It has been a couple days and nothing interesting has happened. In my world, that means hurricane drama is a-brewing. And I think it has begun.

You see, Riley got a D in Spanish. To some people, that might not seem like the end of the world. But, for Riley, it has sent her into a spiral. It didn't help that Smakle mentioned that everything that happens now goes onto our permanent records.

There is, however, a litte patch of light in the storm. Maya got an A and we got to do her first refrigerator ceremony. Although, I think that made Riley feel even worse.

In order to fix the situation, Riley got her dad to talk to the teacher. That didn't work, like I expected it not to.

Me and Maya are currently helping her study at the bay window, because we both got A's on our test.

"Trabajar." Maya says. We are asking her for the definition of the words and all of their conjugations.

"To work." She answers.

"Muy bien."

"Now conjugate!" I tell her

"Trabajo, trabajas, trabaja..."

"Excellente, mija!" I praise.

"Chewbacca, Chewbakaka..." she continued.

"What is wrong with you?" Maya asks.

"Please remember me when you get to college." She says with a frown.

Then Lucas came through the baywindow. This is where all of the drama started. "I'm you!"

"You're me?" Riley asks.

"Yeah! All of a sudden I'm a loser!"

"I'm you!" Zay says while coming through the bay window.

"You're me?" Maya asks.

"Yeah! All of sudden I'm a phenom!"

Maya and Zay did a handshake. When they came up with that, I have no idea.

"Okay... when did you guys come up with that?" I asked.

"Oh, it's just something people on this side of the room know about." Zay replied like it was nothing.

"Okay... well, we actually know about it, too." Riley tells them. She proceeded to spin and slap Lucas while he had no idea what was going on.

"Okay... okay, okay, okay." Lucas stopped her.

Lucas sat down on the bed. "We had our first baseball tryout today. All my life, baseball has always come easy to me. Not today. It's gone. I mean, I get up to bat and I can't even see the ball. Meanwhile, back on this side of the room... He can't miss. He's hitting everything, he's great in the field, he's an all-star."

"Wait, Lucas, tell 'em what the coach said about me, tell 'em." Zay said.

"He said, "Good day, kid."

"Now tell 'em what he said about you."

"He said, "Good day, kid." Lucas gestered his hands out in an aggressive wave.

"Riley, we're losers. Do you know what's on our permanent record?"

"Glitter and smiley faces if we try try again?" She said while sitting down next to him.

"Losers!"

Then Farkle came into the room upset. "What's the matter, bubba?" I asked.

"There's another genius in my Honors Chem class The other genius is making me feel bad!"

"Then you're on this side of the room, loser." Lucas said while bringing him over to the bed.

"You know what the worst thing of life is? The worst thing of life is when someone you know is better than you in every way..."

"Rubs it in your face?" Zay tries.

"No."

"Can't hit a baseball to save his life?" Lucas asked

"Me time!"

"I was talking about you."

"He's not lying." I contribute.

"The worst thing of life is when someone you know is better than you in every way loves you anyway."

"Honey-buckets!" Smakle says while coming through the window.

"Smackle's the genius in your chemistry class?" Maya asks.

"Smackle's the genius everywhere."

"Well, you're with us now." Zay said while wrapping an arm around her and bringing her over to where he and Maya are.

"What side are you on Vanessa?" Farkle asked me.

"I'm not on a side. I'm in the middle."

"Why aren't you on a side?" Riley asked.

"You can't see the birds from over there." I say while looking out the window. Riley came down and sat next to me.

"Look! It's a Black-Throated Green Warbler." She said.

———

———

Everybody else came and sat down by the window. Zay and Smakle sat on the floor while the others and I sat on the bench.

"See. If you were on your sides, you would've missed this. It's not about wether you succeed or fail. Your going to do both in life no matter what you try. Lucas, it was was one bad day. Your going to have so many more good ones." He smiled at me. "Farkle, Smakle being smarter than you shouldn't make you give up. It should make you want to push yourself to get better."

"Your right." He said, also smiling.

"And Riley. You can't weasel your way out of this one kid. In order to get a better grade in the future you have to work for it. I know that if you really try your hardest, you can get an A on the next test."

"When did you become so wise." A voice came from the door. It was Mr. M.

"I've had to suffer through your inspirational speeches for years." He laughed at that.

"Thanks Vanessa." Riley said and I looked over at her.

"Your welcome. Now lets get back to studying. Dibujar."

"To draw."

"Muy bien!"

*958 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔*
𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 𝒂 3-4 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒖𝒆. 𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑽𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒅. 𝑯𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓! 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕! 𝑩𝒚𝒆! :)