Dare [unfinished.]

10 | HINTED DIRECTIONS

"I, I want you
I, I don't
I question myself all the time, asking why."

- SHE DON'T LOVE ME, ZAYN

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CHAPTER TEN
HINTED DIRECTIONS

STUDY.

All he had to do was study the notes, understand it and make sure it stuck in his head. That's all he had to do. What he didn't have to do was flirt himself into oblivion.

Archie's hair was damp as he ran into Mrs. Mendes' classroom in a white t-shirt and jeans. The letterman jacket draped over his arm as his book bag swung loosely across his shoulder.

Veronica was sat down at a desk, headphones in as she went over her class notes for the day.

"Staring is rude you know."

Archie smiled nervously. "Sorry. I didn't know whether to interrupt or not."

"It's your grade." She replied, still flipping through her papers. "You're the one benefiting from this."

"And you're not?"

"Sure, you look like an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing, but that only lasts so long."

"It's only been two days."

"Yes, and you weren't there for one of them." Fair point. "Now stop wasting my time and sit your ass down."

He didn't need to be told twice.

He just needed to pass then she can be rid of him like he thought she'd do before.

Veronica pivoted towards him, the chair screeching loudly in the silent classroom. She stood up and walked around his desk, like a vulture circling its prey.

Oh.

Now he gets what Jughead told him.

He guessed that Veronica Lodge could be dominant and scary if she wanted to, instead of that front of being harmless.

"You remember how equations work, the variables and coefficients?"

He nodded.

"Well this is no different, Polynomials are just complex with many different variables that make it hard to understand at the first glance." He nodded again, even though he had no fucking clue about what was going on. "But as long as you isolate each variable by simplifying the equation down it's easy to understand once you get the hang of it."

Veronica gestures towards the worksheet. "What's the first problem?"

And so it began.

Veronica hovering over his shoulder finger poised to strike every time he did something wrong, when she was sure that he got the hang of it she stopped and went back to her own work. The sound of her pen scratching against paper took root in his brain.