Page 41 of The Lucky One
“Huh? Sorry, I was listening to Mr. Lane.”
“You don’t fool me, I know you already know this shit.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt to refresh my memory. What’s up?”
“I get why you want to be a doctor. In Grey’s Anatomy it looks super cool.”
My nose twitched. “Did Emily say she wants to be a doctor because of a TV show?”
“No.” Paul gave me a defensive look. “Someone’s not in a good mood today.” He yawned into his cubitus once more.
I rolled my eyes. I hated that so many people talked about becoming doctors because it looked cool on TV. It wasn’t always. Some nights, when all you wanted to do was to sleep but you still had to stimulate your hippocampus to memorize a lecture on vein structure, it was pure torture. But I had decided to be a physician ever since my dad let me watch one of his appendix surgeries when I was eight, and nothing would stop me from getting there.
Not even being wait-listed for Yale...
I still had a slight chance of getting in. And I would convince them by keeping up every one of my grades until the end of senior year, plus extra volunteering.
“Sorry, I don’t know what’s going on with me,” I muttered.
Lie. I knew exactly what was going on with me. At lunch I saw them for the first time, walking through the hall hand in hand, sharing kisses. It was a level of public affection Jon had never displayed with me.
With me, he wanted to be discreet, avoiding any outward signs of attachment.
But with her, it was like he had transformed into the perfect boyfriend. He didn’t even care that everyone was staring at them, didn’t even notice me staring... He only had eyes for her.
“Mr. Shields! What’s the answer to this equation?”
Mr. Lane fixed a stern gaze on Paul, who scratched the back of his head, clearly blanking out.
“That x is the root of sixteen, so four,” I chimed in. “Easy.”
Paul, quick to recover, nodded vehemently. “Yes, I was about to say the exact same thing!”
“Mrs. Moore, I didn’t ask you.” Mr. Lane sighed but explained to the class how I’d reached this conclusion.
“Thank you,” Paul whispered, smiling at me, and I quickly looked away. His smile activated my sympathetic nervous system, making me nervous, and I didn’t like it.
“Wanna hang out after your cheerleading practice?” Paul asked as we strolled through the echoing halls toward our next classes.
“You want to study again?” I said, because that’s all we’d done since his college class exam. Study, nothing more. At first I was into it, but now I was wishing for a more genuine friendship. I was more than capable of hitting the books solo.
“Nah, I’m too tired today. How about we grab a coffee or something?”
I stopped in my tracks. “You want to get coffee... not study?”
“Of course.” He winked. “You’re my friend, Kiki.”
“Right,” I said, composing my face. It wasn’t the first time he’d snuck in the word friend, as if he was worried I had other intentions. Which I didn’t. I was done with boys right now. Especially boys who were infatuated with Emily. “Coffee as friends. Sounds great.”
He smiled and leaned in for a brief hug. “See you later, Dr. Moore.”
I scrunched my nose. I hated when he called me that. I wasn’t even close to earning that title.
I hurried down the hallway toward AP Biology, scanning my notes. Today was an important test, which, according to my calculations, could boost up my grade from A- to A. “Neuron,” I muttered to myself. “An electrically excitable cell that receives, processes and transmits information by means of chemical signals. Humans have a neural network with more than a hundred billion neurons that control their interactions with the environment. Starting with automated reflexes—”
I crashed into someone’s chest as I turned the corner, my neurons failing to connect quick enough. Papers scattered into the air as gravity pulled me to the floor.
“No, my notes!” I scrambled to collect them, picking up sheet after sheet.