Fing Perfect - S01 E42

Story 5 months ago

Fing Perfect - S01 E42

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 42

Three's Company

"Why are you just standing there? Come sit with us!"

Dana stood up and walked over to pull Cal to a seat next to their's. She initially tried to sit Cal down in the desk directly beside Grace's, but the tall girl diverted at the last second and opted to claim the seat on the other side of Dana. Grace couldn't deny feeling a little hurt at the action.

The other kids in the class simply watched the commotion, and Grace could pick up the sound of hushed conversations behind them.

Dammit, Dana...

Regardless, Grace was shocked by the coincidence of all three of them being in the same class. It wasn't new for the honor student to share a course with Dana – after all, they were still in the same homeroom. But Cal, who was enrolled in normal classes while Grace was in honors, was typically unlikely to become her classmate.

And yet, here they were.

The awkwardness was palpable as Cal and Grace exchanged glances around Dana. Being this close to her ex-lover after weeks of not seeing her was re-conjuring some...uncomfortable feelings. Anger, hurt, sadness, longing...attraction.

I mean, you can't blame Grace! She wouldn't have dated Cal if she wasn't into her in the first place! Even so, this amalgamation of emotions was causing Grace's stomach to turn.

"You guys, I'm so excited that we're gonna be together all semester," Dana said, clapping her hands.

"I don't understand why you keep acting like my friend, Dana," Grace snapped, annoyed. What with Dana being smarter than she looked, Grace was sure that the blonde knew how awkward this situation was. She was just eating up the drama.

"Oh, come on, Grace," Dana replied with a shit-eating grin, "You'd be all alone in this class if it weren't for us."

"That'd be preferable."

Dana ignored her, leaning over to latch onto Cal's arm. Cal uncharacteristically flinched at the action, and Grace felt her eye twitch.

"Didn't you miss me and Grace over the break, Cal?" the perfumed blonde asked, looking up at the taller girl through her fake eyelashes.

Cal swallowed, pausing as if she didn't know how to answer. She still seemed to be perplexed by this whole situation. Grace couldn't really blame her – she felt the same way.

"Uh...sure," Cal replied carefully, glancing at Grace for a split second before looking away

Yeah, right.

Grace couldn't help but think that, and the idea caused a pain to well up in her chest. With how much they argued and avoided each other right before break, Grace wondered if Cal had moved on from her. Maybe she figured it was better off this way...maybe she even found another girl to crush on. Cal was attractive and outgoing – it wouldn't be difficult for her to find a new girlfriend right away.

The thought started to devour Grace's mind, causing her to feel a bit ill. But before she could continue too far down the mental spiral, she shook her head, trying to get a grip.

I can't be feeling like this. I broke up with her after all. It's been almost a month since we broke up...it's time to start getting over it.

And Grace had expected to be over the relationship in a week, but it was still sometimes the first thing she thought about when she woke up or went to sleep. When she saw her ex-girlfriend, she couldn't help but want to reach out and touch her, deep in the back of her mind.

It was starting to weigh on Grace, and she was definitely getting embarrassed about how much she was affected by a break-up than she initiated.

And it definitely wasn't going to help that they would be in the same class all semester.

The bell rang, forcing Grace out of her anxious thoughts.

The young teacher stood up, clearing his throat and pushing his thick glasses up the brim of his nose.

"Alright, everyone, quiet down," he said, and the chatter in the small class faded away. "My name's Mr. Morrison and I'll be your Sociology teacher. I just started this semester, so that's why you might not have seen me around before."

Although Mr. Morrison originally came off to Grace as the nerdy and shy type, he was rather confident in front of the class. He seemed so comfortable at the front of the classroom that Grace found it surprising that this was his first semester. He definitely seemed young enough to be fresh out of residency.

Grace didn't really like young teachers, so it made her a bit nervous about this class (on top of, of course, other reasons). Inexperienced teachers needed time to perfect their teaching style, and sometimes this was at the expense of the students being able to soak up the coursework.

"We're mostly going to go over the syllabus today," he said, reaching for a stack of papers on his desk. "I know it's boring, but you guys know the deal."

He began passing out a stack to the front of each row for the students to send backwards down the line. When Grace received her syllabus, she immediately began scanning it. This was in contrast to Cal and Dana who left theirs on their desks and engaged in whispered chatter.

The closeness gave Grace a familiar sense of irritation. Dana always pretended to be everyone's friend – but only if she got something out of it. And here she was, clinging to Cal once again.

Why should I even care? What she does with Cal is none of my business.

Grace repeated the logical mantra in her head, but she also had a sneaking thought of "She also has a boyfriend" that popped up in the back of her mind. Not that it mattered.

Finding herself preoccupied with what the two blondes were doing, Grace stopped paying attention to the syllabus until Mr. Morrison started verbally going over it. Even then, the honor student was mostly lost in her thoughts. That was, until he started going over the grading criteria - that was something she always paid attention to.

"The grading's nothing crazy," the young teacher began. "20% of your grade will depend on homework and in-class assignments, 60% on exams, and another 20% on the group project. You won't be presenting the group project until the last week of school, but you'll be working on it all semester, so I'll tell you guys more about it in the next week or so."

Ugh...I hate group projects, Grace thought. No one ever took assignments as seriously as her, and she seemed to get paired with the laziest people.

Grace felt a nudge at her side, and looked over irritably at Dana.

"Hear that? A group project!" she said. "We've already got a little group right here, huh?"

Both Grace and Cal exchanged an uncomfortable glance.

"Hell no! You guys'll get me an F."

Cal's expression soured a bit. "Yeah, and I'm not up for someone getting on my ass about the project the rest of the semester."

Dana sighed, resting her chin in her hand.

"You guys are no fun."