he actually liked me.

Sadly, that hope had gone up in flames just half an hour ago. The weird thing was, I wasn't even that upset or disappointed. I didn't even get myself.

"Cathy, how many are there?" Ace asked. I returned to reality, realising that machine had finished counting already.
"One hundred and thirty," I replied. "Sorry," I mumbled.

The day passed quicker than I had expected and this job was not as mundane as I had expected either.

"Well, that was fun," Ace said sarcastically as he left to change out of his work uniform. I was left standing at the front by myself, and well, I was pretty damn socially awkward.

"Would you consider a job here?" Matt asked.
"It doesn't seem like a bad job, but studying really takes up all of my time," I replied.

The door of the room behind the counter opened and Ace returned. "Let's go," he said, leading the way.
"Okay. Thanks for letting me stay here for a while," I said to Matt.
"No worries, feel free to come back any time."
"Do not feel free to come back any time," Ace said, ushering me along.

We headed back out to the front of the shopping centre, waiting by the bus stop. Numerous buses passed by but we didn't get on any.

"What are we waiting for?" I asked.
"Bus three six seven," he answered. "It only comes once a day at exactly one forty five," he added. "Look, here it comes."

Ace stuck out his arm and the bus stopped in front of us. We got on, paid for the tickets and found a seat near the back. Sadly, there was only one empty seat. "Um," I mumbled.
"Just sit down," he said, shoving me into the spot beside the window. We sat awkwardly side by side as the bus. I fiddled with my thumbs to fill the awkward silence.

"Our stop's coming up in a few minutes. We're three stops away I think," he said.
"What is it?" I asked, my interest sparked.
"You'll see," he grinned.

Two stops away, he suddenly stood up. "Oh no, I think we just missed the stop," he said, frantically pressing the 'stop' button on the pole.
"We did what?" I asked.

The bus stopped and we got out, one stop away. "On the bright side, this stop is relatively close to the other stop. Especially when you compare it with the distance between normal stops."
"Seriously? That's the bright side? It's like a kilometre away!"
"That is close for distance between two stops," he reiterated. "Let's get walking." He moved off first while I stood there, gaping at how he'd managed to miss the stop.
"Well, if you're not going to walk, do I have to piggyback you?"
"I'm walking," I spat out, speed walking forward.

My legs were aching and my shins felt like they were about to snap in half. I wasn't tired, just in pain. Extensive cross country training could do that to you.
"How much further, buddy?" I asked.
"For a person on the cross country team, you're not very good at what you do," he said, turning back to look at my suffering.
"Well, sir, the wonderful training has been keeping my legs in regular pain."

We continued walking with me trailing behind him. All of a sudden, he stopped and nearly sent me crashing into him. "We're here," he said.
"Well, thank the Lord," I grumbled.

I looked around. The cars flew by us as we stood behind the walking barrier on the bridge. I turned and looked over the railing that was surprisingly low. The water was crystal clear blue. "Dude, when I said I was miserable, I didn't say I wanted to die," I said.

"Well no. For a smart person, you're not very smart," he commented, leaning on the railing, looking out into the clear blue water.
"Well then, why on earth are we here?"
"Shout to your heart's content. Scream, complain, shriek; do whatever you want. Dump your misery here.This place is like my alternate reality," he sighed. "When we catch that bus back, we leave it behind and get back to reality."
"There are a hundred things I would scream, but it'd be weird doing it on the highway with cars passing."
"No one hears you."
"Nah, it's weird."

Ace scrutinised my expression. "Who taught you your manners? You tell someone you're miserable and they give you a remedy and you sit there and choose to corrode inside."
"This is just weird," I justified.
"Well excuse me little miss pompous."
"What!?"
"You heard me, you little squirt!"

"Little squirt!?" I shrieked.
"Damn right! Annoying nerd," he muttered.
"I'll kill you!" I threatened. "You ungrateful punk! Not rocking up to tutoring, making someone go out of their way to give you the work!"
"How was that?" He grinned proudly.
"What?"
"You just yelled. No echoes, no cars stopping to stare. You even forgot you were mad, didn't you? Well, I mean you were getting semi pissed at me, but yeah," he shrugged, continuing to grin while his dark eyes seemed to sparkle.

