Brett hasn't texted or called me since he's been in Texas but I try not to let it affect me because I know he's just spending time with his grandmother. It's Monday and he won't be back until Wednesday. But I miss him so much.
I'm in my second period, which happens to be my trigonometry class, and I'm writing down notes trying to understand the numbers and the letters that are jumbled together.
"Why are you writing down notes when you don't have to?" I hear a whisper to my right.
I look at the rebellious girl sitting next to me because of the arranged assigned seats. She has her feet propped up on the desk and and I smell the stench of cigarette smoke coming from her clothes. She's dressed in all black and has dark make-up on that makes her look very intimidating. But wierdly, her name was Charlotte but she liked to be called Charlie.
I frown and whisper back to her. "We are supposed to take notes. That's why they're on the board."
She looked up at the board and then shrugged. "Oh, too late."
"We have thirty minutes of class left."
"Oh, too late."
I shook my head and turned back to my notes, writing down what I missed. I began to highlight the confusing things that didn't seem to make since to me.
"What're doing that for?"
I turned my head to the right to see that now she was watching me take my notes.
"You don't usually do that." she stated.
I nodded. "Yeah, I don't but I've been struggling so, I kinda have to."
She raised her eyebrows. "Like, 'needing a tutor' struggling or 'I got a B and my parents don't like it' struggling."
I hesitated on telling her. "Like..like 'I need a tutor' struggling."
"Well-"
I stopped her. "I hope you're not implying to help me because no offense but you're doing worse than me in this class."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course not, I was just gonna suggest a person that can help you."
I perked up at that. "Really? Who?"
But before she could answer, the teacher interrupted our conversation. "Ladies, I would like it if you kept it quiet back there. And for goodness sake, get your feet off my desk Charlotte."
We both stopped talking and I just finished my notes while she removed her feet from the desk. I was surprised when she didn't say a smart remark to the teacher.
Twenty minutes later into class and we had ten minutes left of it. The teacher was done with class so he just let us do what we want.
Charlie went to go sit next to her other friends but I grabbed her hand before she could go.
"Wait, tell me someone that can help me."
"Oh, yeah," I let go of her hand as she sat back down. She came closer to me, talking lowly. "You see that kid over there."
She pointed to a kid that was sitting in the front of the classroom so, I could only see the back of his head.
I nodded. "Yeah,"
"Well, I heard he was super smart in, like, everything. So, that's your guy right there. His name is Grant Moore."
I looked at her, nervously. "Should I go up to him?"
She rolled her eyes. "Duh, I didn't tell you this for the hell of it."
And then she walked off to her friends.
I sighed and thought about what I was going to say to him.
I got up and made my way to the empty seat next to him. I pulled the seat out and he didn't even turn his head to look at me as he seemed to be doing other work for another class.
"Uh, it's Grant, right?" I said, getting his attention.
He turned his head to me and that's when I saw it was the guy that I bumped into in the hallway.
I frowned. "Oh, it's you."
He raised his eyebrows. "Don't sound too happy."
I crossed my arms. "The sarcasm is not needed."
He shrugged. "Well, it's a part of me."
I put my hands out. "I didn't come here to argue."
He narrowed his eyes. "Then what?"
I came closer to him and spoke lowly. "I...I need a tutor."
He scoffed. "You want me to believe that the most popular girl in school can't get someone else to tutor her?"
I scrunched my eyebrows. "I haven't asked anyone else...apart from my friends."
"Why me?"
"Someone told me that you were the smartest guy at...everything so, you have to be smart in trigonometry, right?"
He gave me an intense stare and I backed up realizing that I was still pretty close to him.
"Why are you staring at me?"
He relaxed his face as he realized he was staring. "Okay, I'll tutor you."
I widened my eyes. "Really? That's great! Thank-"
He cut me off. "But if I'm gonna tutor you you have to be on my schedule. I'm not gonna wait for you to get out of a party or whatever you popular people do, got it?"
I bit back on my comment I was gonna make. If I'm gonna need a tutor I have to be nice.
"Okay, fine, whatever."
The bell rang just then and I grabbed my stuff and so did he and we made our way out still discussing the plans.
