the secret

•3•

[Monday]

"Danny," Mr Bru says to me after class. I walk up to his desk and he waits for everyone to leave the classroom before he starts talking to me. "I talked to Zion this morning."

"What did he say?"

"He said he would love to help you out," he says. "You start today."

"When today?"

"After school," he says. "So basically right now. You guys can make your own schedule. I'm trusting that you do this every day besides the weekends."

"Okay," I say. "Thank you."

"No problem, Danny. Now get out of here."

I walk away from his desk and out of his classroom. I start to walk to my locker to grab some of my books. Once I turn the corner I see someone leaning against my locker. Nobody else is in the hallway except for him. It's Zion.

I keep walking until I get to my locker, "Hi, Zion."

He smiles, "Hi, Danny." I open my locker and I start to grab my things, "Mr, Bru told me you knew about this on Friday."

"I did."

"You failed to mention that to me on Friday night," he says.

I gently close my locker and I turn my body towards him. "Well I figured telling you that you would be my tutor would kill the mood."

He chuckles, "Smart thinking."

"When are we doing this?" I ask.

"We can do it right now if you are free," he says.

"I am," I say. "Where do we want to go? We won't be able to go to my place, so we can go to the library."

"Or we can go to my place," he says.

"Isn't it always loud in your house?" I ask. We both start walking towards the double doors that lead out of the school.

"Depends on who is home," he says. "We can just do it in my room. It'll be quite up there."

I don't know why, but when he says that I start to get nervous. The thought of us being alone in his room makes me feel really nervous. I don't know why though. It's not like I feel anything for him.

"Okay."

***

We walk into Zion's house and I look around as he takes off his shoes. This place is absolutely beautiful. It doesn't look anything like Friday. On Friday it was a complete mess, but now it's practically all cleaned up and super neat.

"This place is awesome."

"It was a mess Friday," he chuckles. I take off my shoes and he walks away from me. I look around for a couple more seconds and then I follow him into the kitchen.

"It's not a mess now," I say.

"That's because Nick is beautiful at cleaning," he says. I chuckle and then he opens up the refrigerator, "What do you want to drink?"

"Water please," I say. He grabs a water for me and then grabs himself a monster. He closes the refrigerator door and then hands me my water, "Thank you."

"No problem," he says. He opens his monster and then takes a sip of it.

"Those things are awful for you," I say.

He smiles and sets his can down, "Now you sound just like my mother."

"Sorry," I say. "I just read a lot about nutrition things, so I know that they are terrible for you."