Our first tutoring session was Wednesday after practice.
I spent after school with Natalie and the newspaper group, since that's the day we all meet up. I already took all my photos for the next print, so basically, I was just there to bother Natalie.
Tucker, Michelle, and Lillian were all there too, working on their individual pieces to write for the paper. Natalie was in charge of the main piece and overlooking everyone else's work.
Declan gave me his number and his address to meet up with him afterward. This was going to be the first time we would meet just the two of us. I hated to admit that I was nervous.
And then I discovered something when I pulled up in front of his house.
He never told me he was rich. When I mean rich, I mean this bitch is loaded. I don't speak rich people, but this pretty much looked like a mansion to me.
I felt awkward getting out of my car. I never complained about it before considering it got me safely from point A to point B, but looking from my car to Declan's house, I thought I could have at least gotten a car wash.
When I rang the doorbell, a lady greeted me straight away. "Hey there! You must be Rowena?"
She was a tall woman with gorgeous brown hair, deep blue eyes, and well-defined cheekbones. I would say she was mid-forties.
"Hi, yes I'm here to help Declan with school work."
"I'm Julie, it's so nice to meet you. Come on in darling." She opened the door wider and stepped aside so that I could walk through.
Yep, mansion vibes for sure. The ceiling seemed to be miles high and was decorated with a massive chandelier. I bet it could support Sia in one of her spontaneous moments.
They had two stairways, one on each side of the foyer. It was the biggest entry room I had ever seen.
"You have a very beautiful house," I said, still thrown off from my amazement.
"Oh, thank you. It's my husband's house, but he has me to thank for all the interior design. Follow me this way, you can wait for Declan in the dining room."
She pointed me to their dining table and told me that Declan would be down soon. I used the alone time to take my stuff out and get everything ready. It was my way of distracting myself, so I didn't get up and explore things I had no business exploring.
My distraction didn't last long. I stood up from my chair and looked at the enormous cabinet tucked on the far wall. It was filled with intricate dishes, with its expensive-looking bowls and carefully painted teacups.
Don't worry, I didn't open it.
I moved along from the cabinet and took about three steps away, my gaze still lingering, when something latched itself onto my leg.
"Oh my god, it's a leech," I said. It was in fact not a leech, but a small child.
"Hi, I'm Parker," he said, only he couldn't fully pronounce his r's. He looked up from my leg and gave me the softest little closed-mouth smile.
"Are you my new babysitter?"
"No, I'm just here for Declan. I'm helping him with his math."
"Are math the numbers where Declan says a lot of naughty words?"
I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling. "Sounds just about right little man."
"Parker get back here! The tea party is starting soon, and I need you."
A little girl walked in, looking to be about 8 years in age. This must be Evelyn. She noticed me for the first time, but her stare was completely blank.
"Who the hell are you and how did you get in my house?"
"Evelyn, watch your damn mouth." In walked Declan with his dark brown hair even darker now that it was wet from a shower.
Evelyn's response was to stick her tongue out at him.
He walked straight to Parker who was still attached to my leg and threw him over his shoulder as Parker giggled. "Come on stinker, the big kids have things to do."
"I'm a big kid, I do things too."
Declan stopped in his tracks and talked over his shoulder, "Are you going to show me how to calculate derivatives and graph complicated equations?"
"Who did what now?"
"That's what I thought. Come on Evelyn, you too."
Declan began walking out of the room with Parker still over his shoulder as Evelyn stood there and kept looking at me.
"You're too pretty to be his girlfriend. Also, between us girls, dad said Declan used to be a bedwetter. Do what you want with that information."
"Key term used to. Now don't move a muscle," Declan threatened and dropped Parker off to the side.
For the first time, Evelyn smiled. It wasn't a cute innocent one either, it was the smile of the spawn of Satan. I knew I was going to love this girl.
That was the last thing she did before she dashed out of the room, Declan running after her, and Parker jumping up and down before following the both of them. I heard more threats from Declan, the evil laughter from Evelyn, and the straight screaming from Parker all the way down the hall until it went quiet again.
Declan came back a few minutes later, after I had given myself some time to laugh it off of course, and sat in the chair beside me without saying a word.
He silently flipped through his textbook to get to the page we were going over when I finally said something.
"So do you use adult diapers-"
"Shut up."
------------------------------
It had almost been an hour of getting off-topic but somehow, we managed to get through most of what I had planned.
"Will you explain that to me again then?"
"Explain what?"
He leaned over to point to something from my notebook. His hair was drier now and it softly fell across his forehead. I tried not to think about his close proximity. He always smelled so good and I had to stop myself from leaning in closer to him.
"I brought some snacks." Declan's mom came in with a bowl of freshly cut fruit. She set it down at the table right by our sprawled-out notebooks and texts.
"Thanks, Julie," Declan said nonchalantly.
"Rowena, can I get you anything else?"
"Oh no, this is fine. Thank you, Mrs. Montgomery."
She left the room, leaving the two of us alone again.
"Why do you call your mom Julie?"
He made a face at my question and turned to look at me. "She's not my mom. She's Parkers mom."
"Oh," I said. Now that I thought of it, the only thing they had in common looks wise was their dark brown hair. Otherwise, their facial features were very different.
"My mom was from Mexico. Julie's from here, born and raised."
"You said was." My dumbass meant to think that, not to say it out loud.
He spent a minute studying me, looking like he was thinking something over in his head. "I was ten when she passed. Evelyn doesn't remember her, she was only a year old."
"I'm sorry, Declan. Were you close to her?"
He gave his head a single and slow nod. "She was a good mom. She made every soccer game, especially when dad couldn't. She taught me to ride my bike, read me stories at night, cleaned my skinned knees. When dad went on his business trips, she would let me stay up late on Friday nights so we could watch movies, mostly The Jungle Book."
"I was obsessed with The Jungle Book," I said smiling at the mention of good memories. I relaxed my head on a fist and listened to him talk again.
"Yeah so was I. I think she was annoyed constantly having that movie on repeat, but she never said anything. I wanted to be Mowgli so bad for Halloween, but dad didn't want me walking the streets in my underwear."
"I made my dad buy me red undies and I refused to wear any other color for like a year."
"I found my old Baloo bear in the attic last month. Parker can't sleep without it now that I gave it to him."
For the sake of his ego, I didn't say it out loud, but he sounded like a good brother. From what I saw tonight, Evelyn liked to mess with him, but I could tell her mischief comes from love. Maybe it was just her special way of showing it to him.
We went back to studying for a little while longer until I had to go home. Declan walked me out to my car.
"Thanks for this. I'm sure Coach will appreciate it too."
"I've tutored worse I suppose." I had my keys out and ready to go when we finally reached my car.
"Goodnight Declan."
"Night Row." He smiled a half-smile at me and I opened my car door. "Hey uh... you still wear red panties?"
"You just had to say some stupid shit, didn't you?" I pushed him away in a playful shove and he laughed as I finally climbed into my car.
A/N: OOPS THIS UPDATE IS LATE. it's still Friday here though, don't fire me.
I've had this chapter planned since last update but I didn't have the chance to actually write until like RIGHT NOW??? lmao- I hope it turned out okay.
As always, thanks for reading ❤️ & I hope to see you next week :)