"Transformation," she said. "Look, just remember that if you pass the cur-."
"Excellent," laughed Kyle. "Let the karma begin. You're going to turn into the biggest nerd the world has ever known."
Within a heartbeat, Jennifer's breath caught in fear, but then a thought occurred to her. "How tall?"
"You'll get... What?" he interrupted himself, confused.
"How tall will I be?"
Kyle was silent for a moment. "You'll be as tall as you are now. What are you talking about?"
Jennifer smirked, and continued to play dumb, "You said I'd become the biggest nerd in the world. Would that be like about 6 foot 6, or taller?"
"No, I...." Kyle stopped himself and sighed. "I don't mean you'd be larger than all of the other nerds, I mean that-"
"OH NO!" she cried out. "Don't make me fat! Please!"
"What? You... You're not going to be fat!"
She sighed in relief. "Oh, thank you. By the way, I've got to go. See you at school, Pickins."
"Perkins."
"Sorry. Bye." She hung up, finished getting dress, and quickly grabbed her things before heading off to school.
________________________________
Meanwhile, Kyle stared at the phone dumbfounded. "What just happened?"
________________________________
Jennifer arrived at school, having felt good screwing around with Kyle as she had. Sitting down in homeroom, she leaned over to start talking to her friends while the morning announcements began blurting on about whatever mundane things were going on that day.
"Are you ready for today?" Amily asked her, with more than a note of nervousness.
"Today?" she asked.
"The physics test," Amily said. "If you don't pass this you're not going to graduate."
Jennifer rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine." Her father would iron out any issues with the principal to get her to graduate. She didn't care. It worked to get her past the 8th-grade. It would work here.
Amily didn't look so sure. To Jennifer's surprise however, her best-friend Carmen seemed to smile briefly before pursing her lips. It didn't make sense. Carmen and her had been close for ages. They had gotten onto the cheerleading team together. She had made sure Carmen was her second right under her ever since she had become head of the team, and.... Oh. Thinking back, she quickly realized that Carmen had been showing subtle signs of jealousy for the last six months. Too many of her own quips cutting probably a little too deep. The more she thought on it, the more she was convinced Carmen was plotting something. How come I'm only noticing this now?
The thoughts troubled her all of the way up to physics class. She and Carmen had been friends so for long, she realized she needed to do something to prevent her from becoming a dangerous enemy. Even as she idly filled out the test's answers she tried to think everything about her relationships through. She handed the test in and sat down.
Professor Maximel took the test with a raised eyebrow. Looking up at the clock, Jennifer realized that only ten minutes into the period have gone by. He looked down at the test, it being the only one passed in so far, and frowned. He looked up at her with an extremely displeased look on his face. "Stay after the bell."
Over time, others passed their tests in. When the bell rang, Maximel forced the rest to give up their papers and leave. She waited.
"Want to tell me something?" he asked her.
She swallowed. "My mind wasn't on the test. I'm-"
"Really? Abe and Jerry were trying to pass signals, but you were on the other side of the room. So I know you weren't in with them."
"You didn't tell them to stay," she said, trying to hide her annoyance.
"That's because they're idiots. Half the solutions being signaled were wrong, and I don't just look at the answers. I look at the work on the sheet." He held up her paper. "This is all complete. With the exception of a few extra math steps you seem to had 'done in your head', like converting feet to meters, everything here is complete and correct. Where is it?"
"What?"
"Where is your cheat sheet?" he asked sternly.
"I don't have a cheat sheet."
"So, you studied to the point of being able to compute a parabolic arc of a thrown object within a minute?"
"Number four? Yeah."
"So, if you're moving forward at 9 meters per second and throw an object forward at 30 degrees at 15 meters per second, it would land...?"
In her mind, she instantly computed the arc. "Let's see. That would be the forward velocity times the time adding to the rest of the x-distance from the arc. The time would be the duration from the ball being thrown to the impact with ground (keeping it simple). Which be about... uh... a little over a second and a half...." She closed her eyes and just thought about it. Around 20 meters plus... a little over 14.5. So around 34.5 meters." What the fuck just happened, she thought to herself. Since when did I remember anything from trig?
Maximel stared at her oddly. The problem wasn't on the test. He quietly got up, moved over to his desk, and started doing things by hand, occasionally punching numbers into his calculator.
"I.. I did do some rounding," she said defensively.
Eventually he looked to his sheet, and then to the calculator, and then sighed. "And this is why I wished you applied yourself earlier in the year." He quickly scratched a note down and handed it to her. "You can give this to your next teacher if you can't get there by the next bell."
She took the note, confused.
"Congratulations. You got a perfect score," he said with his back turned to her.
Slowly, she stood up. "So I..."
"You're passing the course," he said. "You'll need to continue this before the year is out, but with this you've pulled yourself up to a C-. Good day."
Jennifer left the classroom, finding it ironic she left taking a test she passed more confused than any other.
Amily, Theresa, and Carmen were still in the hall waiting for her. Carmen was failing to hide a grin. "How bad?" Amily asked.
"I passed."
All three froze. "What?"
"I passed."
Carmen was the first to snap out of it. "Did you give him a BJ?"
"Uh. No! Besides, this was Prof M. I think he'd rather get it from one of the boys in class."
Professor Maximel's voice echoed out from the room, "You know, I can hear you. Those doors are cheap. Go to your next class NOW."
The four girls all left in a hurry. All of the time, Jennifer could feel her mind running faster and faster.