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There was ranted thatfor my car and for me to live in a small apartht living by et me out of the party atmosphere, but would also help me become more independent My father transferred a roceries, utilities, and any other expenses that cropped up Unlike many of my classmates, I didn’t have to eat in the cafeteria, I hadn’t needed to take out any loans, and I didn’t have to try to juggle a part-time job on top of my studies

The one condition of this, though, was that I maintain a 40 GPA

If only I hadn’t gotten involved with Nick, this wouldn’t even be an issue But I had, and onout with hi Here I was, dating a popular guy, a guy that other girls around campus were interested in, yet he had wanted to be withat the fact that it had even happened in the first place, except thosehow unceremoniously he had dropped me

Professor Rochhten, and relief begin to flood ht in front of us I even went so far as to lift my arm, palm up, to receive the paper he was about to hand back to lanced at my outstretched palm like I was some panhandler he’d encountered on the street, and then kept walking A few seconds later, Kristin appeared, dropping ht and very thin, with blunt-cut, shoulder length brown hair and big brown eyes that sort of reminded me of a basset hound’s She looked atI looked down at the paper

A C+ A big, red C+, right there on the front of the paper, like an angry slash, a blood stain, a symbol of doom

“Shit,” I whispered

“How’d you do?” Lindsey asked, leaning over, peering at my paper “Oh,” she said when she saw the mark She quickly flipped her own paper over, but not before I caught sight of the A- scrawled across the top

Professor Roch back all the papers, and he was saying so now to the class, but I couldn’t really hear what it was; his voice was distorted, like he was talking underwater

“It’s okay, Tessa,” Lindsey said quickly “It’s not like you got an F C is average So you got a C+ That’s better than average!”

She smiled, but I could tell that she felt bad for me She knehat my parents were like Unlike her parents, who didn’t see to be happy to hear about this Part ofbut A-pluses on all nments, but I didn’t even know if that would be possible I didn’t have another choice; I would have to tell my parents

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