Asteraceae

THIRTY ONE

"Read this," Joshua threw down a book before Jacob. In his arms he carried a few more history books along with one more English book as he placed them all in order in which they would go through. Like he had promised he had come over Friday to help the boy with his work, and while Jacob was grateful, he didn't mind helping a stranger, he wished he didn't have to take it so seriously. He had only been sitting for a few minutes and he was already getting paper and books shoved in his face.

"All of it? Like right now?" He opened it, though his hand was quickly swatted at as Joshua took it upon himself to flip to what seemed like a random chapter to Jacob.

"No, you're struggling with American history right now, aren't you? Then read the part about American History and tell me what you got out of it." His finger harshly tapped the page, and with a sneer he went right back to looking through the other books. Friday was his planning day, while Saturday he did nothing but grade before taking it upon himself Monday to put them all into the system so that everything would be up to date Monday. He had a routine set and he wasn't going to break it for a mere unshifted mutt.

"Okay." Silence covered them, and during this time Jacob boredly scanned over the words of the book with the most uninterested expression he could muster. He hated history, thought it was nothing but bullshit considering there was no reason he should care about a bunch of dead people, but his father did take the time out of his day to ask a stranger to help him past his classes. The least he could do was try not to waste his time considering he already seemed annoyed when he arrived.

"Don't look so bored, you're the one failing your classes." A mocking grin was found, "women don't like stupid men." Well, the smart ones that knew their worth didn't and if Jacob was born any other era Joshua was positive, he would be at the bottom when it came to the hottest bachelor. The boy was cute, but women nowadays didn't care for cute. His hair was long, but he seemed to care little for it considered it looked a bit dry, and he could tell the boy awoke not too long ago because of the dried spit that lingered on the side of his face still. Disgusting. But he wasn't here to judge the child anyway.

"Sorry." Jacob coughed, and he once again started to read with a less bored face present. He tried, but the thing was he wasn't the slightest bit interested in whatever he was doing. He could never concentrate when the teacher spoke, and he was more worried about Sam and his ever-growing gang of muscled freaks that liked to pick on him every time they needed a little ego boost. It was frustrating and his blood boiled in the worst ways imaginable.

But Joshua just stared. He had been in the teaching game long enough to tell what bothered a student enough not to concentrate on whatever they were doing. He had an idea of what could be running through the little rats' minds whenever they weren't paying attention despite failing or on the brink of it. He knew, and Jacob wasn't that hard of a book to understand. The boy moved and spoke like he was reading off a script everyone had in their hands. He was easy to pick apart. So, after ten minutes of listening to the boy mentally fight with himself, he dropped his pen, accepting the fact he wasn't going to get any work done with the way things were carrying on.

"Jacob." He signed, he could be at home right now thinking about what he could have for dinner, or even chatting on the phone with one of his many siblings, but he was stuck here, "you're not passing because you're not paying attention."

"I bet you can't even tell me what you just read. Do tell me having girl troubles? Or boy?" He watched him freeze up, and faintly blush.

"NO- I mean, no, nothing like that. But I do have a bit on my mind." He had a lot, and he was very much embarrassed to talk about with his father considering the man most definitely wasn't going through what he was. His father was a respectable and popular man despite being in a wheelchair. He was nothing like his father at the time.

"Like what? Get it off your chest because it's affecting your grades. I'm not your father, and I won't tell him if that'll make you feel better." How interesting, this was interesting. He was always a curious person by nature. He needed to know everything that was going on around him, and getting involved within someone's personal life wasn't what he normally did, but it was nothing but a child struggling with their emotions. Nothing he hadn't dealt with in a while.

"Well." He didn't have to worry about his father overhearing, the man was over at their cousin's house, and would probably be there for a while, "how do you process the fact that your friends no longer want to talk to you anymore?" He had once been friends with Paul, but that had changed over what had seemed like a blink of an eye. He remembers helping him home because he wasn't feeling well one night, and the next day he had refused to even talk to him anymore afterwards in favor of hanging out with him. Sam.

"I'll move on." Easier said than done considering he had grown up with the guy for the longest, "Humans are born with the ability to create bonds with whoever they chose. They can also choose to drop those bonds if they want." They were fascinating creatures to observe, and he saw a bit of the appeal that the Cullen's seem to have about joining school.

"What if I want a relationship with that person."

"Then your worse than a fool that thinks he killed an already dead horse." He laughed, Joshua had laughed in his face and Jacob silently signed as he rethought everything.

"My struggles aren't funny, I'm sure you've went through something like this before. You're not perfect Joshua." A bit annoyed, he harshly slammed the book closed and crossed his arms like a pissy child.

"Do watch your mouth, I'm not your father or Charlie that would tolerate such backtalk from a child." He waved his words off, unconcerned with the fact that he had upset the teen in any way. "Are you upset about what I said? I can't apologize for speaking the truth. Though take my words into consideration child."

Jacob huffed, he was more pissy than before. He didn't want to take anything he had said into consideration, and he didn't think Joshua was right even though that tiny part of his brain wanted him to just give it up.

"And I never had to deal with such problems before. I was quite the catch with the boys and girls." another wave of self-praise as he ignored the obvious obliviousness that Jacob seemed to be stranded in. He would always be a catch no matter what era it was or what type of people he was around. He was a diamond surrounded by rocks, a god among mortals. He was better than Jacob ever would be in this lifetime and many more he might get to experience.

"I figured." And he said that very truthfully. Joshua truly was a stunning man; a blind monkey would agree, and he would most definitely be a bit of a fool not to notice the man's dashing good looks. It was times like that he wondered if he was his father's child, considering his dad was considered quite the catch in his youthful days. His mother was told to be a lucky woman to have such a charming man by her side and he they both weren't bad to look at either.

His sisters were pretty in the public's eyes, but he was simply Jacob. A young teenage boy that's in love with his father's friend daughter, and a slight menace to all teachers around considering he's either failing or barely failing. He had nothing on his sisters that were smart and well liked within the community, absolutely nothing and he wasn't like his father that had so many friends, he was rarely in the house at times. He was Nobody Black.

"Don't take such things to heart child. You're thinking too much about trivial things that don't matter in your life. The girl of your dreams will appear when she appears and wasting your time on some basic barbie isn't going to make much of a different." He didn't know who he liked, didn't care either, but it was obvious the chick he might be thinking about wasn't worth his time.

"I won't?" He didn't know, Jacob's head was filled with so many thoughts. Good ones, bad ones of all types, but he knew that Joshua at this moment meant well. Or at least he hoped, "I won't."

"Good, now read that chapter and I'll help you with answering some questions you might have trouble with." This didn't mean Joshua liked the boy. He was a stupid child that thought of nothing but nonsense. 

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Thought I forgot about Jacob? I got something planned for him.