How To Be The Best Third Wheel

Original Edition - Tip 44: Trust During the Christmas Rush

It's finally the last week before Christmas break and let me just say, things are getting pretty wild...

And by wild I mean that I have a Bio lab due on Tuesday, a 45 minute English seminar on Wednesday, a Math assessment on Thursday, and a unit test for all three of those subjects on Friday. However, it's Christmas "spirit week" so it's all good, right?

WRONG.

Whoever thought that spirit week would somehow lift the spirits of the ever so depressed students, was absolutely mistaken.

You see, I'm running on 3 hours of sleep, an extra large McCafé coffee, and I'm actually tempted to drop out of school at this point. (But at least any size coffee is finally a dollar). We can all tell that things aren't going so great because I am a person that is somewhat bearable after I get 9 hours of sleep, plus I don't even drink coffee. So as of right now, I have no friends, no goals in life, and a slight twitch in my left eye.

This statement is absolutely true because I turn the corner, see James, and he goes running in the opposite direction.

Unfortunately, it has come to the point where I've become such a venomous monster that my friends and my boyfriend are aware that being in my line of sight can only lead to possible doom. At least I know that they've known me long enough to give me my space.

On the other hand, some people have yet to experience me at crunch week.

"'Cuz!" Eliza shouts from down the hallway, flailing her arms as if her flashy personality didn't draw enough attention to herself already.

You see, I can't pretend to not hear her. That would be utterly impossible considering that Kansas can hear her. So I walk over to her and and raise my eyebrows, giving the "what do you want" face. The intense look I give still doesn't faze her, as she continues to smile cooly.

"Guess what?" She says, giddy like a child. I've never seen her excited like this before.

"What?" I reply, my tone seeming uninterested because I am. My true inner self is mentally scolding me for being so grouchy but when you haven't had a full cycle of sleep in days, it really does a number on you.

Before Eliza can continue her story, I notice my friends, all grouped together, approaching us. Kiera waves at me and I acknowledge her with a salute. Brave, my friends are. I think they know that I'm internally dying from my facial expressions, but I feel like they're just coming over since Eliza looks like she's about to faint from the excitement of her news.

"What's up my dudes." Logan greets. I shoot him my seasonal look of despair and he just responds with a huge grin. We may be in the same english class, but the fact that he only cares for scraping by with a passing grade allows his holiday season to be much less stressful than mine.

"Eliza was about to say something quite grand." I finally reply, with gritted teeth, holding a false smile.

"Okay guys, are you ready?" she almost squeals.

"I'm at the edge of my seat." I respond sarcastically.

"So what's the news?" James asks, genuinely interested.

"So...I just scored 2 tickets to a game at the Scotiabank Arena!" she basically yells.

Me=confused, however, when all three of the guys (and Carol) start screaming like complete idiots in the middle of our school hallway, I begin to understand what they're talking about. 

"That's awesome!" Logan yells, his booming voice shattering my eardrums, causing me to shift another foot away from him.

"Who's playing?" Daniel asks.