"That was low," I mumbled, crossing my arms.
"Admit it, it felt good to yell," he said, nudging me in the ribs.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Watch it buddy!" I uncrossed my arms and lept backwards.
"Oh, forgot, you're ticklish. What a loser." He stuck his tongue out at me.

"Ace, all the rest of you punks, Mr Lawiener, exams, tests, you can go die!" I shrieked. leaning over the side of the bridge railing.
"I'm standing right here, y'know."
"I know!" I yelled, even though he was right next to me. This shouting thing could become quite addicting. Not to mention, the water was so beautiful.

A droplet of water landed on the side of my cheek and I looked up. Many other followed. It was raining. Ace was really going to die. "Let's go!" He grabbed my wrist and we sprinted to the end of the bridge and into the cover of the nearby cafes.

"I think coats reek after water gets in them," I said, sniffing at my coat slightly. "On the bright side, it's an experience," I added unenthusiastically.
"We'll wait the rain out, then catch the bus back," he said.

The rain fell rhythmically drumming against the ground, sending splatters every now and then onto my boots. "Hey," he said, nudging me again.
"Ack! Stop that!" I exclaimed.
"Oh yeah," he laughed. "Anyway -"

The thunder clapped loudly and I missed every single word after that. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "What did you say?" I asked.
"You didn't hear it!?" He exclaimed.
"What?"
"Whatever. Too bad, nerdy."
"Hey! What did you say!?"
"Meh, don't worry. I forgot."
"Yeah right! Like you'd forget that quickly!"

The bus squealed to a halt at the stop in front of the cafe and he led the way, getting onto the bus. I sat there watching the landscape fly past, wondering exactly what it was that he'd said.

He didn't actually end up telling me what he'd said, and it was eating away at me even though I had bigger things to worry about .

I tapped my pencil rhythmically against the paper as I tried to magically summon the information into my memory, but I doubted that it would work out.

"Your mobile phone's ringing!' My mum called from the kitchen. Since it was exam time, she had decided to confiscate my phone lest I get distracted, although I didn't have anyone to contact anyway.
"Coming!' I replied, bolting into the kitchen.

If someone had called me, it was probably deathly important, because well, i never got any calls.
"Hello?" I answered.
"How does sixty five percent and you come to the show with me?" Hunter asked.
I hung up.

"Who was it?" My mum inquired.
"No one important," I muttered. Just as I went to put the phone down, it rang again. I hung up, but it rang again.
"What!?" I snarled.
"I've realised I probably won't get seventy five percent," he notified.
"So?"
"Can we lower the benchmark?"
"No. Why don't you try studying?"

I could hear the sound of people our age talking in the background, although I couldn't quite pinpoint who they were.

"Studying is hard -" he began to justify. I hung up on him and turned my phone off.

Without any further disturbance, the exams had ended. The only thing left to do was wait for the results. Coming back on a Monday was almost too much to bear.

"Hey Cathy," Archer said, jogging up behind me as I was about to pass through the school gates.
"Uh..hi," I replied awkwardly.
"Still on for the show this week, right?"
"Uh...about that...yeah, just letting you know that the other guys are coming as well." Archer raised an eyebrow. "Dean, Dylan, Hunter and Ace?"
"Oh right. Yeah. Okay."

It was hard talking to him when I realised he probably chatted up every girl on the street. Then again, maybe I was making too many assumptions and being too harsh about it. Probably not though.

“Well, I should get going, the bell will go soon,” I said, trying to end the conversation.
“Yeah, so we’ll meet up at the bus stop, take the bus there Saturday?” He confirmed. I nodded. He smiled and I walked away.

There was something different about him. The glimmer in his eye when he smiled wasn’t the same. My bag felt heavier than usual, despite having emptied my textbooks into my locker on Friday after my exams had finished.

