Soulmates

Chapter 23

Sadie wanted to slam her head on the table and die.

She was magnificent, of course. She's bloody brilliant. She's having a jolly good time in fucking New York.

No, really, she was.

She just really hated surprise essays.

Ms. Chau was a talkative one; that much was true. But, she also loves assessments.

Last week alone, there was a pop quiz on the vocab, a quiz on sentence structure (subjects, predicates, adverbs, and all the other shit you've forgotten since primary school), and an objective summary on some TedTalk.

A blond guy who looked like that dude from Nirvana looked like how Sadie felt.

She stared at the prompt.

Macchu Picchu is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world. Write an essay explaining why Macchu Picchu should be your nest travel destination.

What made her want to die more was the fact that the essay was expository. At least with argumentative essays, there was no correct answer.

Chau cleared her throat. "This will be homework, and it's due this Friday. Make sure you include your planning sheet. Now, let's talk about rhetorical devises. When I was in high school, I was on the debate team..."

Sadie took this time to zone out until worksheets were passed out.

"Rhetoric was made by Aristotle in Ancient Greece. It contains three main categories, ethos, pathos, and logos. Each of them has certain qualities. Ethos is supposed to make the speaker seem credible..."

Sadie threw herself over Shelby. "Shel, darling. Platonic love of my life--"

"Did you just 'no homo' me?"

"Ignore that. Love of my life, best American-slash-Columbian-slash-Cuban-slash-whatever-type-of-Latina-you-are friend, the most amazing--"

Shel pushed her off. "The fuck do you want?" she said with a laugh.

"I have an essay on Macchu Picchu..."

"Ay, joder no. I'm not doing that." Shel said before taking out her packed lunch.

Envy filled Sadie as Shelby opened the container, and the scent of arroz con gandules with pasteles hit her.

Shel laughed. "You can take... this much pasteles." Shel handed her a small spoonful.

"Thank you." Sadie savored the bite. "Bloody hell, who's making this?"

"Oh, the magic of Spanish grandmothers. But what did you want?"

"I was going to say that I need to get your notes on rhetoric." Sadie paused to lean on Shel's shoulder. "I swear she just piles a fuck ton of homework on us and expects us to understand the shit she's saying with all the stories about her debate team."

"You have Chau?"

"Yep."

Shel snorted. "I'll send you a picture."

"Thank you, Shelby darling. The light of my life, my one and only lo--"

"Stop."

Nico sat across the bench. His hair was tied up, so she could clearly see the bags under his eyes. "You look like shit," Sadie said.

"Thanks," replied Nico and Shel in unison.

"Not you Shel, you look absolutely ravishing  today," Nico said.