11

I get a B plus for the English essay. I could've done better, but we'd just had the discussion about nerds, and I was still a little confused. Nevertheless, I'm happy with that mark.

As usual, I got home and confront my mother. She's pissed again, but this time I don't care. I do whatever she asks me, with only a couple of yells, but I survive the evening. When I'm finally able to reach my room, I change into some comfortable clothes and clean my room a little.

I empty my backpack and place it in the corner of the room under the desk so that my mother won't see it. Then I promptly slump on my bed, exhausted. At least tomorrow's Saturday, I think. Then I remember: I have to tutor Tom.

Man, I was hoping to just chill this weekend. But I have the Physics test too since we're in the same class, so I guess it's good for me to refresh the topics.

Not really knowing what to do, I pick up my book and start reading. But, of course, my mother calls me downstairs.

"Emma! Come down right now!" she yells. Then I hear another voice, more masculine. "Susan, please. Don't yell. She didn't do anything wrong!"

Dad!

I run downstairs and tackle my father, who staggers backward but is able to keep his balance. "Hi, pumpkin. How are you?" he asks me.

"I'm great," I say. Then I lean in and whisper in his ear. "But Mom is cranky as always."

My dad chuckles then walks to my mother and hugs her from behind. He rests his head on my mother's shoulders, but he's looking at me. He winks.

My dad is… a little like my mother. Much, much, much less, but he's still really bad-tempered. Unlike my mother, he sometimes is really happy and cheerful. This is one of those moments. Sadly, it doesn't happen very often.

Either way, my dad is rarely home. Most of the time he goes to work when I'm still sleeping and comes back when I'm… well, sleeping. So, yeah. When I heard his voice, I couldn't resist hugging him.

My mom had prepared something to eat, so we all sat around our table and gobbled down the food. It's actually pretty tasty, which is peculiar given that my mother had cooked.

"I'll go upstairs," I say after clearing the table and washing the dishes.

I can see my mom is about to complain and give me a dozen more chores, but my dad saves me and answers quickly. "Yes. Goodnight, pumpkin."

"Goodnight, Dad. Goodnight, Mom." I say back. Without waiting for an answer, I walk upstairs, wash my teeth, change into a baggy tank top and sweatpants, slip into bed and read a few chapters. At about ten thirty I turn off the light and drift off.

"No," I say calmly. "You have to multiply the mass with the acceleration of the object. So this multiplied by this." I point. Tom nods and proceeds to erase what he wrote and tries again.

It's almost ten o'clock and Tom is sitting at my dining table doing Physics. I'm helping him, but I notice that he's rather nervous. He keeps doing simple mistakes that are easily fixable, and I can't find out why these exercises confuse him. You basically have to follow a formula, but Tom seems to have a hard time anyway.

"Yes, like that," I say. "Then you replace this with this one solve it. See if the result matches the one Mr. Higgs gave us." He types some numbers into the calculator. When the result appears, his face lights up, but then he looks at the solutions and frowns. "Nope. It's different," he says.

"Try it again. Maybe you did some mistakes with the calculator." I suggest.

He tries again, but this time he smiles brightly. "Yes!"

"Okay, great," I say. I'm about to say we do the next exercise, but I realize there aren't anymore. Mr. Higgs only gave us three problems to solve. How can I be prepared by doing only three exercises? I tell Tom there aren't any more problems, and his smile becomes even bigger. "Awesome."

I chuckle, but I insist on doing a few more. "C' mon, just three more. I can search for them online." I stand up to get my computer, but Tom grabs my wrist and forces me to sit back down.

"Ten-minute break," he asks. "Please?"

His big green puppy eyes make me accept his proposal, so I lean back in the chair and sigh. "Do you want anything to drink?" I ask. "Water? Soda? Tea?"

"Tea sounds wonderful," he answers, and it surprises me. I didn't expect the hot playboy macho guy to like tea.

"Which flavor?" I ask as I walk to the kitchen, pull out two mugs and start boiling some water.

"Whatever. I'm not picky."

I open the cupboard and tell him the different options. "Green, Choco, Chamomile, Berry or Rosehip."

"Wow, a lot of choices. I guess I'll have to go with Choco," he tells me.

I pull out a sachet of Choco tea and a sachet of Green tea, my favorite. I put them in the two mugs just as the water is boiling. The cups slowly fill with water, which starts taking a brownish color in Tom's mug and a light green color in mine.

"Want anything in it?" I ask politely.

"Honey, if you have it," he says.

"Of course." I put a spoonful of honey in both the mugs and then I bring them to the table. As I enter the room, Tom is watching me. I ask why, but he just shrugs and looks away without responding.

I sit back down and sip at my tea. It's still really hot, so I blow on it. Tom is staring as I do this, but I ignore it. Suddenly I hear a strangely familiar sound and I realize it's my phone, so pick it up and answer the call.

"Hello?" I say.

"So, how's it going?" somebody asks, and I recognize Karen's voice. "Did you have sex yet?"

I look at Tom and signal him that I'll be in the living room, which is on the other side of the whole floor, but it'll probably prevent my guest to hear my conversation with my best friend. He nods.

"No, of course not! He didn't even try to slide closer to me. We're just doing Physics. Honestly." I tell her.

"Are you sure? Maybe you're so fixated on his looks that you don't realize when he makes a move on you."

"No. Trust me on this. I'm sure he's not doing anything." I say.

After a short pause, she answers. "Okay. Bye." and hangs up. Okay, that was weird.I take a deep breath and walk back to the table.