Chapter 01 | Tutor Girl
"Miss Clarke, could you please wait a moment?" Mr. Riley called out my name before I had a chance to step out of his classroom door. I backtracked to his black wooden desk waiting for him to respond.
"Is there something I could help you with?" I asked desperately, not wanting to miss my ride home. There was no way I was catching the city bus right now.
"Actually, yes, there is. You are one of my best students in this class, partially because you do all of your homework, but also because you have aced every single test this year," he answered smiling widely at me, showing me his pearly whites.
"Kiss ass," the black haired boy in the royal blue football jersey muttered.
Mr. Riley turned his head at the boy furrowing his eyebrows and glaring at him as a warning sign he did when a student pissed him off. The boy put his hands up in surrender and rolled his eyes. "As I was saying," Mr. Riley continued, "Raysen here, is not doing too hot in Trigonometry and needs serious help. Since you are the smartest in the math department, I was wondering if you would be willing to tutor him," he finished.
"Mr. Riley, don't get me wrong, I'm honored, but-"
"Just think about it." he cut me off.
I nodded and walked out of the door. Was I going to have time to tutor another student? I had so much on my plate right now, college applications were due soon and I needed to get into a good school. No distractions could come in my way, not right now, at least.
"Jane, wait!" a deep sexy voice yelled out. I felt my wrist being trapped in a firm grip. My hair whipped around my shoulder when I turned my head to see who attempted to call out my name. It was the same boy who made the sarcastic comment in Mr. Riley's room.
"It's Jade," I corrected him, looking down at his arm clutching mine.
Wow, was his grip strong or what?
"Yeah, whatever, Miss Perfect. Can you please tutor me? The work just doesn't make sense to me and I'm failing. I need to get a C or higher so I can play in future games." he explained giving me the puppy dog eyes, thinking that had an effect on me.
My body stiffened at the name he gave me. I wasn't anything close to perfect, my flaws defined me, I knew that for a fact. My eyes studied him in his vulnerable state contemplating whether or not I should tutor the captain of the football team. A brief flashback played through my mind as I remembered who this boy standing in front of me was. It was the one and only Raysen Pierce, my twin brother's arch nemesis.
I felt a vibration in my back pocket, grabbing my undivided attention. I glanced at the Caller ID before picking up. "Hello?" I answered my impatient brother. I looked into Raysen's brown eyes, holding up a finger signaling him to hold on while I took the call. He nodded his head before pulling out his own phone from his backpack. I took this time to inspect the tall boy standing in front of me. If Shane could see the way I was looking at him right now, he would definitely be furious.
"Where are you? I've been waiting forever!" Shane complained loudly.
I pulled the phone away from my ear, not wanting to hear another one of his annoying lectures. "I'm coming, hold on," I answered calmly, then ended the call, not wanting to fight with him in front of Raysen.
"Raysen, I don't know. There are other great tutors here at Ridgewood."
Raysen picked his head up from his phone and immediately shoved it into his pocket. "But Mr. Riley said you're the best and I only want the best," he pouted like a five-year-old.
I let out a deep sigh thinking through my decision one final time. "Fine," my brain told me to give in to his whines. "Meet at your house at 6:30 starting tomorrow?" I asked him trying to walk and talk at the same time. Shane was already waiting for me and I didn't want him to wait any longer. I knew the feeling of having to wait for something and never have it come on time.
"That's not such a great idea," Raysen replied scratching the back of his neck in discomfort.
I kept walking trying to reach Shane before he left me stranded at school. "Why not?" I asked a little out of breath.
"My house is messy," he answered me back keeping up with her pace. It was easy for him to walk this fast, he had an advantage of being athletic. I, on the other hand, struggle for breath every ten seconds.
"I don't mind, you're a guy. Guys are messy." I argued. It was a known fact, guys were messy, it's inevitable. I should know, I pick up Shane's mess all the time.
"I just can't okay!" he snapped.
