“This Tragic Pizza of Exam Humiliations” (49.5)

3rd Period: Social Studies 9A A1G4 ATRAX / LETOH

“I’m not great at motivational speeches,” Kalei said as we huddled up. “But one time I entered an official online tournament for Talon, so I’m trying to think if I can remember what I told my team, because it was pretty good. We each won a 12 pack of ColaBlu GamerDrink.”

“You’re up.” Oka said bitterly.

“Up for what?” Kalei asked. “The speech? I just said to give me a second.”

“It’s your turn.” I said.

“For what?” Kalei asked, then realized what we were saying. “Nahhh. No way. You two are just magnets for it, I’ll be fine.”

“I don’t mean it in a you have it coming way, just a heads-up kind of way.” Oka said.

With me getting deluxe embarrassed in the first day of finals, Oka getting the second, it was only natural for us to assume Kalei would be next. The three of us were doing a presentation on the Jecruible Islands Renaissance.

“Come on, this should be child’s play.” Kalei said. “It’s about the Jecruible Islands! Where we Koridias hail from! Just let me do the talking.”

“Did you finish that last pass?” I asked. We had asked Kalei to run through the presentation to add any details about her family culture that she could think of to make it more authentic.

“Yeppers. We’re looking at an A here if you just let team leader Kalei Koridia handle this.”

When the semester started, we had Mr. Atrax for social studies, a very high-strung teacher who apparently had an accident so embarrassing he immediately retired. Ms. Letoh was his replacement. She was also pretty high strung, but in a more relatable, socially anxious sort of way. She could also be pretty strict in class, so I didn’t know how harsh she’d be on our presentation.

Kalei brought our group flash drive up to the shared computer and loaded our slideshow. Oka and I stood to the side. I waited awkwardly, hoping I wasn’t about to say anything stupid, and Oka once more had her theater kid posture, perfect for speech giving.

“The Jecruible Islands Renaissance was one of the most notable times in the eighteenth era,” Kalei started before giving us a nod or sign that she was starting. “Some of the best art, music, writing, and tech in all history happened here. You might think that’s a little cocky, but just wait til you see this.”

Kalei knew the topic well, and Oka and I barely had any chances to contribute, so we mostly nodded along.

“Cashew Square was probably the center of it all,” Kalei said. “Just on one block there were a ton of incredible people that all lived there at the same time. Did they all get along? Nah, but some did, and those people collaborated on some amazing business. Business such as…”

Kalei flipped to the next slide, and my stomach dropped, then did a backflip in short succession. For some reason, the slide had a bunch of keysmashed text alongside a picture of a woman from the Jecruible Islands wearing a bikini. It wasn’t the lewdest image that could have been in there, but it was still way too lewd for a class presentation.

“Uh!” I said, waving my arms wildly as though that would get Kalei’s attention. Or distract the class, who were already laughing at the image.

“Oh! What?!” Oka said. The three of us shot nervous looks back and forth.

Kalei flipped back a slide reflexively, then realized she’d have to scroll ahead if we wanted to proceed.

“Just…click ahead to the next one.” I said. “On the sidebar, just jump over it.”

“I’m surprised you know how to work a slideshow,” Kalei said, defaulting to making fun of me when embarrassed. “Sorry for that technical error folks, moving on…”

The rest of our presentation went without incident once Kalei recovered, but I could tell what part of it stuck with the class.

“What the heck was that about, Kalei?” Oka hissed once we sat down.

“What?” Kalei said, trying to act like it was no big deal, but she was clearly rattled.

We apologized to Letoh after class, and to her credit she genuinely laughed it off. I hoped she wouldn’t dock us any points for that.

“Why did none of you look over that before you presented?” Lillia scolded as the three of us were fairly dour at lunch. “That one was on all of you for not proofing your work.”

“We didn’t think we’d have to proof out a boob lady!” Oka said. “Or a bunch of gibberish text!”

“I don’t want to be rude about it, but…why? Was she in there?” I asked.

“How do you know it was me? You sure it wasn’t Oka?” Kalei asked.

“Because you had the last look,” I said. “And that slide wasn’t there when I stopped working on it, and I’m pretty sure I stopped working on it after Oka did, so…”

Kalei crossed her arms, not able to come up with a counter argument.

“Just curious, was that…was she your type?” Marmalade asked.

“I mean, I thought she was good looking, yeah,” Kalei said. “And I thought it was funny to have her pic in the slideshow, and then it kept me motivated somehow. I was going to delete it, I just forgot. I guess I deal with finals stress by getting embarrassingly thirsty.”

“I can’t really judge.” I said.

“True, Miss ‘follows a fan page for Raina Starlight’s thighs,’” Kalei said.

“I just said I can’t judge, you don’t have to snap back at me!” I said.

“Do you get jealous that Zeta’s so into Raina Starlight?” Marmalade asked.

“No, I get it!” Oka said. “I think Raina Starlight’s very attractive too, so it’s a shared interest for us!”

“Yeah!” I said. “And we both share a deep love of Raina Starlight’s artistic work as well.”

“That’s dorky, but kinda cute.” Marmalade said.

“Was mine just dorky?” Kalei asked, defeated. “Or just stupid as hell?”

“Stupid, sure, but kind of awesome,” Marmalade said. “Maybe someday you can brag about being the one to put a bikini pic of Marci Coral in your presentation once the embarrassment dies down.”

“Wait,” I said. “Do you know who that model was?”

“She’s a famous actor, do you not know her?” Marmalade asked, her voice immediately coming across defensively. “I just know her from movies is all!”

“Well, at least Marms has good taste too.” Kalei said.