The area around my locker was truly well and alive, buzzing with excitement…or something. Ella was feverishly giggling as the punks stood around the locker. Well, at least some people were happy.

They hushed up as I approached them. “What did you guys do?” I asked cautiously. I went onto my tip toes. Their eyes widened as I raised my other hand to open the locker door. “Uh…why are you watching so intently?” Whenever they were interested, things were never good.

I stepped back and to the side of the door, pulling it open very slowly. There was nothing. Nothing.

Then they all started howling like hyenas. “We really had you going, didn’t we nerdy?” Dean laughed, leaning against the locker.
“I really did contemplate doing something, but you came to school a little too early,” Hunter added.
“Your face was absolutely priceless!” Ace grinned, pulling a face which I assumed was his impersonation of me.
“Well, your ideas really need some work. Has study sucked out all your ideas?” I pulled out books for the first and second classes and locked my locker. “Why are you guys all gathered here? It wasn’t seriously for just for that lame joke was it?”
“No, you’re right, that’s not it,” Ace said.
“We’re still on for Saturday right?” Hunter interrupted.
"Well that really depends. Do you think you beat seventy five in your chem exam?"

He chuckled nervously, wrapping his hand around the back of his neck. "Well, good luck buddy," Dean said, attempting to console his friend.
"How about if Ace gets seventy five?" Hunter asked, pointing at Ace.
"Me? Seventy five?" Ace asked innocently.
"Okay deal! If any of us gets seventy five, we get to go," he declared proudly, of course, as usual without my agreement.

They eventually dispersed, leaving me with Ella who stood wide eyed and obviously very excited. "Um," I mumbled weirdly.
"They're definitely coming with us, right?" She asked eagerly.
"Doubt it," I said, thinking about the odds of any of them getting seventy five. "By the way, I need to tell you about something," I said slowly. She piped down and looked at me expectantly.

"A while back, Archer invited me to the movies, remember?" I began.

"I said I wasn't going...and then I went that day to give Ace some chemistry stuff, and I saw him there with another girl," I sighed.
"You...liked him again, didn't you?"
"I feel sort of dumb. I actually thought he could have genuinely liked me."
"I didn't think Archer was like that," Ella pondered. "It's okay though. It's not like you confessed. As of right now, only me and you know that you liked him," she smiled. I smiled back weakly. "Oh yeah, why was Ace there?"

Oh crap. I forgot our promise. Was it okay to tell Ella, or not? "Jeez, we're going to be late to class," I quickly said, steering the conversation in a different direction. "I should get going. See you later!" She waved cheerily back and we headed in our own directions.

Now that I thought about it, I didn't know why Ace needed to keep that part time job a secret. Maybe I didn't want to know. Actually, I did want to know, and I was going to get him to tell me eventually.

Also, what was he trying to say the other day before we got on the bus!? It was doing my head in. Lit was first up. Yay.

"Good morning!" Mrs Meller greeted cheerfully. Was this the kind of joy that came from failing ninety nine percent of the class? "I have your exams," she continued happily.

The class was silenced and we all shrunk into the back of our seats, praying that we were the one percent that had passed. My heart raced, thudding against my chest as it usually did when the nerves kicked in.

Mrs Meller put on her glasses and sifted through the piles of papers that lay on her desk. "Hm...this is the pile. I'll hand out your exams now."

"I'll be expecting a lot better next time. The class average was fort eight percent and the top mark was sixty percent," she continued as she placed the papers down on people's desks, sending many into comatose on their desk.

My heart pounded. It seemed to be doing that a lot recently. I honestly thought I'd done alright, but I seriously doubted it now. The paper came down on my desk and I hesitantly flipped it open to the scoring page.

Fifty five percent.

Time seemed to temporarily freeze because when I came back to my senses, Jenny was waving her hand in front of me. "What'd you get?" She asked.
"Fifty five," I mumbled. "You?"
"Sixty," she beamed proudly. "Don't worry too much, you'll do fine in the next one," she consoled. Not very consoling.

