C13 13. End of the Year Exams and Preparations

It’s been a couple more months since the competition. Santana asked Clara out after I told him how she felt. Turns out, he was just really slow when it came to romance. I had to give him a small push. So now, Clara and Santana are dating.

During the month of my imprisonment, I got many visitors, namely Melody. We saw each other every day and I completed my end

of the agreement with the prize from the competition. If we were acquaintances before, then we were practically best friends now.

You’d be surprised at how close someone can get to you when you’re under their roof for a month.

Over time, especially during the month I was at Melody’s house, she developed strong feelings for me. Me living with her family

made it worse. I haven’t been visiting her in my cat form, but it seems she forgot about me. Maybe. She does leave food out, but

there are other cats in the neighborhood. She probably thinks I ate the food every day.

Uh, My chemistry friend.. Well, nothing much to say about him. We only talk to each other when we have to. Clara and have a

therapist-patient relationship. She comes to me for advice about her relationship. So does Santana, but Clara is more frequent.

The past couple months were a steady stream of both misery and joy. However, the real hell was about to start. Right before final exams, everyone would go full on study mode.

Me, personally, I didn’t study. My grades were honor roll without studying. But did that mean I was exempt? No. Unfortunately

not.

My schedule was pretty much free before. Now, my schedule is packed with study hall hours. Santana forced me into a study

group with him and Clara.

Don’t get me wrong, I love spending my precious time with my best friend and “brother”, but I don’t find it particularly enjoyable

when I’m the third wheel. It kind of makes me feel lonely.

Once I do start thinking that way, I remind myself of my age, which is now 53 years old.

It’s interesting though. It’s not that I can’t change my appearance for my human form, just that 18 years young is the form I need

to go to first before I can modify my appearance.

Today is Monday. I had school already and I’m currently in a study group with Santana and Clara. They’re a weird couple. I don’t

even know if you can describe it that way.

They do a problem, then get all lovey-dovey on each other, then go right to the next problem. It’s making me question my past

decisions of even thinking about going to school.

The amount of times I cringed far surpassed 100. I lost count after that.

The study session lasted about 2 hours because they finally decided to stop problem solving so they could have time to

themselves.

I probably won’t even go next time.

Tomorrow was Tuesday. Tennis Tuesday. Yay..

I hope we can do something other than tennis tomorrow. Like maybe Trampoline Tuesday. That would be so fun!

Tuesday: Nothing much to report.

Same with Wednesday.

Along with Thursday.

Continued onto Friday.

My entire schedule consisted of waking up, going for a 10 mile run, coming home and cleaning myself up (Including my morning

stuff like breakfast), going to school, walking home with Clara and Santana to study, working out again, doing my night routine,

and sleeping. Rinse and repeat.

To put it short, Wake up, work out, school, home, study, work out, eat, sleep. Repeat.

I felt like a machine by the end of the week.

On the weekend, Mark, Santana, and I didn’t work out or see each other. Santana was going on dates with Clara, I was sleeping,

and Mark was doing whatever.

I’ve been thinking recently about e paying my rent to Santana and Sarah. I mean, they’ve been letting me stay in their house for 5

months with no fee. It’s only right. I decided that on graduation, I’d pay my dues and leave with no regrets.

The next week, it was exams. Talk about Hell. I thought studying was bad, but this is worse. At least when I study, I have all the

time in the world. On the test, I’m on a time limit. It’s hard to focus because the pressure is at 100%.

Basically, how we do tests at Crestview is in order. They call the tests EOCs (End of Courses). Because it literally was the end of

the course. I joined right after midterms, so I didn’t have to suffer as much.

They use the whole week. This is the schedule:

Monday: 1st and 2nd

Tuesday: 3rd and 4th

Wednesday: 5th and 6th

Thursday: 7th and makeups for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

Friday: Makeups for 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th.

So, on Monday, I’d take my Math and Chemistry EOC. Tuesday, I’d take History and English. Wednesday, I’d take only gym

EOC. Then on Thursday, I’d take my art EOC. You need an art credit to graduate and two years of foreign language to get into a

university.

Right after you take your EOC exams, you can leave the school. If you finish early, you can also leave. Since I have no 6th period,

I can leave after taking my first exam.

The weekend passed and Monday came. There’s nothing much to really say about exams. I’m not allowed to disclose anything

that was on the tests by state law. Not that I really care, but it would also put Santana and Sarah in danger since they are registered and my siblings.

Tuesday was the same thing as Monday, just with different tests.

Wednesday was a shorter day. Only two hours at school and the rest of the day was off. I went home at around 10 AM. Usually,

I’d leave at around 12 PM, but since I didn’t have a 6th, I didn’t want to stay longer than I needed to.

Thursday was the same as Wednesday. There was only one test and makeup exams.

Friday, there was no school for me. After I got home every day, I’d work out, eat early, and crash out. I woke up with a decent

amount of energy than usual, so it was new for me.

Since I was a senior, we graduated early. Like two weeks in advance.

Graduation was scheduled next Friday. There was about 3 weeks left of school. That weekend, I prepared for graduation. I’d rather

not worry about the day before.

I had a lot of things I needed to do on graduation that required preparation. Some of them I mentioned before like paying Santana

and Sarah back, telling Melody what happened at the party, and cutting all ties from the people here.

My heart hurt thinking about the people I’d leave behind, but it was only for a moment.

Just because I was living off of someone for the last 5 months, or actually 13 years.. (But we don’t count as Night), doesn’t mean

I’m broke.

I’ve been living on this planet for the last 53 years. I had to make a living somehow. I have a constant stream of money off of

stocks and shares. It’s like working, but not working. How do I explain it..? It’s like a domino effect? I buy or do one thing, and

the rest happens by itself. Like when you push one domino, the rest fall.

I logged onto my bank account and checked the balance.

“Santana.” I called out.

“What?” Santana sounded a bit peeved because he was hanging out with Clara and I interrupted. You won’t be mad once you

receive the sum, I bet.

“What’s your bank account number?”

“Why? You going to steal from me?”

“No, you idiot. I can’t do that even if I wanted to.” (Lie) I could definitely steal it, but I was looking to give, rather than take.

“It’s…” He took out his phone and read me his account number. “XXXXXXXXXXXX.”

“Alright, thanks.”

“Wait! Why did you even ask me for it?”

“You don’t need to know yet.”

“Hmph. Okay.”

If I told him, he’d object and return it immediately. I set my bank account to be anonymous, so when he gets the money, he can’t

return it. You need to know the bank account number to be able to deposit or transfer.

I memorized the number and typed it in on the computer that was sitting in front of me.

I hit the transfer button and put in the amount I felt like I owed. Since the rent was about $1,000 a month, and I stayed for 5

months, it’d be $5,000. They lived in a pretty nice apartment, so I guessed the amount per month based on the average in the area.

Once I entered the set amount, I scheduled it for the day after graduation, at 5:00 AM.

Now that one thing was out of the way, I needed to start the second thing. I had to choose a time to tell Melody all that happened

on the night of the party. Since she’s gained better control over her emotions and matured little by little after hanging out with me

and recovering from her breakup.

‘Oh shit.’

‘She likes me now, and I’m going to leave next week..’

‘Fuck. I’m an asshole. I should have prevented this. It wasn’t important because the time of my departure was still some months

away..’

‘I’ll apologize on the day of. No use worrying about it now. What’s done is done. Nothing I can do about it.’

After I completed all the preparations, I fell asleep and went to dreamland.