Pass/Fail (2012) by David Wellington Page B

starting to figure out who you are. This changes a lot of things.”
    “No. It doesn’t change the fact that I think you’re beautiful. That I want you to be part of my life.”
    Her eyes went wide and she stepped farther away from him. “Don’t do that.”
    He shook his head. “What? Don’t do what?”
    “Don’t pressure me like that. Give me time to think, to process this. It’s not fair,” she said, turning away from him, walking back to the alley that led to the parking lot. She wanted to escape. “It’s not fair that you’re crazy. Not when I was starting to really like you. That’s not fair!”
    “If I’m crazy,” he said, “then I’m sorry. But if I’m not, if this is all real, if everything I told you is real—”
    “Enough,” she said. “Take me home right now. And don’t say another word the whole way.”
    He did as she asked. She got out of the car without even looking at him and hurried inside her house. He watched her front door for a while after it closed behind her. Then he drove home and parked the station wagon in his garage.
    Another test, he thought. Not one in the Curriculum, but one he was going to have to pass all the same. He was going to have to convince her. That, or lose her forever.
     

Chapter Nineteen
    “Maybe it’s for the best, Jake,” Cody said in homeroom on Monday. “I know you really liked Megan, and it seemed like she liked you. But if she can’t handle this—”
    “She just doesn’t believe me,” Jake said, staring at the scratched top of his desk. Generations of kids had scrawled things there, digging into the soft wood with the sharp ends of compasses or just scribbling in permanent ink. Many of the words were obscene, but none of them looked like secret messages from a mysterious benefactor. MARTIN F IS GAY, he read. AMY LOVES SAM, and then below that, in a different hand, DOES NOT! A little to one side someone had written D WAS HERE. None of it meant anything to him. “And why should she? It does sound crazy, if you haven’t seen the Proctors. If nobody has ever shot at you.”
    Cody leaned close. “Do you want my advice or not?”
    Jake sat up and looked at his friend. “Always,” he said.
    “Then take this as a sign that you need to concentrate on your tests. You know what’s at stake. Can you really afford a distraction like her right now?”
    I can’t afford to feel the way I do , Jake thought, but he kept it to himself. His stomach hadn’t felt right since he’d driven her home after their failed date. It felt tight and scrunched up, like someone was squeezing it all the time. The feeling just wouldn’t go away. He tried to think of a logical reply. “Right now, you’re the only one who knows about the tests. You’re the only one who can help me. If I had somebody else I could count on it would really help.”
    Cody shook his head. He might have said something more but just then the bell rang for first period and they gathered up their books and went to their separate classes. Jake did his best to pay attention through Pre-Calculus and English, but it just didn’t work—his mind was elsewhere and he did little but jot down occasional notes and try not to stare out the window.
    After lunch he had Physics II, which was taught by Mr. Irwin, a very thin man with a bald head and a huge beard. Mr. Irwin had always been one of Jake’s favorite teachers, in part because he actually tried to make science interesting, but also because he had a way of helping his students grasp complicated ideas, somehow giving each of them personal attention even when he was addressing a class of thirty. He was lecturing about vectors and Newton’s laws, which was pretty abstract, but somehow he made it seem simple. When the class was dismissed Jake got up from his desk but he didn’t leave right away. “Mr. Irwin,” he said, “do you have a minute to talk?”
    The teacher looked up from the papers he was grading on his desk. “Sure, Jake. I don’t