Tutoring.

Your body hurts, by which you mean IT FUCKING HURTS. Getting out of bed has never been this hard. Every step is a **** delivered by Satan himself.

You woke up early thanks to going to bed early. You decide that, no, going to school jogging is not gonna happen. However, walking should do it. You have a good breakfast and leave with enough time to get to school just as the bell rings.

During the first recess, you actively search for your worst tormentors to give them their homework as promised. You find all three of them together, next to a vending machine.

With a sigh to prepare yourself, you dive in.

“Good morning.” You call to them. “I have your homework, as promised.”

“Good thing, too. We were just about to look for you.” Lilian tells you, taking the notebooks away from you in one swift motion. “I assume you did a proper job?” She asks, a silent threat lingering after her question.

“Yes. I even left a few wrong answers so the teacher won’t suspect you’re copying.”

“Good. Now go away,” Olivia says. “I don’t feel like dealing with you today. Your face is pissing me off.”

Jessica, as always, ignores you while she eats a lollipop.

Not taking chances, you leave immediately. When you’re far enough away, you check their scores.

-Hughes, Olivia- Affection Score: -45.

-Ramirez, Jessica- Affection Score: 0.

-Reed, Lilian- Affection Score: -50.

There’s an improvement of two points only, while Jessica remains indifferent. Man, what did you ever do to these girls?

The rest of the day goes by uneventfully, your strategy of turning the other cheek working well enough that many minus scores today turned into zeroes! At least 5 people don’t absolutely hate your guts anymore! Considering those were girls with which you don’t have much contact, that’s an improvement. Perhaps if you can concentrate in just a few people, they’ll spread the word and the general opinion of you might change.

Well, those are thoughts for another time. For now, classes are over, clubs are over and it’s time to tutor the jocks! The thing is… where?

You don’t feel taking them to your hotel room is appropriate and school is closing at this hour. In the end, after giving the suggestion to the soccer super stars, you agree on a café that’s a few way from school. It has big tables and Wi-Fi connection, so as long as you’re not extremely loud, it’s a decent place to study. Besides, as you just found out, they serve good coffee.

You’ll work on English and Math, since those are the subjects both girls need help with, and you’ll work on the others on Thursday. To start, you give them short diagnostic test you prepared while they were in soccer practice. This is to see where they need more help. And boy do they need help. The test don’t tell you that much, but at the very least they’re certainly not able to solve mid-level math problems and find implicit information in a text.

There’s no conversation other than what’s relevant to their studies. You’re actually surprised that they’re taking it so seriously. They’re as focused as they can be as they try to solve problems and silently read sample texts as you give them some guidance and answer doubts.

Eventually, however, Emily hesitantly asks. “Can… we take a small break?” You’re surprised she asks so nervously, considering how she was yesterday.

“Let’s see… it’s been an hour already, so yes. Let’s take ten minutes.”

“Oh thank God!” Emily slumps in her seat while Megan leaves her pen aside and sighs in relief. “I think my brain hurts.”

“Math really isn’t my forte. I can’t wrap my head around these formulas.” Megan comments, taking a sip of her coffee.

“Really? I think I’m starting to get it, honestly. What drives me nuts is English. What’s the author’s intention? What did this character mean by this? What does it mean that the curtains are blue?” She reads the questions mockingly. “If they just said it we wouldn’t be having this issue!”

“The curtains are blue because they reflect the emotions of the characters, right?” Megan asks you, trying to confirm.

“Usually.” You answer with a wry smile. “Sometimes the curtains are just blue.”

“Argh!” Emily grumbles at your answer. “Let’s change the subject for now, please!” She tells Megan, but then turns to look at you with a small frown.

“Hey. I saw you walking to school this morning.” The blonde tells you.

“Really?” Megan looks surprised, and looks from her friend to you.

“Sorry I wasn’t jogging, but my body is killing me today.” You defend yourself.

“No, that’s good. Light exercise, like walking and stretching, help blood flow and repair your muscles. It was a good choice.” Emily explains. “I’m surprised you walked at all. I figured you’d whine and wouldn’t even get out of bed.”

“I considered it, but we’d already made plans, so that wasn’t an option.” You shrug.

“Mmm, is that so?” Emily gives you a curious look while a small smile forms on Megan’s face.

After that, you study for one more hour, stopping after 30 minutes for a 5 minute break. You see the girls try their best, but in the words of Ms. Miller, sometimes a person’s best is not enough. You’re gonna have to help them a lot, just like they’ll have to make a miracle happen to get you in shape. You part ways right there at the café, but they seem to be in a better mood than when you started.

-Grant, Megan- Affection Score: 21.

-Miller, Emily- Affection Score: 15.