After getting the exam back, lit class was officially over, and anything Mrs Meller said washed right over my head. Meanwhile, Jenny had been eagerly scribbling down notes. I guess topping the class was real fuel for motivation.

"I missed the last bit, can I copy off your notes later?" I asked Jenny on the way out.
"Sure," she replied. "I need them tonight, so I'll give them to you tomorrow, yeah?"
I nodded. We walked to physics, both dreading the return of the exams.

Physics was always a wild card; you either aced it or you failed it. I was betting on the latter. It wasn't until I reached the classroom that I realised why I also didn't want to go into physics. Archer sat next to me in physics.

Before I had even entered, Archer was already waving at me. I smiled weakly back. Jenny and I took our seats and we waited as Mr Martin assembled his belongings on the desk.

"How do you think you went?" Archer asked.
"Terrible," I replied.
"I don't know. I think it went alright," Jenny answered.
"Well, you'll do fine. You always do," he said, patting me lightly on the shoulder.

Well, whatever mate.

"Obviously, first of all, I'll be handing out your exams," Mr Martin announced. He walked up and down past us at least five times before actually giving back our exams. Archer first, then me, then Jenny.

I found myself holding my breath as I peeled the paper open to the second page. Ninety. I let out a sigh of relief, and found myself grinning happily. I glanced over at Jenny who looked far from happy.

"How'd you go?" I asked cautiously. She quickly shut the exam paper.

Archer answered instead. "A solid seventy eight. You?"
"Ninety." I couldn't help but beam proudly as I said it.
"Typical. I swear, even in lower school you beat me in every single assessment!"
"Well, today is the day of death. We're getting all our exams back," I mumbled.

Speaking of exams, I sincerely wondered how the punks went. I highly doubted that Hunter would get seventy five, but it'd be fun to find out regardless. From my knowledge of tutoring them, Ace was their wild card; I was fairly certain his exam could have been very good or very bad.

"Do you think the guys are going to win the bet?" Jenny asked, as though in sync with my thoughts.
"Unlikely," I answered honestly. "You?"
"You never know I guess."
"What bet?" Archer joined in.

"Just the seventy five percent thing. I swear I mentioned it before," I replied.
"Oh right. Yeah, I think you have."
"I reckon Mr Martin's too lazy after marking exams to give us work. Look at him," Jenny whispered, nudging me.

I looked up at his desk and realised that he was half asleep. Occasionally, his eyelids would slowly move downwards and he would rock slightly forwards before jolting backwards and opening his eyes again.

"I don't have a problem with that," I laughed.
"Neither," Archer agreed.
The whole class probably didn't, because no one said a word to Mr Martin and let him sleep. In fact, as soon as the bell rang, we all left silently while he snored softly at his desk.

"What's up?" I half jumped when I heard Hunter's voice out of nowhere upon exiting the classroom. "I'm here," he said, stepping in front of me, grinning.
"What?" I mumbled.

"Ready to lose the bet?" He smirked.
"Are you ready to lose the bet?" I walked to my locker with him close behind.
"There are four of us. One of us is bound to get seventy five!"
"Last time I checked, your averages were all either fifty three or under," I smiled.
"I wouldn't be getting so confident. We studied this time," he grinned, arms folded, leaning on the locker beside mine.
"Hi Hunter," Ella said, waiting for him to get off of her locker.
"Oh, right." He cleared his throat and got off the locker. "Anyway," he said. "Get ready to lose." He ruffled my hair and walked off.
"Moron," I snarled, raising my hand to my head to feel my hair. "Just lovely. It's gone everywhere, hasn't it?" I asked Ella. She took one look at me and cracked up.

I pulled the hair tie off and retied my hair. There were probably bumps and loose strands all over the place, but whatever.

Who on earth did I have to impress?

Actually, it wouldn't be a good idea to walk into chemistry like this. "Oi, come with me to the bathroom so I can fix my hair," I said to Ella.
"Oooh, how unusual," she teased, but followed me anyway.

As per usual, the little year sevens and eights were changing in the toilets despite their being a perfectly good change room