Morbid

Kelly and Arnold spent the rest of the afternoon playing a game called Risk And Reward. It was quite a bit trickier than any of the other games Arnold had tried, because it had a few small puzzles mixed in. The puzzles had to be solved to get clues and to move on to the next area to fight the bad guys and the monsters. The risky part was that you had to risk your character's life to try and solve each puzzle, then survive to get to the next one.

Kelly taught him the gaming tricks she knew as Arnold played, and Kelly learned new and different ways to get to each puzzle clue. Arnold saw things differently and approached them with fresh eyes, so they both enjoyed their gaming time together and learned a lot. There was a single knock on her bedroom door and Kelly walked over to it.

“Kelly, we need to talk.” Her father's voice said through the door. “Alone.”

“Arnold, I'll be right back.” Kelly said and opened the door, saw the sad look on her father's face, and knew he had talked to her mother. She stepped out of the bedroom and shut the door.

Arnold kept playing the game and beat the next level, saved up his progress, then put the controllers down and took off the VR headset. He put the controllers and headset back where they were supposed to go, then he sat down on the chair and waited. A few minutes later, the bedroom door opened and Kelly stood there. He couldn't tell what emotion it was that she had on her face, so he stood up and walked over to her.

“I guess I was wrong.” Kelly said and held back her tears. “They do care if we're dating.”

“I don't understand.” Arnold said and took her into a hug.

“Apparently, we've embarrassed my mother so much that you've been uninvited to supper. She said she can't even look at you right now.” Kelly put her arms around him. “Oh, and I'm grounded for being disrespectful and I can't leave the house for a week.”

Arnold had to think about what that meant. “What about exams?”

Kelly let out a sad laugh. “Dad's going to drive me to school to write them and then pick me up when I'm done.” She shook her head. “I won't be coming to our chemistry study group on Tuesday, either.”

Arnold just looked into her eyes and waited.

“In fact, we won't be allowed to study together all week, and if dad doesn't come to see reason, he probably won't let us study together next week, either.” Kelly said. “They were the ones in the wrong and I'm the one being punished!”

Arnold gave her a kiss and she sighed.

“I'm sorry, Arnold. I'm sorry this whole thing is still a big mess.” Kelly let him go. “You need to call for a drive. Dad wants you out of the house as soon as possible, because he thinks you're a bad influence on me.”

“I'm not Amy. I know how to treat you like you deserve.” Arnold said and took out his cell phone.

Kelly put her arms back around him briefly to give him a kiss. “That's what I told him.”

Arnold called his mother and she immediately asked why he was calling so early. He told her what Kelly said and then the phone went dead. He dialed again and there was no answer, so he shrugged and put the phone away. It took Kelly a minute to figure out why she wasn't answering.

“We need to go outside to stop your mom!” Kelly said and took his hand.

“Why?” Arnold asked and put on his backpack.

“I think she's coming here to give my parents a piece of her mind... as in she's going to yell and scream at them for being so stupid.” Kelly said and led Arnold through the house to the front door and opened it.

Kelly's father stood at the entrance to the kitchen and Kelly saw her mother was still crying at the kitchen table. “You're grounded.” He reminded her needlessly.

“SHUT UP!” Kelly yelled at him.

Her father couldn't hide the shock on his face, because she had never raised her voice like that before, not even when she was a little girl and had thrown temper tantrums.

Kelly took Arnold outside and shut the door. “I think I just extended being grounded by a week.” She said sadly. “I can't let your mother tell them off for what they are doing, Arnold. If they hear what she has to say, I... I'm sure that...” She wiped her eyes before the tears fell. “They'll want us to break up.”

The two of them stood there in silence for about ten minutes, then a car came barrelling down the street. The two of them quickly walked over to the end of the driveway and waited for the car to stop. It came to a screeching halt and a very irate Annie climbed out of the driver's side.

“Please don't.” Kelly said and stood in front of her. “Please.”

“Kelly, they have no right to treat my son like that!” Annie almost yelled. “You are a wonderful girl and I had thought that you had wonderful parents.” She looked at the front door with a frown. “I didn't stop in to visit them the last time I was here, because I thought it was too soon for our families to meet.”

“It's still too soon.” Kelly said and touched her arm. “Please. If you care about Arnold and I being together, don't do this.” She pleaded. “Like I told Arnold, they might forbid me from seeing him completely instead of just grounding me.”

