Xavier and the Wolf (Legends of Pinewood 1)

7. If you ask too many questions

The hunt for the wolf fairytale book was unsuccessful in the end.

When I'd asked Helmi about the book with children's tales about Pinewood the next morning, she knew exactly what I was talking about. But it appeared to be a sour topic for her. The Legends of Pinewood, as the inspired title of the book apparently was, was stolen several years ago from the library. They never caught the thief.

Of course I was disappointed but I could live with that. Helmi, on the other hand, ranted for half an hour about book thieves and how they deserved a life sentence in prison before I could escape. I only got away by mentioning poor Sean was waiting for my tutoring in the computer room.

When I got to the computer room, however, Sean wasn't the only one waiting for me there. Three tables away from little Sean, Aquila sat at a table with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. What was he already doing here? It wouldn't be his turn for 'tutoring' for another half an hour.

While I wanted to grimace, I made myself act civil and nodded at both Sean and Aquila. "Good morning," I wished both of them.

It was apparently too much to hope for that Aquila would stop showing up because there was no point to spending half an hour together in silence three times a week. It was also too much to hope that I wouldn't be the only one acting civil.

Aquila ignored my greeting (because why would he act like a normal human being for one?), and while I tried to help little Sean with his basic algebra exercises, I kept feeling eyes burning holes in my back. Whenever I glanced over my shoulder, Aquila was staring at me. It made it hard to focus on teaching Sean, but I did my best to ignore the staring since I didn't want to call Aquila out. I'd be talking to him soon enough, anyway. Not that I expected him to want to learn math with me any more than he'd wanted to learn English two days ago.

When Sean and I finished our lesson, Sean seemed happy to leave as fast as he could and get away from the weird, glaring student. I wished I could do the same. Unfortunately, the 'weird, glaring student' was waiting for me.

Sighing deeply, I gathered my things. I had an inkling Aquila wasn't going to move and come to me. I was right. When I looked at him, he was still sitting in the same position at his table, leaning back with crossed arms while staring at me.

"I suppose you're not actually interested in being tutored today, either?" I asked, settling myself in the chair opposite Aquila.

"No," Aquila replied.

"Alright, then I'm going to read," I said, taking my laptop out of my bag. Aquila followed my movements with his eyes and kept his gaze trained on me while I tried to select a book I wanted to read.

I absolutely did not understand this guy. I didn't understand why he insisted we met up, despite not being interested in being taught. I had no idea what the hell he'd been thinking when he'd brushed his shoulder against mine in the passing right after snapping at me, and I certainly couldn't focus on reading my book with him right in front of me staring at me like this.

I briefly closed my eyes in my exasperation, then turned to Aquila. "Are you going to keep staring at me?" I asked.

"That depends." Aquila squinted, as if scrutinising me. "I have questions for you, about hu— this town."

"Huh," I said. "Thought you hated it here so much."

Glancing at my computer, I mourned the loss of my precious reading time. But if Aquila wanted to learn, even if it wasn't math, Boris or his parents were paying me to teach him. So, I'd do my job. Someone had to behave like an adult here. I closed my laptop. "What are your questions?"