I had to do something about Meredith. I couldn’t take her anymore. She was nasty, disgusting, and had the worst habits I’d ever seen. She couldn’t arrive anywhere on time, she wanted me to do everything, and she smelled horrible. You’d think that in this age, she’d know what a sonic shower was, but evidently not.
After two weeks of being partnered with her on a project, and being subjected to her disgusting self, I’d come to a decision: it was either her or me.
There really wasn’t any other way forward.
Either she left, died, or quit this class or I did.
And I wasn’t going to be the one to capitulate. ‘Never give up, never surrender,’ that was my motto. And me leaving, that would be a horrible surrender of this unspoken war we were in.
“Meredith,” I said casually after making my decision she needed to go away, “don’t you find this class difficult?”
“Yeah, but I need it,” she answered, wiping her runny nose with her sleeve.
It took everything within me not to throw up at the disgusting sight. Didn’t she know what a tissue was?
“You could always transfer schools. I hear that Dong University is a good school.” I didn’t even know what type of school it was. I really didn’t care, I just wanted her gone and if by lying she left, great.
“I’ve heard that, and I’m really thinking about transferring, but I’m not going to do it midsemester.”
“Why not?” Why wasn’t she going to leave me alone?
“Oh, you know how it is.”
“No, I don’t. Explain it to me.” I had to grind my teeth together to stop from screaming at her. Maybe she’d be able to come up with a good enough reason for me not to do something extreme – like kill her where she sat.
“I like this school and my roommate and I don’t really want to transfer right now. I don’t want all my hard work in my classes to go down the tube either.”
Hard work? What hard work? I’d yet to see her do a single thing for this class project. I don’t even think she did the minor amount of homework assigned by Addy. No, her answers were weak at best, pathetic at worse.
“But just think about how exciting it would be to go someplace different. New teachers give you a brand new start. I really think it would be best if you leave soon. Today even. I just don’t think this is a place you should stay.”
Meredith looked at me weirdly, as if not understanding what I was trying to say. “No,” she said firmly, “I’m staying through this semester.” And with that, the subject was closed.
Or so she thought.
On my side of the battlefield, the subject was still open for debate and action.
She was unwilling to leave voluntarily.
That was fine with me, I didn’t mind if she wanted to do things the hard way. Well, hard for her.