The Backup Girlfriend (Grove Valley High #2) - Emma Doherty Page 0,3
her as Ms. Sallinson sends her a sharp look then turns to me. “I’m sorry, Abigail, but Coach is right.”
“I’m failing what?”
“Math, chemistry, biology, history, French…honestly the list goes on and on.”
I sit back in my seat, stunned.
That can’t be right.
While I definitely haven’t been the best student recently, I’m pretty sure I’m not doing that badly.
The looks on their faces tell me they’re not lying.
“Are you sure?” I ask eventually.
“No, we just thought we’d bring you in here and waste all of our time,” Coach replies sarcastically.
I just about manage not to roll my eyes at her.
“This can’t be a total surprise, can it?” Ms. Sallinson asks earnestly. “Your teachers have all said they’ve spoken to you.”
Well, sure, they’ve said something to me, telling me I need to concentrate more in class and improve my grades, but they never said I was failing.
Did they?
To be honest, I’ve been so out of it over the last couple of months, I can’t really remember those conversations.
I look back at the two women in front of me who are obviously waiting for me to say something. “Right. Okay, I’ll get my grades up.”
Coach chuckles, shaking her head. “It’s not that easy, Abigail.”
What’s not that easy? I’ve pulled my grades up before; I just need to focus for a couple of weeks and they’ll get better. And seriously? Who cares? I’m graduating in a couple of months then I never have to look at another textbook again if I don’t want to.
“I’m sorry, I’ve just been a little distracted. I’ll study harder.”
Ms. Sallinson leans forward, a sympathetic look on her face. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple. If you don’t get certain grades on a couple of tests we’ve arranged for you, you’re not going to graduate with your peers this summer.”
My body turns cold.
What did she just say?
“Now, we’ve spoken with your teachers, and Mr. Henry has agreed to look at your score from a group presentation in history, which should pull up your grade there. Ms. Brulle says you have an oral assessment coming up with her that she expects you to do well on, and she’s agreed that, provided you do, she’ll pass you. Mr. Peters said your recent grades in biology have been very poor, but he’ll take into account some of your work from the start of the year, and provided you get all your homework and classwork completed to a high level, he’ll pass you in biology. He also said something about writing up your most recent experiment, but you’ll have to go through the details with him.”
“Sorry, what?” My voice is louder than I expected it to be, but right now I don’t care. “I might not graduate?”
Ms. Sallinson winces, but Coach looks entirely unsympathetic. “I’ve been telling you for months to stop moping around and pull yourself together.”
I feel my face burn at this; the fact that my coach has noticed I’ve been miserable is pretty humiliating. She probably knows why, too, but I definitely don’t need her to confirm that to me now.
“This can’t be right. I know I’m not the best student, but I’ve never come close to failing before.”
“Well this is what happens when you focus all your attention on a boy and then let your world fall apart when he breaks up with you.”
I want the ground to swallow me up when Coach confirms that she definitely knows about the Chase situation, my repeated dumpings, and how I pretty much fell apart watching him and Livy fall in love right in front of me…but surely it’s not appropriate for her to say this to me?
“Why don’t we just focus on solutions?” Ms. Sallinson says diplomatically, looking between me and Coach. “We’ve come up with a plan of action that we’re hoping will mean you can graduate as planned.”
I feel sick.
“We’ve spoken to both your math and chemistry teachers, and they’ve agreed to give you a separate test a couple of weeks before the end of school.”
I can’t take all of this in.
“You’ll have to make sure you receive a certain grade, which they’ll explain to you, in order to pull your grades up enough to pass.”
“Sorry.” My eyes flash between them, actual panic starting to build inside me. “What happens if I don’t pass?”
“Well…” Ms. Sallinson shuffles some papers in front of her, clearly slightly nervous. “First of all, there’d be summer school.”