Thank goodness, today was Friday. Nobody could wait until this day was over. Having ten classes a day wasn't an easy task. Word on the street there's going to be a party at night. It was a go with the flow, so they didn't know where the party was going to be at.
Even Nicki was excited. Normally she would be reading a book around some corner in school, but not today. She was listening to music on her phone and messing with it when she bumped into someone. As soon as she realised who it was, she took them off and apologised..
"I am so sorry."
"Good morning, Onika. It's okay."
"Good morning, Mr. Smith."
"Have you and Aubrey started started studying yet?"
"Well, yes.. It's hard to study with him. It's like he doesn't care."
"You can to do it. I trust you."
"Yes, but c-.." She got cut off by the ringing bell announcing hat the classes have started.
"Off to class you go, Ms. Maraj. We'll discuss about this next week." He disappeared into the moving crowd in the hallway as they were all were trying to go to their classes. She sighed and went to her Acting class. On her way there, she found Tnembi. They have this class together.
Mrs. Flynn, punctual as ever, was about to start the lesson when the girls came in. Today's lesson was about group improvising, which meant acting without a script. They must make up their own actions and dialog as they perform the scene. This made Nicki a bit happy, she was feeling that spontaneity today. She got picked by Tnembi, as usual, and their group had three more others of their classmates. Their presentation was quite amazing, worth of an A minus.
(...)
The bell rang and the students started coming out of the classrooms, instantly making the hallways crowded. Nicki tried searching for Drake through it, but her height wasn't helping so much. And there were more than two thousand students there. She decided to ask a random person.
"Excuse me?" She tapped a girl's shoulder and she turned around. "I'm sorry, hi. Do you know where Drake is?"
"Who?"
"The captain of the basketball team."
"Oh yeah, he's probably in the gym. They practice every Tuesday and Friday after school."
"Thank you."
"Your welcome." With that, Nicki went to the gym. When she opened the doors, all eyes were on her. A player dropped the ball and it dribble making it the only audible sound in the gym. She, a bit shy, slowly walked up to Drake and stood in front of him.
"You're up for studying today?" She looked at him in the eyes.
"Unfortunately, not today. I've had made plans already."
"Oh." she slightly looked away, trying not to look down.
"Don't worry. Monday after school in the school's library."
"But then I'll miss the bus."
"I'll give you a ride home."
"Ain't he a gentleman." She half smiled, showing off her dimples.
"Yeap, that's me."
"Yeah. Whatever. Bye." She tapped his arm, turned around and left. He watched her until she was no longer in sight. He was in a daze for a few seconds then noticed everyone was looking at him.
"What?"
"What's up with you and shorty?" Michael asked. He was some troublemaker, yet an amazing player.
"Who, Nicki? Nothing."
"Good, because Imma holla at her." He wiggled his eyebrows.
"Ew..."
"What? I thought you didn't have anything with her."
"It's just weird, she's my tutor."
"So? She's around our age."
"Fair enough. Do what you want, I don't even care." Just then, the door opened and their coach walked in with a bag of basketballs, a clipboard with a couple of papers on it and a whistle around his neck. As soon as he put down his things, he blew his whistle. The boys formed a row in front of him.
"Good afternoon, youngsters."
"Good afternoon, coach."
"Since it's Friday, I'll let you do what you want, two by two. Just to relax a little. Here are the balls, make yourselves comfortable." And it was exactly what the boys did the the next fourth-five minutes.
(...)
It was now late evening when Nicki was helping her mother clear the kitchen after they had supper. They had fried chicken, rice and lettuce salad with fruit salad for dessert which Nicki had prepared when she got back home from school.
"Don't forget to lock the doors, sweety." Carol said making her way to her bedroom.
"Don't worry, mom. I got it."
"Sure you do. Well, good night."
"Good night, sleep well."
"You too." Nicki heard the sound of the door opening and closing. She turned off the kitchen lights and made her way to the living where she found the TV on. She had successfully hidden a bunch of snacks on her blanket in the living room so she wouldn't have to go up all the way to her room to get them.
Let's see what's on today, she thought. Fox. No. MTV. No. Disney Channel. Who still even watches this? CBS. Bingo! Judge Judy was on. She watched it for the next 17 minutes until it was over. Then, she decided to watch a movie.
Browsing throughout the channels, she found one that seemed interesting. Just when was focusing on it and enjoying it, loud music coming from nowhere. The bass was being felt at that house as it was the windows were trembling. She sighed and went over to the door to see what going on. It looked like there was a party at Drake's house. There goes her peaceful night. Nicki went back inside and locked the door. Turned the TV off, gathered her things and went up to her room where it took her a while to fall asleep.
***
It's Monday after school and Nicki was inside the library doing her homework while waiting for Drake. She doubted he would show up, but she was wrong. They greeted each other and he sat down taking his Math material out of his bag. They started off with cubic fuction, which seemed to be a lot of people's struggle. She gave him a simple equation.
