Scotched

"Aye," he said. It sounded rather matter-of-factly and there was very little emotion in his face. June frowned suspiciously at her brother.

"You're an asshole," she informed him.

Julius smirked and had to laugh a bit.

"I know. It's true, though."

June glared and challenged him with a jerky nod.

"Fuck you, be honest now. For real now, Kat, the same Kat, our Kat, has actually really failed and has to spend the next year with us?"

Julius gave an exasperated sigh and threw his arms up.

"For fuck's sake, yes! She failed the test! Now piss off and let me read!" He stared pointedly at June, who made a weird frowny but nearly smiling face and backed away to the door. He kept staring her away until his door was closed again before he returned his attention to the book on his lap. With half an ear he noticed June whistling merrily as she moved down the stairs.

"Freak," he murmured.

Kat was her and her twin brother's friend and she liked her. She was undoubtedly by far the most interesting person June had ever met. Yet she could and would not be sorry that Kat would not graduate this year after all, because it meant that she would stay in school for another year, and this time she would be in June's grade. When she had first heard the news that Kat had failed the deciding test she needed to pass in order to save her English grade to be eligible for the final exam, she had felt bad for her, but that had quickly given way to the joy of looking forward to a school year with her favourite freak as her classmate.

The rest of June's afternoon was spent at the kitchen table talking with dad, and her excellent mood carried over to nighttime and even the next morning.

After stretching luxuriously, yawning twice and smiling at the Django Unchained poster her Kat had given her, June turned over to check the time on her phone and noticed with mild wonderment that she had missed six calls and her inbox was full. That was quite noteworthy, she reflected, because it was supposed to hold a hundred messages and it had been only half full the day before. She started reading:

'I'm sorry. Be excellent.'

June smiled. "Apologising to me? Adorable. Adorable Kat."

The next one read: 'U know that stupid punk rite shes dead man'