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“Want me to take care of it?” she asked, turning a glare in their direction, teeth bared like a bulldog, looking like she wanted to rip them limb from limb. Meanwhile, at 4’1” and skinny as a rake, she’d be lucky to fight off a stiff wind.
One by one, she cracked her knuckles, ready to defend my honor.
Laughter bubbled inside my chest and my spirits instantly lifted. I smiled and looped my arm through hers, tugging her toward the cafeteria. “No. That’s okay. It was just the stupid name thing.”
“Again?” Scarlett asked, shaking her head in disgust. “You would think by now that would’ve gotten old. I mean, what are we, ten?”
“Tell me about it.” I rolled my eyes. “And,” I took a deep breath, watching her out of the corner of my eye, because I knew she’d flip at the next piece of news, “I might lose my scholarship.”
Scarlett stopped dead in her tracks. Her hand shot out, gripping my arm as if I might disappear right in front of her very eyes. The boy behind her nearly plowed into her back before he cursed and went around us.
Scarlett’s brows rose to her hairline. “Shut. Up.”
“I’m serious.”
“No. Just, no. They can’t do that. Can they?”
I nodded mournfully and began walking again as she followed beside me. “Apparently they can. Since my scholarship is academic, it relies on me enrolling in certain programs, and due to budget cuts, two of the AP classes I was supposed to take have been cancelled.”
Her mouth gaped a moment before she snapped it shut. “But it’s your senior year. That is wildly unfair. What are you gonna do?”
“Well, Principal Bell did give me one option,” I said, biting my lip.
“Yes! Anything. You had me worried. Why didn’t you just start with that? I thought I’d have to go our final year without you. And a year without P is not something I want to contemplate. Not to mention, you’d be leaving me with all of these rich snobs to cope alone.”
“You are one of those rich snobs,” I pointed out.
“We’re notthatrich.AndI’m not a snob.”
“True.”
“So what’s the deal? What do you have to do? Sell an organ? Promise them your firstborn? Become Bell's personal love slave?”
“Um,ew.” I cringed and held up a hand for her to stop.
Scarlett grimaced. “Sorry, I got carried away.”
“Well, you’re not too far off-base.”
She gasped. “Really?”
“I have to be a tutor.”
Scarlett frowned. Obviously that wasn’t what she was expecting.
“Okay, where’s the part where this is as bad as being Bell’s love slave?” she asked.
“It’s more on par with selling my soul.”
“I’m not following.”
“Topher Elliot,” I said, dropping the name like an atomic bomb.
“Oh.” Then her eyes widened as she understood. “Ohhh.You hate Topher.”
“Exactly.”
“Maybe it won’t be so bad.”
