Fing Perfect - S01 E16

Story 5 months ago

Fing Perfect - S01 E16

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 16

Gut Feeling

Grace knew that Dana was planning something. It would be too much of a coincidence for her to immediately try to befriend Cal on her first week of school. The evil blonde must've asked around about her and happened to pick up Cal's name.

But what was her game then? To try to turn Cal against her? Or perhaps she was actually interested in Cal...like that. Grace knew Dana to have several boyfriends before, and she couldn't be sure she didn't have one now, but maybe she was curious? Oh, what did it matter anyway? Grace didn't care if she decided to go after the other transfer student.

But whenever Grace thought about it like that, she remembered how Cal blushed and stuttered around Dana, and she felt nauseous. Thinking about this is getting me nowhere.

"You want us to see if Dana has a boyfriend?" Jeanette echoed, confused.

"She probably does since she always has one," Megan added. "But why does it matter?"

"Can't you guys put a little faith in me?" Grace snapped. "I have a plan."

Jeanette and Megan exchanged looks as the three of them entered the school before the morning bell. "Are you still hanging out with that transfer student?" Jeanette asked.

"Still?" Grace asked, feeling uneasy at the mention of the blonde's name. "I don't recall ever hanging out with her."

"Well..." Jeanette and Megan exchanged another look, as if they were treading on thin ice. And they were. "You've got those tutoring sessions. And didn't you guys go to the bonfire together?"

Grace winced. She should've known better than to hide that from her two friends. Of course word would travel around and they'd hear about it. "We didn't go together, we just happened to meet there."

Jeanette and Megan decided to drop it since Grace wasn't budging. But Grace knew they suspected something was going on, and the fact embarrassed her. Why was she even hiding the fact that she sometimes spent time with Cal? In spite of being on board to basically bully the transfer student, she knew the two girls wouldn't look down on Grace for befriending her.

Were they even friends? No, of course we aren't.

--

Jeanette and Megan went to work on finding out if Dana had a boyfriend, which is information that should be quickly obtainable. Grace needed to search for more though, since Dana was already going on the offensive.

She accidentally threw a ball at Grace's face during gym class, told a random senior that Grace had a crush on him and encouraged him to ask her out in the middle of a hallway, asked her for a cigarette loudly in homeroom, and dragged Cal off campus to lunch.

Not to mention, Dana was obviously doing her best to show Grace up in the popularity department. People acted completely different when they were trailing after the pretty blonde, dismissing Grace like they weren't actually scared of her.

Dana even had the nerve to show up at Thursday's tutoring session and do nothing but ask harassing questions to Cal and flirt shamelessly. The biggest irritation she could cause to Grace was making the ice queen jealous, something she was extremely good at. Not that Grace would ever admit that she was jealous when it came to Cal.

Pretty much the only thing Dana didn't try to usurp from Grace was her honor student status. The girl had always been hopelessly bad at school, and she wouldn't be caught dead studying.

After an exhausting week with her infuriating old rival, Grace already just wanted to go home on Friday morning. Maybe her dad would be in a good mood again this weekend and she could just spend time with him and her brothers. She could bake Dad's favorite lasagna and they could watch a movie while drinking hot chocolate.

Grace smiled at the thought, but she was brought back to reality by a voice calling out to her.

"Grace, hold on a second."

Grace turned around and saw her Calculus teacher, Mrs. Burns, leaning out of her classroom door. Grace walked over to her, flashing her fake but convincing smile.

"Hi, Mrs. Burns," she said. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Oh, you're always so sweet and helpful, Grace," Mrs. Burns praised with a smile. "But I just wanted to let you know that you don't need to continue tutoring Ms. McCarthy. It's been a few weeks and she seems to be caught up on the material. Plus, I can give her extra help now that the math tournament will be finished this weekend."

Grace frowned instantly at the news. She'd completely forgot that she was only tutoring Cal to get her caught up on the material she missed before she transferred, something she'd done a while ago now. They'd mostly just been doing Calc homework together while Grace helped her with the especially complicated stuff.

"Oh...I see," Grace said, trying to reconstruct her smile. "Do you really think she's got it all down?"

Mrs. Burns nodded. "Yes, she's a very smart girl. Plus, she had the best peer tutor in the school, so naturally she'd catch on fast."

"Okay, then. I'll let her know." Grace was trying her best to smile, but a giant pit was forming in her stomach.

"Thank you, Grace. I'll be giving you the best recommendation I can when the time to apply for universities comes around. And of course, if you need anything, just ask."

Mrs. Burns retreated back into her classroom and Grace continued down the hall in a daze. She wouldn't be meeting Cal after school anymore? That was basically the only time they saw each other in school. They didn't share any classes, and naturally Grace wouldn't invite her to lunch since they weren't friends or anything. The past few weekends spent with Cal have been somewhat due to coincidence. The only thing that tied them together was the sessions and mutual knowledge of Grace's secret stalker.

A weight should've been lifted off Grace's shoulders – now she didn't have to stay after school twice a week and spend time with someone she hated. But relief didn't come, and the only thing Grace felt was a lump forming in her throat.

--

After what seemed like an eternity, Grace entered the front door of her house, relieved to be greeting by the warmth of the indoors after facing the chill of the autumn weather.

"Hey, honey."

The deep voice caused Grace to jump, and she turned to see her father standing in the kitchen.

"Dad! What are you doing home so early?" Grace asked, confused. Usually he wasn't home until around 7pm, or later on nights when he had to do overtime.

"They let me take off early," her dad said with a smile. "How was your day?"

Grace moved to the dining room table and dumped her backpack off in a chair. "It was okay."

"Glad it's the weekend?"

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe."

"You've been pretty busy these past couple of weekends," her dad remarked. "Got a boyfriend?"

Grace blushed profusely. "Of course not!"

"Alright, alright," her dad laughed. "Listen, I know this is short notice, but I was just told about it today. I've got to go up north to oversee some trainings all weekend. My co-worker who was originally supposed to do it has a daughter with the flu, so she's staying home."

Grace blinked, surprised. "Wow, that is pretty short notice."

"Yeah, they're always dumping this stuff onto me at last minute," her dad sighed. "But you'll have the house to yourself this weekend."

"What about the boys?"

"Don't you remember? They're having a sleepover with the boys from their baseball team."

"Right..." Grace trailed off as her father started heading to the living room.

"No parties and no boys, though," her dad joked.

So much for a relaxing weekend.