The Tables Have Turned

The Tables Have Turned

Chapter 8

Bang!

My forehead hit the table and I let out a sigh. That is when I noticed that everyone stopped talking. I looked up and saw all my classmates along with Mr. Jack staring at me weirdly. I smiled sheepishly and they laughed.

“What’s wrong Hailey?” Mr. Jack asked, clearly amused.

“I just can’t understand anything,” I said honestly.

“Hmm,” he said with a thoughtful look on his face “How about I assign someone to tutor you?”

I opened my mouth to reply but then closed it to think better of my decision. I have a bad habit of talking and making decisions without thinking beforehand. Most of the time I end up regretting my decisions so now I’m trying to fix that problem by setting the pros and cons before replying.

This time, the pros of having a tutor outweighed the cons so I nodded and said, “That would be great.”

 “Okay, let’s see,” Mr. Jack said, taking out his grade book. He scanned the list of names before replying.

“Alex? You’re my best student. Would you please tutor Hailey?” Mr. Jack asked. I turned around to look at Alex and I felt hurt when his eyes flashed with irritation. Of course he didn’t want to tutor me. He hates me. And here I was, thinking that he was my friend again. Some cuts are hard to heal and I have to deal with it. It was my fault anyway.

“Um I have basketball practice on Mondays and Fridays after school,” Alex said; making my gaze drop. If it were any other student, anyone other than me, he would’ve agreed because he was Alex—the guy who’s always ready to help. Yet, I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to be around me or help me.

“That’s okay,” Mr. Jack said, oblivious to Alex’s reactions “You can tutor her on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays after school. Three days a week is enough. And if she needs more you can do it over the weekend.”

“Um…” Alex trailed off uncertainly and I looked away. I wished I knew someone else was good at math to tutor me, someone other than Alex because he clearly didn’t want to help me.

 “Okay,” Alex finally sighed because really he didn’t have a choice.

“Thank you, Alex,” Mr. Jack said “You two decide where to meet after school and you’ll study for two hours every day.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, looking down at my copybook to avoid seeing Alex’s look.

I wished Chase and Emily were good at math. They would’ve helped me but they barely understand. I wasn’t sure if the whole tutoring thing was good or bad. Seeing Alex even more will make our relationship better or worse? He might hate me even more because he’ll keep on remembering what I did to him or he’ll slowly accept me again when he sees that I’ve changed. I really hoped it would be the latter.

The math period was dragging. Seriously, it wasn’t ending! I looked at my watch at least ten times in the past five minutes which seemed like an hour!

We were now solving an equation that had a lot of numbers and letters. Each person was trying to solve it on his own before we correct it.

I was so happy and surprised when I reached a final answer.

“Anyone found the answer?” Mr. Jack asked.

“X is equal to seven over two,” I exclaimed proudly, with a huge smile on my face. I was finally able to solve a math equation! It felt so good knowing the answer. Maybe I don’t need a tutor after all.

“Um no, that’s not it,” Mr. Jack answered and my face fell. Mariah started chuckling and Chase joined her. The answer turned out to be thirty two.

I definitely need a tutor.

Finally, the bell rang and I immediately stood up and stretched my legs. I closed my book and copybook and put them in my cubby.

“Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you,” I heard someone sing. I turned around and saw Kristen singing. A few girls joined her and I watched them sing, a smile on my lips. This happens a lot in our class. Everyone likes to sing and everyday one of them would start singing some song and the rest would join in.