Surfing Midland (Complete/ First draught).

Chapter 11

"Leah, how was your day at school? Did you make any new friends?" It was odd coming home to Trisha being all motherly and asking how my day was. I'd never had that before, especially after school had let out. The questions floored me a little, and I stopped walking to look over at Trisha, who had just emerged from the house with a broad smile on her face.

In my mind, I answered her with enthusiasm, but outwardly I shrugged and continued towards the house. "School was all right," I said over my shoulder. That probably hurt Trisha but I didn't want someone coming into my life as quickly as she was trying to, I didn't know how to deal with or adjust to it.

Instead of going to the kitchen I went to the dining room table and began attempting my homework. Math and history would be the two I struggled with the most as I had in California, I wasn't someone who retained information easily. Opening the math homework, I sighed, inwardly cringing when none of the diagrams, equations or figures made any sense.

When a plate of food and glass of milk were placed next to me, I looked up to see Trisha smiling again, though she didn't ask me anything before leaving the room. Scratching my head I figured it was an odd sort of gesture to make, but when I glanced over at the sandwiches and milk my stomach growled, and I found myself reaching for the milk.

"Hey, how's the homework going? Mind if I join you?" Devyn asked as he came walking into the room with a plate and glass too.

"Trisha likes to make sure we've eaten, studying on an empty stomach is hard work." I nodded, amused that it was something Trisha did. Was it normal for moms to do it? I didn't know, but I'd be bugging my mother when I got back to California.

Watching from where I sat, Devyn put his glass and plate down on the table then pulled his books out to begin studying. I eyed his math and history books too and wondered how well he would work through everything; I didn't want to seem dumb so kept to my books.

For a half hour, I tripped through question after question, going back to my textbooks to look for the answers or a way to get the answers. When I looked up, I noticed Valerie had sat down beside Devyn; she was giving me the nastiest kind of smirk a girl could give as she put a hand on Devyn's shoulder.

"Wanna help me with my homework?" Lord almighty did Valerie need to flirt like a predator? It was kind of disgusting, and I scrunched my nose at the thoughts that came to mind.

"Val stops joking; you're smart enough to get through the work." For a few moments, Val seemed utterly speechless before she burst out laughing, slapping Devyn playfully as she continued laughing. I couldn't help the snort that escaped as I turned my attention back to school work.

For the next half hour, I ignored Val, and her attempts to warn me off of Devyn...she would need to give me a verbal warning for me to even take actual notice and even then I wasn't going to listen. She was as immature as they came and lord helps me, but I was sure I would need to slap her stupid right out before she'd get the picture.

"God dammit all, this sucks. I'm done." I said as I closed my books and began packing them away. Devyn and Valerie stopped their work and looked up to me, Val looked as if she'd won the lottery and Devyn seemed to be pleading something.

"Are you sure? Do you want me to check it over?" Thinking it over a few seconds, I nodded my head and watched as Devyn breathed a sigh of relief as I sat back down beside him and opened a few of my books. Watching as he went through my homework so far I worried my bottom lip, it was a bad habit that I had begun doing whenever I got nervous.

"Do you want me to help you with math? I'm pretty good with numbers and really can help you." Again I was floored by the gesture; no one had ever offered to help me. Usually, I was called stupid or an idiot if I couldn't answer a question fast enough or correctly, it got to the point where I typically had a smart ass response so that I could get people laughing with me and not at me.

"Are you sure? I don't want to be a pain in the ass," I responded, Devyn, rolled his eyes and opened his math book and showed it to me. He'd already done the homework and seemed quite proud of himself for it.

"Seriously, it's no problem. I'll even make a trade if you want? You help me with English, and I'll assist you with math...I'm not too good with the spelling, and you're not too good with the numbers. It's a fair trade, what do you say?" It was a fair trade, and I found myself nodding along to Devyn's proposal as a small smile spread across my face. Valerie, of course, didn't like that arrangement and snatched at her books before stomping out of the room, slamming the door as she went.

"Honestly I have no idea what the hell is up with Val, she's been moody since you got here and clingy. It's getting on my nerves." I wanted nothing more than to explain to Devyn what was wrong with Valerie but I'd let him figure it out for himself unless Val lost her cool and spilt her guts out to him before that could happen. Either way, I saw major drama coming from one or both of them and decided that even though Devyn was a great looking guy and friendly too that I would stay clear of him.

It was bound to be a challenge as I attracted male attention like bee's to pollen, no matter how much I warned guys away from me they came rolling back around for another rejection. Often it was too tedious, and I ended up giving up and letting them into my circle of friends, too bad most of them were in it for more than friendship.

"Okay Devyn, I'll teach you English if you teach me math but that's all! We're just teaching each other, all right?" Though I tried to sound as serious as possible, I couldn't help but think of Devyn in other ways, shirtless and work on the ranch...helping me study, kissing him. The last thought brought a blush to my face, and I tore my attention away from Devyn as I glanced back down at my failed attempt at math.

"I look forward to it, is there anything else I can help you learn?" The question might have been innocent enough if I hadn't felt Devyn's hand on my thigh. Standing suddenly I bolted out of the dining room and went straight up to the room I shared with Val. I was confident, but as I'd kept guys at a distance for so many years, I was confident in myself or being around them in any other way than friends.

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So I'm not too sure if people have noticed, but my chapters are really short. I aim to upload daily though and not have huge time gaps between the chapters posted (at the most it will be 1-2 days later). 

I don't know if I will do that for the entire story as that will be tedious but I wanted to know what you all thought of it? Should I make my chapters longer and upload less frequently? Or keep the short and update frequently?