The Idiot next Door...

Study Dates

"Of course!" Mrs Hemmings answered, "They're very close friends, they always talk and come over and do fun things together?"

"Do you ...?" Aria murmured.

"Okay, I'm leaving. Come on, Louis," I groaned, walking out the front door and taking him with me.

"Bye, Mrs Hemmings and Luke and Aria!" Louis waved before I shut the door behind him. We walked over the gardens and into my house. "I think you look cute with that hair," Louis smiled at me. My eyes widened when I remembered and I quickly pulled my hair into a ponytail. Louis laughed as did I. I unconsciously walked up my stairs with Louis following behind me, obediently.

I am so mad! I went through all that chaos at Luke's house just to curl my hair and I end up just tying it up and looking bad for Louis. And he came to my house whenever it was while I was at Luke's, so he probably thinks I was going to ditch him and hide out at Luke's house instead. Great. Oh, and the best part is, now Aria knows that I live next to Luke! Great. Great. Great. "Okay, so I brought the textbook so we could do problems in here. What are you struggling on?" Louis asked, getting situated on the bed.
Everything. Literally every single thing we've learned this year.

"Uh ... Do you think you can walk me through all of the units?"

"Sure! We've got all day together," Louis said, opening the book. We've got all day together. I think I just heard angels singing.

I sat down next to him as he started re-teaching me the maths.

"And then you would add the opposite to the correlation of the x. Do you get it now?" Louis said, after about half an hour of teaching. We were now lying next to each other on the bed, staring at the textbook with papers and pencils scattered everywhere.

"I ... I actually understand!" I announced, confidently.

"See? It's easy, right?" Louis smiled, giving me a high five.

"Yes! Thank you so much, Louis!" I cheered.

"You're welcome! Okay, that was the first lesson of last year's maths. Do you want to move on to our year level or would you like to keep going with this year?" Louis asked. My joyful spirit died down once I remembered how much more I needed to learn to catch up with the class.

"But ... I'm tired ... Can't we take a break?" I whined.

"Naomi, it took a whole hour to learn the first lesson of last year's maths. We need to get you ready for that exam," Louis insisted. I sighed, dramatically and pressed my face on to the mattress. "How about we do a little mini quiz?" Louis suggested, "17x + 6 = 11. What's x?"

"Mrmmpphhh," I mumbled, my face still planted into the bed.

"Wrong," Louis poked me in the side and I flinched. "29 - 48x = 15,"

"Mmmmmmmrrrrmmmmmm ..." I groaned.

"Oh come on," Louis lightly tickled my sides, causing me to burst out laughing and sit up abruptly. Louis blinked at me in surprise for a few moments before his face grew into a sly smile. "Oh, is this a weakness I sense? Are you ticklish?" Louis chortled at me.

"No," I lied, badly, lifting my arms up in a weak attempt to create a shield.

"So you wouldn't mind if I did ... this?" Louis started tickling me in the ribs, causing me to laugh uncontrollably and fall to my back.

"Stop!" I managed to cry out between painful laughs. I tried rolling around and curling my knees up so he would stop but he held me down on the bed and continued at my sides so I had no choice but to lie there laughing like a little child.