"What seems to be difficult here?"
"Mr. Smith's methods are driving me crazy. I can't do two different ways and have the same result."
"Fair enough. Okay. So, before using a certain method, first you have to analyse what case you're delaying with." She opened her formula notebook. "We know it's a third degree equation when we have at least y=ax^3. The other parcels bx^2, cx and d may not always appear. The simplest way is using the Ruffini's rule to do so." And then she carried on explaining how to apply the rule.
The next 50 minutes were like that. Nicki explaining and Drake nodded and solving his exercises. Still she noticed that he wasn't understanding or caring enough, but just let it go. When they finished, Drake went straight home and Nicki stopped by at Starbucks to grab something to eat as she only had two apples today. As soon as she got home, she greeted her mother.
"Hi, mom."
"Hi baby girl, how was school today?"
"Good. Tutoring Drake is a challenge, though."
"I'm sure you can handle it."
"Sure hope so... I'm going to take a shower. Be down when I'm ready."
"Alright."
***
It went pretty much the same way for the next three weeks. They had tutoring on Mondays after school in the school's library and Wednesdays after school at Drake's house. Nicki even got the chance to meet Drake's mother, Sandi. Secretly she was curious to meet her. Drake was being more focused on his work, but still made a couple of minor mistakes sometimes.
The loud music didn't get any better. If it wasn't on a Friday, it was on a Saturday. Not to mention little get-togethers on random days of the week. Nicki would always complain, but Drake never listened to her.
They now had Science, the last class of Friday. Today's work was in pairs and Drake and Nicki were set together. She thought it was bad luck or somehow the teachers plan.
"Alright, class, here are your expiriments. " The teacher said referring to the box containing a bunch of fresh veggies in recipients. "Come and pick up a vegetable and a worksheet. You have twenty minutes to do it."
One element from each group went to the teacher's desk and did what was told. Drake picked up a red cabbage and a sheet. They would be making a natural pH indicator with it and test it with vinegar, washing powder, baking soda and a clear non-cola drink. On each set of the laboratory, there was a Bunsen burner and a couple of evaporating porcelain dishes. Nicki grabbed one of them, put water in it and sank the cabbage in it.
As she was checking if the other substances were in the right quantity, Drake got bored having to watch the cabbage boil. To speed up the process, he grabbed one of the graduated cylinders that contained the washing powder, added to the hot water and mixed it all.
"Drake! What are you doing?"
"Mixing everything."
"No, you're not supposed to mix it there. This is g-..." She was cut off by the weird phenomenon on the dish. The solution was boiling and it was creating massive quantity foam that soon turned into a mess. Nicki gasped and put her hands over her mouth, motionless of what to do. At this point, the whole class was looking, even the teacher. Drake managed to turn the burner off.
"What's happening here?"
"We were boiling the cabbage and the washing powder got added." Nicki explained.
"Didn't you read the instructions?"
"Yes, b-..."
"Then why did you do it?"
"Excuse me, but it's my fault. I added the washing powder." Drake said, hoping he'd save her from trouble.
"That's it. Detention tomorrow, both of you."
"Saturday detention? But why?"
"There is no need for you to have detention next week. Can only put you in tomorrow."
"That's not fair!" Drake said.
"I've already made plans for tomorrow." Nicki added.
"Yeah. Me too."
"That is not my problem. 8 am, don't be late." The bell rang. "Alright class, leave it all how it is and I'll evaluate your work based on how far you've done. Class is dismissed."
"What about our work?" Nicki asked.
"We'll deal with it next week." Everybody grabbed their bags and left.
Nicki didn't feel like catching the bus, as she was very pissed. She texted Candi asking for a ride and she said yes. She grabbed her bag and went to the front entrance where she would meet him.
(...)
"I'm so over him!" Nicki said as she walked in home? She let her bag down next to the couch on her way to the kitchen where Carol was.
"Over who, darling?"
"Drake."
"What did he do now?"
"Can you believe I got detention tomorrow because of something he did? We were in science class and got paired together. Then we argued and... It went all wrong."
"Have you talked to the teacher about it?"
"Why should I? It's his fault anyways."
"What's your problem with him?"
"We just don't get along."
"Have you tried starting a conversation with him?"
"Yes."
"And how did that go?"
"He doesn't say much to me."
"Oh, Nicki. He must have a reason to do so."
"He better have. I never really gave him a reason to treat me like that."
"Give him some time, you'll see he'll open up."
"The question is, how much time. I just need him to get his grade in Math and we can get this over with."
"Something tells me this is more than a simple grade." Nicki stopped in her tracks.
"What do you mean, mom?"
"Nothing..."
"Thought so. I'm going to check on Micaiah."
"Do you mind getting him ready for bed?"
"Not at all." Nicki went upstairs into her little brother's room where he was playing with his toys. She joined him for a while then had to take care of him.