Annie thought about ignoring the girl and giving her parents a piece of her mind... a huge piece... then reason overrode her instincts. “All right.” She said and calmed down, then she saw the state Kelly was in. It was very similar to the state she had been in when they first met, so Annie took the trembling girl into her arms and gave her a warm embrace.

Kelly burst out crying at being held like that and Annie rubbed her back. “Why is it all going wrong?” She asked, almost in a shout. “Why is my boyfriend's mom more understanding than my own parents?”

“Shh.” Annie said and kept rubbing her back. “Sometimes parents can't look past their own prejudices to see the treasure they have in front of them.”

It took Kelly a few minutes to calm down and Annie let her out of the hug.

“Y-yes, Arnold is a treasure.” Kelly said and wiped at her eyes.

“I meant you, too.” Annie said, to her surprise. “You're the only one who accepted him for who he is, and that's not only rare, it was something I thought was an impossibility.”

Kelly blinked her eyes at her. “But... don't you...”

“I can't stand the specimens and the dissections.” Annie said and shivered a little. “I almost threw up when he did the college test.”

Kelly looked at her with wide eyes.

“I had to look away for most of it.” Annie said with a smile. “Then it opened up all these possibilities for him, including college that we could never afford for him to attend, and he even has a summer job doing what he enjoys.”

“Mrs. Strickland, I...”

“Please, call me Annie.” Annie said. “Since you have so many restrictions at home, I would be glad to have you come over to visit when you're not grounded.”

Kelly was too surprised by the offer to respond and Annie smiled and gave her another hug.

“You better get back inside before they come out after you.” Annie said and let her go.

Arnold stepped close and gave her a four second kiss. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.” Kelly said and walked back to her front door. She turned around and saw the two of them stood right where she left them and didn't move. She opened her front door to see her father glare at her, so she turned back to face Annie and Arnold. They both waved to her and she waved back and slowly shut the door.

“She's a great girl.” Annie said and waved at the car and both of them climbed in. “I just hope her parents don't ruin their relationship with her or her relationship with you.”

Arnold didn't say anything and Annie drove them home.

The next day was Sunday and Arnold didn't have anything to do, so he spent it with his mother as she cleaned the house. It hadn't been done in a while, so it took nearly all day. Scrubbing the floors, washing the windows both on the inside and the outside, and they even wiped off the walls and then dusted everything. By the end of the day, they were both pretty dirty and stood at the front door and looked into the house.

“Thank you very much for your help, Arnold.” Annie said and went to hug him, then realized they were both in serious need of a shower. “You go and get a shower first and dressed for bed. I'll take a shower and change, then I'll give you the hug you deserve for this.”

Arnold nodded and went upstairs and took a shower, changed into his sleep clothes, and went downstairs to tell his mother he was done. While his mom showered and changed, he went to his room and laid down on his bed to wait. She came into his room half an hour later and saw him on top of the covers, so she went to sit beside him.

Annie looked at her son and her heart went out to him for how Kelly's parents were treating him, so she laid down beside him and took him into a hug. Arnold rolled over and cuddled into her and she held him until he fell asleep. She waited for another twenty minutes, then slowly let him go and eased off of the bed. She pulled a blanket up to cover him, then went to her room.

Kelly is right. If I try to interfere and make them accept him, all I'll do is drive them apart and make things worse. Annie thought and went to bed, then she smiled. I really want to yell and scream at them, though! It'll make me feel better! It would!

She drifted off to sleep imagining wagging her finger at them and scolding them for their behaviour, as if they were errant children and they shied away from her.

The next day at school, Arnold didn't see Kelly in the parking lot, so he went inside the school to the assigned classroom for the English exam. Kelly was already there and she gave him a wave. No one else in the room missed the change and everyone started whispering, then the bell rang.

“No talking!” The teacher said and placed the exams face down on each student's desk with scrap sheets of paper if they needed them. “You have three hours to complete the exam! No more, no less!” She said and went back to her desk. “Pencils ready?” She asked and looked at the clock. At the tick of the minute hand as it hit twelve, to signify the start of the hour, she turned back to the class. “Begin!”

All the students turned the exam papers over and started to write. The teacher gave Arnold a particularly pointed stare and he ignored her as he quickly filled out the exam. He finished after an hour and raised his hand, which was what a student did to speak.

“If you're done, just flip the paper over and sit quietly.” The teacher said. “No one leaves early.”

