Yeah I was in Juvie. Get over it.

Chapter 27

I kept my head down as I walked through the halls, my head still slightly throbbing because of the drinks last night.

Math had been a fucking nightmare, it felt like every single word that came out of the teacher's mouth was a strike to the head.

Didn't help that she kept asking me to solve the problems on the board.

She found out that I was actually good at math, so now she started calling me out in the middle of class.

Which fucking sucked.

When I finally reached social studies, Jay and Daya were already there, a seat in between the two for me. 

I took a deep breath before walking in to Daya smiling at me. Jay did the same.

I sat down and Daya put her hand on my shoulder, "Hey, Carmen."

I looked at her, "Hey."

"You alright?" Jay asked at how low my voice was.

"Yeah, just a normal day guys."

Daya gave me a look that meant, bull-fucking-shit.

"Welp, how was math?" She asked.

"Shitty, teacher thinks I'm smart, so she keeps calling me out."

"Well that's because you are," Jay mumbled.

I whipped my head around and looked at him, "What?"

"Uh, I mean, it's just you're actually really good at ma-" 

My hand flew to his mouth, covering it. 

"Shut the fuck up, Jay," I removed my hand quickly, but he just gave me a perplexed look.

"Why don't you want anyone to know you're good at something?"

I just smirked, "Because, I don't want to ruin their perfect little stereotype box they made for me, it'd be inconsiderate."

He rolled his eyes, "Of course. Image."

"Yup," I said, popping the P at the end, before the bell wrang and Mr. Rivera stood up, grabbing a stack of papers and putting them at everyone's desk.

"Okay, class today, we're going to be doing an open forum debate, where we're gonna be discussing something that happened recently. A murder, and the unnecessary death of the possible killer. The debate will be anyone game, anyone can stand up and share opinions on the case, or the death penalty in general, but just so you know, this debate is based on emotion. I don't care about statistics, and I don't care about facts, I care about feelings. How you feel about a topic surprisingly moves people more than just the hard facts. Why do you think at driving schools they tell you about real live families who lost their children to distracted driving? Because, it connects you to the victims, not making them  just a statistic.

"Now today, we're going to read the story published early this morning, and then we'll leave the floor open. Remember, we're not only discussing the good and bad of the case, but also the good and bad of the death penalty as a whole."

Jay passed me a print out and I tensed, catching a glance at the title.

18 Year Old, Potentially Innocent, Gets Death Penalty Out Of State.

"Holy shit," I muttered under my breath.

"What?" Daya asked, which made me hand her a paper.

Her eyes darted across the page shortly before looking back up with a hand over her mouth. I hadn't told her that he died the night before, and I didn't exactly plan on it.