The geometry teacher was a shrimpy little man named Mr. Byrd. He always wore thick, round glasses and a bow tie with some sort of pattern (yesterday had been stripes, the day before it was polka dots, and now it was triangles) and his greasy brown hair was always in a cowlick. You could tell from first glance that he was dedicated to his job.
As Mr. Byrd droned on about the difference between acute and obtuse angles, Theodora entered deep thought concerning her plan. "Henry had a point about dethroning Noelle in the process," she whispered to herself. "I might as well kill two birds with one stone. If I'm going to catch Ian's attention and in the process make his little mouse jealous, and then break his heart, well... it would be convenient to also get revenge on that self righteous cheerleader in the process." With her plan all worked finally out, Theodora willed herself to turn her eyes back to Mr. Byrd. She would tell Henry everything later.
Once he had finished his lecture, Mr. Byrd began passing out papers to the class. "Crap!" Theodora muttered. "I forgot all about the test..."
Panic began to spread through Theodora's body: spearing her heart, consuming her chest, filling her lungs... She felt helpless, as if she were drowning. "Can I go get a glass of water?" she peeped timidly. Mr. Byrd nodded kindly, and Theodora hurried outside into the empty hall. Everyone was inside a classroom.
"This is almost eerie, it being so empty," she thought. The hall was usually the school's source of energy and business.
After taking a few deep breaths and getting a drink from a nearby vending machine, Theodora went back to class. She noticed students peering over at her desk and she rolled her eyes.
As the top of her class, people were always trying to get answers from her; it was such a low and petty form of cheating, in her humble opinion.
Theodora returned to her seat and filled out her answers. She lacked complete confidence as a result of having neglected her textbooks, but she was able to at least answer according to the knowledge of geometry she'd gained over the summer; her mother and Mr. Huntington had forced her to study non-stop.
At last, geometry class ended, and before Theodora knew it, so did school.
Theodora had signed up for cheer auditions in between geometry and art class, and so with tryouts set for half past five that evening, Theodora quickly slipped into some yoga pants and a sports bra that would be easier to do the stretches in. Once she had gotten changed she phoned her mother to inform her that she wouldn't be home until late in the night due to tryouts.
"Be careful, Theodora," Mrs. Huntington warned. "You know how I feel about cheerleading! It is a brainless waste of time and it ruins a girls's purit—"
Theodora hung up.
Auditions went by like a breeze. Theodora surprised everyone with her flexibility, including her own self; she was much more athletic, it seemed, then she had given herself credit for, likely due to all the healthy breakfasts her stepfather insisted the cook make her and all the jogs she took on the weekends.
"Thank you for your time, girls," Noelle said sweetly as all the hopefuls gathered in the gym. "Results will be posted in a week's notice, so I'll see whoever makes it then. Toodle-loo!"
Crossing her fingers that her scheme would work, Theodora walked home in the rain, her mind swimming with thoughts.