Chapter Four

Ernest let out a groan as his alarm went off; he groggily sat up and felt his phone underneath his hand. He picked it up and saw that it was on a phone call; he put the phone up to his ear and smiled as he heard her soft breathing.

So cute, he thought.

"Wait.. Doesn't she have class?" Ernest asked himself. "Ariel, wake up." Ernest said loudly, making Ariel snort and sit up abruptly.

"I'm up momma.." She said sleepily, making Ernest muffle his laughter.

"I'm not your mom, Ariel." Ernest said, making her gasp.

"Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed.." Ariel said. "I'm so sorry, Ernest."

"It's okay. We all have our moments. I just wanted to wake you up. Don’t want to miss classes." Ernest said, but Ariel shook her head.

"I don't have classes today. Any kid with a 90 or higher on their exam gets the day off and resumes the next day as usual." Ernest was very surprised to hear this as something like this has never happened at his school, but then again, his highest test score was a 80 and probably would have never had the luxury in the first place.

"Lucky.. Well, I'm sorry for waking you."

"It's okay, Ernest." Ariel said with a smile.

"We're still on for after school, right?"

"Of course." She said, "But Ernest, you do realize that it's 8:30, right?" Ernest's eyes whipped over to his clock which was stuck at 12.

"Crap, I'm super late! Gotta run, talk to you later, Ariel!" Ernest hung up and rushed through things to get ready. He took a quick shower and threw on clean clothes before grabbing his things and running downstairs.

Ernest realized he was ridiculously late when not even his mother or father were home.

They left for work already? I'm so dead..

Ernest thought as he left the house and ran all the way to school. Despite how out of breath he was and the intense burn within his legs, Ernest made it to school around 8:57 and rushed to his first class. He opened the door and everyone including the teacher stared at him.

"Mr. Rivers, glad to see you finally join us with the rest of the class." Mrs. Baxby said.

"Did you hurt yourself on the way, bro?" Michael asked, making Ernest's face get hot in embarrassment by the laughter of the class; Ernest is most commonly known for being the most clumsy guy at school and it's so typical for him to hurt himself even in the weirdest ways possible.

"No, I didn't hurt myself on the way. Now stop interrupting our wonderful, beautiful and very intelligent teacher." Ernest said, making everyone chuckle.

"Flattery gets you nowhere Mr. Rivers. One hour detention after school." Ernest's eyes widened.

He couldn't do it after school. He was supposed to meet Ariel once school was over and it would be plain cruel to cancel last minute or show up an hour late.

"But I-"

"Would you like to make it two hours?" Mrs. Baxby asked, making Ernest shake his head and sit in his seat.

His first period went as usual, his second period was math.

For some reason, teachers just expected him to just know how to solve

The value of the limit lim x®12x2+x-3/x2-x

It didn't even make sense, let alone be easy to solve.

He had history for his third class and fell asleep. When the teacher called on him, he jumped up and bit tongue, blood slightly dripping out of his mouth; he was sent to the nurses office before fourth period came.

He had economics class and today they were supposed to make a cake, but based on how badly he burnt the cake, his cake looked more like dry dirt, but he got a C- for at least trying to go down the right path.

When the bell rang, it was time to go to lunch; today was supposed to be chicken with stale mashed potatoes, a piece of bread and too many veggies that a vegetarian would complain about it.

"Dude, wait up!" Michael yelled. "What happened?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"With the Ariel girl, what happened?" He stated.

"Oh man, we talked all night. She's so witty and an absolute angel. I never met anyone like her. Not to mention, she's super smart. She goes to Rockview highschool and has straight A's. Even got a 90 or higher on her exam." Michael's eyes widened.

"No way, she goes to Rockview and has straight A's? Her life must be hell there." Michael added. "Is she scared?" Ernest shook his head.

"She said she used to be, but she said she's making a difference by going there and that's good enough for her." Ernest explained. "I mean, it must have been hard. She was around during segregation.." Ernest said.

Segregation was something that confused Ernest; why did the black kids have to walk ten miles to school? Why were their schools so different from theirs?

"Segregation ended a long time ago." Michael said.

"Dude, it hasn't even been a decade yet since it stopped." I said.

"Sounds like a long time to me." He said.

"Extra extra, read all about it! Another murder near the woods! Here you guys go." Jimmy said before running off.

Black girl found raped and strangled to death in the woods.

These kinds of stories always made Ernest sick. How could someone be so cruel? And why only black girls?

This was the fifth black girl found dead within the last three months. Was it an obsession? Hatred? But why?

Ernest thought.

"Talk about sick.. Her neck looks like it's been wringed out.." Ernest physically cringed at Michael's harsh words. "And her clothes-"

"Dude, I'm throwing this away.. I'm sure her family didn't want to see her like this because I definitely didn't." Ernest crumpled up the paper and threw it away in the nearest trash can. "Change of subject, the talk with Ariel went amazing. If you gave her a chance, she's not bad at all." Ernest said. "I'm supposed to meet with her after school." Ernest said quietly, making Michaels eyes practically pop out of his head.

"You're serious about this girl? Are you trying to date her?" Ernest looked just as shocked as Michael at this point.

"No, it's not like that. We're friends and you know me." Ernest said. Michael rolled his eyes, but had a smile on his face.

"You always want to get to know new people, I know. Well.. I guess I can give this Ariel girl a try if you think she seems so nice. I just don't want a repeat of the last friend you had."

Ernest winced while remembering David.

David had a huge anger problem and hated pretty much anything and Ernest tried to be his friend, but instead Ernest got hurt a lot much more than usual; the last time Ernest saw David, David set him up to get jumped and David succeeded. No one has ever seen Ernest face so bruised or bloodied. Even Michael teared up seeing the happiest guy he knew unconscious because he trusted too much.

"That's totally different. Ariel isn't like that at all, really." Ernest reassured him.

"Can't wait to meet her after school." Michael said.

"No way, it just has to be me and her." Michael and Ernest got in line to get lunch .

"I thought you said you two are just friends." Michael said as they picked up their trays of food.

"We are."

"So why can't I come along?" He asked as they sat at an empty table.

"Because it's just supposed to be me and her." Ernest said.

"So, a date?" He asked. Ernest glared at Michael as Michael tossed a piece of chicken into his mouth. "Just pointing out the obvious, but whatever. I won't come. Just promise me that if something seems off, you'll leave, alright?" Ernest nodded. "Wait.. How are you going to get to her? You have detention." Ernest gave Michael a lopsided smile, making Michael lip twitch in annoyance. "Fine, but you owe me big fucking time, again." Michael stated as Ernest nodded. They continued eating their mediocre food and had conversations ranging from the football game happening next month to who they thought about going to homecoming with.

When lunch was over, Ernest went to fifth period which was biology. They were supposed to dissect a frog, but Ernest ended up cutting his finger and once again had to go to the nurses office. Ms. Jones shook her head again when Ernest walked inside the nurses offices with a rapidly bleeding finger; after patching him up, he went back to class, but wasn't allowed to touch any more sharp objects and his partner had to do the rest of the experiment.

Sixth period was English class, Ernest best subject. His teacher Mrs. Davis was very impressed with the last essay he turned in last week and even asked if his essay could be used as an example to show how to properly write an essay.