Page 10 of Call the Shots (For The Arena #1)
BEAR
WILL SHE BE OVULATING?
From rundown hockey practices to the first day of summer classes, I felt like a puppet with my strings caught in the trunk of a car, dragging down the road. The weird text messages just made me more irritated.
You’ve been added to snap shot sluts!
Click the link to join!
There was an option to decline the invite, I pressed it without hesitation.
You’ve been added to snap shot sluts!
Declined.
You’ve been added to snap shot sluts!
“What the hell is this?” I muttered, finally checking the link to see a chat app with legit reviews.
montooooya
hey bear!!! i think you keep deleting yourself on accident welcome to the group chat!!!!
ruthlesselijah
lol bears going to love it
when i think of bear i think of a guy who loves people and bonding time
Nickyk
Hahahahaha
Denali [Captain]
This is the official chat Bear you can’t leave
Me
im muting it
ruthlesselijah
thats bear lol
Me
fuck off elijah
ruthlesselijah
im not june dont put that hate fuck sex energy on me
I froze.
Me
is june in here
ruthlesselijah
now we got bears attention
The longer I stared, the more I couldn’t believe it. There were only fourteen hockey players in the chat, but his message was already at eight laughing emojis.
montooooya
theres an official staff chat that cleos making but this is only hockey players!!!
im going to giannas for lunch anyone want to go at 12?
fridge19
Down, I’ll be there
Nickyk
Im in
montooooya
@bear moreau are you coming???
ruthlesselijah
*bear voice* will my nemesis be there? will she be ovulating?
More laughing emojis. I ground my back teeth.
Me
elijah when do you want your ass kicked
ruthlesselijah
i thought you were muting this chat
he cant help himself june is his pop up word
hes salivating reading this someone send him to hr
My call to Denali took three rings while I shoved open the door to the physics building. “Tell your friendship bracelet motherfucker to relax in the chat before you’re down an enforcer?—”
“Stop engaging him.”
“You’re saying I’m the problem?”
“Yeah. He knows you and June hate each other. He’s just riling you up.”
“So what do I do, Captain? ”
“Mute the chat. Ignore the comments. He’ll get bored and poke someone else.”
I pushed the door to my beginner’s astronomy class, the easiest elective for my graduation requirements. “What happens if I kick the shit out of him?”
“We’ll have a meeting on sportsmanlike conduct?—”
“You’ve got to be fucking with me,” tumbled out of my mouth.
Someone was having a laugh at my expense because there was June, first row. Her blonde ponytail whipped around at the sound of my voice and her face contorted. She groaned.
“I’m not fucking with you, Bear,” Denali said.
“Never mind.” I ended the call and took a long look at the three tables, all full, except for the chair directly behind June’s. Fucking fantastic. I knocked on the back of chairs for people to move theirs, because everyone wanted to be an asshole and sit all over the place.
“Who’s following who now?” she huffed.
I yanked out my chair to take a seat. “I don’t know how you did it, but this is your fault.”
“Figure a way out of this class.”
“Nope, I’m not doing the paperwork?—”
“I can’t do it. I physically can’t leave.”
“Why?”
“None of your business why.”
“Then I’m not?—”
“If I tell you, will you go?”
I shrugged, not giving a promise, but I was curious about the important reason the high and mighty June Basil couldn’t leave an astronomy class.
She took a deep breath. “This is a retake?—”
“Holy shit, you failed beginner’s astronomy? ”
A few people glanced over, and June blushed bright red. “Keep your voice down!”
“You failed the easiest elective at Marrs?” A laugh burst out of me. I already checked the professor’s ratings online, this guy was a pushover. “The biggest waste of time, something you could sleep through? — ”
“Shut up!” she hissed.
“Counting stars is too hard for the homecoming queen?”
The door opened again, the oldest guy I’d ever seen shuffling through.
This had to be the last class he’d teach because it was the end of the road for him.
Liver spots coated his bald head, dotted with a few Charlie Brown hairs.
At his desk, he cracked open his briefcase and scanned the room, landing on June.
She shrank back.
“Ms. Basil.” His voice was so wispy, the words flowed together. “I thought about framing your final essay. Two words, ‘who cares.’ Aptly put. I’m sure I’ll be riveted by your follow-up.”
I snorted, and June discretely flipped me off.
“I’m Dr. Schulman. This will be, undoubtedly, the easiest class you have ever taken. I am exhausted from papers shat out by AI, students cheating, and I feel more of a prison guard than an educator. Therefore, I will be rearranging my curriculum.”
Everyone audibly shifted. Chairs scraped against the floor.
“You’ll arrive on time. You’ll take out a piece of paper. I’ll lecture for fifty minutes, you’ll take notes. At the end of every Friday, we’ll have a handwritten quiz—ten questions—where you’ll have access to your notes.”
I thought he’d continue but instead, he typed on his laptop.
That’s it?
It was like June could read my thoughts. She passed a note to me while Dr. Schulman began his PowerPoint.
dont even think about it.
I jotted down my answer and handed it back to her.
thinking about it
thought about it
figured it out
definitely staying
She balled up the paper and threw it over her shoulder, hitting me in the face.
Class was ridiculously easy, just writing down rules and expectations. At the end, I collected my stuff, satisfied I had one guaranteed passing grade.
June lingered.
“Dr. Schulman?” She approached with her hands behind her back. “I want to apologize?—”
“This is the fourth time I’ve seen you in my life, Ms. Basil,” he said simply, clasping his briefcase. “Your last-minute email felt disrespectful. Would you like to finish the essay? Why is astronomy important to study?”
“I—um?—”
June’s faltering was comical. There were so many bullshit answers. I chuckled, only stopping when Dr. Schulman glanced at me.
“Is this amusing to you, Mr…?”
“Uh, Moreau.”
“Is this amusing to you, Mr. Moreau?”
I cleared my throat. “No, sir.”
“He loves to laugh,” June interjected. “Earlier Mr. Moreau said—how did you say it? Astronomy is the biggest waste of time? Easy to sleep through?”
“Waste of time? ” Dr. Schulman repeated.
A flush crept up my neck. “I don’t—uh—remember saying that.”
“Well, Mr. Moreau, answer my question. Why is astronomy important to learn about?”
“Oh—uh—it’s important because—uh—stars are in the sky, and we see them—in the sky?—”
“Disappointing,” Dr. Schulman cut me off. “I’ll see you Wednesday.”
In the hallway, I stopped June from leaving. “What the hell was that?”
“Get out of my class.”
“No. This’ll be the easiest A I’ve ever scored.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“It’s shitty living with you.”
“The only thing you’re good for is getting your head knocked on the ice.”
“The biggest mistake my brother made was putting his dick inside you.”
She got up in my space, her green eyes flashing with anger. “You’re an antisocial spoiled-rotten man-child who can’t wash his own dishes or do his own laundry .”
“Says the homecoming queen who thinks she’s so perfect, but to your fucking shock, you’re right where you’re supposed to be, in the gutter with the rest of us.”
“You know what, Bear?”
“ What? ”
“I’m positive you deserve everything the Kérouacs did to you.”
Those couple of words sliced me down the middle. I was silent while June stalked down the hallway, leaving only the smell of perfume. I didn’t have anything to say to that. Nothing at all.