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Jade has yet to leave her room.

It is Monday, her favorite day of the week. Especially, when it involves going to her favorite place on Earth: School.

The thought causes Jade to deeply groan as the light from her phone flashes through her eyelids. Her body feels heavy as if glued to the sheets of the bed. Her tan legs warp around the plain white sheets like they were in a tussle of some sort. The alarm finally sounds a few seconds after the phone lights up but the brunette doesn't even flinch. Her exhaustion outweighing her anxiety at this point.

Usually, the responsibility of school has Jade leaping out of bed to get ready for the day; but Jade doesn't feel this same energy. It seems she has no energy at all. It was all drained from her system after spending the rest of her weekend holed up in her bedroom, only leaving for a glass of water and a peanut butter sandwich every five hours because Melanie wouldn't leave her alone without doing so.

The brunette taps the phone screen shutting off the alarm but instead of getting up, retires back to the endless sleep she fell in from Saturday afternoon.

She buries her head in the comforter, ignoring any potential repercussions as a result of her rash decision to skip school. The blanket comforting her in every way possible. Her body in no pain, but her mind aching.

She let her thoughts get the best of her, which is always a recipe for disaster.

The brunette spent the entirety of her weekend, besides sleeping, analyzing her sexuality under a microscope, trying to trace back where her feelings towards girls started and why she can't seem to disregard them. Once an individual spends too much time going back in time, it forces them to relive certain instances that can bring them through a whirlwind of shitty feelings.

And this is exactly what Jade did, which is why she has found herself still hiding in her sheets two days later, feeling too shitty about herself to get up.

"Jade!" Melanie hollers, lightly tapping on the door.

Jade finds it too tiring to respond so she ignores the call and wraps herself deeper into the bedding, trying to go back to sleep, hopefully for a while.

"Jade, get up. You can't skip," Melanie tries again as she stands on the other side of the door, ready to head out to her morning class at university.

The older sibling glares in irritation at the painted door, tired of having to try to get her sister up this entire weekend. Her parents have been too busy to notice their younger daughter's isolation, so it's been and has always been Melanie's job to look after her baby sister. The task is starting to take a toll on the young woman as bags heavily weigh down her eyes after being unable to sleep when worrying about her sister the past two nights.

Her eyes momentarily close shut as she presses her forehead against the door. This scene is too familiar.

The old Jade has made a return.

"Fuck," she mutters under her breath, gathering herself. Melanie starts walking away from the shut door, ready to head out with her white satchel clung over her shoulder. Her messy wavy hair is tied half up and half down with select strands sticking out.

She shuts off the remaining lights of the house since her father and mother have already left early in the morning for work. The home is engulfed in its usual darkness, once again.

She grabs her keys off of the rack on the wall and walks out the door, making sure to lock both the top and bottom locks.

Jade hears the front door shut and pulls her knees in closer to her chest, lying under the sheets as a shelter from the loneliness permeating through the dead household.

________

"You finished Polk's shit yet?" Antonio asks the blonde that walks confidently at his side with the few school supplies she brings to school every day, in tote. A single wide-ruled notebook, a three-pronged folder, and a pen hung on the spiral of the notebook make up Kinsey's preparation for school. It's all she needs when she doesn't bother to do much for the five hours that she is here. She thanks Senior Privilege for allowing her to only have five class periods.

Kinsey glares up at the tall teammate, "You know I didn't. Fuck kind of question is that?"

"Well, maybe I thought you decided to be responsible for once. Especially with knowing that you're getting scouted for Alabama," Antonio adds, smirking down at the blonde beside him. The huge and intimidating football player looking more like a huge teddy bear with how bright his deep-dimpled smile is.

The two have no problem walking down the crowded hallway as the students naturally step aside in precaution as Kinsey struts. She isn't just a bully that goes around beating people up. She's just someone that isn't afraid to be loud and speak up when someone wrongs her and that's solely why people steer clear of the blonde: To save themselves the embarrassment of being told off.

Of course, at times fighting is required but that's only when the other person wants to get involved, which Kinsey never understands because it always ends one way: her beating them to a pulp. 

Kinsey slightly smiles at the thought of playing ball at Bama. It's been her dream for so long and hearing someone say it out loud makes it feel less of a dream and more like a reality.

"Aw, that's cute. Your bitch-ass actually cares about me," she teases the boy.

"Pfft," Antonio responds, animatedly scrunching up his face in fake denial.

Kinsey lets out a short laugh before squinting up at the boy.

"Whatever, Ramen Noodles," Kinsey adds as she heads down the hallway on her left.
The nickname, Ramen Noodles, due to Antonio recently dying his hair. The blonde color was supposed to be a nice contrast with his dark brown curly hair, but the bleach just fried his hair and the curls that came with it, leaving it a withering pale yellow mess atop the boy's head.

"Ay, James said it didn't look that bad!" Antonio whines defensively with a pout on his lips in the midst of the crowd as Kinsey turns her back and heads further down the hall.

Antonio self-consciously pats at his hair trying to make sure the styling is in order, despite being unable to see it at all.

The blonde continues walking, untroubled, as she nears her first-period class. The nerves that should be hitting her as she grabs at the doorknob for the classroom, don't come. The blonde has spent the rest of her weekend mentally preparing herself to see the brunette in class, deciding that she would maintain her calm, cold composure by ignoring the girl at all costs.

She enters the classroom full of students she did not recognize despite the class being made up of a majority of seniors. At this moment, she realizes how often she skips this class.

Everyone stares at her as if eyeing a mythical creature. She mentally and physically rolls her eyes. Grow the fuck up.

