And I hadn’t been as nervous as I’d thought I’d be.
I was even cautiously optimistic.
“Thanks,” I whispered to Noah after he’d handed his own test in. I passed the pen back, and he took it with a half smile.
The room began to clear since class was over, but I couldn’t seem to look away from Slade’s desk long enough to even consider leaving. How was I supposed to spend a whole weekend not knowing what my grade was? If I’d failed, I needed to know now—not three days from now.
“I’m just going to see if he has time to look at mine now,” I said to Noah, already out of my chair and starting down the aisle. His low chuckle followed me, but I didn’t think much of it as I reached Slade’s sturdy desk. It wasn’t like I was a teacher’s pet; my whole college education was kind of riding on this.
I cleared my throat, then waited until he looked up from his papers.
“Hi, Professor Slade.” I offered my best smile, the one that wasn’t overly toothy but hopefully reached my eyes without seeming creepy. “I’m so sorry—I know you’re busy, and I really don’t want to be a nuisance—but is there any way you could take a look at my test now? I studied really hard, and the idea of waiting all weekend to find out my grade makes me want to puke—”
Slade cut me off with a sigh. “One moment, Miss Fox, I’ll grade it now.”
I hovered quietly as he found my test and skimmed down the first page. He marked a few spots, but not enough to work my heart into a tizzy.
He flipped the page. Another mark.
Next page. No marks.
By the time he reached the last page, my heart surged with hope.
“Well, it appears you might yet turn this semester around,” Slade said when he reached the last page and flipped it back over. He scribbled at the top before holding it out to me with a clearing of his throat. “Your studying paid off.”
I spotted a greenBcircled at the top of the test, and I sucked in a breath.
AB!
“AB? You’re sure?” I checked myself when it came out suspicious. “Not that I doubt you or anything. Or myself. I just mean, it’s not some other student’s test you accidentally graded instead?”
“I’m always sure, Miss Fox,” Slade said as I triple-checked my name on the paper. “Congratulations.”
“AB!” My lips parted in awe as my chest filled with warmth. “That’s passing.”
“It is, indeed,” Slade said before pushing up his spectacles. “But the road to redemption isn’t fully paved yet. Even if you manage to maintain aBor higher on the remaining quizzes, you’ll still need anAon the midterm for me to be confident you can handle the material and pass my class.”
He may as well have been serenading me for all the good his warning did, because I was too overcome with relief to process much of anything beyond the test in my hand. Slade simply shook his head before focusing back on his scattered papers.
I practically vibrated on the spot in front of his desk, and my face threatened to split in two from the force of my smile. AB! I hadn’t failed!
“Is it okay if I take this with me?” I asked, lowering my voice in case he didn’t want to be disturbed. Slade nodded and waved me off without looking up from his papers.
I grinned and spun around on the spot, barely refraining from jumping in excitement. Every nerve ending in my body felt alive. I settled for a little skip down the aisle to my desk, where Noah waited against his own desk with his hands in his pockets.
“I got aB! I did it!” I said, and I barely suppressed the urge to fling my arms around him in a hug. He was the main reason this had even happened, and I was just so danghappy.
And relieved.
I wasn’t losing my scholarship!
Noah grinned—the biggest one I’d seen from him yet—and my own cheeks hurt from smiling. “Of course you did. This calls for a celebration.”
“It does! This is totally three-scoops worthy.” I licked my lips at the idea of splurging on two coffees instead of just one. The occasion kind of called for it.
“No.” He pushed off the desk to stand, still smiling. “We should go to dinner.”
The sound of a record scratching pulled my brain to a halt, and every muscle in my body froze. I replayed his words over three times in my head, but no amount of repetition helped them make sense. “Dinner?”
