Am I the dummy here?

"Ooh, I alm-most forgot, bef-fore I start. What d-do you understand?"

Daitain raised a suspicious eyebrow and Benjiro just knew she was wondering if she had actually learned anything over the months. He cleared his throat, "L-Like, do you know b-basic greetings and st-stuff?"

Daitan folded her arms, "I know enough to get by", she cryptically phrased.

'If by enough, you mean that no matter what grade I enter, this stuff confuses the hell out of me, and I forget it once we're finished with our quizzes and sh*t', Daitan thought.

Benjiro fought the urge to roll his eyes, 'Well, that's helpful. On behalf of the sum total of nobody, thank you for the information.'

The tomboy wasn't sure of what compelled her when she listed, "I can say a few basic phrases like asking where the bathroom is, hello, goodbye, and I can count up to ten. I know a couple other things but none of them are anything that two people would typically say casually."

Benjiro almost shouted in triumph. After weeks of being threatened and ignored, for one reason or another, he got Haruoka to actually play ball. It could've been from pity, or she just wanted to mess with him, but it didn't sound as if she was lying. Out of curiosity, "Wh-What kind of phrases w-were they?"

The mischievous look returned, "Are you sure you wanna know?"

Benjiro started to feel a little uneasy, but nodded. Daitan looked up at the ceiling, "Y'know, stuff like 'Get out of my face or I'll rip your arm off and shove it up your a**' or 'English motherf****r! Do you speak it?'

Not one to miss a classic reference, Benjiro laughed a little as he continued listening to Daitan run through a small repertoire of curses and threats. For her part, Daitan was a little surprised that the lanky guitar player not only understood what she was saying but also seemed so nonchalant about them, "What are you laughing about? That doesn't freak you out, like at all?"

He just chuckled and casually waved his hand, "N-Nah, I've h-heard all th-those and much worse bef-fore. If anyth-thing, you need to upd-date your arsenal. Anyw-way, moving on. I c-came up with this b-based on your most r-recent vocab list. L-Luckily, the ph-phrases are p-pretty basic, so th-this should just be a refresher."

The strings began to form a basic ragtime sound on his guitar. It didn't sound like anything in particular, which didn't help because, Benjiro didn't figure out a rythym for the lyrics themselves, 'OK, just going to wing this, cool? Cool.'

'How in the hell does this retard think he's going to teach me anything', Daitan thought, 'This isn't like soccer where you can just learn through doing. And besides, this guy stutters like he has permanent stage fright, so this ought ta be good.'

He hummed a few bars to figure out an impromptu tune, 'An impromntune if you will. Eek, I'm never saying that out loud.' Wetting his lips, he just hoped it was enough to keep her engaged for more than a few seconds:

If you're greeting someone on the street, you say "Hello, how are you?"

If someone says that you respond, "I'm well, horrible, excited, angry or feeling blue"

If someone asks you how old you are, "I'm 'fill in the blank', and you?"

And if someone does something nice, you should always say "Thank you"

When you get asked where you live, you say I live in Aichi, Japan

If you have a hobby you could, "Play sports, collect stuff, watch shows or be a cameraman"

Daitan gave him an odd look. "I had a minor case of writers block, don't judge.

When taking notes you "Write with a pencil or a pen"

And if you feel like hanging out, you say "I'm going somewhere with my friends"

If you take decide to vacation in Hawaii, you'll need "To fly in an airplane"

If you're just going to the next town over you say, "I need to catch the train"

And if you're annoyed with someone, you could say "Ugh, you're such a pain"

When the sky gets gets dark and cloudy you say, "I need an umbrella for the rain"

If it's bright outside "It's sunny, so wear a hat", because you don't want to go blind

When getting someone's attention, "Excuse me" or "If you don't mind."

You could walk down a "Street, a road, an alley or an avenue"

If you see an old friend you'd ask "Hey there, is anything new?"

Benjiro finished his little song with a flamenco flourish and returned to earth. He had, once again, been off in his own world when he sang and wasn't exactly paying attention to how she was reacting. Looking up into Daitan's face which still looked angry or annoyed by default, he began to feel a bit nervous, "S-So, wh-what do you th-think? Is that s-something y-you think w-will help you learn?"

The default face changed to one of mild confusion, "What happened to your voice?"

Now he was confused, "Wh-What do you mean?"

Daitan's confusion only grew more. She waved her hand at him, "What do you mean, what do I mean? Your voice. In the time since I've met you, you've mostly stayed silent, which I can live with. But in the few times I did hear you speak, you haven't been able to say one sentence that doesn't sound like your teeth are chattering because of the cold."

Benjiro snorted a little hearing the brawny girl's simile, "I g-get that a l-lot."

