*3 WEEKS LATER*

SOPHIE POV 

The last three weeks had been horrible. I had panic attacks daily and dad didn't know about them. I started going to school two weeks after grandma's death. Dad thought it would be a good distraction. I skipped the dance but then, it was the last thing on my mind. I just forgot about it. At school, no one except Disha knew, I was fine, I had to be fine. 

It was the last class of the day and it was maths. It was the first one in the week I was back, He was out sick. 

"Hey Mr. Radford How are you feeling now?" I ask entering the room. I also noticed papers on his desk

"I'm fine Sophie thank you for asking. How are you? You know after the test."

"I'm fine, thank you."

"And that was the reason you didn't come for 2 weeks?" He questions. I nodded and took my seat. 

"Everyone's here now?" 

"Yes sir." The whole class said. 

"Alright, i'm sorry I couldn't give you back your tests earlier, I was busy with personal stuff and I got sick after. You'll be getting them back today I'll give your paper to you. You can check it over. A lot of the class has failed though. If you have any doubts about why a question is wrong you can raise your hand." He said taking support of the desk.

Why today? I thought to myself.

"Hey soph you okay?" Parker asked. I nodded not trusting my voice my anxiety was raising. 

"Your lips will bleed don't bite them." He said. I hadn't even noticed I was biting them. 

"Good job Sophie, i'm proud of you." Mr. Radford as he kept the paper on my desk. I was scared to look at it. 

"Good job parker, i'm proud of you as well." 

"Wanna look at it together?" 

"I guess." 

"On 3. 1 2 3." 

"97." He said.

"98." I said as I looked at it, but not feeling the slightest emotion of happiness, or excitement. numbness that's all I had been feeling since grandma died. I was sad for a few days but after that, numb. 

"I'm proud of you soph you were so stressed for this your hard work and all those sleepless nights finally paid off."   

"Thank you parker. I'm proud of you too." 

"Thanks." 

"Alright, class I need these signed by tomorrow and if you want to improve your grade I'll be taking a test of only those students the rest of you will do some questions I give you. It'll be a week from now, so anyone who wants to give it is free to, raise your hand so I have a rough idea of how many copies to make." 

Around 15 students raised their hands. 

"Okay,15. The difficulty of that test will be the same. Th questions will be different obviously. Now, I want to talk about this test The highest scorers in the class are Sophie and Parker, Sophie has gotten a 98 and Parker a 97. I'm proud of both of you guys. Anyone who's gotten above 80 i'm proud of you guys, keep it up. Lower than 80 I see your effort, keep on working and you can do this, Above 35 you all up your game a lot, practice if you have any questions i'm here. lower than 35 work hard you aren't going to pass this year if you keep on doing this." 

"Any doubts class?" He asked after clearing his throat. No one said anything and the bell rang. 

"And you're dismissed, get these signed tomorrow." Everyone took their bags and books and went out. 

"Hey, Sophie can you wait for a second?" Mr. Radford said as I was leaving with Parker. 

"Yeah, sure." 

"You can go Parker." He said. He went out. He motioned for me to take a seat in front of his desk.

"So, how are you doing?" He asked. 

"I'm okay why?"

"After I gave you the test back, your face didn't show any emotion that it should've. Is everything okay?" 

"Ah my grandma died 3 weeks ago, so it's kind of hard right now to like even breathe, feeling anything is kind of another story right now." 

"I'm so sorry, I'm here if you need support yeah? You can always come to me." 

"Thank you." He nodded and went out. I sat on the bus and texted dad. 

Me: "hey dad, I got a 98 on that math test. Mr. Radford said he was proud of me." 

I was sitting with Disha. 

"Are you okay soph?"

"I'm fine, Disha. Seriously, don't worry about me." 

"Can't help but do, i'm here you know." 

"Yeah, thanks."  She got off the bus and a while later, I did too. I got in, changed my clothes, and lay down. I checked for any messages from dad there weren't any. 

I must've fallen asleep cause I woke up sweating I got out of my room to get some water and I saw the whole house was on fire.