"Remember class, it's still the beginning of the semester. We've been in class, what? A month? There is still time to drop this course if you cannot keep up with it. I had a lot of late submissions on the first speech that you and your partners had a reasonable amount of time to work out." Professor Adams says.

Is she encouraging us to drop this class? I'm thinking about it. Heavily.

"This class involves a lot of work like your first speech. With that being said, I'm introducing you to speech number two. This one will be speech that you will do alone!"

Fuck.

I groan lowly, in hopes that no one hears me. I barely got through the first one. Why, why, why, was this class required?

My phone buzzes in my back pocket and I pull it out carefully, placing it in front of my computer screen. It's Dalton. My agent.

My eyes widen and I open the text immediately.

Dalton: Just heard back from the casting director

Holy shit. My heart beats so fast in my chest I swear I can feel it against my skin.

Me: ??

I tap my foot against the floor and try biting on my fingernail until I remember that I recently got acrylics. I roll my eyes, but after, my eyes don't move from my phone screen.

Those three dots appear in the text bubble and they can't seem to disappear.

Until they do, and a text appears.

Dalton: They went with two other people. I'm sorry, Nova. Looking into more roles for you as we speak.

I close my eyes slowly and try not to cry. Two auditions. I auditioned for two characters and got neither of the roles. I knew this was going to happen.

I didn't know why I let Dalton convince me to audition for this show anyway. It was a good show that was bound to put up numbers. Of course I didn't get casted.

I swipe a tear that somehow escaped my closed eyes. The fact that he's looking for more roles for me doesn't even calm me down.

It takes weeks to find something that's even close to manageable from my schedule. Dalton is a good agent too, so he knows what types of roles I like and which ones I will do good in.

Plus with my distinct features, it becomes a little more difficult. I tend to stick out a bit with my red hair and overly freckled face.

Ugh, nothing sucks more than this feeling. I always get the idea that I'm obviously not a good enough actress if I didn't get picked. And with the way I'm pushing through school, I can't afford for my career to fail.

Speaking of school, my thoughts get interrupted by everyone standing up to leave. Great.

I have no idea what the professor said about our individual speeches. My eyes scan the length of the room until they land on Christian. He smiles at me before draping his bag over his shoulder.

I put away and pick up my things quickly, rushing down the stairs to catch up with the football player. Once I reach his side, I nudge his arm. "Hey." It's been about three weeks since our.. kiss.

We've both been busy with school and him with football obviously.

"Hey, you." He says. He waves to a guy I don't recognize as we walk out the building. Just as I'm about to say something, he interrupts me. "Wanna come over and study?" He looks down at me.

His brown eyes invade mine —just like they always do— so I look away. "Uhm, yeah sure." I was about to ask him about the speech so I guess this'll be good.

He smiles and motions his head for me to follow him.

+

I follow behind Valdez as we enter his townhouse. I hear male laughter as we near the living area. "Boys." Valdez says, walking into the kitchen. They turn to look at us all at once.

"Yoo, Nova."

"Hey, Nova."

"Told you she was your girl."

I choke on my saliva at Rhys' words. His what? Christian smacks his teeth. "She's a friend, dumbass. And we're gonna study." He hands me a watered bottle and motions his head upstairs.

"Bye, guys." I say as I follow him up.

He throws his backpack on the bed and pulls out his notebook, opening it up to a blank page. "Hey, I forgot to ask you. What's the speech on? I was really distracted."

God, I feel annoying. Now that he knows I have ADHD, he must think I'm slow and annoying.

"It's an informative speech, whatever topic you pick. It can only be 3-5 minutes though so don't pick anything that broad." He writes something down in his notebook.

I'm relieved that the speech doesnt have to be that long. That means I won't have to do as much research as last time and maybe this time it'll be easier.

"What are you doing yours on?" I ask. "Leadership styles and their effects on employee productivity. You?" Are you fucking kidding me?

I shift uncomfortably. "I don't know yet." I say, opening up my laptop. I search up ideas for informative speeches because I can't seem to think of anything I want to do at the moment.

"How about if students and teachers should be friends on social media? That's not that hard and not completely boring like mine. It'll catch Prof's attention." He says, interrupting my skimming.

I look at him for a little. It's not at all a hard topic. And it would be fun to do. Most of the time my work bores me. Research bores me.

"That's a great idea, Chris, thanks." I smile, typing up the topic on my computer notes. I type up the topic onto the internet to begin doing some research on the topic.

Chris is oddly quiet but he seems to be actually doing his work. I appreciate it since it's helping me focus better. The guys downstairs seem not to be making much noise either.

I press an article, nothing. I press another one, nothing. Then another, nothing. I close my eyes tightly, but open them quickly. I tend to cry out of frustration, but I am not going to do that.

"What's up?" Chris looks at his computer for a couple of more seconds before looking up at me. "It's too much reading, I just can't decide what information to type out." I sigh.

Chris closes his laptop and scoots closer to me. "I read online that reading out loud could help. So you can actually remember what you read. Also, try walking or pacing around while you read so you won't zone out." He picks up my laptop and places it in my hands.

I furrow my brows. "What do you mean you read online?" I ask curiously. He opens his mouth to talk but stutters for a moment.

"After you told me about your ADHD, I did a little research on ways to help you out. Mainly studying and doing your work because I saw how much of a hard time you were having last time." He says.

I stare at him blankly. Moreso because I'm genuinely appreciative of him right now. No one has ever taken time out of their days to research my disability to help me out with it. Not even my parents, regardless of how supportive of me they were.

Instead they threw away money for tutors and medication. Medication I stopped taking when I turned 18.

I finally put out a smile. "You did research on my disability? For me? Because you wanted to help me? All this time I thought you were a hard ass football player who only cared about himself. " I tease, inching closer to him.

He smiles, rolling his brown orbs. "Alright, alright. Calm down. I still do care about myself more than anyone else," he pauses "I just wanted to help you out. I can tell how much this affects you and I don't know, I'd want someone to help me out too." He shrugs lightly.

I want to kiss him. As a friend. Out of happiness.

I don't even know what to say. I've sucked at expressing my emotions ever since I stepped foot into high school. I step forward slowly, then all at once and wrap my arms around his neck.

He's too tall, but he bends his knees after a while. His arms find there way to my back, patting it lightly. He's confused. I pull away and look at him, smiling. "Thank you. No ones ever done something like that for me." I admit.

He runs his fingers through his fluffy, dark-brown hair. "Of course. Anything for you, gorgeous." He pats my hip lightly, twice.

Christian Valdez is a good guy. Like a really good guy.

"No more C's, Nov." He says.

"No more C's."