Chapter 22: CHAPTER 21

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

Ashley's POV

Halfway through, Miss Brooke decides to give us a ten-minute break and as I walk towards my seat I see Cam grinning at me, from her seat. I smile back, raising questioning brows at her.

When I finally get to my seat, she springs out of her seat and raises her palms in the air.

"High-five me," she says and I chuckle before complying.

Some friends we have.

She takes her seat and I do, mine.

"Did you see yourself out there?" she asks, I'm sure, expecting an answer from me in return but I keep mute. When she realizes I wasn't going to say anything in return, she shakes her head in disapproval "Of course not, what was I expecting?"

I smile sheepishly at her and she returns it with a smile of her own. "You did so great, you know...," she taps my back  "...that I actually thought I was in a cinema."

"Really?!!" I ask in surprise, "Cause you do realize Miss Brooke asked me to do a scene for the second time? I think I messed up, rather. " I say and she shoots me a 'you're kidding me' look but continues anyway.

"No no! The reason why she made you do it the second was because you weren't portraying the expected emotion. Besides, you portrayed it perfectly the second time. I could have fainted out of sheer amazement, you know."

"Mmm..." I trace my fingers on my jaw as I think back to the performance.

Was I that good as she puts it?

She pulls away my fingers and lifts my chin to face her before uttering, "You're a true gem," she winks.

"Cam.." I start.

"Shush!!!" she cuts me off,  "Believe in yourself for once. You did great and it's okay to receive the compliment."

Compliment

Accept

That's easy!

"Okaaaaay?"

She gives me a look of assurance "You're welcome, actually." She says and I let out a small laugh.

Come to think of it, the lips brushing incident. Should I tell her? Mmm.....

Yes!

No!

Yes!

No!

Yes!

She's going to scream if I tell her and be extremely happy like it's her place to do so when it actually isn't. No, I'm not telling her, at least not now. Probably after school or some other time.

"Honestly, did I do well?" I ask and she looks at me like I asked the most ridiculous question ever.

But it's not that ridiculous, is it?

"Yes, you did!" She screeches.

"Are you sure you're not saying this to make me feel better?"

She gasped and hit her forehead dramatically with her palm, shaking her head at me in disapproval "Would never."

I was about to respond but the clearing of someone's throat stopped me.

We both turn to the distraction only to see someone's blue orbs staring right at us.

Grayson

In alert, I sit up, straight.

"Uh... Hey!" he says looking at me.

"Yeah," I say.

"Hi," he says to Cam and she waves at him enthusiastically in reply.

"Um.." he pinches the bridge of his nose slightly and  I notice all of a sudden a tinge of red at the tip of his ears. "I wanted to uh say sorry for uh... uhm..." he pinches his nose again and I realize his cheeks get warm, scarlet they become.

I think I get it.

Embarrassing!!

But why would he come to apologize? I mean, it was a mistake and no one was at fault.

"Uh... It's okay." I wave him off.

"Are you s...sure?" He asks taken aback.

Why what was he expecting? That I'll do something crazy to him or?

Do I look crazy?

"Yeah," I assure him, with the intent of him getting the hint and backing off.

But... he doesn't.

"Okay... sorry. Just wanted to let you know that it wasn't intentional." He continues to say.

Flashbacks of what happened suddenly appear in my mind and I shut my eyes and groan involuntarily covering my ears. I put my head on the table knowing fully well that he was still there. Hopefully, he'll definitely get the hint and leave.

Why did he have to apologize? Ugh!!! This is sooo....

I hear his footsteps decline, so after a few seconds, I lift my head, only to see Cam looking scowling at me.

"What?!" I ask

"The poor boy was obviously worried and all you had to do was avoid him. Sucks!"

"He wasn't! Besides I told him it was okay yet he had to keep on reminding me of something I didn't want to be reminded of."

"So you think it was right to avoid him like a plague? The guy looked hurt!"

"Wait! He did? But I didn't mean it that way. I was just... Ugh!!, now I feel bad."

"You need to take responsibility for your actions. Besides, what was he apologizing for, by the way? Did something happen that I don't know of?"

"Nothing!"

"You're lying, I can tell."

"Okay, yes! Something did happen." I admit.

"Really?!! Tell me! Tell me! tell me!"

I shake my head, "Not now."

"Party pooper." She sticks her tongue out.

"Thanks."

"But that wasn't a compliment." She frowns.

"I know." I wink at her and she rolls her eyes.

Just then Miss Brooke declares, "Break's over."

———

It was a holiday the next day, Heathcliff waited till the family departed for church before showing his face.

He goes to the kitchen and upon seeing Nelly, he hung around her for a while, and having screwed up his courage,  exclaimed abruptly: "Nelly, make me decent, I'm going to be good."

"High time, Heathcliff,"  said Nelly

"you have grieved Catherine:  she's sorry she ever came home, I dare say! It looks as if you envied her because she is more thought of than you."

