Alex & Mr. Richards (M/M, young M/oldM)

Follow the tale of a bookworm and hesitant tutor.

Alex frantically gathered his papers and books and stuffed them into his backpack while trying to brush his teeth. Last week he got caught up in his sister's summer "schedule" and wound up 40 minutes late to his hour long appointment. The red-head couldn't afford to be late to another appointment with Mr. Richards. He couldn't wait to tell the old man that he had finally found the secret to making progress with his condition. That said, the SAT's were next week and he needed access to Mr. Richards' library to be sure he'd pass.

Mr. Richards stood in his kitchen and looked at the clock. He had graciously offered to tutor the boy for free after learning that he had barely graduated high school, but still had ambitions for college. Alex was a gifted reader. So gifted that it stunned the old man: if the kid sat down and read the required material, he would finish it so quickly that the old professor didn't believe him at first. When quizzed, he could remember everything that he had read, but only for a number of hours. After a few weeks, Mr. Richards believed that the boy had some sort of short-term memory loss but the boy's parents had never had him tested for such a thing. For some reason the boy only behaved like this when he was being tutored, Mr. Richards was baffled by such behavior and generally took it for teenage nonsense. If he did not see "progress" after this week, he would call this tutoring off.

Alex sped down the stairs, zipping his pack up and jamming a water bottle into one of the side pockets. He peeked his head into the front room and waved at his mother, sitting on the couch reading a magazine.

"I'm off to Mr. Richards" He blew a kiss to his mother, and she caught it.