Discovering Spencer

11. Saturday I'm in love

"We'll go through the study guide and work out each question together," Ben Woo said through a stuffy nose. "If you don't understand something please ask so we can discuss it, now please open your books and your notebooks and let's begin."

I sighed heavily opening my book up in front of me. I was falling, falling into the mundane humdrum that was my life. Was this really how I was spending my Saturday evening? Crammed next to a bunch people I hardly knew in a little Chinese joint to study for a pre-calc exam.

I shouldn't be complaining though because I needed this study session. When Claire called me this morning to tell me a group of students from our class were getting together at Ben's dad restaurant to study I jumped at the idea. I wasn't getting anywhere studying by myself and I desperately needed to get out of the house. I had to confirm with the parents that I had to leave the confinement of their home for something school related and they okayed it with dad dropping me off and promising to come pick me up when I was done.

For an hour straight I listened to Ben talk about asymptotes, tangents, functions, decimal places, complex numbers, etc... I scribbled everything he said down on paper; I even made liner notes on the side of my notebook on how I was going to memorize those things for the exam. I wasn't a super genius in calculus like Ben was but he made it clear enough for me to understand most of everything.

Unfortunately for Ben, who although, an excellent teacher (better than our actual teacher) suffered from a bad case of common cold and with all the coughing, sneezing and wheezing we had to a brief break for him to get himself together. During that time a few of us took the time to order off the tantalizing menu in his father's restaurant. Claire and I shared a few egg rolls and before we knew it Ben was feeling better and we went right back to pre-calc. "Let's finish the rest of the study guide," He said. For the next hour we delved into solving exponential and logarithmic equations. We did cosigns, graphing and parabola and vertex before finishing up.

"I'm confident I'll get an A now," Claire beamed as we packed up.

"I'm opting for a B but it would be nice to get an A," I said. Albeit the fact that my head wasn't in complete disarray anymore it still felt like there was more that I needed to know. That was the thing about taking those kings of exams, you study hard with the mindset that you're completely ready and as soon as you see the first question you're like, what the hell is that.

"You can get an A," Claire gave me a friendly nudge. "Just study hard."

"I will," I smiled. Claire was my one over achiever friend and she had been since I met her. She motivated me unlike Quinn who basically got me in trouble. We haven't talked much since I got grounded and to be honest I kinda liked it. Not having her around talking my ear off gave me time to study and I needed to study.

"Well I'm going home to finish my art project," She shrugged her backpack over her shoulder. "Do you need a ride home?"

"No my dad's coming to get me."

"Okay," she said giving me a friendly smile. "Bye Spencer and keep studying okay."

"I will."

I watched her leave with the door clinking behind her. I looked around the restaurant and saw that just about everyone was leaving. The clock said 7:30 and I was pretty sure the place closed around 9-ish. I was going to stay inside to wait for my dad but the smell was getting to me so I headed outside.

There was a small wooden bench right outside the restaurant. I threw my bag on it and sat down. A wave of cold air hit me and I shivered wrapping my arms around myself. It was only early October and already it was getting cold.

My eyes wandered around the lit up vicinity. A long line of stores were displayed in the area. Most of them were open including my personal favorite the Sticky& Sweet candy store. The thought of candy made my mouth water. I could use some candy, considering that I haven't indulged in a while. But, I stayed put knowing that my dad would probably be here any minute.