Only You - [Lip Gallagher]

genius.

"Sadie, Lip feet on the floor!" I hear Fiona shout, I open my eyes to see a boy staring at Lip and I, "Who the fuck are you?" I say tiredly waking Lip up, "You got my paper?" the boy asks Lip, "You got my money?" Lip says sitting up, "I got it." he says, "Okay?" Lip asks and hops off the bed grabbing the boy's paper, "I wanna see it." Lip says, "Thirty five right?" The boy asks, "No, fifty." Lip says annoyed as he puts his pants on and gets ready for school, "It was never fifty, not for the paper last month, last semester, it was always fifty." Lip explains, "Can you do thirty six?" the boy is desperate, "He said fifty so give him fifty or get the fuck out." I finally but in out of annoyance. He scoffs, "Warren, once again you're proving that Koreans are the Asian Jews." Lip chuckles while he puts his shoes on. I walk past them to grab a pair of Fiona's jeans and go downstairs as I put on Carl's shirt.

"Is that my shirt?" Carl asks, "Yup." I smile and kiss his head, "Sick." Carl says with a smile, "You doing alright?" Fiona asks me, I nod, "Good." She hands me toast and takes Liam to the potty, "Four hundred and thirty bucks? Lip's flush this month." Steve says, "It's SAT season." Fiona says just as Lip walks downstairs, giving me a kiss and sitting next to me eating toast with me, "He's always flush during SAT season." Debbie adds "SAT?" Steve asks, "College tests." I say, surprised he doesn't know what an SAT is. "He tutors?" He asks, "No, takes." Lip explains, "Everybody go you're gonna be late." Fiona sounds stressed, "I'll give you guys a ride." Steve says and we all leave with him.

++

"One fifty upfront, Lip goes and tests for you, get your results back and see how great he did and you give him another one fifty, got it?" I ask the tall idiot standing in front of us, "You do it today?" he asks, "No, today's session is booked, three weeks." Karen comes behind us and says. "So I come and sit next to you?" He asks Lip, "No, he's pretending to be you." Ian explains slowly, "You can't be there." I add, "Why would they think you're me?" The lack of common sense is killing me, "I'll have an ID that says I'm you." Lip explains, "But what if they ask for my Id?" he asks, "I'm going to make a fake ID." I can tell Lip is getting annoyed too, "But I'm tall." he says, I roll my eyes, "That's just a chance we are going to have to take." Lip says jokingly and the kid hands Lip his money, "Saturday night what time can I pick you up?" He asks Karen and she flirtatiously smiles, "Seven." "Done." He says then walks away. "Why are you here?" I ask, "Why are you?" She asks me, "Karen, why are you here? We broke up." Lip says, "I can't stop by and see my favorite guy." She smirks and puts her hand on Lip's arm, "No, you can't." Lip says and pushes her hand away, "Slut." Ian says and walks away taking me with him leaving Lip and Karen alone. "I hate that hoe." I say, rolling my eyes, "Fight her." Ian says, "Too easy." I respond making him laugh, "You're right."

++

"How'd you do?" I ask Lip as he comes out of the testing hall, "Good like always." he wraps his arm around me and walks behind the school to the payphone, "Hey Morgan, it's Lip. It all went well, no problem with the ID, one of the benefits of your androgynous name. I'm thinking I scored you like a 2200, send me a postcard from Stanford alright?" Lip says then hangs up, "Morgan?" A  man with a suit calls to Lip and we keep walking, "Or is it Greg Powers or Pete O'brian or Jamal Jackson?" We stop walking, "You taking tests for girls now Morgan?" He asks Lip but points to me, he chuckles, "Yeah, welcome to your shit show. I'm an investigator for the Educational Evaluation Service, the people who administer-" "I know." Lip cuts him off, "Oh you do? So why don't you tell me how you cheat?" The man asks, "I don't cheat." "Oh right, 2300, 2290, 2400 and all from the crappy high school." The man says, "I got 2360." I speak up, "Didn't he just take your test for you, Morgan?" The guy asks, "I'm Sadie Mitchell." I point to his phone so he can look up my scores, "You went to MAGE, your test scores make sense, but him? No way." The man says after looking me up, "I know my shit." Lip says, "I got a brand new test we just finished creating, these max out at 1600 instead of today's 2400 making them twice as hard, so why don't we go see if you know your shit or if you're just full of it?" The man offers and Lip shrugs and we follow the man.