Spanish was both better and worse. Better because without Alec sitting six feet away from me I was able to kind of think about something other than him, worse because we had a pop quiz and I barely placed in the A- range despite having spent a fair amount of time on my vocabulary. Math was plain and simply burning up too much time. Something needed to change because my only hope of going to college was to get a scholarship, or load up on student loans, and I had no desire to graduate sixty-thousand dollars in debt and spend the next fifteen years trying to pay it all off. By the time I met up with Britney in the hall I was emotionally exhausted and could feel an attack hovering in the wings. Much as I'd have liked to, I couldn't continue to blow her off. She was my only friend, and I definitely didn't want her spreading the kind of rumors about me that she routinely spread about nearly everyone else. "Wow, you look like crap. Are you going to collapse like you did last night?" "Thanks, Brit.