"Do I make you nervous?"

He puffed up his lips to make a thinking face, "Th-The threat of ass-ssault would make m-most guys afr-raid."

Now Daitan's head was creased with her thinking, "Then why weren't you stuttering while you were singing that weird song just now?"

It was Benjiro's turn to be confused. After giving it a moment, he looked like a lightbulb went off in his head, "I h-have no clue."

While Daitan didn't show it, part of her felt let down, "What do you mean, you don't know? You're the one who was stuttering like crazy and then singing without a single slip of the tongue and then going back to stuttering again. How does that make sense?"

Benjiro just looked back at her, shrugged and said, "I g-guess it d-doesn't."

"You're f**king weird, kid."

He felt annoyed that he got called a kid again by someone who seemed to have the maturity of someone half his age, but decided it would be counterintuitive, "M-My speech imped-diment aside, y-you didn't t-tell me what you th-think."

Daitan's passive aggressive face returned,"What do you want me to tell you? That I thought it was pretty and you deserve to have a spot on the Voice?"

'She's resorting back to belittling me again', Benjiro observed, 'So if she gets bored or something, she likes to knock people down a peg just for the hell of it? Ignore that, and try to probe a bit deeper.'

"N-No, I w-want to kn-know if th-that's s-something that c-can help you l-learn English. Th-That's one of the w-ways I l-learned a l-lot of things."

Leaning her cheek on her knuckles, "If you're so good at learning stuff, then how come I've never seen your name in top of the student listings?"

Benjiro's face felt hot, "I h-have things I d-do good and others that I d-don't."

"Meaning that English is most likely the only thing you're good at, and you completely suck at everything else."

He wanted to protest but he knew Daitan was just trying to drag him into a pointless argument, 'Damn, she's good. No wonder people don't like her, she's just a natural at getting people riled up, breaking them down or just scaring the spit out of them.'

'That's probably one of the reasons why she likes soccer so much', Inei popped in, 'It lets her vent out some of that barely restrained aggression and polish some of her nasty phrases that she ran through earlier.'

'Please, if she thinks those are nasty phrases, I oughta tell her about the things Dad told me about the guys on his old helicopter crew used to say. Heck or even the ones he works with now.'

'That's besides the point' Inei said, 'I think your song worked, she just doesn't want to admit it.'

'So, I'm screwed' Benjiro silently moaned, 'No matter how much I try, she refuses to learn and quite possibly I don't get my extra credit for failing to do so.'

'Don't panic, just remember what you learned from that book, you dummy', Inei instructed, 'And don't forget, you also have a Plan B. You thought it would be a good thing to find a study method that would take advantage of Haruoka's competitive side.'

Snapping his fingers in real life, "Haruo-oka, I just rememb-bered something. I h-have with m-me a game that I th-think may help."

The tiniest fraction of interest seemed to spark on Daitan's face, "If we're doing a game, it's something you'll most likely lose."

'Cocky, aren't we', Benjiro remarked, 'Ah sh*t. I just remembered, I can't play this game. Somebody needs to be the gamemaster while the other two are the players. Besides, why would a teacher play a studying game against their students when they already know all the answers?'

No sooner had the panicked thought run through Benjiro's head when the music room door opened up. Both of them turned their heads to see who was entering, and to Benjiro's surprise, "Yaman-naka? What are y-you doing h-here?"

Saori strolled in as if it she came in the room regularly, "Well, I was just swinging by and I heard some caterwauling and just had to investigate. Then what do I find but two people who are clearly in the middle of something", a grin more devilish than Haruoka flashed on her face, "What were you two doing? Was he singing a love song to you that he wrote?"

The color drained from both of their faces. "NO!" they both shouted when presented with that horrible image. Benjiro looked over at Daitan and felt on an instinctual level, she wasn't going to tolerate such casual disrespect laying down. Before the tomboy could stand up to sock the comedian in the mouth, he deflected by half yelling "Hey, Y-Yamanaka, since y-you're here, y-you can help us."

The two girls looked at Benjiro oddly. "I was j-just about to st-start a game, and n-needed a second player. Just grab a seat and we'll begin."

He rustled around in his backpack and brought out a small stack of flashcards, "We're g-going to see, who c-can guess more t-terms correctl-ly."

Thankfully, the lanky boy noticed that Daitan's competitive spirit was noticeably kindled. He wasn't sure how good Yamanaka was, but the situation was defused. Saori for her part still looked at a loss, so Benjiro gave her an apologetic look that said, 'I'll make this up to you later.'

To which she responded with a look that said, 'That's a promise.'

"Let's g-get ready, cont-testants", Benjiro said in his best announcer voice.