Cerise reviewed what she’d just written. It was pretty bad. The first part of the exam was multiple choice and that part was easy but then at the end there were two essay questions. One of them she felt pretty confident about but the other she wasn’t so sure. She couldn’t quite remember which dude was Manet and which one was Monet. It was entirely possible she’d just answered a question about Manet by writing a whole paragraph about Monet. Oh well, that part was only worth a quarter of the mark. Even if she’d utterly failed it, she’d still pass the overall exam.
She brought the exam to the invigilator and signed out, then went to her locker, where she emptied it out, though it wasn’t particularly full to begin with, and brought the lock to the student services office in Herzberg.
“Sarah, I didn’t know you worked here,” she said as she placed her lock on the counter and looked up to see Sarah’s smiling face.
“It’s just a volunteer thing, which I guess is silly, I mean, our University applications are already in, volunteering now won’t change anything but I guess I started, might as well finish.”
Sarah gave Cerise the five dollars back she’d earned from renting the lock and successfully not losing or damaging it. Apparently not everyone could be trusted to accomplish such a Herculean feat.
“So you’re done with exams?” asked Sarah.
“Yeah, you?”
“Yep. So you gonna go to convocation?”
“Nah, for CEGEP? What’s the point?”
“I’m going. My family’s into that sort of thing,” shrugged Sarah.
“You’re not valedictorian again, are you?”
Sarah chuckled. “No, I’m a small fish now. I mean, I’ve got top honours though, so yay I guess,” she shrugged.
“You seem sad.”
“I dunno, I’m excited for McGill, I got in by the way.”
“Like there was ever any doubt!”
“Right, but I guess I’m sad to leave this place behind. It was fun here, don’t you think?”
“Yeah I guess, although I’m glad it’s over ‘cause I guess this last semester wasn’t so great. I mean, it was fun here for sure, with all the plays and cast parties and stuff. But this last semester just sucked. It seriously did. I feel like I lost all my friends,” sighed Cerise, and then hurriedly went on. “I mean not all of them!”
Sarah chuckled. “Yeah, you’ve still got the ones that count!”
“Yeah, exactly. All I lost were dumb boys. And I’m better off, right?”
“Right!” said Sarah brightly.
So how come it didn’t feel that way? Cerise took her leave, promising to get together with Sarah later that week.
When she got home, she found Jay half-heartedly playing basketball in his driveway. She went to her house and turned to look at him, only to see him staring at her, basketball in hand. He waved and smiled. She considered scowling or something but what the hell, she supposed her grudge had gone on long enough. She waved back and apparently that encouraged him because he hopped up onto the lawn their houses shared and ran towards her, throwing the basketball in her direction.
She tried to dodge but it was too late and the ball hit her in the shoulder. “What the fuck?!” she yelled out angrily.
“Fuck, I’m sorry! You were supposed to catch it!”
“You know how good I am at catching stuff!” she replied, dropping her bookbag and picking up the ball, which had landed in the yard. She threw it at him vigorously, only to have it drop to his feet.
“You suck at throwing too!” he laughed, grabbing the ball.
“You suck at life!” she said, running over to him and trying to get the ball away from him.
He let her get it and she skipped onto his driveway, tossing it towards the net and missing by a mile. He chuckled, retrieved the ball, threw it and also missed. So back to normal then.
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