Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (4 page)

It was almost 5:00 pm and I knew my mom would be home soon. I turned on the television, unplugged my speakers and returned them to my room. By the time I heard the familiar sound of the garage door open, there was no evidence in the family room that I was still planning on auditioning and deliberately disobeying her.

I had the lab assignment out on the coffee table. My mom saw it on the table. “New project for class?”

“Yes. For science class.” Project. Lab. My mom didn’t know the difference and it really didn’t matter.

“I hope you tell your teacher that you do all the work and that your partner doesn’t help.” How was I the one getting scolded? For doing my work?

“He knows.” I thought about what Mr. D had said.

“Good. It isn’t right that you do everything and they get the credit.” She said matter-of-factly.

I was surprised that my mom had even noticed. “I know. We got new partners in class today. My new partner is different. He can do work too.”

“You can’t trust that he will, just because
you
think he can.” Her demeanor shifted a little. “Hmph. At least you won’t be working on the project by yourself and up all night. I never understood why you kill yourself over these projects, when your partner doesn’t care. Your teacher can’t expect you to do the work that he assigns for two people.” She shook her head.

Of course she wouldn’t understand. There were very few things I had any control of in my life. My grades were one of them. I took control wherever I could. My parents weren’t one of them. There was no point in arguing or even continuing the conversation. “I know.”

She was right about one thing. I couldn’t trust that Patrick would do his half of the work. He was smart, but busy. I didn’t know where his priorities lied. He had basketball and friends. Maybe he was glad to have me as a partner so he had more time to focus on other stuff, someone to do more of the work. I may not have to do 100% of the work, but 80% or 90% instead. Heck, at this point, that might be a relief.

Since I couldn’t count on what he would do, I figured I should just forge ahead and get what I could done now, like the first few questions on the lab. I grabbed the lab assignment off the table and went to my bedroom. I preferred to type up my assignments, so if I need to edit it later, it was easier than rewriting the whole thing. I turned on my television and computer and waited for it to boot. I looked over the questions, they didn’t seem too hard and shouldn’t take me too long to finish. Some of the other questions for the latter part of the lab did seem more challenging.

I checked my school email account before getting started to see if Mr. D or any of my other teachers had sent out any addendums or reminders to their assignments. I hated to start work, only to find out that a teacher had modified the work then read the email about it afterwards or hear about it the next day. There were no emails from any of my teachers, but I did have one new one. It was from Patrick.

How did he get my email address? I guess it wouldn’t be difficult, the school’s website had student and teacher pages. Why would he be emailing me? There was only one way to find out, open it and read it.

Hey Liz,

We didn’t get a chance to split up the other pre-lab questions for Mr. D’s class. So, I went ahead and did them. I hope you don’t mind. I attached the answers, so you can add to it whatever you want! Let me know if it’s ok.

Here’s my cell phone number – 555.2188.

-
Patrick

Wow. I didn’t expect that. I opened up the attachment and, sure enough, he did the rest of the questions. It looked right and I didn’t really have anything to add. I was shocked. For the first time, someone had done the work
for me
instead of the other way around. Well, that was nice of him. His friends must have been busy and had free time.

Was I supposed to email him back or call him? What if he didn’t check his email until tomorrow, then he wouldn’t know that it was okay? But if he was in the middle of dinner or something, his phone ringing wouldn’t be good. I never had to think about this stuff before. At the very least, it was a long time ago.

I turned down the volume on my television and picked up my cell phone. My parents got it for me last year for my birthday. I rarely used it, except to check the time. But, I always had it on me. I dialed Patrick’s phone number. It rang three times and I was about to hang up when he picked up.

“Hello?” A friendly voice answered.

“Hi. Uhh.. Patrick?” He did say it was his cell phone, so it didn’t feel right to ask for him. But, I wasn’t sure it was him.

“Yeah.”

“Hi, it’s Liz… from Mr. D’s class.” My voice was nervous, still unsure if I should be calling.

“Oh, hey, Liz. How’s it going?” Somehow, his voice became friendlier upon knowing it was me and not some wrong number. Maybe I was imagining it. I didn’t really know him.

“Okay. I got your email.” Duh. How else would I have known his phone number?

 
“Yeah. Did you already do the problems?” He sounded a little worried, like he had been too late. Why would he care?

“No. I was just about to when I read your email.”

“Oh, good. I would have called you, but I didn’t have your number. So, I looked up your email on the school website.”

“You didn’t have to do it. I would have. You’re really busy with practice and stuff.”

“I’m sure you have stuff to do, too. Like I said, we didn’t get a chance to say who was doing what. So, I just did it. Wait… did I answer something wrong or not good enough?”

“No. No. It was fine. That’s not what I meant.” I didn’t intend to sound like his answers were wrong.

