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“Wait, are you fucking shitting me?” I said, grabbing it up, looking closer. There were no red marks on the first page, not a single fucking one. I flipped through the pages, and yeah, I’d missed some, missed a few, fine, I was no genius. But I felt like one after the deep dive my stomach had been taking when I got my last few tests back, numbers in the goddamn forties when this was twice that.
“Save it for the field, huh?” Mendleton said, almost smiling, which I’d definitely never seen, and it took me a minute to realize I was swearing up a storm there in his classroom.
“Sorry. It’s just… 88? I was… That’s a B, right?”
“It’s a B+.”
“No shit.Sorry.I just. Ireallystudied for this.”
“Well, it shows,” he said, nodding his shiny bald head, and I wasn’t gonna kiss it, but I’d never been so tempted. Pretty sure I was in actual shock. “With the homework and the class work, you’re looking at bringing things up a whole letter grade once it’s said and done. Low B.”
“Hell yeah, that’ll work,” I nodded, bouncing in my shoes. “So, I’m cleared to play. No AP?” I asked him, just to make extra, extra sure, just to make sure somebody said it.
“You’re cleared. I’ll let Coach Travis know. But, Logan, listen,” he said seriously, trying to bring me down, but that wasn’t happening today. Today was maybe the most fucked up, incredible day of my life, actually. “You don’t have another big test like this to bolster your grade for about eight weeks. If you slip again, it’s going to be a lot harder to recover. That means you have to stay on the homework and the quizzes and the section review if you wanna stay off academic probation. I’m just warning you. It’s not going to get easier. Whatever you’re doing, keep it up.”
I nodded, trying to be serious, but grinning anyway. “That will not be a problem.”
* * *
I knew Caleb would be waitingoutside in the hall, but I wasn’t expecting Walker and Ellis and Riggs to be hanging around too.
“Wow, no pressure or anything,” I said, surprised to see everybody just leaning against lockers with their arms crossed, looking like some weird album cover.
“Better be goddamn pressure,” Ellis said, straightening up. “Auggie’s gonna literally die if he has to take your slot tonight. And then Walker too. Please say you fucking passed.”
“Dude.” Walker shoved him hard enough to knock him into Riggs.
“What? That’s notnice?Am I lying?”
I turned my attention to Caleb, who was calm, ready for whatever I had to say, like none of this was any big deal, and in some ways it wasn’t. Even if I’d flunked the fuck out, my life would have been so much better than I ever thought it could be, no lie.
He smiled and took a step forward. “Look, however you did—”
“B+, motherfucker,” I told him, holding the test out, and his eyes lit up, snatching it from me.
“Ha!” He started to flip through the pages, looking at my answers, no doubt scanning for shit he was going to make me relearn later, but I didn’t fucking care. The way he was grinning, like he was actually proud of me, the way the other guys hooting and banging on the lockers almost totally faded away when I looked at him, it made everything so fucking clear to me.
Maybe, with some help, I could keep myself a solid B Chem student. Hopefully. But I was going to ace me some Caleb Fucking Heath.
“So, you’re cleared to play,” he said, looking up from the test, wanting that same confirmation I had, even though it was obvious. “You’re—”
He stopped talking when I put a hand on his chest and shoved him back up against the locker, kissing him hard. Right there in the hallway, right where anyone could see. I didn’t give a fuck who was watching or what they thought, or if this was gonna cause me trouble somewhere down the line. Without him having my back, therewasno down the line. If someone felt like being mad about that, fuck them. I didn’t really feel like playing around anymore, acting like maybe I wasn’t into it, maybe I wasn’t into him, when I’d never been more into anyone in my life.
It took a startled second for him to kiss me back, but when he did, it came with a hand on my face and the other wrapping around my back, holding me tight for a long minute before we finally broke apart.
“Good job,” he whispered, staring me down with those soft gray eyes I loved so much.Loved.
I closed my eyes a second and enjoyed that word. I could say it. I thought I could. Probably.
Riggs cleared his throat behind me, his trademark raspy cough, and I looked up at Caleb again and smirked before I turned around. They were all staring, although I couldn’t say anyone looked overly shocked.
“That must have been some pretty good tutoring,” Riggs said, and Caleb snorted.
“This is what’s what,” I told them, trying not to glare, but having it on deck. “You got a problem, say it now.”
“Problem with what?” Walker shrugged. “This is not the secret you’ve been telling yourself it is. We’ve literally been talking about this all week.”
“Told you that’s what tutoring was,” Ellis said. “If it keeps your grades up, fuck in the goddamn hallway. I’ll hold my coat up in front of you, so nobody looks. I mean, I’ll look, but I won’t let anyone else.”
