The Promposal (COMPLETE)

10- Fight

Edith's POV

My spring break was amazing!

I got to visit my older sister, who lives in New York City. My parents booked us a hotel near her apartment, and we spent the week exploring the city. There was a lot to do in New York, like watching broadway shows, shopping, and taking a ferry to liberty island.

I even bought a green foam headband shaped like the statue of liberty, at the request of my mom. My sister was able to get out of wearing it for photos, but since I'm the youngest, I was the target victim for photo shoots and touristy souvenirs.

I didn't want the trip to end. We were having so much fun, and I was glad to have a chance to see my sister again. She had moved out to New York after college, with a business degree and a few roommates. I hadn't seen her since last summer, and in the time between then and now she seemed fully assimilated to the urban lifestyle. She wore a grey beanie and walked confidently, often leaving me and my parents behind.

But ultimately, spring break is only a week. Eventually, we all have to go back to school. That is, until we're done with college. But then I guess there's work to worry about. Anyway, that's beside the point.

Today is Monday, and I'm back at school for another few months of learning before summer. I don't really have studying to do yet, so instead of hiding in the library during lunch, I go to the quad so I can eat with Camila. But when I get there, someone else is waiting for me.

Cynthia.

"Hey," I say when I notice that she's looking at me. I'm somewhat confused as to why she's here, since Camila had told me that she was supposedly suspended. But I guess it was only for a week, because she's here, backpack in hand.

"Hi Edith, it's so great to see you," Cynthia responds, in a tone so laced in poison that it makes me severely uncomfortable. I'm not used to the kind of drama that this tone suggests, so I just pretend I didn't hear it.

"Yeah," I try to continue walking toward the table where I usually sit with Camila. She's not there yet to witness this encounter, but it still feels like a safe place amidst this situation.

Then Cynthia grabs my wrist to stop me. "I know that you're the one who told the school about the research paper," she retorts accusingly.

She doesn't let go of my arm, as if trying to start a fight. She also doesn't break my stare, which is absolutely terrifying. I don't know how to react, in shock from her sudden outburst.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I respond calmly, but my voice shakes a little under Cynthia's gaze. She lets go of my arm, but still appears visibly angry.

"You're the only person who proof read it," she says matter of factly.

I try to explain things to her because she seems confused. "But the teachers run everything through a plagiarism checker before-"

I'm cut off by her rebuttal, "You're going to play dumb? I'm not stupid enough to turn in that copy pasted draft I showed you."

Now I'm getting a little bit more uncomfortable. I notice Cynthia balling up her fists, and in an effort to avoid a fight, I start to back away. "I'm sorry about what happened, but I have no idea how they found out," I say, before turning around and speed walking out of there.

I hear Cynthia shouting from behind me that "you're such a liar," as well as a few other colorful words I would rather not repeat.

Once I make it to the lunch table, I see Camila approaching from the opposite direction. She seems slightly appalled by the sight of Cynthia screaming profanities at me, but I quietly whisper, "please just ignore her," and eventually the yelling stops.

"What just happened?" Camila asks after a few moments.

"Cynthia hates me, and is possibly trying to ruin my life," I answer. I feel exhausted, which is annoying considering the school day isn't over yet.

Camila tries to comfort me for the rest of lunch by trash talking Cynthia a bit and pledging that she'll stick up for me if she ever tries to bait me into a fight again. I appreciate her help, but the whole situation seems messed up and I'd rather just ignore it. Camila doesn't seem to notice this, and continues on about it for all of lunch. When the bell for class finally rings, I feel an immense sense of relief.

In chemistry, we finally rearrange seats. Everything is entirely random, with each student receiving a playing card that matches a symbol on their desk. In my opinion, the system seems kind of lazy, because it means our teacher just didn't want to write their own seating charts. But it's usually fine.

Except that this time, I am seated directed next to Nolan. Again. Which means it won't be easy to avoid talking about what had happened two weeks ago.

After Nolan had initially approached me in Chemistry class two Fridays ago, I decided to ignore him completely for the next week. It seemed fairly easy at the time, since we pretty much just had prep time for our test. The week after spring break, I figured, I'd be sitting somewhere completely new, with annoying sophomores too intimidated to talk to me. But now, it's not going to be so easy.

"Hi," Nolan says quietly as he sits down in the chair next to mine. It's clear that he senses my slight annoyance with our seating assignment. And although a part of me wants to continue ignoring him for the next month or two, I also know that would be really rude and kinda bitchy.

"Hey," I respond, which seems to surprise him. Nolan takes this as an opportunity to apologize.

"I'm sorry about what I said before," he starts.

Before he continues, I make sure to clarify "I wasn't mad at you. It's just that my friend couldn't keep a secret, and what you said about Jonah. It's just, it was a lot."

I'm not quite sure if that made logical sense, but Nolan seems to understand. He nods along, and then responds "so we're cool?"

I never really thought of us as 'cool' before all this, to be honest. We never really knew each other. But I guess "yeah, it's fine."

One of the sophomores in front of me turns around when we're done talking. She looks straight at me, with a strange amount of eye contact, and asks "did you really get into a fight with Cynthia Song?"

Nolan's eyes widen and he looks at me, waiting for an answer as well.

"It was a misunderstanding," I explain. But this doesn't seem to satisfy the annoying sophomore's curiosity.

"About what?" she asks. I suppose Cynthia has probably already spread my name around school, so I answer honestly.

"She thought I turned her in for plagiarism," I answer. At this, Nolan seems a little bit relaxed. The sophomore girl turns back around to gossip with her friends. And I feel very uncomfortable, because I know they're talking about me.

I am not used to being the center of attention like this.

I look over to Nolan, who seems deep in thought about something. I figure he's considering if this is somehow caused by Jonah's situation or if it's just a coincidence. "It's unrelated," I say carelessly, before realizing that Nolan didn't give me Cynthia's name earlier.

Nolan seems shocked. "You know?" he asks.

"Yeah," I admit, "But the girl he likes? She's kinda terrible." I think back on her actions during lunch, and lean back in my seat. My eyelids threaten to shut, so I can take a nap, but just then the bell for class rings. They flutter open, and I sigh. At least we have a few minutes before class starts, while the teacher takes roll. I don't notice that Nolan is still watching me.

"Are you okay?" he asks, noticing my exasperated behavior.

"It's not like I got beat up or anything," I say jokingly. But I glance down at my wrist afterward, and it is still slightly red. Wow, that girl had a good grip. Nolan seems to notice.

"Ugh, Jonah has such bad taste in girls," he mentions, looking at my wrist. I'm about to mention that I haven't heard the best stories about his past relationships either, but decide against it. That seems a little too personal.

Instead, I laugh. "I know," I say.

Then our teacher calls for everyone's attention, and class officially starts.