Just This Once || Erenxreaderxjean

27

4 years ago...

"Alright, I need a volunteer to come up to the board and evaluate the polynomial."

Jean refrained from audibly cursing out loud.

God, he hated Algebra.

He slinked back in his seat, thankful that he sat near the back of the classroom, in hopes that his teacher wouldn't see him. He was only passing this class with a D, and for some reason, his teacher just loved to pick on him.

No matter what he did, or how hard he studied, Jean just could not understand why the fuck there were letters in math.

His mother had tried to explain as gently as she could, which of course meant with lots of yelling, that he would need Algebra in his future.

Jean thought that that was a load of shit.

He was a straight A student. Was passing all of his other classes with flying colors! He didn't need to know how to find the determinant of a matrix!

He pulled the hood of his hoodie over his head, not caring that it was against school rules to wear any type of hat. Maybe he would get in trouble, have to leave math class.

"Take your hoodie off, Mr. Kirsten", his teacher's voice came from the front of the classroom.

Jean grumbled, and did as he was told.

"Why don't you come up to the board and solve the polynomial for us, Jean", the teacher continued.

Great.

Inside of his head, Jean was spouting off every curse word he knew. He hadn't seen his math tutor this week, because she's been out sick. How the hell was he supposed to solve a complicated equation?

Now, he had to get up in front of her, and solve a problem he had no idea how to do.

"Shoot me", he muttered under his breath as he got up from his seat and made his way through the rows of desks towards the white boards at the front of the classroom.

He walked right past her, trying to make sure his eyes didn't linger too long on her raven hair.

She got another ear piercing last weekend. The silver jewelry was shiny. Dainty, but still so distracting-

MATH! Think about math!

Jean reached the white board, and uncapped a marker as he was finally face to face with the math problem.

"Any day now, Mr. Kirstein."

Jean wanted to tell his teacher to fuck off. Actually, the more he thought about it, the more it sounded like a good way to get out of math. Instead, he racked through his brain for any way to solve the problem in front of him, and he began to write.

The boy sent up a quick prayer to whatever goddess of mathematics existed, and recapped his marker.

Looking over his work on the board, the teacher made a happily surprised face. "Not bad, Jean. Change that 7 there on the end to a 5 and you're golden. Good job."

Jean quietly let out the breath that he had been holding. He wasn't used to praise, especially when it came to math. In fact, a part of him couldn't wait to tell his tutor that he'd gotten a question right. Well, partially.

He started to make his way to his seat, eyes scanning his classmates for the grey ones that he was sure had been watching him.

When he found them, they were paired with a small smile. The kind that makes your knees go weak.