She wipes the sweat off her forehead and turns to face me with a haunted look in her eye. “Someone I thought was my brother, but who ended up ruining my life.”
She readies her stance and starts hitting the bag again. I get the hint that she wants to be alone right now and leave her be, her words replaying in my mind.
When we get back our calculus quizzes
from Friday, I’m not even surprised when I see my failing grade.
What else is new? This is the second calculus test I’ve bombed since I started at King.
I just don’t get it. And I can’t pay attention to Mr. Fidiott when he teaches for the life of me. Honestly, if he put the lesson on that clock at the front of the room, I’d probably learn something. I spend all my time staring at it.
With seven minutes and thirty-four seconds left of class, everyone packs their bags.
Mr. Fidiott turns to the class. “Okay, I’ll let you out of class now since it’s is almost over anyway.”
The class is filled with different choruses of excited yeses, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I might have been the loudest one. Mr. Fidiott is so cool, letting us out of this hell six minutes and fifty-two seconds early.
“Except you, Amelia. May I speak with you?”
I take that back. Mr. Fidiott is not cool. He’s a dream stomper. He just stomped all over my dreams of escaping this hellhole.
The class is filled with immature oohs, and it’s unfair that I have to stay while the rest of the class gets freedom.
“Amelia,” he says as I walk up to his desk, “this is the second test you failed in my class. The other quizzes you just barely scraped by.”
“I know. I’ve been working really hard trying to get my grades up. I study with my friend practically every night!”
“You need this credit to graduate,” he says, deadpan.
“I’ll get the credit, I’m working really hard.”
“I don’t want you to fail, Amelia. That’s why I asked one of my best students to tutor you.”
“I don’t need a tutor! Charlotte is helping me!”
“Charlotte needs to focus on trying to raise her own grade, never mind helping a failing student.”
“Who agreed to tutor me?” I ask hesitantly.
His next words shock me so intensely that I might’ve been electrocuted. “Aiden Parker.”
“What?”
“Aiden will be helping you. Talk to him about the times you can get together. And I expect your grades to improve significantly.”
“But what does Aiden know about calculus?!” I vaguely remember getting a glimpse of his calculus test one time when he handed it in. It was full of confident answers.
“Aiden is among the top students in the senior class in many subjects. He has first choice of most colleges. I can’t think of anyone better to tutor you.”
I knew Aiden was smart, but I didn’t know he was that smart.
Maybe he doesn’t want people to know that he’s smart because it’ll ruin his badass reputation? I mean, he intimidated Ethan with just a sentence, and people practically jump out of his way in the hallway. If there was a pebble in his path that he couldn’t be bothered to walk around, it would grow legs and move out of his way with just a menacing glare.
“Can’t we get one of the other top students in the school to help me?” I protest.
Mr. Fidiott gives me an amused look. “You must think you actually have a choice in the matter. I’ve already asked Aiden to help you and he’s agreed. He helps you, or you fail calculus and don’t graduate. It’s quite simple.”
The bell rings, indicating that second period is over and that we have five minutes to get to third. Mr. Fidiott gets up to erase the board. “You should agree on times as soon as possible.” He pauses. “And that was the bell, get to class.”