𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 || 𝐞. 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐞

chapter one

"that's the second time in a row ms. martin. you should think about getting a tutor." mrs. brown tutted. she looked at eli with a smile, handing him back his test. "eli here is one of the best. hopefully you can learn something from him." she sighed before walking away.

lily peered over at eli's paper to see an A written in the top right hand corner. she dramatically dropped her head down onto the table, groaning in misery. "i hate french."

"if you hate it so much why don't you drop it?" eli asked. lily glared up through her hair at the boy. "sorry..." he muttered

lily sighed, sitting back up. "no it's fine. i need it for most of the courses i want to do. i just don't understand it. like since when words have genders?"

"there's a formula to it. it's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it." eli tried to explain but all he was met with was a confused look from the redhead. "i could help you if you want."

"why would you do that?" lily half laughed but she was serious.

the boy shrugged before smirking, leaning to the side towards the girl. "it'll look good on my applications. i mean it though. you can
come over to my house after school and i can go through the notes with you."

lily paused, shocked by the boy's kindness. he was the type of person her friends would make fun of but here he was, offering to help her for no apparent reason. "yeah. that'll be great actually."

𓆩♡𓆪

the rest of the school day was relatively boring, getting tests back, usually As, or hanging out with friends during lunch or free periods. lily couldn't wait to get home and change out of her clothes which were way too warm for this time of year, she felt like she could melt at any moment as she placed her books back into her locker, keeping the ones she need for homework and her french.

"okay all i'm saying is that you should come tonight. it'll be fun!" jake begged lily. her friends had been trying to get her to agree to come to a small gathering, in other words a party, that night at her best friend abigail's house.

"i'm sorry i can't." lily tried to reason with them, shutting her locker. "i have to study french, and who even has a party the first day back to school."

"we do." abby snickered. "you know what, fine. you don't have to come. you focus on your grades or whatever and we'll be out having fun."

lily rolled her eyes. she knew they were just saying that to try convince her to go with them but it still hurt.

"lily?" the girl turned around to see eli standing awkwardly swaying back and forth behind her.

"oh yeah." lily smiled at the familiar face "everything okay?"

"yeah no, i... i never told you where i lived or anything" eli stammered nervously as he saw all the girl's friends looking at him with puzzled looks.

"right yeah. um...do you have you phone? i'll give you my number and you can text it to me?"

"yeah yeah." eli patted all his pockets till he found his phone, pulling it out and opening a new message. he handed the phone and watched as lily typed in her number before handing the phone back to the boy.

"i'll see you later then?" the red head confirmed, still giving the boy a sweet smile.

"yeah perfect." eli nodded before turning and walking down the school hall, turning a corner before he let himself smile like a little kid. he looked down at his phone to see the message lily had sent to herself to save her number.

thanks again monseiur.

"benchwarmer hale? what does he want?" jake scoffed rudely.

"don't call him that whittemore!" lily shoved the boy lightly. "he's just helping me with french. i'm failing bad and apparently he's amazing at it according to the devil herself mrs brown."

"be careful. i heard his whole family is a bunch of murders." abby whispered quietly.

"i heard they all got murdered." jake wrapped his arm around lilys shoulder.

"okay both of you need to stop. he's not going to kill me." lily pushed jakes heavy arm off. "he's just tutoring me."

just a short chapter to start but thank you all for the love already on this book. moment of appreciation please for eli for carrying the movie on his back by himself! love these two already.
also did we notice little parallels with her friend group?
thank you for reading
Xx bee