Megan sat on the bus, trying not to worry. She looked at her phone and realized she was going to be late. And of course, she had a history test today. If she missed that test, it was really going to hurt her grade – she was only barely passing as it was. And now that she apparently wasn't adored by teachers anymore, she couldn't exactly rely on her old wish to keep her from failing the class.
She leaned out into the isle, trying to see past the windshield to what was going on outside. Apparently, some car had decided that he really needed to get someplace in a hurry, and he was willing to run a red light and try to beat a school bus in order to do it. Of course, it hadn't worked out well for him; his car was sitting in the middle of the intersection, too bent to even pull over to the side of the road.
What's going on? Megan texted Drew. He might ride the bus with her in the mornings, but that didn't mean he sat anywhere near her. Megan had a seat to herself in the back, but Drew sat much closer to the front with someone from his class. At least it meant he might have a better view of what was happening.
We hit some car. Drew informed her. As if she hadn't figured that part out on her own.
We going any time soon? she asked.
Probably not. Frame looks bent.
Megan didn't even know what that meant. What she did know was that if she managed to get to school right now, she'd still only have half an hour to do that stupid test.
She thought about texting Jake to see if he could magic her straight to school. He might be ignoring her, but that didn't mean he couldn't help her out if she needed it, did it? But how would she explain just disappearing off the bus like that? So as much as she wanted to, she knew she couldn't really ask him.
It took ten more minutes before another bus finally pulled up for them all to get onto. As Megan got onto the new bus, she checked the intersection. The car was still in the middle of the road, firmly in front of the bus Megan had been on. There were also three police cars here by now, and they were questioning the guy pretty intently. Megan was glad the man looked miserable; if she was going to miss her history test, she didn't see why he couldn't be grilled for it. As the bus pulled away, Megan thought she saw the man being handcuffed. Good.
By the time Megan's new bus pulled up to the school, she had just under fifteen minutes before first period was over. As she passed the bus driver, he tore off an excused absence slip from a pad he'd apparently been given for the occasion. Megan absentmindedly stuffed it in her pocket as she hurried down the stairs.
She practically ran through the school's doors, up the stairwell, and down the hall, followed closely by three other kids. At least she wasn't the only one who was late.
"Sorry – bus got in an accident." Megan mumbled, handing Mr. Wilson her note. He just nodded, taking it from her.
He handed Megan a test, and she tried not to panic. She was really going to have to take this now? How could she possibly do good on it with hardly any time left before the bell rang?
Mr. Wilson must have seen the look on her face, because he told her not to worry about the time. Megan nodded vaguely, walking towards her desk.
She sat down in her seat, test in hand. She really wished she'd spent a little more time studying this weekend, or even last night. But she'd been kind of busy trying to figure out where Jake was. And even if she didn't have to worry about the time, she was still pretty sure she was going to fail this test. Could today even get any worse?
Megan tried not to be nervous. She never had been very good at history, and now she had basically no time to do a test that was supposed to take the whole period. Well, she'd just have to focus on the easy parts first. That way, she could at least get some answers down.
With two minutes left before the end of class, Megan started panicking. She'd answered almost none of the questions on that stupid paper – she was going to fail for sure. Fortunately, Megan was saved when Mr. Wilson announced that those students who were late could stay longer and make up the lost time. Megan was still pretty sure she was going to fail either way, but at least she'd have a little more time to make something up. Still, Megan wasn't sure she could just make up enough answers to really help her, and she figured her performance was going to be pretty dismal.
The bell rang. Megan got up with the rest of the late students and moved to the back of the class to finish her test.
At least she didn't have to worry too much about math. As bad as history was, it was still way better than math. Still, fifteen minutes of math was fifteen minutes too much as far as she was concerned. And it was still more than enough time for Mr. Lowell to ask her about some stupid problem she had no idea how to answer. She was really wishing class would end soon when her phone buzzed. She stared at it for almost a full minute, not really believing who it was from: Jake. She quickly unlocked it under her desk and checked the message.
Good news – rules have changed, he'd written.
Megan looked up. Jake was grinning from ear to ear. Megan quickly turned back to her phone. After putting it on silent, she sent him a message of her own.
How'd you do that?
I'm very persuasive.
Megan just stared over at him. Jake had a wicked grin on his face. She wanted to know what he'd actually done, but she knew he probably wouldn't tell her.
"Miss McGowen?" Megan heard someone call from the front of the room.
She quickly turned, trying to pretend she hadn't been doing anything wrong. But it was too late; Mr. Lowell was already staring at her with that disappointed expression he always got when students weren't paying attention.
"Sorry." Megan mumbled.
"So can you tell us the answer?" Mr. Lowell asked.
"To what?" Megan asked before she could stop herself.
Mr. Lowell's disappointment only seemed to deepen.
Megan looked up at the board. There was some sort of equation written there that of course Megan had no idea how to solve. She stared at it for a minute, thinking. She hoped it looked like she was doing addition in her head or something, instead of uselessly stalling for time.
Her phone lit up again and Megan casually glanced at it. Of course, the message was from Jake.
36, he'd written.
"Ummm...thirty-six?" Megan asked, hoping that Jake had been giving her the answer. If not, she was going to look like an even bigger idiot. Mr. Lowell looked mildly surprised – maybe even a little impressed.
"Very good." he told her.
