DARE | marksana

[ 11 ]

sana walked home as she entered, she tried not to get noticed by her mom - "hey, sweetheart!" but, failed. she froze when she heard her mom's voice.

"hey, mom!" she smiled as she gave her mom a hug.

"you had a math quiz today? how did it go?" her mom asked as sana began to sweat.

"it went great! 'kay, bye!" she tried running away, but her mom stopped her.

"let me see." her mom demanded and sana obeyed. she took her test out of her bag and gave it to her mom.

"sana, a 'D'? again?"

"i know. i'll study harder."

"no, you remember our agreement. you are getting a tutor, today!" sana groaned as she walked up to her room. her mom began to call someone, sana's tutor.

;-;

sana was watching television in her living room as her mom was preparing their dinner in the kitchen. there was suddenly a doorbell, but sana did not care.

"sana, that's your tutor!" sana turned off the TV and stood up from the couch. she opened the door and saw her tutor, mark tuan.

"please tell me there's a tutor behind you." sana said as she leaned on the door.

"um, nope, no one behind me."

"aren't you supposed to be smart to be a tutor?" sana said as she let mark in.

"hello, mark! thank you for doing this." her mom came out from the kitchen and shook mark's hand.

"no problem, mrs minatozaki." mark smiled.

"well, carry on." sana's mom walked back into the kitchen as sana ran upstairs.

"am i supposed to follow you?"

"um, no." she said, sarcastically. mark rolled his eyes and followed her to her bedroom. she let him in as she sat on her bed, bringing out her math textbook.

"don't you think we should just do this outside?" mark said.

"if you want my mom coming to us with some kind of vegetable every five minutes then, yeah, you could go."

"nevermind." mark muttered as he sat with her. he also brought out his textbook, "what are you having problems with?"

"math."

"yeah, i know, but what topic?"

"i don't know! i just suck at math!" she pouted and crossed her arms.

"well then, let's start with basics; algebra."

"algebra is basic?!"

"yes, we are grade ten, there are harder topics."

"harder topics?! how am i supposed to pass math if algebra is basic?!" she yelled.

"okay, then."

;-;

mark and sana were wrapping up. they finished their session just now. mark took his bag off sana's bed and both of them walked down the stairs back to the living room, where there were snadwhices on the coffee table. sana's mom heard their footsteps and made her way out of the kitchen.

"hey, you guys are done already?"

"yes, we are." sana replied.

"uh, take a sandwhich for the walk." her mom said politely, telling mark to take a sandwhich.

"uh, yeah, thank you, mrs minatozaki." he took one sandwhich and made his way out the door.

"uh, bye." sana said as mark smiled at her and closed their door behind his back.

"mom, did it really have to be him?" sana suddenly started complaining, but her mom didn't know what about.

"what do you mean?"

"mark! why is he my tutor?"

"he was the easiet one to contact, the others lived in sri lanka and stuff."

"where did you even get the idea to contact him?"

"momo gave me his number and said he was good in math and that he could help you." she said and went back into the kitchen to finish her cooking.

"oh, i'm gonna kill you, hirai. wait, mom, you're not done cooking yet?"

"this may or may not be my fifth time re-trying the recipe." her mom said as she was pre-heating their oven.

"okay.."

;-;

"how could you go and just give mark's number to my mom? are you that desperate?" sana complained.

"i'm sorry, sana. i just-"

"you just what?"

"i don't know, it was just the first thing i thought of." momo sighed.

"uh, cute pigtails!" she tried changing the subject for sana not to get mad at her. sana gave her a blank look as momo chuckled, awkwardly.

"i don't care what you think of my pigtails!" she yelled. mina found them and walked with them.

"hey, whatca' guys talking about?" mina asked.

"we were just talking about how someone just randomly gave mark's number to my mother!" sana eyed momo, giving mina a hint of who that was.

"really, who?" momo acted clueless.

"you know better than anyone who!"

"so, what? he comes over now?" mina asked.

"he's tutoring me." sana rolled her eyes as mina started 'ooh'ing. sana groaned and crossed her arms.

"hey, sana. i'm not available this evening, so tutoring session after lunch? i'm not taking no for an answer, i need the money." mark was suddenly there with the three girls.

"uh, yeah, whatever." sana sighed.

"cute pigtails." mark said as he walkes pass the girls. momo and mina's eyes slowly inverted to sana. they were big and sparkly.

"ah!" they squealed.

"oh, my god."

"he called you cute!" momo exclaimed.

"he called my hair cute."

"it's your hair, it's you." mina said, then they began squealing again.

"are you really not ever gonna fall for him?"

"goodbye, myoui and hirai." she immeditely left when her friends started getting annoying. then it hit, mina's question; "are you really not ever gonna fall for him?"