"Okay, so if we're gonna be on your schedule tell me what days you want to tutor me."
He looked over, surprised that I was still here. "You're still here? Aren't you worried you'll ruin your social status being seen with me?"
People were starting to stare at us as we made our way to his locker, I'm assuming but I didn't care.
I clenched my jaw. "No. What I'm worried about is my grade so, it would be great if you just cooperate."
We stopped at a locker that I figured was his. "Well, obviously not today so, how about tomorrow? And Wednesdays and Thursdays?"
I looked skeptical. "What time?"
He thought about it. "Four-thirty?"
I shook my head. "We can't do that. I'll be in cheer practice at that time, tomorrow and Thursdays."
He sighed, getting the stuff he needed out of his locker. "I told you, you need to be on my schedule. I have a life too, you know?"
"Yeah? Well, I do too and I can't do it at that time. What about five-twenty?"
"I don't know..."
I pleaded. "Please, Grant. You're my only hope at this point and I really do need the help."
He sighed. "Fine but these tutoring sessions are only lasting an hour."
"Hour and a half?"
"Julianne."
I put my hands up. "Okay, okay. Thank you for helping me, it means a lot."
"No problem."
"Jules!" I heard my name being called and turned around to see my friends.
"Where have you been? We've been looking for you!" Amber exclaimed.
After second period we all usually meet up next to the cafeteria but it totally slipped my mind.
I scrunched my face. "Sorry, guys, I was discussing things with Grant."
I pointed towards him, turning my head towards him and he had a blank look on his face.
I gave him a confusing look and then turned back to my friends.
Sarah waved him off. "Forget about him, we need to discuss some things."
She tried to grab my hand but I pulled away. "Don't be rude, Sarah."
I turned back to him but he was already half way down the hallway. I turned back around, glaring at her and tried to catch back up with him.
"Hey," I called out to him. He seemed to be walking super fast. "Wait up,"
I grabbed his arm to get him to slow down and I felt him tense under my touch. "Sorry, about what Sarah said. She just says...things sometimes."
He turned to me, pulling his arm out of my hand. "Yeah, are we done here?"
I frowned but decided to ignore his hostile attitude. "No, we still need to figure out where we're going to meet."
"I don't care."
I nodded. "Okay, how about my place?"
He shrugged. "That's fine."
"Okay, good. See you tomorrow. "
"Bye." And then he went to his class.
I turned around and saw Robin waiting for me. "Hey."
"Hi." she greeted.
I looked around. "Where's the other girls?"
She started to walk with me to our shared class. "They went to class."
I sighed in relief. "Good, sometimes I feel like I need a break from those two."
She shook her head. "Tell me about it."
______
I get home after school and the girls aren't with me like they usually are. I told them I have some stuff to do which, I do.
I get to my room and sit on my bed taking out the trigonometry notes from this week. I get a highlighter out and highlight all the confusing things I didn't already highlight.
As I am doing this, I hear footsteps coming towards my room. The door opens and I see it's my mom. She's wearing a suit as she always is because she's a lawyer and her blonde hair is in a low bun.
I smiled at her. "Hey, mom."
She smiles as she comes toward me and sits down. "Hey, sweetie. What are you working on?"
I look down at my work. "Just some school stuff." I set it down on my bed. "What are you doing home?"
"The detectives that are working on a case think someone's tampered with the evidence so, they're looking at that."
I nodded. "Aren't you gonna change outta that suit?"
She shook her head. "No, they're most definitely gonna call be back to the station."
I'm not just saying this because she's my mom but my mom is the best lawyer out there. I've seen her in action a bunch of times and to tell you that my mom was a beast when it comes to interrogation, was a understatement.
She laid her head on my shoulder. "So, how's school?"
I shrugged the shoulder she wasn't laying on. "It's okay."
She sat up and looked at me. "What's 'okay'?"
I looked down. "My coach threatened to take me off the cheerleading team if I didn't get my grade up in my trigonometry class."
She put her hand on the small of my back and I looked up at her. "Are you okay?"
I gave a slight smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. I got a tutor."
She smiled. "Good. I know how much you love cheerleading, well at least the dancing portion of it."
