During the following week at school, Greg and Emma kept bumping into each other in the hallways which resulted in some evil glares from one another. Despite them being able to talk about their feelings with other people, they still held a grudge against each other. On a late Tuesday afternoon, Emma noticed Greg's car a few feet away from her house and instead of ignoring it, she ran downstair and came outside so that she could run her own car right into it. When Greg came back and noticed the damage in his tail lights and bumper, he went inside and told Emma's mom what happened. It took her no time to figure out that Emma was behind it and she was grounded for the rest of the week.
A week after Emma's grounding, she decided to go over to Greg's house with toilet paper and spray paint. She strung all of the toilet paper all over his car and with the spray paint, she wrote out on the back window the words "F*** YOU". Needless to say, Greg managed to tell on Emma and she was grounded yet again. She also got her phone taken away that week.
When another week had passed and Emma's second grounding was lifted, she called Greg's cell phone. She noticed that Matt had answered, so she asked him where Greg was. He said he didn't know, but she didn't believe him, so she cursed him out and that made him curse back at her. He also told her not to call Greg's phone again and he blocked her number. Moments after that, Greg came back from being outside with Jeff and noticed Matt's face looking red with anger. "What happened?" he asked.
"You know what happened," Matt said blankly. "Get this situation under control, please!" He then proceeded to walk loudly into the bathroom and decided take a long, hot shower.
Graduation was just around the corner and while Greg was determined to not let anything to spoil his last week of school, Emma had other plans. In a last attempt to get her anger out, she made her way over to Greg's locker. It took her several tries to remove the lock and successfully did it on the tenth try. She had no idea what to do next, but because the bell was about to ring in one minute, she quickly took all of his books and then ran to her classroom down the hall.
The last bell rang for the day and Greg knew that he would need his textbooks to help prep for his last two exams, so he headed over to his locker. It didn't even take two seconds for him to notice that it was already open, and he saw the lock sitting opened on the floor. That crazy bitch! he thought to himself. I've about had it with Emma's stupid schemes. This ends now.
The weekend has now arrived and Greg was just notified about his final grades for his classes. As he concentrated hard on the computer screen, he found himself feeling anxious about his test scores. Before he logged into his school account however, he decided to check his regular email. He noticed that Emma sent him two messages which he deleted without reading. A third one popped up however and while he thought about deleting it, he decided to read it instead. He also happened to notice that while he knew this was Emma, there was no subject like there was for the last two.
"Dear Greg, if you don't respond to this email, I'm going to assume that you've given up on this fight and want it to be over. Luckily for you, I think I'll just end it myself before you get any ideas on what you want to say to me. I'm sorry for acting so childish these last few weeks. Goodbye. -Emma."
This puzzled Greg more than it irritated him. First she pulls all these schemes on him for whatever stupid reason, and now she wants to end this stupid fight? She's the one who started it! Greg couldn't understand why she's been acting like this all month, but the more he thought this over, the more he realized that she might be covering something up that could even more repulsive than those other tricks. Once he the thought dawned on him, he decided to drive over to Emma's house to end this madness for good.
"Thanks for taking the time to speak to me," Greg said as he opened up the front door of Emma's house. He had just finished talking to her parents and considering that they were just as fed up with her antics as he was, they were willing to do what he asked of them. Normally Greg wouldn't strike back against his ex-girlfriend like this, but he couldn't stand it for much longer. Emma needs to back off and just let him be.
Emma was standing in front of her mirror putting on some new earrings when her mother stepped in. "Mom? Is there something you need?" She noticed that her mother had a disappointed look on her face and that made her feel anxious. Is she going to be grounded again? Is she going to lose all of her media privileges? She wasn't sure why her mother wasn't saying anything, but she did motion for her to sit down beside her on the bed. "Now Emma, I want you to listen to me. Your father and I are concerned about you." The tone in her mother's voice gave Emma some serious anxiety. She looked at her mom with concern as she continued to speak. "You've barely passed any of your classes this semester. I know that you've been going through a pretty rough break-up, but these final scores are just sad. I think that you should go to summer school."
"WHAT?? You can't do that to me!" Emma could feel rage rising up in her throat. She didn't understand why this was happening to her.
"Calm down, honey. We just want you to pass these classes before you graduate. Your father and I have talked about this at great length and I think it'd be best for you to start two weeks from now. You won't be graduating with the rest of your class. I'm sorry, but this is for your own good." Hearing her mother say this made Emma lose her temper. She started screaming through her own tears and her mother backed out of her daughter's bedroom. Emma then slammed the door in her face.
For the remainder of the week, Emma stayed home and didn't leave her room. She felt furious beyond reason and tried to piece together why this was happening to her. She knew that she could have tried harder in her classes, but she didn't see any of this as her fault. The assignments were becoming too difficult for her to understand and she just couldn't keep her focus. All she could think about was her fight with Greg several weeks ago. As hurt as she felt back then, all she could feel now was hot rage. She just wanted to let Greg know that she was still upset and felt guilty for leaving him behind with no word, but that in turn translated into all these pathetic schemes. It's like she didn't know how to clearly express her own emotions.
Graduation day has finally arrived and Greg was standing outside in the front yard with his brother and Maya. They were all getting ready to head over to the high school for the ceremony when he noticed Emma's parents. They parked their car on the curb and made their way over to him. Emma's mother pulled him aside for a moment while her father shook hands with Matt and Maya. "Emma didn't respond well to the news," her mother said to him in a hushed tone. "Just thought I'd let you know that. I honestly hope that she'll learn something from this."
"I hope so too. You didn't tell her that her not being at graduation was my idea, right?"
"No. Your secret is safe with me."
"Good. Thank you, Mrs..." For a second Greg realized that Emma never told him what her parents' names are. Her mother then interjected and said, "Thompson, but you can call me Valerie."
"Well thank you, Valerie. I should probably get going now. The ceremony starts in an hour and a half."
"Yes, of course." Valerie shook the soon-to-be graduate's hand and wished him good luck. She then made her way over to her husband who was talking to Matt about sports. Since then Maya went inside to finish getting herself ready. "Should we go now, John? We don't want Greg here to miss his graduation."
"Ah yes, we wouldn't want that to happen. Good luck, young sir." After shaking hands one last time, the Thompsons left and returned to their home.
Emma still stayed put in her room, but once she heard her parents pull into the driveway, she came running outside and demanded an explanation from them. "Please, honey, let's talk about this inside," John said. "No, I want to know now."
"Honey, please listen to your father," Valerie said wearily. "We're both very tired and haven't eaten anything yet." Emma skulked as she followed her parents inside. Once they all sat down in the family room, her parents talked to her about the subject at hand.
"I understand that my grades are bad, but why must I go to summer school? Can't I just re-take my classes here from home?" Emma asked once she thought this over.
"It doesn't work like that," John said sharply. "Our minds are made up, hun. You need to go to summer school." For a long moment no one spoke, but then Emma let out a long sigh and said, "Fine. I'll abide by your wish." She then walked up to her room and shut the door. She felt like her life was over, but then a sudden realization took over her mind. She grabbed her phone from her desk and decided to send out a text message. "I just figured it out. Well played, Greg. PS: I hate you."
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