Arnold kept his hand up and she sighed.

“Yes, Arnold?”

“The vice-principal said to visit her as soon as I finished the exam.” Arnold said.

“Oh? Why is that?”

“I have an appointment with her about teachers asking me to only sign my name to official exam papers and passing them in blank.” Arnold said, and nearly everyone in the class gasped. Apparently, they all knew how damaging to someone's marks that was, considering a final exam could be anywhere from thirty to fifty percent of a student's final mark.

The teacher's face lost a lot of its color at his words. After a few moments, she reluctantly nodded. “Put your paper up here on my desk face down and you can leave.”

Arnold hid his paper so that no one could see his answers and then put the paper on the desk and left the classroom. He walked through the empty halls to the school offices and entered.

“She's waiting for you.” The secretary said in a normal voice and pointed to the right office. Arnold nodded and went over to the vice-principal's office, knocked exactly once, and went inside.

“Come i... Hi, Arnold.” The vice-principal said. “Have a seat.”

Arnold sat down and they had a fairly quick discussion about the three teachers that had asked him to intentionally wreck his grade point average. The vice-principal didn't tell him that she had suspected the teachers of doing things like that to give their students a higher average score and to raise up their own status as valuable teachers. That wasn't really information he needed to have. All she told him was that she would be having a little visit with those teachers to make sure that they didn't grade his completed exams wrongly.

“Thank you.” Arnold said and stood up to give her a kiss, and stopped. “I'm sorry. I'm only allowed to kiss Kelly.” He said and held a hand out for her to shake.

The vice-principal laughed and took the offered hand. “You really are the kissing bandit.”

Arnold nodded.

“You don't have to go back to her class.” The vice-principal said. “You can either head home now or wait for the bus.”

Arnold took out his cell phone and called home. “She said she'll come and pick me up, rather than make me wait all day for the bus.”

“That's nice of her.” The vice-principal said. “Have a good day, Arnold.”

Arnold nodded again and left her office to go outside to wait for his mother.

Annie arrived half an hour later and picked him up. “What did the vice-principal say?”

“She said she would be paying visits to the teachers to make sure they mark me fairly.” Arnold said.

Annie nodded. “I'm glad she's on your side and not theirs.” She said. “She could have easily told you to not worry about it and then covered it all up.”

“Can she still do that?” Arnold asked.

“Yes.” Annie said. “She won't, though. Remember how she handled you fighting? She actually cares about you.”

Arnold nodded. They drove home in silence and Annie made him something for lunch, then they lounged on the couch and watched television for the rest of the day.

The next day, even though there wasn't an exam for the seniors, Arnold still dressed for school and rode the bus. He arrived as if it was a normal day and entered the school, then walked all the way over to the Library and went inside.

“Good morning.” The Librarian whispered to him.

“Good morning.” Arnold whispered back and walked past her desk and over to the back of the fairly crowded Library. When he arrived at the large table that was near the alcove that was called make-out corner, he saw that the trio of girls and the guy and his girlfriend from lunch were already there.

“She really reserved it.” One said and lifted up a folded piece of paper with 'Reserved' printed on it.

“I thought it was a joke and we wouldn't be able to sit together.” Two said.

“I'm glad no one stole it before we showed up.” Three said and turned to Two. “I wonder where your admirer is?”

“He... he's not... do you think he really likes me?” Two asked.

“I do.” The guy in question said as he came around the corner behind Arnold.

Two blushed like crazy and One and Three giggled.

Arnold sat down and took out his chemistry notes and the girl and guy couple at the end of the table saw the intricate notes.

“Wow! Look at that!” The girl said and pointed.

“Arnold, that almost looks like it was done by a professional.” Her boyfriend said, which gained everyone's interest, even the people at the nearby tables.

Arnold shrugged and started to read over what he had written down.

“Hey, Arnold's really smart, right? Why don't we have him tell us the best things to study?” The guy who liked Two suggested.

Three reached over and touched Arnold's hand. “Arnold, what do you think are the best things for us to study?”

Arnold thought back to everything the chemistry teacher had said, and every time he said 'this will be on the exam'. “If he didn't lie, then...”

Everyone nearby crowded around as Arnold told them all the things the teacher said they would be tested on, especially the latest and most difficult things that had been introduced last week. Needless to say, word spread about it and they all studied furiously the things Arnold told them.