The Unsolvable Equation

Chapter Twenty

On Wednesday afternoon, Alexia came into contact, for the first time in her life, a comment from  a teacher that was less than borderline worship of the work she had produced. Mr Tim’s remarks felt like scathing rings of disapproval in her ears, the tune of failure. He hadn’t outrightly stated that it was bad, however, he had mentioned that some of her points were repetitive and the essay did not shock him up like her previous works had. And for Alexia, that was as good as failing her. She stared at it, trying to pinpoint where she went wrong and how she could improve. However, as Alexia reviewed her essay, she had to admit that Mr Tim was right. It was nothing special, in fact, it seemed as though, well, it could have been written by anybody else.

I must say, Alexia, he had written. I’m quite surprised by the quality of the work you have produced this time around, and unfortunately, not in a good way. The essay itself does tick all the boxes required and if I were to grade it, it wouldn’t fall too short of your usual marks, however, it’s not like you to produce such an essay. The evidence you used to support your points were, for lack of a better word, predictable and I can’t say I was very surprised nor impressed. Especially for you standard, I expected something a little more mind-blowing, i suppose. Something that digs deeper into the topic, pulls out the essence of it and dissects every inch and detail of it. Shock me, Alexia! So perhaps, you could consider reviewing your topic?

She grunted in frustration and shoved the paper into her bag. As she was about to leave, she saw Caden innocently strolling towards her. Alexia resisted the urge to walk past and ignore him; in her foul mood, everyone and everything annoyed her. “Hey,” Caden said, and she prayed that he would not bring the essay up.

To his credit, Caden didn’t. He just mentioned that K.H was waiting for her outside and left. Huh. Alexia thought. Maybe he is getting a little bit better at reading people.

K.H wasn’t as tactful, though, and the moment she saw Alexia, she demanded to know how well her first draft was received. “Were the comments good, marvellous or practically fan mail to God?”

Alexia sighed and stared at the floor was they made their way to the next class. “Don’t ask, please,” she grumbled.

K.H, however, was being annoyingly persistent today. “Come on, Alexia. How bad can it be? You are Alexia Lee, after all.”

“I’m serious, K.H! He wants me to change my topic! He basically referred to it like it was the scum of the earth!”

K.H scoffed. “Bullshit. He wouldn’t dare to disrespect the masterpiece of our resident child genius!”

In response, Alexia yanked out the dreaded entry letter to hell and flung it at K.H. K.H scanned it, frowning. “Well,” she finally said after taking a considerable amount of time to pick her words. “You are still exaggerating.”

Alexia sighed again, and returned the letter to the depths of her bag. “It sucks, just admit it. What’s wrong with me?”

A smile crept up K.H’s face and Alexia wanted to slap her for smiling at such a horrible moment. “You know what’s wrong with you?” She exclaimed, sounding more excited than she needed to be. “Hormones. Well I’d never! Alexia Lee’s just one of us now, facing boy problems and all!”

Alexia turned away from K.H and quickened her steps, trying to avoid where the conversation was heading. K.H wasn’t about to let her off so quickly, and linked her arms in Alexia’s. Alexia felt as though she was being chained to a metal ball and thrown in the sea. “Who is it?” she demanded, the cheshire cat smile on her face now in full bloom. “It’s Caden, right? Isn’t it?”

“Oh, for the love of God, K.H, just drop it!” Alexia pleaded.

“I knew it! You like him! You like Caden!”  

“I do not,” Alexia lied, except she didn’t know whether it was a lie or not.

K.H shook her head and gave an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, Alexia. So smart, yet can’t tell how to read her own heart.”

“Oh and I suppose you can.”

K.H winked. “You have to admit, I am more qualified when it comes to such matters.” Then, as quickly as she had brought the topic up, K.H changed it. “I’m starving,” she complained suddenly. “Do you think I have time to run and grab a snack before History?”

“Let me see if I have any food on me now,” Alexia replied, opening up her bag and rummaging around. She managed to find a kit-kat bar that she did not recall having in the first place and passed it to K.H.

K.H gasped dramatically, as if she had been deprived of food for a month now. “Thank you, wonderful saviour!” she proclaimed, devouring the bar in three bites.

They stopped in front of K.H’s classroom and parted their ways. As Alexia was sliding into her seat at her Geography class, she felt her phone vibrate. She fumbled around in her pocket and found out that she had received a text from Caden. What now?

“Miss Alexia, there will be no phones allowed in my classroom.”

She looked up to see Mrs Garcia staring down at her, her palm outstretched.

“Yeah, hold on, one second,” Alexia replied and caught a glimpse of Mrs Garcia’s shocked face as she opened the message. Oh well, she thought without much remorse. Mrs Garcia wasn’t her biggest fan anyway, so why change that now?

Hey, Alexia. Sorry if the chocolate was a little melted. Hope you liked Kit-kat. Caden had even added a little smiley face at the end and Alexia felt the guilt monster rise up in her gut again. Of all the things I could have given K.H, I gave her Caden’s little act of kindness.

She replied with a “Thanks” and returned the favour of the smiley face hoping that she sounded more sincere than she felt. Then, she placed the phone on Mrs Garcia’s palm, and sat back, letting her failure at being a friend and star student wash over her.