"Did she say she was grieved?" he inquired with a serious face.

"She cried when I told her you were off again this morning."

"Well, I cried last night," he retaliates"and I had more reason to cry than she."

"Yes: you had the reason of going to bed with a proud heart and an empty stomach," said Nelly. "Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. But, if you be ashamed of your touchiness, you must ask pardon, mind, when she comes in. You must go up and offer to kiss her, and say—you know best what to say; only do it heartily, and not as if you thought her converted into a stranger by her grand dress. And now, though I have dinner to get ready, I'll steal time to arrange you so that Edgar Linton shall look quite a doll beside you: and that he does. You are younger, and yet, I'll be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders: you could knock him down in a twinkling: don't you feel that you could?"

Heathcliff's face brightened for a moment, then it was overcast afresh, and he sighed. "But, Nelly, if I knocked him down twenty times, that wouldn't make him less handsome or me more so. I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!"

"And cried for mamma at every turn," Nelly added, "and trembled if a country lad heaved his fist against you, and sat at home all day for a shower of rain. Oh, Heathcliff, you are showing a poor spirit! Come to the glass, and I'll let you see what you should wish. Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil's spies? Wish and learn to smooth away the surly wrinkles, to raise your lids frankly, and change the fiends to confident, innocent angels, suspecting and doubting nothing, and always seeing friends where they are not sure of foes. Don't get the expression of a vicious cur that appears to know the kicks it gets are its desert, and yet hates all the world as well as the kicker, for what it suffers."

"In other words, I must wish for Edgar Linton's great blue eyes and even forehead," he replies "I do—and that won't help me to them."

"A good heart will help you to a bonny face, my lad," Nelly continues

"If you were a regular black; and a bad one will turn the bonniest into something worse than ugly. And now that we've done washing, and combing, and sulking— tell me whether you don't think yourself rather hand-some? I'll tell you, I do. You're fit for a prince in disguise. Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, each of them able to buy up, with one week's income, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange together? And you were kidnapped by wicked sailors and brought to England. Were I in your place, I would frame high notions of my birth; and the thoughts of what I was should give me courage and dignity to support the oppressions of a little farmer!"

Nelly chatters on and Heathcliff gradually loses his frown and begins to look pleasant, when all at once their conversation is interrupted by a rumbling sound. The linton's had arrived.

Nelly urged him to hasten in showing his amiable humour and he willingly obeyed but ill luck had another thing in store. When he opened the door, he met Hindley and upon Hindley seeing him clean and cheerful, he shoved him with a sudden thrust and ordered   Joseph "Keep the fellow out of the room— send him into the garret till dinner is over. He'll be cramming his fingers in the tarts and stealing the fruit, if left alone with them a minute."

"Nay, sir," Nelly couldn't help but butt in "he'll touch nothing, not he: and I suppose he must have his share of the dainties as well as we."  She defends.

"He shall have his share of my hand if I catch him downstairs till dark," cries Hindley "Begone, you vagabond! What! you are attempting the coxcomb, are you? Wait till I get hold of those elegant locks— see if I won't pull them a bit longer."

"They are long enough, already," Linton says, peeping from the doorway "I wonder they don't make his headache. It's like a colt's mane over his eyes!"

Heathcliff took that as an insult, tho it wasn't intended to be so. And with his violent nature, he seized a bowl of hot apple source and poured it on Edgar Linton's face and neck. Upon impact, Edgar commenced a lament that brought Isabella and Catherine hurrying to the place.

Hindley pulled Heathcliff away to his chamber, leaving everyone else.

Nelly pulls out a dishcloth, and rather spitefully scrubbed Edgar's nose and mouth, affirming it served him right for meddling. His sister, Isabella began weeping to go home, and Catherine stood by, embarrassed for all.

"You should not have spoken to him!" I—Catherine— say to Edgar "He was in a bad temper, and now you've spoilt your visit, and he'll be flogged: I hate him to be flogged! I can't eat my dinner. Why did you speak to him, Edgar?"

"I didn't" sobbed Edgar "I promised mamma that I wouldn't say one word to him, and I didn't."

"Well, don't cry," replied I—Catherine— "you're not killed. Don't make more mischief; my brother is coming: be quiet! Hush! Isabella! Has anybody hurt you?"

"There, there, children—to your seats!"

cried Hindley "That brute of a lad has warmed me nicely. Next time, Master Edgar, take the law into your own fists—it will give you an appetite!"

"Cut!" Miss Brooke yells "That's all for today. See you again next time. Miss Canton, Mister Wesley. Both of you, please see me in my office after school ends."

Huh???

*******

Hey! I'm good. What of y'all?

Sooo.... what's your fav colour?

If you've been here since day one and still are. Thanks so much for the love. I really appreciate it. Lots of love from me to you.

I appreciate the support.