Constellations

reticulum

"Well fuck me sideways," Arabella says in open-mouthed awe as she stares at the red pen check on the sheet of paper I just handed her. That red pen check being an indication of a perfect score on our latest math quiz. "I tutored a goddamn genius."

My smile holds a trace of genuineness I can't put to rest. Aside from that, my words are provocative in Arabella's book. "You complimenting me? That's a shocker."

Her head snaps up and I get an incredibly rare, yet adorable flash of her pink-hued cheeks. She quickly shoves the paper in my hand and turns away before I could catch the smile spreading across her face.

I wish she wouldn't be so insistent on hiding herself from me.

"Don't get used to it, Dean," she chuckles, making an effort to make it sound dry. "I only meant it as a pat on the back for myself." Her brisk footsteps halt and she whips her body around to face me. "I tutored a goddamn genius. You're welcome."

Her smile is one hell of a sight for sore eyes. Even if she is being an arrogant little shit right now, her smile tells me it's her way of saying she's happy I got that perfect score.

In truth, I hadn't needed her help like I had asked. Mr. Higgins is undoubtedly the hardest teacher here, but I've dealt with tutors who are worse. I'm talking ones that explain cosine once to a ten year old and expect him to complete a whole course based on it in the span of an hour. Needless to say, I've been getting perfect scores all year.

However, I wanted an excuse to spend more time with Arabella. Tutoring was the best thing I could come up with in the moment that wouldn't make me sound like a creep. So I was fairly surprised when she agreed to tutor me knowing I had the highest grades in our year.

I'm glad that she fell for it though because ever since our last session, we've become inseparable.

The two Thursdays we've spent late at the library were spent talking more than anything. She'd tell me about all the books she's read, an impressive amount of them being in our school library. I'd tell her about my grandfather's horses further out in the country. She made me promise to take her there one day to prove that my equestrian skills were as good as I talked them up to be.

"Come on!" she calls after me, prompting me to walk a bit faster to catch up with her, "Don't forget you owe me those peanut butter cookies." Failing to recall that she still has her school uniform on, she leaps over Mrs. Hansen's counter to get to the back room to collect her things.

"Was that really necessary?" I utter sarcastically. Instead, I take the normal route to the back room, making her frown at me as I stand by the doorway.

She slings her bag over her shoulder and knocks it against my side lightly on her way out. "You're no fun."

"Is that why you constantly want to be around me?"

"Actually, you're around me," she shoots me a cocky grin, "I'm saving you from looking like a friendless loser, you ought to thank me."

Correction: just by spending half our time in the library every day we both look like friendless losers to everyone else. Eli even asked me the other day why I never came by at lunch anymore. I didn't have the heart or the guts to tell him I was pursuing a crush I've had for years now just to see what would come of it, so I fed him the same excuse that I had previously.