My feet stopped walking, taken back by Raysen's sudden outburst. When I turned around to face him, his eyebrows were furrowed in anger and his body was stiffened.
"Yeah, okay. Just meet me at my house then," I said pulling out a piece of paper to write down my address.
I handed him the torn piece of paper and continued walking towards Shane's car.
"What were you doing with him?" Shane asked making a disgusted face at me.
"Nothing," I answered, pulling the gray seat belt over my right shoulder.
Shane would be pissed if I told him I'd tutoring Raysen. I didn't know exactly why they hated each other, all I knew was it had to do with football.
"That's exactly right. There should be nothing going on between you two," he said, his voice cold as winter.
"Okay, whatever," I muttered, before continuing my gaze out the window.
Shane pulled into the garage carefully making sure not to run over our mother's freshly planted petunias. "Hello, my beautiful twins! How was school?" our mom asked, as we walked through the door.
"Hi, boy," I bent down to pet Ollie. His soft fur was mesmerizing to touch between my fingers. He was a six-year-old, golden, Corgi. I took care of him the most, therefore I claimed him as mine and mine only.
Mom kissed Shane on the cheek and gave me a tight hug. "Hi, mom," Shane replied hugging her back.
"School was good," I answered her question while bending down to pet Ollie again. He looked at me with real puppy dog eyes, unlike Raysen's ones, begging to be fed. How could I say no to that face?
I brought out his blue bowl, I had painted when I was little. My sloppy handwriting wrote his name 'Ollie' on the front in red paint. The bag of Pedigree was half empty by the time I filled up the bowl. "Enjoy," I smiled at him, already going to town.
"That's nice, sweetie. I'll let you guys go do your homework now," she said forcing us up the stairs. Shane let out a chuckle, smiling at our mom's quirkiness.
He loved when she was happy. Ever since our dad thought work was more important than us, Shane became the man of the house and started taking control into his hands. Even at age seven, he knew that he would have to step up when he got older. I wanted to help too, I felt obligated to do something. Mom always told me to get good grades and go to the best college and if that's what made her happy, then that's what I wanted to do. Everyone says I'm smart by luck, which is not at all true. I just had the motivation to do what made my mom proud.
I quietly shut my bedroom door and pulled out my Trigonometry homework. The questions were fairly simple and didn't require a need to use a calculator, simply because I was a walking one, myself.
"B equals 26," I mumbled the answers aloud as I worked out the problems. It helped me understand the process when I worked out the problem out loud.
My eyes drifted over to the blinking light on my cell phone screen. The text was from a number I hadn't seen before.
Unknown: Hey, this is Raysen
Jade: Hey, how'd you get my number?
I replied back instantly questioning how he got my number. It didn't make any sense, all I did was write down my address on that piece of paper. My thumbs quickly changed the contact name to 'Raysen' before he texted back.
Raysen: I have my resources ;)
"Creepy," I muttered as I read his next text.
Jade: Okay, so why'd you text me?
Raysen: I figured we'd need each other's numbers for this tutoring thing to work out, right?
Jade: I guess
Learning didn't require the use of phones. Sure, it was handy to check your work or look up the formulas for equations, but I wouldn't call it a necessity.
Raysen: I bet you're freaking out now, that you have the captain of the football teams number. Am I right or am I right?
This boy was ridiculous. His phone number meant nothing to me. Zero, zilch, nada. I had finished my homework between the time it took for him to reply and for me to answer back. After that last text, I didn't feel like talking to him anymore.
I reached into the bag I had brought home a few days ago from the mall. My own copy of Looking For Alaska was in my hands. I had wanted this book since I borrowed it from the library.
Reading was my favorite hobby to do. While every other teenager was out partying or on social media, I loved to read. Tonight, I decided to skip my dinner and enter the fictional world of Miles and Alaska.
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A/N: Hey, beautiful readers! This was the very first chapter of The Probability of Love. I hope you guys liked it :) The title was inspired by the math term "probability" just because she's tutoring him in math. If you liked this chapter please vote, comment, and share!