Megan breathed a sigh of relief.
Mr. Lowell turned back to the class. "Does everybody see how she got there?"
Megan leaned forward, trying to pay attention; she really needed to know how she'd gotten there. She couldn't have Jake give her every answer.
Megan didn't get a chance to talk to Jake after class – she had to go up and talk to Mr. Lowell about her last math test. Apparently, she hadn't done as well as he thought she should have. Megan tried not to think about how she was suddenly failing all of her classes again – and how this all happened after Jake stopped being her genie. She tried to put aside the fact that if he was still with her, she wouldn't be failing math all over again.
But even her talk with Mr. Lowell wasn't enough to bring Megan's mood completely down – Jake was talking to her now. Maybe this whole thing could be salvaged, if she could find him again. She decided to ask him what she could do after Spanish.
Megan watched Jake from across the room in Spanish. She was really glad he was finally talking to her again. He even looked at her a couple times. It wasn't much, and Megan knew that Jen would have been less than impressed. But Megan didn't care – it seemed like worlds away from where they were just yesterday. And it gave her just a little ray of hope.
Sure, Jake might still seem a little distant, but it wasn't any worse than when he first started going to school with her – and it was definitely better than he'd been acting for the past week. Actually, he seemed to be almost back to normal. But when she tried to walk with him to lunch, he just shook his head, looking down at the ground. Megan would have been seriously insulted if she didn't know better.
"Part of your rules?" she asked. She thought he'd gotten those fixed.
"Not exactly." he said slowly. Megan just stopped and stared at him.
"Then why not?" she asked. She didn't want to think about what it meant that he didn't seem to want to be seen with her in the halls, but it was kind of hard not to take it personal.
"I just need to be careful." he told her. "I just got things back to normal. Or, almost normal. I don't want to make...this one change their mind."
"Fine." Megan grumbled. Still, she did see his point. Maybe being seen with him in the hallways wasn't the best idea she'd ever had – especially if whoever had him could walk by at any minute. And Megan didn't even know who to be on the lookout for. At least he was ok with talking to her in the actual classrooms. It wasn't quite what she wanted, but she guessed it was better than nothing.
Megan let Jake walk into the cafeteria by himself while she hung a few feet behind. She gave him a small smile as she passed his table, but when he looked back at her, he was as impassive as ever. Actually, he was doing an incredibly good job of looking like he might kind of hate her. It was the same look he'd given her back when she'd first opened that bottle.
Megan sighed to herself – she'd really thought they'd gotten past him looking at her like that. And new master or not, it still hurt her feelings. She knew he'd just said he needed to be careful, but Megan couldn't help wondering if that was just his excuse. But, she decided the best thing she could do was pretend like it didn't bother her. If he was going to be acting like that, he must have a reason. And even if it was a reason she didn't like, she really shouldn't go over to her friends' table looking miserable. After all, it seemed like most of them weren't all that fond of Jake at the moment anyway, and she didn't feel like discussing it again.
Besides, she really needed to figure out what Mr. Lowell was talking about. She'd already failed her last test, and she didn't want to fail this next one too. She'd forgotten just how much Jake had been tutoring her before he left. If she didn't get at least a B- on this next test, it was going to be hard for Mr. Lowell to justify her passing his class. Maybe she could see if Jake could convince his new master to let him come over and help her out a little. She could even tell him that she wouldn't make a big deal about finding him if he could help her. It wouldn't be true of course, but that didn't mean she wasn't considering using it as an excuse. At least that way she wouldn't be stuck repeating algebra next year. Or worse – taking it again in summer school.
Megan sighed to herself as she got out her math book. She couldn't believe she was actually thinking about doing homework at lunch. She must really be desperate.
"What is that?" Danielle asked, sounding horrified.
"Math." Megan said absentmindedly.
"Yeah – no kidding. But why?"
"Because now that Jake's not tutoring me anymore, I'm not doing as good as I should." Megan shrugged. She found herself looking around the table, wondering if any of her friends were good enough in math to help her. Maybe Jen or Tara, but that was probably it.
"Who cares if you don't do great in math – all you have to do is pass and you'll be fine." Stacey said confidently. Megan just stared glumly down at the cover of her book.
"Not if I want to stay on the track team." Megan mumbled to herself.
"Wait – what is your grade in math?" Jen cut in.
Megan didn't even have to say anything – her silence was enough to make Jen's eyes get real wide.
"Are you serious?"
"Jake actually helped me a lot." Megan finally admitted.
"Like do your homework for you?" Tara asked.
"Well, sometimes." Megan admitted. "But mostly he'd just explain what was going on to me."
"Really? Just out of the goodness of his heart?"
Tara sounded skeptical, and Megan couldn't help but wonder why Tara never seemed to like any of their boyfriends. Tara started looking thoughtful, but Danielle cut in before Tara had a chance to continue on.
"If he's so great and you miss him so much, why did you break up in the first place?"
"It wasn't my idea." Megan told her defensively.
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
"Well, at least you got the rumor going that you're the one who broke up with him." Stacey said confidently, nodding at her own wisdom. "If you have to break up, at least it's better if it looks like you're the one who dumped him."
"Yeah," Megan mumbled. She didn't really want to think about that right now. Then looking down at her book, she remembered the reason she was even having this conversation in the first place.
"So, which one of you wants to help me with math?"
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