Felicia frowned deeply, making Dylan quiet down.
"What?" He asked, taking another bite of his food. Felicia swallowed the food she'd been chewing on and put one hand on the table.
"You're telling me that you got a project on the first day of school?" She said quietly.
"Well-" he started, but she interrupted him.
"Because that is just cruel," she groaned, "evil and cruel and vile."
"Don't be so dramatic," Dylan laughed, taking a swig of his water bottle. "And besides, we haven't technically gotten it yet, she just gave us a quick introduction. We'll be receiving the rubric and all that stuff sometime next week... I think." This didn't seem to calm Felicia's nerves, or whatever you could call it.
She leaned back in her chair and threw her head back, making a few students look at her strangely. "I don't want to have a project. Especially not in biology!"
"You haven't even had biology yet, so chances are that you won't get it before two weeks from now." Dylan attempted to assure her. "We're getting ours on Thursday, so you might get yours on Tuesday the following week. Plus, I'll help you. You know I got your back."
Felicia smiled wide, revealing the tiny gap between her teeth. "Thanks, Dyl." Dylan only waved it off and continued eating. "What do you have after lunch?"
"History." He'd tried to memorize his schedule when he'd gotten home the previous day. He'd almost succeeded, and there were only a few hours that he'd forgotten. "Then math. You?"
"Well, I had history yesterday, so probably not that... but I think I have math last period, too." After a few moments of looking in her backpack, she got her schedule out. "Yeah, I've got art and then math."
"Nice, then we'll have that together."
They sat in comfortable silence, or at least as close to silence that one could get in a crowded cafeteria full of teenagers. A few minutes passed, before the familiar sound of the PA systems fluttering filled the room.
"Dylan Brooks, Dylan Brooks, please report to the principal's office." The vice principal's voice sounded far away from the mic. "Dylan Brooks, please report to the principal's office."
Dylan froze, Felicia's eyes now on him. Had he done something wrong? That was always the first thought when he got called to the office, even after so many years in school. No, he hadn't, he never did. It was probably nothing.
"Well, are you going or what?" Felicia's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. He nodded, packing up his stuff and hurrying out of the cafeteria and to the hallway. It wasn't far too the principal's office, only a few classrooms down the hall.
He knocked softly before entering the large office. Mr. Evans, the principal, stood behind his desk, a bright smile on his lips.
"Mr. Brooks, thank you for coming so quickly." He held out his hand for Dylan to shake, making eye contact the entire time. Dylan wasn't great at eye contact, he wasn't gonna lie, and it got a little uncomfortable. After the greeting, Mr. Evans gestured for him to take a seat in the chair that he stood beside.
"I bet you're wondering why I called you in here," he started, a sentence that would have sounded way creepier had it not been for his genuine smile and sunlight streaming in through a large window, "I would like to reassure you of that you're not in trouble, quite on the contrary. I find that many students get very tense when called to me."
Dylan nodded slightly, a polite smile plastered on his lips. At least the guy could read body language.
"Alright, I'll get right to it." Mr. Evans got a folder out from his desk, placing it in front of Dylan and not making him calm down whatsoever. It felt a little like an interrogation, even though he hadn't really been asked a single question. "You are one of our best students, and you excel in especially the sciences. I've been told that you plan on going to college, or at least I hope so, what are you planning on majoring in?"
Dylan scratched his neck nervously. "Well the plan was marine biology, so thank you."
"That would fit you perfectly, and it explains why you have such a gift for biology." Mr. Evans didn't open the folder. "The reason you're here is that I need your help. There will be extra credit involved for you if you have time to do it."
What was this? What the fuck could he want? It was the beginning of the year, there wasn't any major project on the way, and he hadn't done anything extraordinary. It was the second day of school for goodness sake. Mr. Evans pushed the folder closer to him and he grabbed it and opened it. Inside was only a schedule, and a slip of paper made for a signature. He wanted to laugh a bit, this was all made really dramatic.
"I would like you to be part of our tutoring program. If you are unable to, that is fine as well, but your interest in biology would be greatly appreciated with especially one of your fellow students. I make this offer having seen your grades from last semester, and with the hopes that you will keep them up, of course."
This didn't surprise him. There were a lot of people who didn't understand biology, so it didn't really hint at who it was. Nevertheless, he grabbed a pencil.
"Of course, I'm game," Dylan smiled and scribbled his name over the slip of paper. "Don't have anything better to do with my time, so why not." Mr. Evans smile turned impossibly wide, basically splitting his face in half.
"I'm so glad to hear that," he said, seeming a little relieved. "I've already talked to him about this. I trust that you've heard that Mr. Davis transferred here just yesterday. I realize that this makes you strangers, but you both seem to have good conversation skills so I hope you become friends easily."
"I'll do that." Dylan didn't let his surprise at the principal's words show... that much, at least. New student? His mind traveled back to the day before and his and Felicia's conversation. "If I may ask, why would anyone need assistance this early on?"