"Kinsey, it's nice to see you've decided to come back to class this year," Mrs. Rodriguez snarks, catching Kinsey's attention as she confidently strides to her seat in the back of the class.

"I'm just glad I could fit it into my schedule," Kinsey responds sarcastically, tightening her lips into a straight line.

The teacher ignores the teen and proceeds to move on with her class.

Kinsey finds her seat and comfortably leans back into the chair that is attached to a polished wooden desk. Her legs outstretch, so much so, that her plain black and white high-top Vans rest on the legs of the chair in front of her.

Her ears immediately drown out the teacher's words as she instinctively looks for something more interesting to do. She scavengers the class looking for wavy brunette hair and all-black attire.

As her search continues, she becomes more confused. Her seat in the back of the large classroom gives her the ability to spot most of everyone in the class, boggling her mind even more at being unable to find Jade.

This goes on until she spots an empty seat two desks away. The girl next to her awkwardly paying too much attention to the teacher as her fingers slightly tremble when she tries to casually play with her pencil.

Kinsey looks at the girl strangely before tapping her shoulder. The girl flinches slightly before tentatively looking over her shoulder at the blonde.

"H-Hi, my name is McClain," she whispers enthusiastically as her voice falters.

Kinsey smiles cringely, "I didn't ask."

The girl is caught off guard by this but maintains a smile on her face.

"Isn't that where Jade sits?" Kinsey tries to ask discretely as if anyone would care if she asked about Jade or not.

"Yeah. She's actually your-"

Kinsey cuts off the girl by using her body language as she leans back into her seat, her head turning to face the front of the classroom again as she thinks.

Where is she?

The concern is written all over her face as she raises her brow. She at least knows that the brunette values school to the point that she wouldn't miss school.

The geek wouldn't just skip. She's not like me.

For some reason, the blonde feels a weight at the pit of her stomach. Guilt runs through her consciousness as she evaluates why the brunette isn't class.

She can be narcissistic and believe that she is the only reason why the brunette isn't at school, but it could be other things, right? She barely knows anything about the girl.

But why does she care anyway? She's a distant memory. She's just another experience in Kinsey's life of endless misfortunes.

Before Kinsey notices, the bell rings to dismiss the class period. The blonde sighs in relief, rising from her lounging position to gather her few belongings.

"Ms. Scott, I'd like to speak to you for a second," Mrs. Rodriguez announces as the classroom slowly empties.

The annoyance is apparent on Kinsey's face as she walks up towards the front desk, bypassing several desks.

The older, but shorter woman dressed in a maroon flowery blouse and black stove-piped suit pants stands patiently by her desk with her hands folded in front of her. Her dark red lipstick accenting the straight line of her lips as she stares in disappointment.

"Hey-"

"You're failing," the woman blatantly says, not sugar-coating the intended message.

Kinsey rolls her eyes, not at the teacher, but at the predicament, she knows isn't good for her right now. Her head lulls to the side as she is discontent with the position she knows that she put herself in.

"The year has just started and you're already failing, Kinsey. I know Alabama is looking at you right now."

Mrs. Rodriguez folds her arms as the blonde looks at her in pity.

"Exactly. That is the perfect reason as to why you could help me out by just passing me. A couple clicks here and there could make this problem disappear," Kinsey weakly suggests, squinting her eyes and sending a sly smile in the woman's direction.

"No."

Kinsey's face immediately drops. "How low are we talking?"

"Thirties."

"As in thirty-percent?"

"Yes, Kinsey. It's the lowest grade I've ever had in any of my classes for the seven years I've been teaching this course. Most students fall at a low fifty, but you have to actually try to get that low of a grade in my class."

"That really makes me feel better," Kinsey sighs again. "I just don't know why this shit has to be so difficult."

"First of all, language. Second of all, Kinsey, just like how difficult football is, school is too. It's not always going to be easy."

"Thanks for the pep talk but how am I gonna fix this, at least before I have to send my grades in for Bama?" Kinsey asks, succumbing to her fate and looking forward to fixing this if there is any way she can.

"The beginning-of-the-year project. It's 200 points and you are assigned a great partner. Ms. Hill is quite the intelligent mind. Have you met her yet? I told her to try to contact y-"

"Yes," Kinsey cuts off in irritation. "We've met," she mutters the latter under her breath. The mere thought of Jade brings a swirling pain to her stomach. The image of the brunette thinking out loud as she traversed Kinsey's bedroom back and forth makes it difficult for Kinsey to return back to Earth. The angelic smile on the girl's face implanted in her retinas.

"Perfect. If you both do a great job on the assignment I believe we can get it up to at least a C by first-quarter report cards," the teacher optimistically suggests, clasping together her hands.

The blonde cringes at the idea of working with Jade being her only hope of passing the class. What happened to her completely ignoring the girl in any way possible? Fuck.

"There's no other way?"

"Nope. I don't plan on having any other major grades going in for the rest of this quarter besides this project. Definitely not enough to save your grade."

Students start to file in as the bell for the second period of the day is about to ring. Kinsey decides that this is her cue to leave.

"Okay, Thanks for the help, Mrs. Rodriguez," Kinsey snidely remarks as she makes her way to leave the class.

The woman simply nods and walks back behind her desk to prepare the same lesson for her next class period.

Kinsey walks out in the almost empty hallway. She wants so badly to smash her head against one of the lockers but decides against it as that wouldn't be too productive.

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This was a thicc chapter. What do you think of Jade's condition?

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Also, what has been your lowest grade in a class before? Let me know! Mine would have to be a 79.5% in my sixth-grade math class. My bitchass cried over that, I remember it like it was yesterday lol.

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Can't wait to see you in the next chapter! Don't forget to vote and give me a follow! ❤️