I smiled because she was right. The only reason I want to stay on the team was to dance and dancing is my passion. I could care less about the actual cheering. But sadly, our school didn't have a dance team which was a disappointment. But every now and then I go to a dance studio not to far from my house and dance there.
"So, who is this tutor? Is she your friend?" she said, casually.
I chuckled, nervously. "Uh, his name is Grant and he's in my trigonometry class."
She raised her eyebrows. "He? Is Brett okay with this?"
I rolled my eyes. "Mom, he's just tutoring me. Brett will be okay with it when I tell him."
Brett is not really the possessive type but he could be. But he never minded when a boy looked at me like they wanted me because he knew they couldn't have me. But sometimes it became a little unsettling and I would tell Brett and he would fix it.
She looked skeptical. "I don't know, sweetie. I mean, you're very pretty, are you sure this kid won't try anything?"
I started to remember the events that happened in the hallway today. "Trust me, mom. You have nothing to worry about."
She nodded, still unsure. "Well, when do you guys start?"
"Tomorrow."
"What time?"
"Around five."
She nodded, as she started to think.
I narrowed my eyes at her. "I know what you're thinking, mom. You're gonna drop by to see how things are going and I'm telling you now, please please don't go all lawyer-y on him. He's just my tutor."
She shrugged. "We'll see."
Just then, her phone rang and she answered it. "Hello, Mrs Banks speaking...okay, I'll be right down...okay, bye."
"Work?"
"Yeah," she stood up and kissed my forehead. "See you tonight, sweetie."
"Okay, bye. I love you."
"I love you too." And then she closed the door.
It became really quiet in the house since I was the only child. I decided to put my notes up for now and just have some chill time that I never seem to have because I'm always out with my friends or Brett.
I laid down on my bed, getting comfortable. I started to drift off to sleep.
"You'll never be good enough in Math!" Mrs Bells screams at me.
"Yeah, you're gonna fail and get kicked off the team!" Sarah laughs in my face.
I cover my ears. "Stop, it's not true!"
"Julianne is stupid, Julianne is dumb, somebody better go call her mum!"
I close my eyes. "Stop it!"
"Julianne is stupid, Julianne is dumb, somebody better go call her mum!"
They continue to taunt me as I close my eyes and shake my head.
I wake up, breathing heavily. What the hell?
I start to hear a faint ring in the background and realize it's my phone. I sit up, rubbing my eyes. I grab my phone and check the caller ID but see it's an unknown number but I answer it anyways.
"Hello?" I say, my voice raspy from sleep.
"Hey, babe, it's Brett."
I pulled back the phone, confused and still saw he was calling from an unknown number.
I frowned. "Why are you calling from an unknown number?"
"Because someone decided to drop my phone in the toilet so, now I have to use my grans house phone."
I hear a, "I didn't mean to!" yelled in the background.
I laughed, assuming it was probably one of his many siblings that he has.
I checked the time on my digital clock and saw that I had slept for two hours and it was now five o'clock. I decided to head downstairs to get something to eat.
I opened the fridge. "So, how's your grandma?"
He sighed. "Oh, you know, struggling but she's supposed to be getting out of the hospital tomorrow but I don't see why. I mean, she seems like she needs to stay longer. She just doesn't seem well to me."
I closed the fridge and went to open the cabinet. "Maybe, there's a reason they're letting her out. You gotta trust the doctors, babe."
He groaned. "No, you're just not seeing her. She looks so pale and she can barely stand."
I went to grab a honey bun but then remembered that I can't eat stuff like that while on the cheer team so, I closed the cabinet and grabbed me a banana from the table instead and a water bottle from the fridge.
"I mean," he sighed, "there has to be more they can do for her."
He sounded so heartbroken thinking about his grandma the way she is. I didn't realize he was this close to her.
I tried to keep him as positive as possible. "Just hang in there and don't start thinking of the worst, okay?"
"Okay, thank you, really. I love you so much." he said, affectionately.
I smiled. "I love you, too."
A/N:
Aannd over.
So, what'd you think?
Comment and tell me your thoughts!
But there's gonna be more of Grant in the next chapter for sure ;)