“You’ve got it, Mrs. H.” He winks. Actually fucking winks at Melissa.
Something I really don’t want to acknowledge stirs in my stomach. It doesn’t matter that Melissa is old enough to be his mother, that one gesture affects me nonetheless.
“Thirty minutes to come up with an argument to the statement on the board,” she repeats to the entire class while Nico’s stare continues to burn into my back as I walk away from him.
“Was he rude to you?” she asks the second we’re out of earshot.
“Uh…”
“Do you know who he is?” she asks, lowering her voice even more.
“I’m aware, yes.”
Melissa sighs and my heart stops as I wait for what’s about to come next. “Rhea told you, didn’t she?”
I can’t help but laugh at that assumption.
“No, actually she didn’t. I know them through association. But it’s nothing to worry about,” I quickly add, praying it’s true.
“Okay, good, because if that revision he just proudly handed to me is anything to go by, he’s going to need all the help he can get to pass.”
Shit.
“What can I do to help?” The words are out of my mouth before I even realise I’m saying them, and I kick myself immediately. Any other student in this school and I wouldn’t question my intrinsic need to help them succeed. But Nico… The stunt he pulled this morning alone with that video should be enough for me to want to throw him to the wolves.
Melissa studies me for a beat, I assume trying to work out if I’m serious or not. It’s at that point I really should tell her that I’m not. But then I glance over at Nico and find his attention not on me, but on the paper before him with a deep frown marring his brow. He’s struggling. Really fucking struggling. I mean, it’s hardly a surprise with what’s happened recently, but there’s no way I can just stand by and let it happen.
“His coursework is solid. He’s capable of doing well, but his focus is elsewhere right now. I’m assuming if you know who he is then you’re aware he lost his father only a few weeks ago?”
I nod but refrain from telling her just how painfully aware I am.
He just needs to find a way to push all of that aside so he can dig out everything he already knows. The knowledge is there. It’s just… buried.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Let me check in with his tutor and compare both of your timetables, and I’m going to suggest he has a few extra sessions to help him solidify everything he already knows and give him the confidence boost he needs to do what he’s really capable of.”
“Y-you want me to do—”
“I thought that’s what you meant when you asked what you could do to help?”
My head spins with the reality of what I’ve got myself into.
“Umm… y-yeah, I guess.”
“I’m already mentoring a huge handful of year elevens and thirteens, but I’m sure I can fit him in if you—”
“No, no,” I find myself arguing. “I’ve got this.”
I look over once more, but he must sense my attention this time because his eyes lift from whatever he’s managed to write and they lock with mine.
“Maybe you’ll be able to get through to him. Hell knows most of the staff in this place have tried. He’s a law unto himself. All the Cirillos are. They’re hard work at times.”
You’re telling me.
“Not that we can really do anything about it. They basically pay our wages, after all.”
14