"Well, I don't want to say anything I shouldn't, so you'll have to ask Mr. Davis that. I believe it was an agreement they had with the football coach for when he transferred." Dylan lifted his bag from its place on the floor and stood. "Have a nice day." Mr. Evans nodded politely, and as he left he could hear the older man mutter something about being 'game'. He smiled, having taught the principal a new slang.
The second bell had already rung when Dylan knocked lightly on the door. He had history, a subject of which he had conflicting feelings. Sure, it could be boring as hell, but some things were actually really interesting. The teacher, who had a name that Dylan couldn't remember at the moment, opened the door with a glare.
"Sorry I'm late, I was at the principal's office." He apologized.
"You can take a seat next to Mr. Davis." The teacher's name still hadn't come, so Dylan only nodded and took the seat that he'd gestured at. As soon as he'd gotten his behind in the chair, the teacher started monologue-ing again. Something about sources and ancient Rome. At least it wasn't one of the worst topics.
A sigh from next to him drew his attention away from the teacher. He turned his head a little only to find none other than Christopher Davis. He was wearing a simple white tee and dark jeans, the look finished with a- wait for it- leather jacket. No, wait, the thing that finished the look was his unruly hair.
"What?" Dylan snapped out of his own head as Chris growled at him, almost making him jump.
"Nothing." Damn. He could already feel that the tutoring sessions were gonna be a pain in the ass. Did this guy even know that he was gonna spend days studying with him within a couple of weeks? Probably not.
"Now I'd like all of you to turn to your neighbor and discuss why the Roman empire was so successful." The teacher announced, his voice booming in the quiet classroom. Dylan sighed inwards and turned to his right, looking at Chris. He seemed to be in a bad mood.
"Hi." He said. "I'm Dylan-"
"I know your name, genius," Chris rolled his eyes but turned a bit to the side, almost facing Dylan.
"Okay, so what do you think about the topic?" Dylan, being the Good Student™ he was, attempted to engage the other boy in a conversation. Chris' jaw clenched. What was his problem?
"They had great fighters, a well-organized army."
"I agree, that was a big reason to why they were so successful." Dylan looked at the board. What were they going to talk about now? "You trying out for football on Wednesday, tomorrow?" He hoped the football tryouts were on the same day as the soccer ones. Otherwise, he would look like a fool.
"Why, you don't play football?" Chris frowned. Damn, what had Dylan done to piss this guy off?
"Nah, I know," Dylan shrugged, trying his best to sound casual, "I was just wondering. I heard you played for Elwood." Chris nodded once, a bitter smile on his lips.
"Yeah, I'm trying out."
Suddenly, a voice from behind interrupted Dylan's thoughts. "Mr. Davis. Mr. Brooks. Are you done with what I told you to do?" Mr. Morgan sounded tired. In the corner of his eye, Dylan could see Chris frown a bit and he had turned his head towards Dylan.
"Yeah, we finished already," Dylan replied smoothly. Mr. Morgan continued his stroll around the classroom without another word, looking over the students' shoulders, looking for a phone or something else that they weren't supposed to fiddle with.
Chris's voice made him turn his head towards the black-haired boy once again. "Your name is Brooks?"
Dylan frowned in confusion. "Yeah, why? I thought you said that you knew my name."
"You're my new tutor?" Chris made a grimace.
"What's that face supposed to mean?" Dylan exclaimed, his eyebrows knitting together to form a deep frown. "And yeah, I am."
"Well shit." Chris cursed. "I just... Mr. Evans said that someone named Brooks would tutor me, but I just assumed that he meant some chick named Brook." Dylan smirked.
"I bet you would have liked that, wouldn't you?" He teased. It was apparently the wrong thing to say because Chris' face turned cold again. He mumbled a quiet 'yeah whatever', before turning in his seat. "Anyways, we should meet up, talk about some kind of schedule. How's today after school."
Chris sighed. "Yeah, that's fine. Where?"
"The library, or at your place. Mine doesn't work."
"Library it is then."
Dylan kept quiet. Chris' didn't seem too keen on talking and he could respect that. Eventually, the bell rang and Dylan collected his stuff. Only one more class. Which was... math. He didn't actually math was that bad, there were rules and structure, and if you remembered the rules you got the right answer.
But it was still tiresome and could be really boring. Today was a day that it was really boring, and therefore Dylan had decided to chat with Felicia for a bit, only pretending to work when the teacher walked past.
"Wait, you're part of the tutoring program now?" Felicia asked with a slight frown on her brow. "That was what he wanted to ask you about?"
Dylan nodded. "Yeah, and I agreed. I'm going to schedule the whole thing today after school so I hope you've got a ride."
"Well I don't, Xander's busy." She sighed. "Can you drive me if I wait?"
"Yeah sure, it probably won't take that long." Dylan looked down at the sheet of paper that they had been given to write equations on. He scribbled down a few more as the teacher came up behind him and sighed. He really hoped it wouldn't take long, planning on getting home as soon as possible to start thinking about the biology project.
When the bell finally rang he packed up his stuff and started walking towards the school library.
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