29: Guests

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I woke up to the glorious sound of my alarm going off, groaning that I won't get to sleep in this weekend. But when I committed to something, I did it.

I peeked a look at my clock and saw I only had fifteen minutes before Marlee came over to study. She finally swallowed some of her pride and took up my offer for help. I internally groaned knowing I had no time to go back to sleep so I decided I might as well start my day. I quickly threw off my uniform, which I accidentally slept in, and changed into a pair of leggings and an oversized hoodie.

I set up my binders, notebooks, and textbooks so Marlee and I could jump straight into Biology. I smiled sadly at my notes from sophomore year, remembering how much I loved science at Jefferson. Everything came so easy but deep down I knew that was the very reason I moved to MBPA. I had to learn to challenge myself.

Once I heard my doorbell ring, I skipped down the stairs and swung to door open with a big smile on my face.

"Hey, Marlee! I just got everything s-, what are you doing here?"

Instead of just staring face-to-face with Marlee, I was also facing Luca.

"She doesn't have a car Rowan, I had to drive her." He said rolling his eyes "I thought you were smart?"

"Shut up," I said, looking over his shoulder in search of Marlee. She was struggling with balancing her textbook and notebooks and was still slowly walking over to the door.

"You didn't think to help her?" I asked, glaring at Luca "you're supposed to be a strong athlete right?"

"I drove her here. That's plenty of help" he said, but I had already turned away from and met Marlee halfway.

"Thanks, Sky," she said, taking a breath after some of the weight was taken off. "Luca is such an ass" she grumbled

I let out a laugh and led the Reid siblings inside. Since Luca had already been here, he plopped himself on the couch and made himself comfortable.

"My stuff is already set up in my room, just go up the staircase to the left" I instructed " I'll be up there in a minute. Do you want anything to drink? I made some cookies"

Marlee's eyes brightened when I mentioned food, and who could blame her.

"A coke is fine. Thanks, Skylar"

I nodded and headed my way into the kitchen but not before Luca stopped me.

"Are you going to offer me anything?" he asked with a smirk

"No," I said sternly "I only offer things to my guests."

Luca rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. I turned back to the kitchen but felt a presence behind me. Choosing to ignore him, I grabbed the plate of cookies and two cokes. Luca was leaning against the counter with a slight smirk but never said anything.

Letting out a huff, I opened the fridge again and threw him a water bottle.

"Here. Water for the water boy"

He gave me glared but opened the bottle nonetheless. I knew he didn't drink soda because he's an "athlete" so he should be grateful I was kind enough to give him a water. He can wipe that glare off his face.

But me being the bigger person, I went upstairs to join Marlee without saying anything else.

*

"Ok, one more time, and then we can take a break. Explain what the central dogma of biology is"

Marlee rubbed her hands over her face, groaning. We had been going over this for the past hour and she has slowly begun to grasp it. We have drawer models, graphs, and everything in between so I could figure out what works best for Marlee.

I had tutored many kids at Jefferson, and the hardest part was figuring out how each of them learned. They were all smart enough, they just hadn't found what worked best for them, and Marlee was no different.

Marlee learned in puzzles, which is why she is so good a coding. Once I explained that each process in biology couldn't happen without the other, it began to click. She just had to compare it to something she was already comfortable with.

"You've got it" I urged

"The central dogma is a theory stating that genetic information flows only in one direction, from DNA to RNA, to protein, or RNA directly to protein," she said, saying each part slowly, carefully thinking about what came next.

"Look at you Ms. Wikipedia" I cheered "that was perfect, girl!"

"Thanks, Sky, I owe you," she said as she flopped back on my bed.

"So, I'm going to change the subject to something more exciting," she said

I looked up from my phone giving her my attention.

"You and Luca are going to homecoming together right?"

"Yeah, I think he only asked me so I could avoid Mason." I shrugged

Marlee sat up and gave the driest look I have ever seen.

"You don't seriously believe that do you?" she asked

"Umm... what else could it be?"

"My brother is crazy about you Skylar. He's taking you because he doesn't want any guy to think they have a chance. My brother is just too dense to come out and say it"

I let out a laugh, shaking my head at her dramatics.

"Umm Marlee, I think I may need to tutor you about your brother. Trust me, we're just friends."

Marlee rolled her eyes at me and mumbled "you're wrong".

"Anyways, has he given you his jersey yet for Friday?" she asked, getting up and walking to my closet.

"No. Why would he?"

Marlee turned around and gave me a "you are stupid look".

"Because you are his date. The football players dates wear their jerseys on Friday. It's tradition. Did Luca not tell you?" she asked

I nodded my head, but fear ran through me. Why would Luca avoid telling me this?

"LUCA!" Marlee screamed, scaring the living crap out of me "Get up here!"

No thoughts came to my mind except the girl had gone insane. Within thirty seconds, Luca was standing in my dorm frame with a scared and confused look, one that mirrored my own.

"Care to tell me why you have not explained any homecoming traditions to Skylar?" Marlee asked, walking up and standing in front of her brother.

"No, I ha-"

"The dance is next Saturday, Luca! The game is in six days and you haven't explained anything. Do you want Skylar to look dumb?"

"No, of course not." he said, getting defensive "It just slipped my mind. I kind of forgot she didn't already know"

I stood on the other end of the room, observing the Reid siblings go at each other's throats. The one thing I got out of this interaction is that I'm glad I don't have siblings.

They argued for about thirty more seconds, saying words so fast that I couldn't keep up, but Luca eventually got tired of it.

"Fine, just give us some privacy and I'll explain, ok," he said

Marlee nodded her head and walked out if the room, leaving me and Luca staring awkwardly at each other.

"Ummm" I stared but quickly closed my mouth.

"So MBPA has many traditions. And one of them is that football players and their dates or girlfriends must wear each other's jerseys to school on Friday. And at the pep rally we will have to partner up for some stupid activity the cheerleaders make us do."

I listened to what he said and felt like throwing up. I would have to participate in a random activity in front of the whole school.

What the hell?

"Oh"

Luca walked over to me and pulled me next to him as we sat on my bed.

" I promise it's not that bad. No one will give you any shit about wearing my jersey, I promise, and there are over one-hundred football players. You won't be front and center" he said, still holding my hand while rubbing circles. "But if you don't want to. I won't make you, but please consider it"

I didn't believe him about the jersey thing, I've dealt with so much talk from just being his friend, I can't imagine the things that would be said about me with his name on my back. However, the more I thought about it, the more exciting it seemed to get to rub that in Margaret and Anastasia's faces. I did believe him about the activity. Jefferson had pep rallies and almost no one cared about them. I'll be fine.

"Okay," I said

"Okay?" he asked

"Okay."


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