This Feeling: Love

Chapter Three

Samuel carefully arranged different materials onto the table in front of him, then sat patiently to wait for Trevor's arrival.

The more he waited, the deeper his scowl became, until Trevor dropped his backpack onto the floor beside the table. Samuel saw his feeble attempt at a grin, yet Samuel held his hatred. He spoke evenly to avoid saying anything more than what was necessary. "You're late," he said.

Trevor slumped in the chair as the room had gone silent as everyone else in the room stared at the interaction between Samuel and Trevor, with the teachers glaring at Trevor and the students stealing fearful glances at his tutor. Trevor's weak grin slowly faded and he turned to look at Samuel to address this when he saw the neutral expression.

The fact that his tutor had kept a straight face this long was enough to scare him.

Samuel nodded at Trevor's lack of a verbal response and continued speaking. "Give me your schedule so I can see which classes you so desperately need my help with," he said. After the conversation the previous night he'd had with his friends, the voice seemed familiar to Trevor, which not only didn't take the venom out of the neutral tone, but made it worse on top of it all. Trevor fished his schedule out of his pocket and held the carelessly folded and crumpled sheet of paper out to Samuel with shaking hands. He recoiled when Samuel snatched it from his fingers.

The room had gone as silent as a library at night, watching the two of them with careful glances and hushed whispers, as Samuel sat there, examining Trevor's classes. "You're failing English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Spanish. Five out of Six classes total. No wonder Mr. Fisher thought of me as your best option. It seems I'm actually you're only option," the boy said.

Trevor pointed to the sheet of paper. "That grade in Social Studies isn't an F," he said, choosing his words carefully.

Samuel looked at Trevor and raised an eyebrow. "It will be if you choose not to take care of it. Now, first things first, you know my name is Samuel and I will be your tutor until you get your grades up, and keep them up for the rest of the year. If you fail in turning in any assignments you have completed when you are with me, then I will turn them in for you, whether you want me to or not."

Trevor nodded and Samuel continued. "I won't try to sugar-coat things for you, Trevor. If there is bad news, I will tell you how I heard it and you will deal with it on your own. If you fail to make it into good news, I will have a private talk with you each and every time, and I know you and I both won't like that."

There was a sharp intake of breath from the people in the room, but Samuel kept going. "I will bear it in mind that I know you don't like being taught by someone like me, but you're going to deal with it until you can learn to pass you're classes without my help."

Trevor lowered his head for a moment then picked it back up when Samuel started talking again, just to let him know Trevor was listening. "Now that we have some of the rules cleared, I want you to know from here on out, I have absolutely no intention of putting my full trust into you. Do I make myself clear?" Samuel said.

Trevor nodded again and the corner of Samuel's mouth twitched upward before he leaned forward and linked his hands together. "Good. We'll start on your English assignments for now, just to get you up to speed, since that one has the worst score, out of all of them. Grab your English Journal and the book of assignments you were given at the beginning of the year. Get ready to take extensive notes."

"First, I want to talk about something really quick."

"Get on with it."

"I was thinking about your question from yesterday, about not remembering you."