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“After school?” I didn’t even know what the bus schedule was like an hour after the one I usually took. I hadn’t done anything after school but go home since netball when I was fourteen, and Marcia was still around to pick me up back then. “Can’t I make it up in our next class?”
“It’s not being counted as part of your assessment, but we’re going to be going through the questions and discussing them, and that’s going to be tremendously beneficial to you so I don’t want to let you miss it.”
He probably wasn’t allowed to be seen putting any of his students at a disadvantage. “But you’re not going to be done marking before our next class. You…” It seemed another level of rude to point out that he’d never managed to get an assignment or test turned around back to us in less than a week.
“This test is being marked under the same conditions as your exams, remember.” Mr. Phillips clearly understood where I had been about to go, but his expression quickly shifted to abashed. “That is, it’s being computer-marked. Well, I suppose yours is going to be hand-marked based on the computer scheme, because there’s no chance trying to get it entered into the computer is going to work.”
I groaned.
Mr. Phillips turned his head along with mine at a chuckle from the ranks of the avid test-takers. “Mr. Bennett, maybe you should spend more time worrying about your own academic performance.”
“Nothing to worry about there though,” said Axel, and went smirking back to his test.
“Well,” I said, “maybe I can come in at lunchtime.”
I could tell he’d been hoping I would nominate a time when he wasn’t trying to eat. “Well… I’ll make sure I’m ready for you then,” he said.
“Great. I guess I’ll come back here?”
“Sounds… good.”
After that Mr. Phillips and I mostly just stared helplessly at one another for the next several minutes of the class, until he decided it was time to start collecting everyone else’s efforts. I made my awkward way back to my seat to listen while he made concluding remarks on the test that meant absolutely nothing to me, his regular glances in my direction showing he was still very aware of my issue.
I would have just asked if I could leave early and have the talk when it was actually relevant, but I had a reason to lurk around until he let everyone go. Once we were dismissed for recess I took my time to get going, finally moving towards the door so that I ended up bumping elbows with Axel.
“All right,” I said as he was turning to look at me, “what did you do?”
He winked. “Well I admit I flubbed a few of the questions on that paper because I was at a party last night. But at least I wasn’t so unprepared they wouldn’t even give me a paper.”
It was so damn cheeky it had to be a confession. “Why? I—how?”
“Aileen, are you suggesting I had something to do with the awkward failure of Burgundy College’s dubiously commissioned replica exam system?”
“Well, did you?”
I was looking around to make sure nobody was near us; he didn’t look anywhere but at me as he said, “Yeah, of course I did. Did you like it?”
“Back to my second question: why?”
“I didn’t think you were getting the message last night that I’m not going to let you just cutesy your way out of addressing this situation like a grown-up. Refusing to engage at all is not how this negotiation is going to work.”
“There’s no negotiation here, I told you all that stuff with my dad is none of your business and I expect you to respect that.” I tried to speed up and break away from him, but as well as being a shifty hacker he was hopelessly long-legged.
“Expectations and reality start out very far apart in a busine
ss deal, Aileen. You should remember that.”
He was not going to just let this drop. What was up with that group of guys anyway?
Well, he thought he was not going to let it drop. “Here’s a negotiation for you, Axel. Who do I have to report you to if I want you to leave me alone?”
“Report me?” His eyes went all wide like butter wouldn’t fucking melt. “For what, Aileen? We’re just two kids who go to the same school, having a chat here.”
I knew better than to go down the path of debating with him. He’d just remind me there was no proof of whatever he’d done to make me not exist to the school’s computer, I was just going to make myself look crazy to everyone, and so on. I knew the drill, I’d watched not one but two of my friends go down the road of being tangled up in his friends, I had seen how they started to deteriorate.
“If there is any more funny business, I’m going to figure out a way to complain about you to whoever will listen that will get their attention,” I told him.
Axel was too tall to laugh in my face, but he managed to laugh over the top of my head. “What, lie? I don’t believe even the daughter of a patent troll would do something like that.”
