Page 36 of Spoonful

The too-familiar chime of Jaylin’s phone was startling, like a dousing of icy water, and he saw Hiro’s lips tighten before Jaylin had to look away.

“Sorry,” Jaylin said, wishing desperately that he could just ignore it. It was eleven o’clock on Saturday morning. Brent had had Jaylin over for hours on Friday. What could he possibly want now? “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Hiro said quickly. The smile he gave Jaylin then was smaller. Hollow. “It’s okay if… something came up. It’s fine. Really.”

Filled with shame, Jaylin pulled his phone out of his pocket to check Brent’s text.

Chapter 9

Jaylin winced when he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He gently prodded the darkened splotch on his neck, and even that touch made him wince again. Stupid Brent with his stupidteeth–

There was more than one mark on his neck, and way too many on his shoulders and collarbone, but the neck was most pressing. Jaylin muttered curses to himself for a few more moments before he heaved a sigh. He was getting worked up over nothing. It didn’t matter.

It didn’t matter.

He had other things to worry about anyway, what with midterms right around the corner.

Those were a completely different beast.

Jaylin had been trying not to let himself get too worked up about the oncoming tests because he knew that wouldn’t actually help him, but it was hard considering the fact that he had never tested well. Logical-Jaylin had been trying to remind him that things weredifferentnow, but Anxious-Jaylin couldn't stop whisperingwhat if.

What if his teachers decided to forget about his accommodations?

What if he failed all his tests and wasted all his hard work so far?

What if he disappointed Aditi, Diego,Hiro,who had all done so much to help him?

The week leading up to midterms passed in a blur of anxiety, studying, realizing he didn'thaveanything left to study, and more anxiety. He knew the stuff backwards and forwards,but couldn't shake the internal voice that kept screaming at him howtests are a big deal and you’ve never tested well–

It was a lot.

Even Brent backed off a bit, giving Jaylin some actual space to pace circles into his apartment flooring as he worried.

Then it was testing week.

Serena gave him a tight smile when Jaylin met her for private office hours—his special accommodation for his astronomy test. Jaylin tried not to let it get to him as he sat down across from her. He didn't really have a read on Serena, but he could tell there was something about him that put her off.

But at least she was still doing her job. “Ready, Mr. West?”

Jaylin nodded, face heated, but he was as ready as he’d ever be. “Yeah.”

“You are aware that I will not tolerate any attempts of cheating of any kind,” Serena said, voice a little snippy.

“Uh, yeah.” It wasn’t exactly a question, but Jaylin answered anyway. “Of course.”

“Okay, let’s get started.” Serena looked at her computer screen. “What are the two most abundant components of the sun?”

“Hydrogen and helium,” Jaylin said without missing a beat.

She flicked a glance at him. “What are the three main parts of the sun’s interior?”

“The core, the radiative zone, and the convective zone,” Jaylin said easily. He barely had to think. The answers were right there, in his head.

Serena gave him a longer look. “How do we measure a galaxy’s distance?”

“Usually by measuring redshift and extrapolating from there,” Jaylin said, before realizing he was probably supposed to expand on that. “Should I, uh, explain redshift?”

“If you’d like,” Serena said, watching him.

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