“Okay… What did you mean?”

“Never mind. Thanks for emailing it to me.” It wasn’t worth explaining.

“No problem. Don’t forget, you said that if we got the first part working, you’d come by the game tomorrow.”

That’s right. I did. I had forgotten. “Oh, yeah. If we don’t run into problems.”

“I don’t think we will. Thanks for calling me and letting me know you got it. Now, I have your number.” He sounded happy, not that my voice ever really sounded like that.

“Huh?” I distinctly remember not giving it to him.

“Showed up on my cell phone when you called.”

“Oh.” Well, that made sense.

“Is it your home phone or your cell?”

“My cell.” It was a good thing I didn’t call him with the house phone. I wouldn’t want to answer what questions my parents might have if he called that line.

“Cool. Next time I can just call you if I have questions.”

I was quiet. I didn’t know how to respond to that. My lab partners never did that before. Probably because I always did all the work.

“If that’s okay with you.” He added.

“Yeah. That’s fine.” I guess there was nothing wrong with it. I doubt he’d ever have to use it. I stared at my computer, wondering how to get off the phone.

“Did you start the math homework yet?” He asked.

“No, not yet. I finished those other problems for Mr. D first. I was going to do it after the pre-lab questions, but you did those already… I guess I’ll start them next.” The polite thing to do would be to ask him if he had. “What about you?”

“I did. That’s what I was doing when you called.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you.” I should have asked him if he was busy when he answered.

“Nah. Don’t worry about it. Just watch out for number 17. That’s the hard one for me. I got through parts a and b and I’m still working on c.”

“Number 17. I’ll remember that. Thanks.” I wondered if it was anything like that problem last night that I had trouble with. I’ll find out soon enough.

“Well, I’ll let you get started on your math.”

“Alright.” He was doing what I couldn’t figure out how to do – letting me get off the phone.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you.” I hung up the phone.

I turned the volume back up on my television. I opened my math book and got to work. I still thought it was weird that he did the work before I did. He had practice today. I remember him hurrying out of Mr. D’s to get to practice after school. I guess there was a reason why he had the reputation he had. He was nice enough. Still, I didn’t know him well enough to trust what he’d do.

I blazed through most of the math problems. But he was right about number 17.

4. BABY STEPS

Patrick was already in Mr. D’s when I got there just after the first bell rang. He had our parts box on our table and was sorting through it. Huh. My lab partners were never in class before me.

“Hi.” I said timidly.

He looked up from the box. “Hey, Liz. How’s it going?”

“Ok, I guess.” I wasn’t used to small talk. It’d been so long since I had to. Usually, my lab partners got the hint that I just wanted to get the work done. Since they weren’t capable of doing it or even helping, they left me alone to do it and talked with their friends. I never had one who talked to me.

“So, don’t forget you agreed to go to the game today.” He wasn’t going to let that go. I was stuck.

“Yeah.
If
the first part of the lab worked. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it all together and even tested once before class is over.”

He eyed me quizzically. “Hmph.”

“What? It’s true.” I didn’t understand why he looked at me like that. I wish he’d stop. It made me feel self-conscious.

“Remember, you don’t have to do this by yourself. I
will
be helping.”

I just stared at him. “Okay.”

“Seriously. I don’t expect you to do all the work.” He thought for a second. “Is that what you meant last night? You think I’d stick you with all the work?” He shook his head in disbelief. He seemed to take offense at the thought. “I’d never do that. That isn’t right. I thought we talked about that yesterday. I hated partners that did that.”

“Okay.” There was no point in arguing. I didn’t trust what he said, but I didn’t want to offend him either.

Class started and we got to work on our lab. Mr. D made his rounds, checking everyone’s progress. I was surprised how much headway we were making. We were almost done putting together our design and would have plenty of time to test it. It was good to troubleshoot and work with someone who understood what was going on and helped with the design.

Patrick noticed too. He grinned. “So, the game starts at 3:00.” He put the ball bearing at the top of our contraption. He let go of the ball as I started the timer.

“Who are you playing?” He had kept his word and worked with me the entire time. I guess I should keep my word as well. It looked like I was going.

 
“Parkside High. Coach has a friend that coaches their basketball team. So, it’s an unofficial game, but it’s a way to wake up all of us for the season.”

“Kinda like a pre-test or pre-season?”

He laughed. “Yeah. Pretty much. Anyway, since it’s a scrimmage game, it’s free. Bring your friends. It’ll be fun.”

I smiled and politely nodded. I hadn’t spoken to my so-called friends since before Spring Break last year. It had been months. I guess that was something else my parents were right about, you can’t rely on your friends. Friends are supposed to know when you are having a tough time and not abandon you. They also said that you can only rely on your family, but that part didn’t seem so right. “What time will it be done?”