Olivia, Delilah, and Rat Boy all finish before me, but I make sure not to let that stress me out. I take my time, double- and even triple-checking my answers. When I feel confident enough, I get up and turn my test in, praying I didn’t flunk.
I’m almost certain I didn’t fail. I felt way too sure about some answers, whereas last time I felt like I didn’t know anything. That has to be a good sign, right? At least an improvement?
Trying not to overthink it, I return to my seat and pick up my stuff, slinging my backpack over my shoulder and walking out of the room.
When I make it to the hallway, I’m greeted by a familiar sight.
Olivia is seated on the bench across from the door, the same bench she was sitting on when I found her after our first test, now staring down at her phone. When the door closes behind me, she lifts her head to meet my eyes, staring at me with anxious curiosity, dying to know how I thought it went.
“Well?” she asks impatiently.
I let out a sigh, plopping down next to her on the bench. Closing my eyes, I rest my head back against the wall.
I feel Olivia shift, bending her knee up on the bench between us to face me. Sensing her intense gaze, I peek one of my eyes open to look at her. She’s staring at me with wide eyes full of worry, and my lips involuntarily twitch up at the corners due to her adorableness.
“Bronx!” she whines, shoving my shoulder.
I can’t help but laugh, sitting up straight. “I don’t want to jinx anything,” I confess, “but I think I did pretty well.” I grin, turning to look at her expression.
“Really?” she asks excitedly, eyes sparkling.
“Like I said, I don’t want to jinx it,” I say, standing and stretching. “So don’t get too excited about wearing my jersey just yet,” I tease with a wink.
She rolls her eyes good-naturedly, then stands and grabs her backpack. Brushing past me, she walks down the hall and I fall into step with her.
“But for now,” I muse, “we could have a celebratory lunch date?”
She nods, blushing at the worddate. “Yeah, we can do that.”
“Good.” I grin, leading her to the cafeteria.
“So you really think it went well?” she asks cautiously, hopefully, looking up at me with those big, innocent eyes.
“I think so,” I admit earnestly. “So should I give you my jersey now or . . . ?” I trail off, grinning.
She laughs, shaking her head. “We’ll just have to wait until we get our results tomorrow in lab.”
>> <<
I get to lab just as Tracy opens the door and instructs everyone to put all study materials away for the quiz. Everyone begins shoving things into their backpacks and filing into the classroom.
I find Olivia sitting on the floor of the hallway between Delilah and Rat Boy, packing up.
“Hey, Finch,” I greet her, extending my hand to help her up, earning me a glare from Rat Boy.
“Thank you,” she says, brushing off the back of her jeans.
Before she can lean down to pick up her backpack from the floor, I swoop down and grab it for her, proceeding into the classroom with it.
“Bronx,” she hisses, giggling while chasing me into the room, trying to grab her backpack from me.
“What a gentleman,” I hear Delilah coo behind us, followed by a disgusted noise from Rat Boy.
When everyone is seated, Tracy passes out the quizzes over last week’s material. I surprisingly breeze through it, confident I’m still going to hold up my other end of the bet by getting a C or better on the lab quizzes. Now all I have to worry about is what I got on the test yesterday.
After Tracy collects the quizzes, she reaches for the large stack of papers on her desk that I already know are our tests from lecture.
“I have your tests,” Tracy announces. “When I call your name, please come and grab it from me,” she instructs.
