something up and therefore start to pry about it, but also sad that no one other than these two gives a damn that I’m so upset.
I just sit there for a couple of minutes trying to breathe evenly, knowing I have to get myself together before I go back into school.
“Abigail?”
“I can’t tell you,” I whisper back, tears threatening to spill over again.
“Abigail, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. I can’t tell them. I’m too ashamed.
“Maybe we can help?” Sasha says gently. “My grandma always says a problem shared is a problem halved.”
I smile at her despite myself. Maybe I should tell them? Maybe I should trust them enough to let them try to make sense of this with me?
Maybe it will just be nice to have someone agree with me that this is a completely shitty situation and I’m completely screwed.
“You can’t tell anyone,” I warn.
They both agree immediately, and maybe it’s because I’m feeling exhausted, maybe because I’m so upset that I’m not going to graduate, maybe because telling someone might actually help—for whatever reason, I decide to trust them.
“I’m failing…pretty much every class.” I let out a long sigh and stare at the ground. “I might not graduate. In fact, it’s pretty unlikely I’m going to graduate with you guys.”
There’s a long silence, and I can’t look at them. I don’t want to see the pity in their eyes.
“I don’t understand,” Sasha eventually says.
I shrug and finally turn toward them. Jennifer has sat down next to Sasha and is looking confused. “I guess all my grades have fallen. Some teachers have agreed to give me extra credit and look at other projects I’ve done, but I’m going to have an extra chemistry and math test I’ll need to pass, and I also need to raise some money for charity. If I don’t, I won’t graduate.”
Jennifer blinks at me like she doesn’t quite understand. “But graduation is less than three months away.”
“I know.”
“Well…that sucks,” Jennifer mutters.
Another couple of tears slide down my face. “I might as well just drop out now.”
“No!” Sasha says passionately. “Don’t do that! You are not going to drop out.”
“Yeah!” Jennifer jumps in enthusiastically. “This is just a blip, and we can fix it. Don’t worry!”
It’s sweet of them to try to cheer me up, but I honestly don’t understand how I’m going to even begin to fix this.
“Right, right.” Sasha sits up straight, crossing her legs in front of her and placing her hands on her knees. “This is fine, we just have to make a plan.”
“It’s too late.”
“It is not too late,” she says firmly. “What are your tests on? Have your teachers given you the topics you’ll need to know?”
I shake my head. “I’m supposed to find them to ask.”
“Well we can do that right now,” she says, standing up and throwing her bag over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”
I shake my head. I can’t right now. I need to process this first. “I’ll do it later.”
“Okay.” There’s a long pause. “Well, we can help you study,” Jennifer says uncertainly.
I actually do manage a soft laugh at that. No offense to them, but they’re not the best students either, and while they’re certainly not as bad as me and are actually going to graduate, if they helped me in math and chemistry, it would be like the blind leading the blind on certain topics.
“Okay, so not us,” Sasha concedes. “Maybe we’d be better off helping you with the charity stuff. That’s more our scene.”
I hadn’t even thought about the charity stuff.
“You could ask Brett Sanderson to help you study,” Jennifer says. Her face lights up. “He’s the smartest guy in our class.”
I have no idea who she’s talking about. “Who?”
“Brett Sanderson,” Sasha agrees. “He’s super smart. You know he sometimes wins a smart award or whatever they’re called in assemblies. He’s cute—well, nerdy cute.”
I have no idea who they’re referring to.
“He helped me out last year when I wasn’t doing well in math,” Sasha says. “I’ve known him since elementary school. I can introduce you.”
I shrug skeptically. I don’t really see the point in all this. “It’s not going to work.”
“You have to try,” Jennifer tells me softly. “You can’t just give up.”
I love them both in this moment. I love how positive they are and how they think they can help me figure this out, like this is actually solvable.
“Come on, Abbie. You can do this. I know you can.”
I nod because I know it’s what they want, but