HEAD OVER HEELS - J. BREWER

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎: 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄

I did as he said, only because I had nothing better to do. Maybe if I had anywhere else to be I would've stalled a little bit. Just to get him riled up. But no, the Bobby Wasabi dojo was the only place I had to be. I wasn't even supposed to have karate tonight. Not that anyone but my mom would notice. Dad worked until midnight every night at that point.

    "Cerys!" Jack called as I walked in tentatively. Jerry, Milton and Kim all looked at me in confusion. I shot them a small smile so I didn't seem unfriendly. "You made it!"

    "I have nowhere else to be and a burning desire to pass junior year math," I replied. Kim smiled a little. Milton wrinkled his nose, presumably at the fact that I was failing a class, and math at that, while Jerry was just looking me up and down. It was a little awkward. I reached over and grabbed my own arm across my stomach, looking at the floor. "When do we start?"

    "Right now. You brought your stuff?"

    "Yeah."

    He waved me over to where he sat on one of the benches alone. I went over and pulled my work out of my bag, which he surveyed quickly before looking at me again. "Okay. Where do we need to start?"

"The beginning of the semester, honestly."

    "Really?"

    I raised my eyebrows. "You said you'd seen my scores, right? Were you not watching in February?"

"Not really, no. I had more interesting things to do then."

    "I see, I see. Well, yes, I've been failing the entire semester."

    He grins at me and shakes his head a little. "I guess I've got my work cut out for me, then."

    "Yeah, I guess so."

We spent the next three hours going through the very basics of what we had been learning this year so far. It was mostly to give Jack an idea of what I most needed to work on, but it was also nice to see him nod every time I got something right. Very validating. Anyway, we only finished because he and the others had actual training. I was invited to stay, and as much as it was a little tempting since he had been so nice for the last while, I needed to get home to mom. I declined. I swear there was at least a slight look of disappointment in Jack's face for a few seconds before he regained his composure and nodded with his signature smirk.

    "See you in class tomorrow. And don't worry about the assignment from today - I'll help you out until we can get to that unit."

    "You really don't-"

    He held up a finger to stop me. "I know, I don't have to. But I want to, so I'm going to."

    I held back the biggest grin I've ever had and instead let out a tiny smile. "Thank you, Jack."

    "Anytime, Cerys. See you tomorrow."

    "Yeah."

    I left without looking back, even though I really badly wanted to. I kind of knew Jack could be nice, but not to me. Oddly nice, considering how rude I had been to him the whole time we had been in school together. I'll take it. At least I won't be failing math anymore. And maybe I'll make some new friends.

    Mom called out to me weakly almost as soon as I was in the door. When I rushed up to her, she was sitting on the floor in a pool of her own vomit. It seemed she had tried to get to the bathroom in time, but fell on the way because she went too fast for her body to cooperate. She'd been sitting there for a couple hours already by the time I got home. It probably happened around when school ended. If I had come straight home like I was supposed to, maybe I would've been there in time.