Zoe didn't see or talk to Miles until Monday morning at school. She was just coming into the entry hall when she ran into Miles. "Hey," she said. "How's it going?"
"Pretty good," said Miles. "I didn't tell Mr. Al about...you know. And I told Avery not to tell him, either."
"Good," said Zoe. "Just as long as there weren't any curses placed on Skylar's property-"
"Well, I didn't wake up with boobs and a vagina on Saturday," said Miles. "So I think we're fine."
Alan came up to them. "Miles! Zoe!" he said. "Where were you on Friday?"
"Uh..."
"We couldn't make it," Miles said quickly. "We had a lot of homework we needed to work on."
Alan nodded. "That's what Avery said," he said. "But it was kind of an important meeting that you missed."
"How so?" Miles asked.
"Well, me and Skylar made a big announcement," said Alan. "We finally reached our $50,000 goal for funding the Delany Chase memorial in the park!"
"We did?" Zoe said. "That's great!"
"Yeah," Alan agreed. "With the GoFundMe page, and the sales from our fundraiser, we were able to get the $50,000 we needed. But Zoe, I was kind of hoping you'd be there."
"Why?"
"Because you sold the most items out of everyone else in the club, so me and Skylar wanted to acknowledge you."
Wow. Zoe had sold the most items? She'd had no idea how many shirts and bows she'd been selling in comparison to her fellow breast cancer awareness club members, but the revelation that she came out on top...should she be proud? Probably.
"Sorry we missed it," said Zoe.
"That's okay," said Alan. "I'm gonna host a party at my house to celebrate."
"Cool," said Zoe. "We'll try not to miss that."
"We're hoping to have everyone come," said Alan. "I'm gonna be there, and Mrs. Fury's gonna be there. We've invited Isaac and Brittany-"
"Brittany?"
"Yeah. Brittany Meier. She decided to join the club too."
"Nice," said Zoe. Even though she knew Brittany was dating Isaac, she still felt excited at the idea of getting to spend more time with her. "We'll definitely go to your party, too."
"What about Skylar?" Miles asked. "She's going too, right?"
"Most likely," Alan answered.
"Right," said Miles. Unlike Zoe, he was still subscribed to the idea of Skylar being a witch. "We'll be there for sure."
"I'll look forward to it," said Alan.
***
Later that day, in Fifth Period, Zoe went in and sat down at her table with Brittany. "Hey Brittany," said Zoe. "I heard you decided to join the breast cancer awareness club."
"Yeah, I did," said Brittany. "Isaac invited me to come, so I decided to do it."
"Nice," said Zoe. "Sorry I missed the meeting on Friday."
"Oh yeah," said Brittany. "Alan and Skylar were pretty disappointed that you didn't show up. They wanted to give you some kind of award for selling so many shirts and bows."
"Wait, what?"
"I don't know what the prize was," said Brittany, "But they did announce a party at Alan's house next week, so maybe they'll give it to you then."
Zoe nodded. "That sounds good," she said. "So...what else is new?"
"Not much," Brittany grumbled, "Other than my grade in this fucking class."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. I'm at a 65%. And if I fail the test this Thursday, then I'll get bumped down to an F."
"Yeesh," said Zoe.
"What about you? What grade do you have?"
"I've got an 84%."
"Wow," said Brittany. "How are you doing so well?"
Zoe shrugged. "I just have an easier time with math, I guess," she said.
"Any chance you could help tutor me?" Brittany asked. "Get me ready for the test on Thursday?"
"Sure," Zoe said without hesitation. "Where do you want to meet for tutoring?"
"You could come to my house tomorrow after school," said Brittany. "Or Wednesday, if that works better for you."
"Both of those work," said Zoe.
"Great," said Brittany. "Thank you so much for being willing to help."
"No problem!"
***
The next day after school, Zoe's mom drove her over to Brittany's house. "Well done, Zoe," Zoe's mom said as she drove. "You actually got Brittany to let you come over and visit her!"
