CHAPTER FIFTEEN

seeing eye to eye

mom was at her desk with her headphones in, so to not disturb her, i whispered as we waited for the fifteen copies of the flier to print. "walker, are you completely, utterly, certainly, without a doubt, one hundred percent sure that you want to do this on thursday? it could take hours if word gets out by tomorrow that you're in this, which is very likely since everyone stares at us in class, meaning we would probably only have tomorrow to work on the fennel project."

"i can't do it on any other day. and let's face it, is it really worth it to put so much effort into that woman who was probably around to witness the salem witch trials? i mean, she was probably one of the witches!"

"you're right!" i chuckled, then hesitated. walker seemed so lenient with his academics. the curiosity about how he ended up back in school was making its grand return. i figured that it might be a good time to finally ask, seeing as we've become a lot more comfortable talking one on one. "can i ask you something? hopefully not too personal."

"yeah, what's up?" he did that tilting of the head thing.

"did your parents make you come back home, or did you do that willingly?"

i watched as he pondered the right words to say. which was a good thing -- he was thinking of a real answer. then he spoke softly, "it was a mutual thing... kind of. you see, my parents recognized that i was having almost no high school experience whatsoever when filming. they said it was taking a toll on me, that i was going to regret having a abnormal teenage life and it was best that i focus on my education anyway."

"you seem so against school though."

"i don't necessarily like it. like, at all, but i'm pretty sure no one does. that's my parents' stupid argument, so i agreed. but recently, since my grades have been falling and — you're my witness, i'm not doing anything about it — they said that if i ace all my classes by the end of the year, i can go back to filming. it's like an ethical test more than an academic test."

i took a moment to take in all this long-awaited information. once the built up dirt was drained out, what was left was this question. "why would you want to work on casting instead of this massive project then?"

"if i can prove to my parents that acting is my passion, then i know they'll let me go back to it sooner. i'm not wasting my energy on shit i don't care about," he declared, his voice growing louder and steadier. "i already found and had the opportunity to do what i love, i'm not going backwards."

his confidence and ambition was so attractive, and don't get me wrong, i was so glad that he knew what he was doing. but i couldn't help but feel a little hurt. he wanted to leave as soon as possible. he just said that straight out.

trying to ignore the previous revelation, i shifted my thoughts to how ideal this mindset can be to benefit both of us. "wow, okay. this is perfect actually."

"perfect in what way?"

"i'm proposing a deal. from now on, we lock in. we make this film, proving to your parents that acting is your calling, and proving to my parents that filmmaking is my calling! it's a win-win."

he considered what i said for a long moment. "do you realize how risky this is?"

i slapped him across the face lightly, to snap him out of it. "walker, do you hear yourself? you just said that you don't care—"

"no, i mean for you! i don't care about my grades, but i do care about you! i don't want my goals to interfere with you," he explained.

he just said he cares about me! goodness gracious, me oh my! i was mentally giggling and kicking my feet. anyway... in the real world i just sighed appreciatively. "i know it's your name but you can't walk all over yourself. there's been so many piling factors lately that i can't take it anymore. i'm on your wavelength, dude! i can't stand fennel. or the other fennel. or that insatiable brick building that we walk into every morning. and you heard our conversation in chemistry. passion equals priority."

walker's gaze softened ever so slightly. "are you sure?"

"yes. are you sure?"

"yes," he said as the last flyer slipped out of the printer. "it's a deal."

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

the next day, i came to school with the fliers in my folder. i had texted one to jordyn and he didn't respond. i guess he had gotten his phone taken away too, so there was no guarantee his friends will see it. there was a very limited amount of prospects otherwise as maeve had said, and it was a tuesday, meaning we had only two days for fate to lead them to the fliers. i just had to trust it would work.

fennel was at her desk as usual. and when i made my way over to my desk, walker, of course, was there already. "when are we commencing the operation?" i asked him furtively.

"as soon as you're ready."

i placed my folder on the table's black surface. on that surface there were little, vulgar doodles and words etched into it that fennel wouldn't let slide if she paid attention to the back of her classroom. when i was bored, i would go through each symbol and try to make some sort of dirty story out of it. the oddities must have been from the other periods' students that were also itching for the bell to ring.

i swiftly spread each flier out, covering the permanent message of "fuck the fennels." the last one reached the left end of the desk where walker was. he helped move along the preparation for our plan and split the sweep of it approximately in half. next, i lent him a roll of tape that i snuck out of the office we were in yesterday. i unfortunately could only find mom's tape, meaning it had cats and coffee all over it, but we had to work with what we had!

walker, maeve, and i had made this operation over text the night prior. i had to kick walker out soon after we printed so he didn't get busted by his parents or my dad. it worked out just fine though, and we were ready to initiate phase one, which was to give fennel a reason to let us leave the classroom.

there were five minutes until the first bell rang -- just enough time. i approached the demon lady's evil fortress and silently stood there for a moment before she glanced up at me. "can i help you?"

i spoke in a hushed tone. "yes. uh, i wanted to ask you something."

"this isn't about the project due friday, correct? i told you that all of your answers are in the packet." she referred to it like it was the bible or something.

"actually i was wondering if you could read this." i handed her a "doctor's note" and waited for her to finish deciphering the intentionally messy handwriting, holding back laughter as her over-plucked eyebrows slowly furrowed.

"okay, sure. you can leave the room if you must... i'm sorry you have to deal with this," she sympathized. "my husband, who i'm sure you know, also has this condition. let's just say it's inconvenient for both of us."

i did not want to know that. all i wanted to know was if i had her permission to use the bathroom every ten minutes, not that my social studies teacher suffers from chronic bowel movements! i shuddered at the thought of why it could be inconvenient for both of them, then plastered a smile on my face as a thank you.

i nodded to walker as a cue for his turn to talk to her. we had two minutes to spare. his request should be shorter than mine, though, so i wasn't worried. all he had to do was ask to go to the nurse because of a headache. it was anticipated that she would reject him, then, ten minutes into the period, when i would walk out because of my "condition," he would ask again.

we knew it would work at that point because the woman thinks that requesting to go to the nurse twice is two too many. she has no tolerance for complaints even though she's usually the one causing them. and she has so many peculiar classroom regulations. two people aren't allowed out at once ( which is why we had to resort to such extremes ), except for when the student is annoying her.

walker gave me a thumbs up as he was returning to our table, the bell ringing. we were on the track for a successful phase two: get out of the classroom and return to it, all while avoiding suspicion.





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thank you for reading chapter 15!