Hope [ON HOLD]

Tutoring

“Why do I have to write 5 paragraph essays, if I am never going to be an English teacher?” Cade said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

I have to tutor Cade every other day.

I picked up his pencil and held it up to him. “You have to, because if you don’t pass this class you can’t play football, and most important you can’t graduate.” It was only the second month of our senior year, and already Cade’s teachers were worried about his ability to stop goofing off long enough to earn the credits he needs to graduate.

Cade shrugged. “And your point is?”

I gave him a look. “I thought the point was pretty self-explanatory.” He rolled his eyes at me.

I sighed and put down his pencil. “Fine, whatever, just don’t come crying to me when your mom takes your keys again. And don’t expect me to give you a ride, either.” I giggled.

Cade raised an eyebrow, “I never cried!” he protested.

“Yes you did, I have it on tape.” I said patting my pocket where my phone rested.

“So that’s how it’s gonna be. I’ve been saving your sorry butt ever since forever, covered for you more times than I can count. And you’ll just leave me hanging out dry?”

I grinned. “Yeah pretty much. I’m doing you a favor tutoring you after school. You should thank me.”

“Alright you sound like my mom. Are you going to tell me that one day I will have children who are twice as bad as I am?”

I cleared my throat and began writing in Cade’s notebook, which was spread out on the desk between us.

“Okay seriously. We’ve got work to do. Here, look at this sentence. Write a 2 paragraph essay about this prompt.”

He uncrossed his arms, and leaned forward to study the sentence I have written. “You really expect me write about…. “How Global Warming effects me?!”

I smacked him upside the head, “Yes, now do it. The quicker you work, the faster I get to go home.”

“Skylar?” Mrs. Anderson the Head Coordinator of the School, called from the doorway. She waved me over.

“I’ll be right back,” I said. “Why don’t you start without me.” He made a face at me and picked up his pencil.

I pushed my chair out and headed to the door, where Mrs. Anderson was still standing half -in, half-out, talking to Melanie Richards, another one of the tutors. Mrs. Anderson pointed at Cade was now playing Temple Run on his phone, and Melanie was nodding. I waited half wondering if I had done something wrong.

Maybe she saw me hit Cade on the head, and she was firing me now. I hope I wasn’t getting fired I liked tutoring. Especially tutoring Cade, he took some of the stress out of my life.

Mrs. Anderson finished talking with Melanie, and put her hand on my shoulder. “Skylar,” she said with a wide smile. Mrs. Anderson always smiled, even if we were in trouble. But I liked her; she was always so sweet and patient. She always smelled like vanilla, and she had this nice rhythm to her voice that made me think of warm chocolate chip cookies.

“Come with me I have a new student for you. He just transferred here from Colorado, so he needs help catching up,” she said over her shoulder.

Whoa, from Colorado to California what a big move. I thought.

We left the library were I was tutoring Cade and went to the tutoring lab. We stepped into the tutoring lab, and we he was standing next to one of the shelves holding a shiny blue ceramic duck. He saw us come in and quickly set the duck down back on the shelf.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi, I am Skylar. Skylar Jennings.” I said smiling, but for once the smile wasn’t forced. It felt in place, real.

“Cole Sanders,” he stuck out his hand to shake mine. When I stuck my hand in his it was weird. His hand was warm, soft, and hand a strong feeling about it. But that wasn’t the weird thing; the weird thing was that my hand fit perfectly in his. It was like a perfect match.

There was an awkward silence after he let go of my hand. We just stood there staring at each other, for a while.

Mrs. Anderson checked her watched, and her face contorted a bit. “Well, I have to head to a meeting really quickly. So just stay here until the last bell rings, and get acquainted, and you both can start working tomorrow.” She flashed us another white smile, and then she was gone.

I turned to look at Cole was looking at the window where sun was shining, but it was still cold and chilly.

“Was the weather in Colorado like this?” I tried to spark up another conversation.

He shook his head, “It would be pretty cold right know in Colorado, snowing and stuff.” He remained staring out the window.

While he looked out window I took that as an opportunity to check him out. He had black hair, that was slightly teased, but it looked neat too. He had stunning blue eyes that seemed to look into my soul when he stared at me. Creepy? I know. He had the cutest dimple-

“Checking me out?” Cole asked turning around and lifted one eyebrow with a slight smirk on his lips.

“What?! No- I was only- um, no!” I almost shouted at him.

He walked over to the chair across from mine and straddled it. “I’m just kidding! Don’t worry about it. It was just a joke.”

I peeked up at him, hoping my face wasn’t too red. He was looking right into my eyes, which made me feel more awkward. I missed Cade.

“So,” he said. “Mrs. Anderson says you write songs. What have you written?”

I waved his question away. “She exaggerates,” I said. “I’m not great or anything. Some few songs, but I don’t play any instruments, so they are just some lyrics.”

“If you can do it, I say it’s major. Writing’s a lot harder than dribbling a basketball, or catching a football.”

I chuckled.”You have not seen me try to catch a football, not a good site. But I get what you are saying. I won a contest last year for best song or something.”

“If truth be told? That’s cool. I’d like to see it sometime,” he said. 

I glanced at him. He was still looking into my eyes. How could he do that? I could feel his gaze all the way down to my toes. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Mrs. Anderson says you’re good, and I trust her judgment pretty much.”  

We were silent for a few seconds and I busied myself by drawing raindrops on the margin of my notebook.

“It must suck,” I said after a while. “You know to leave your old school, and it’s your senior year. I would hate it.”

He shrugged. “It’s not that bad. My dad got a new job, and my mom wanted to move here for better weather. And we even got a bigger house, so it all worked out for the better.”

The bell rang. We stood up, and I began gathering my books, still spread out. Cole didn’t have any books so he reached down and picked up my bag up off the floor. He held it open for me while I loaded it back up.

“Thanks,” I said. “That was something Cade never and would ever do for me. For he would probably try to spend the whole time playing paper basketball, using my head as the hoop.”

“It’s cool,” he smiled. “Same time tomorrow?”

I threw my bag over my head, and when I turned around he already left. But just as I was turning out the lights, he popped back in.

“Don’t forget the song.” He said breathlessly.

I opened my mouth to say goodbye, but he was already gone. I had a really good feeling about this arrangement.