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Tessa

I didn’t think there was ever a time in my life when I had been more nervous

And this all had to do with a paper

Well, really it was the grade that was going to be on the paper, and as I sat there, waiting, I tried to convinceto be okay, that I had done well enough on the assignet at least an A Because that’s what I needed: an A

My pal fast, like I’d drank too much coffee on an empty stomach My sto trouble sitting still inbreaths like they told us to in yoga class, but taking deep, cal breaths is difficult to do when your whole chest feels like it is in a vice Professor Roch assistant, half the papers to return, and he had the other half It was probably random, who had which papers, but my mind for some reason latched onto the idea that if Professor Rochood news could only come in one form: an A

“I was mostly quite pleased with the effort shown in these articles,” he said “Most of you showed that not only have you been paying attention in the pastthe principles we’ve been learning to the work you do out in the field”

My best friend, Lindsey, sat next toattention She wasn’t in this class because she was interested in journalism; rather, she was here because she’d heard the professor was hot and not a cure were

And Professor Rochman was hot—call me Leo, he’d said on the first day of class, but that was so weird I couldn’t call him Leo; I’d never been on a first-name basis with a teacher before None of the other students see myself to do it

He was getting closer to us, and I felt my heart rate accelerate My GPA had slipped below a 35, and my parents would be infuriated if it remained there Subpar performance was simply unacceptable to theotten straight As I had just assus would be the sa in love Well, I thought it was love, but it really turned out to be a big disaster His name was Nick Sanders and he was one of the stars of Benton’s basketball team, a total jock, not the sort of person I ever would have dated, but we ended up sitting next to each other in an American politics lecture and it just sort of went froreat, until it wasn’t, and I’d found uard when he toldout any, or that anything had changed between us since the last tireat, and it had taken its toll on my schoolwork Only in the past month or so had I been able to wake up and not find , but it was still difficult to see hiiven ht

And now here I was, behind in uy