Page 174 of We Shouldn't Be Together
“Tell me,” I insist. “What’s happened?”
She swipes a hand over her face and averts her eyes. “The school sent Aunt Maddy a letter. My grades are too low and they’re threatening to take away my scholarship.”
My jaw drops. “What? They can’t do that.”
Her frown is ironclad. “They can. My grade average is a condition of my scholarship.”
My shoulders broaden as my outrage grows. “But the school sets the grades. They’re forcing you to fail.”
She chews a fingernail, and I hate how the school is robbing her of her confidence. “You think?”
“You have to follow their rules and what they make you learn.” My eyes dart about as I dig into the conspiracy. “They want to kick you out because you won’t follow their rules. Since when do we all need to be robots?”
“But if I don’t follow the rules, I have to go to another school.”
“So they have set an arbitrary number for you to hit?” The fire in my belly roars. “School is already filled with facts they want us to swallow without question. Now they’re forcing you to memorize the curriculum to the point they find satisfactory? And if you don’t, they’ll punish you by forcing you out? This is bull, James.”
“I knew you’d see it my way.” Her mood doesn’t lift. “But what can I do? Aunt Maddy can’t pay the tuition, and I don’t want to change schools.”
“Yeah, not an option. You can’t leave school.”
Jamie’s rollerblades crawl alongside a guard rail as she stares at the cloudy grey sky. “Maybe dropping out will be the easiest option.”
“And then what?” I drag my skateboard alongside her. “You want to work now and be a slave to the man? Nope, you gotta figure out a way to stay at Ashworth Academy.”
“It’s impossible. I’m so used to tuning out everything our teacher’s drone on about.”
“You’re not dumb. If you do listen, you’ll get it. Just look at me and Tabitha. We didn’t want to be paired up together, but now we’re actually rocking our chemistry assignment.”
Jamie grimaces. “That’s your pep talk? Be more like Tabitha?”
I scoff and roll my eyes. “Is that all you heard?”
“Well, you’re the one who brought her up.”
“I told you she’s part of my life now.”
“Part of your life? That’s how you’re defining your mean-girl lab partner?”
“Ugh. She’s not a mean girl. She’ll prove it to you.”
“Prove it to me? You say it like she’s about to show up here.”
“Maybe it’s the fact the school dropped this bomb on you that you’re unusually slow on the uptake.”
“Well, if I didn’t make it clear, I like my life the way it is.”
“No one saidyour lifewas changing. Look, I get that this scholarship thing has thrown you through a loop. But you’ll get there. It just sucks you have to feed on their version of facts and history.”
“If only I could be like you and have parents who can pay for my education.”
“If that were the case, you’d be boring like everyone else. Don’t let anyone turn you into the version they want you to be.”
“I’m not interesting, I’m poor.”
“You’re not poor anymore. You and Maddy have made the café one of the most popular places in town.”
“We still don’t fit in. Most people in Victoria Falls have ten times the money we do.”
