Sukeban (Discontinued)

Chapter 38: Tutoring

“You’ve got a really big house here,” Rina said with amazement in her tone as Tomomi led her and Mami through the house. Walking in front of her, Tomomi smiled and thanked her softly. It was odd for her when people said that because most people didn’t. Tomomi didn’t think her house was very big but she supposed to people like Mami and Rina, it would probably seem that way. It wasn’t something the two delinquents were used to.

Mami didn’t say a thing as she followed the two. She had her arms crossed tensely over her chest, her eyes looking at the carpeted floor and her face screwed into a thoughtful expression. She wasn’t even really listening to what was being said between the two in front of her. Mami’s mind was too focused on what the teenagers had just seen. The abuse had returned to being as worse as it had been in the past; it had gotten worse again faster than Mami had imagined.

“I didn’t know what you wanted to start with,” Tomomi began, taking Mami from her thoughts, “So I just grabbed some textbooks that I thought might be useful to you guys.”

Mami’s footsteps stopped, her eyes finally looking up and blinking. When had they gotten to the living room? Mami could barely remember going through any of Tomomi’s house; she couldn’t believe she had been that lost in her own thoughts. Even when she was thinking, she could usually pay attention to her surroundings but this time, she had completely lost herself.

She pushed herself back into gear when she saw Rina and Tomomi making their way over to where Tomomi had set the books out onto the coffee table. Mami knew she had to follow and act collected, she knew Tomomi was more observant than people gave her credit for and certainly didn’t want the brunette picking up on anything.

The trio of girls sat down cross-legged on the carpeted floor and Tomomi reached for the first textbook, sliding it across the table and gently pushing the others out of the way. Mami huffed softly, leaning back against the couch, letting her head tilt backwards a bit as she watched Rina look interested in the books, although she didn’t exactly know if that was genuine interest or fake interest just to please Tomomi.

“Which one is this?” Rina asked, pointing to the textbook Tomomi had brought in front of her.

“It’s a science one. I figured it would be a fairly simple one to go over first… But we can pick a different subject if you want to…” Tomomi’s sentence trailed off, her eyes looking down at the green colored textbook. Rina smiled at the uncertainty that Tomomi was showing, it was fairly obvious this was her first time tutoring anyone.

“Science is fine, Tomo. We should listen to you anyway since you’re the only one who knows what they’re doing,” Rina told her. Tomomi nodded her head, stealing a glance at Rina and the seemingly uninterested Mami. She furrowed her eyebrows together at the sight. If Mami was so uninterested, why did she volunteer to be the one to take the first lesson? Sometimes Tomomi really didn’t understand her.

“You two are taking different science classes though so… I don’t know which you would rather start with.”

“We can start with Rina’s,” Mami answered quickly in a harsh tone that she hadn’t meant to use. Tomomi stole another glance at her before biting down on her lip and clenching her hands. Something was off here; Mami wasn’t just simply uninterested. Tomomi was beginning to see that there was more to this than a lack of interest in school.

“Earth Science it is then,” Tomomi answered. She was choosing to ignore Mami’s behavior for now. With Rina sitting here, Tomomi knew she wouldn’t be able to confront Mami’s attitude. Tomomi probably couldn’t even confront her attitude alone, she knew there was no way in hell she was going to be able to confront it with another person in the room.