Once Again

Chapter 23

*

"Hello Mr. Scott, Mrs. Scott. It's nice to see you both again." I smile as politely as I can in the hopes that Mrs. Scott won't hate me forever.

"Ali, it's so nice to see you." Christian, Dylan's dad, smiles and pulls me into a briefly awkward and unexpected hug. Mrs. Scott just smiles forcefully but doesn't say anything. Well at least she's trying not to be hostile.

"Is that Ali, I hear?" Jason's mom waltzes into the room, smiling widely as she makes her way towards me with her arms outstretched. At the dinner we got on exceptionally well and I've come to really like her, although I wish Dylan's mom would be the same.

"Hi Mrs. Scott," I smile as she too, embraces me into a less awkward and previously anticipated hug.

"Ali I've told you, call me Grace." She admonishes good-naturedly.

"Grace," I nod, correcting myself.

"So to what do we owe this lovely visit?" She eyes Jason suspiciously and raises a brow when she notices something is missing, "Where's Dylan?" 

"Mom she's here with me, Ali is my tutor." Jason explains.

"Oh alright then, I guess I'll leave you kids to it." Grace runs her hand down Jason's arm and squeezes his hand before walking back through the door.

"Make yourself at home," Christian smiles warmly before exiting into another room, Mrs. Scott towing behind.

As I look around I realise that I've never been here before, only that time when I had a hangover and I don't exactly recall anything from back then. But I must say, this house is something else. It's like a show home, everything polished and exceptionally clean, nothing out of place. 

"Are you hungry?" Jason asks politely and I shake my head, I just want to get this over and done with so I can go home already. 

*

"So A squared plus B squared, equals C squared?" Jason drawls, looking unsure of himself.

I'm not sure if it's all an act or if he's actually this stupid, but it's taken Jason over ten minutes just to understand the basics of the pythagoras theorem. However, if I remember correctly, Mr. James had told me that Jason is, I quote, 'a bright kid', so something just isn't quite adding up here.

"Yes, that's right. And when we're measuring the hypotenuse, do we add or subtract the angles?" I quiz.

"Add... I mean, subtract. No, add." 

Ok this is getting me no where, maybe we should move onto another subject.

"Let's just take a break from this, how about we get started on biology?" Jason sighs and shakes his head, looking distracted.

"So you really like Dylan?" He asks me out of the blue, the question knocking me slightly aback. Why would he want to know this? 

"This isn't related to biology," I cross my arms, gazing impatiently at Jason.

"Well if you can't answer me straight away then clearly you're unsure," he retorts, propping his elbows up on his desk.

"Excuse me?" I mutter, because it's all I can manage to say.

I feel angered and offended that he would even say such a thing. Of course I really like Dylan, but it's none of his freaking business. How dare he even say that about me, he's absoluetely clueless about this whole situtation so he has no right to make these assumptions.

"You do know about his whole story with Haley, don't you? Or let me guess, he didn't tell you?" He quips and instantly has my interest piqued. Damn my nosy and inquiring nature.