"I know," said Zoe. She could barely contain her excitement. Taken though Brittany might have been, being on good terms with her was the first step to dating her. Maybe if she could somehow trick Brittany into dumping Isaac, and realizing that she liked girls just as well as guys...no. She was getting too far ahead of herself. She was here to tutor Brittany, not flirt with her.
"Good luck," Zoe's mom said. "Want me to come get you when you're done?"
"Probably not," Zoe answered. "I can walk home."
"Okay. Have fun!"
Zoe went up to Brittany's front door and knocked. A minute later, Brittany answered the door. To Zoe's surprise, Brittany's hair was now pink. "Whoa," she said. "Did you dye your hair again?"
"Yep," Brittany said proudly. "Ready to study?"
"Of course."
Zoe went inside Brittany's house. It wasn't much bigger than her own house, but the furnishings looked cheap. It reminded Zoe of a rental house she and her parents had stayed in one summer. All the cabinets, chairs, and tables were plain and dull, as if whoever was in charge of decorating the place took a minimalistic approach. Evidently Brittany's parents weren't the richest people out there.
"Are your parents home?" Zoe asked.
"No," Brittany answered. "But they said it was okay to have you over."
"Nice."
"I'm not allowed to have boys over when they're gone," said Brittany, "But girls are fine."
"Right." Zoe took off her backpack full of textbooks, binders, and notebooks. "Let's get this started."
Zoe helped walk Brittany through the subject matter of the upcoming test, which was graphs and related equations. At first, Brittany had a hard time understanding it, but with Zoe's help, she started to get a handle on it. After a couple hours of practicing problems, Brittany was able to find the solutions to the math problems without Zoe's help.
"Nice going," Zoe said when they were getting to a stopping point.
"Thanks," said Brittany. "You think I can pass the test the day after tomorrow?"
"Maybe. But we should probably meet again tomorrow to look over the study guide."
"Thanks," Brittany said with a smile. She hugged Zoe and said "I'll look forward to it."
"You too," said Zoe. She packed up her stuff and left Brittany's house. She felt so elated, she could've floated all the way home.
***
Zoe did go to Brittany's house the next day to help her with the study guide. By the time Wednesday's study session was over, Brittany had gained a lot more self-confidence with her Pre-Calculus abilities. And come Fifth Period on Thursday, Brittany got the test and powered right on through. When she was done, she gave it to the teacher Ms. Cameron and watched as she graded it. When Ms. Cameron had finished grading the test, she smiled and gave it back to Brittany. "Well, well, well," Ms. Cameron said, "I don't know how you managed to improve so much, but you've got yourself a 91% score on the test!"
"What?" Brittany gasped. She took the graded test from Ms. Cameron and gaped at the red 91% written on the paper. "No way!"
"Yes way," said Ms. Cameron. "I think things might be turning around for you in this class."
Brittany frolicked back to her table where Zoe was waiting. "How'd it go?" Zoe asked.
In response, Brittany handed Zoe her graded test. "I got a low A," she said.
"Oh wow!" said Zoe. "Congratulations!"
"I couldn't have done it without you," said Brittany. "Thank you so much."
"No problem," said Zoe. Then, without thinking, she added "We should hang out!"
Brittany pondered this for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah," she said. "That sounds fun!"
"When do you want to get together?"
"Well, I'm busy on Saturday," said Brittany, "And I'm going off with Isaac on Sunday. But maybe next week."
"Sweet!" said Zoe. "We'll try and make something work out!"
"Sure thing!"
For the rest of the day, Zoe felt so ecstatic, she could barely even contain herself. She was setting herself up with the girl she'd been crushing on for all these months. If she could maintain a friendly relationship with Brittany, then she just might be able to convince her to go on a date with her! Zoe felt so incredibly happy right now-too happy to even wonder about Skylar.
To be continued...
