Best Friend's Lover

3. Tutoring ?

Julian

Wrapping my arms around my girlfriend, we laid against the bleachers. One of my homeboys stood up, positioning the camera on a good angle, snapping pictures of us. The bright red wall in the background made the pictures pop out more. I held up a slime sign, while Laura puckered her lips, holding up the peace sign.

"There you go, ugliest couple of the year." Jeremy joked, handing my phone back to me. "The background looks good but y'all faces messed it up. Awh"

Laura scrunched up her face. "Leave my baby alone" she scoffed, leaning in to give me a kiss. "We're the cutest couple in school"

"Boy please, like your lonely ass looks any better" I commented playfully, deciding which one would look better to post. "I'm really fucking with this one"

Jeremy jerked his head back, holding a expression of being offended. "Lonely. I've been talking heavily to Aubrey fine ass" he flexed his collar , smirking. "One look and she was already falling in love with the kid"

I cackled, waving him off. "Don't lie on my lil sis like that. It took the whole summer of you blowing up her dms to even get a response"

Hearing the bell ring, I headed to fourth period, the last class of the day. I dreaded having to go to practice instead of catching the bus home like all the other average kids. Grabbing the green notebook out my locker, I flipped through the pages, seeing my struggling grades. I huffed , mentally having a breakdown knowing I'll be failing literature class soon.

Entering the class, most of the seats were filled, besides my usual. Ms. Johnson walked around , passing out papers that she recently graded. The tension in the room was heavy, due to everyone worrying about their grade. She gave a small smile, letting the sheet of notebook paper fall on the desk. That smile gave me hope that maybe, there was a possibility I could've made a good grade.

Turning the sheet over, my eyes brows furrowed in defeat. There was a 55% written on the top corner in black ink. Needs more detail, you put no emotion into your writing. This is your story, give me clarity on who you are.

Slamming the sheet down, nothing I did was ever enough. I've never been a fan of expressing myself, with all the problems at home, I've grown accustomed to bottling up my feelings. With that being said, I stopped from knowing how to properly express my inner thoughts on paper. I've always thought that the teacher or my classmates would judge , look at me different for speaking my truth.

       On the left of me, Nathan waved his paper around, full of joy. He slid the paper over to me, my eyes widened at the perfect ninety-nine outlined in the right corner. "How did you manage to make this? You paid someone , how much"

      Nathan snatches his paper back, squinting his eyes. "You talking like I'm a straight dumbass or something. Let's not forget I'm taking honors and you take regular. Trying my life like that"

      "Okay but obviously your not in honors for literature so what did you do?  I need some type of clue, I'm borderline failing"

     He laughed. "I did this by myself with the help of my wonderful sister" he said twisting his mouth to the side

       My eyes perked up, hearing the mention of his sister. I've seen her around school before, very eye catching, but she wasn't really my type. "You think she would be into helping me rewrite this"

      Nathan seemed in deep though, his eyebrows forming close together. "She don't really mess with you, so I'll highly doubt it. I'll ask though"

          Waving him off, I smirked. I didn't need him asking for me, I could do that myself. The worst she could say was no and that definitely wasn't happening. I'm sure like any other girl she was a fan of me and would do anything to be in my presence. "I'll ask her myself, I highly doubt she'll say no. I mean look at this handsome face"

    "I know my sister pretty well and she ain't obsessed with your lanky ass. Don't be too cocky and end up getting your feelings hurt" he said giving me an unsure look.

     The bell rung, everyone ran around like a loose chicken, happy the finally be finished for the day. Being the last to leave, Ms. Johnson cleared throat , gesturing for me to stay behind. Adjusting her classes, she sat down in her office chair, crossing her legs. "You do realize that you grade is fairly low. Imma gonna need to see a change in your work or your privileges of playing football will be taken away." She mentioned the same thoughts that I've been thinking about for the last hour and a half. Hearing her tell me this, just made it more surreal.

      Scratching the back of my head, I sighed in annoyance. I could feel my face turning a shade of light red. "Any suggestions on who I could work with to change this outcome"

    She pulled apart a blonde curl, sitting back in her chair to think. Jumping in her seat, I furrowed my eye brows in curiosity. Taking a light blue sticky note from the stack, she wrote down a name. Handing it to me, I read over the name in shock, I thought she would recommend one of the common nerds.

     "She's rough around the edges but writing has always came easy to her. If she says no then just tell her that I said , it's apart of her grades. It's no if , ands , buts about it." Ms. Johnson spoke sternly. "I'm giving you three weeks. Have a nice evening Mr. Kingston"

      "Thanks Ms.Johnson" I replied.

On the way out the classroom, I searched the hallways for Natalie. Heading towards the second gym, I saw four girls sitting on the bleachers in their rehearsal uniforms.

Ronnie smirked, digging in her purse, applying gloss on her lips. She then used to brush to comb out her fresh sew-in , whispering to her friend excitedly. I gave her a small smile, watching the blush form on her cheeks. "Hey Julian" she greeted in a soft voice. "Great game last week"

"Thanks, you danced very well" I said , deciding to give her a hug. I could feel her melting away in my arms, a chuckled escaped my lips. On a daily I would , playfully flirt with her , it was all jokes. "Where is your friend"

Ronnie's smile died down. "Which one" she asked curiously. "Why"

"I'm looking for Natalie, I need to ask her something"

She gave me a uneasy expression. Putting a hand on her hip, her smile turned into a straight face. "She's in the locker room and what you need to talk to her for. I'm her best friend, I can't relay the message."

I let out her a nervous laugh. "Nah, I wanna talk to her myself. Imma go to practice , tell her I need to see her"

Ronnie nodded slowly, racking her brain to figure out something that didn't have anything to do with her.