"𝘋𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥?"
"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸... 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘴."
Rebecca "Bex" Carver just wants to be herself, but she finds herself forced to maintain an image set...
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"Earth to Blondie." Bex blinked her eyes and shook her head and looked at Eddie, and then she looked around and realized they were at her locker. She must have been lost in thought. "Sorry." She said and tried her best to unlock her combination lock with trembling hands. "You okay?" Eddie asked. "Fine." Bex said and glanced at him and then back to her lock. "Why?" She asked. "Well...when Jones said you were going to be my tutor, you looked at him like he just asked you to go throw a ring into a volcano." Eddie said. "Are you suggesting that me tutoring you, is going to be like trying to walk into Mordor?" Bex asked and grumbled at her lock and gave up for the moment turning to face him.
Eddie stepped back and raised his hands, surprised that she even knew what he was referencing. "Okay, Blondie, you know your Tolkien. Color me shocked." Eddie chuckled playfully. "Need help with your lock?" He asked. "No. I'll get it eventually." Bex said and shifted her backpack on her shoulder awkwardly. "Please don't call me blondie. Its Rebecca, or Bex." Bex said and looked down at her feet. "Okay." Eddie said. "So Bex when are you available?" Bex swallowed hard. The way he said her name made her heart flutter a little. "I'm not sure, I'll have to look at my planner and see what days I'm available between Cheer, Yearbook, student government, and all of the games and pep rallies." Bex said becoming increasingly more stressed with everything already on her plate now she had to try and squeeze in tutoring Eddie Munson.
"People actually use those planners they pass out at the beginning of the year?" Eddie asked. Bex blinked at him in disbelief. Her life would have been absolute chaos if she didn't have that planner. "Anyways.. Just pencil me in somewhere as a side quest and let me know when as long as it doesn't interfere with Hellfire I'm cool with it." Eddie shrugged. "Sure." Bex nodded. "See ya tomorrow Bex." Eddie winked and walked away. Bex could feel herself blushing and she couldn't stop the smile that was pulling at her lips.
Bex didn't know how long she was standing there staring down the hallway before Jason came up behind her. "You ready?" He asked. Bex jumped and spun around and whipped her backpack full of textbooks at her brother. "Ow! Hey!" Jason said as the backpack collided with his shoulder. "Don't sneak up on me!" Bex exclaimed. "Don't just stand in the middle of the hallway spacing out like that." Jason said. "It worries me when you do that."
Bex had what her doctor called Focal seizures that started after she fell in kindergarten and got a massive concussion. Most of the time they just lasted for a few minutes, and she would be spaced out, however aware of the seizure but sometimes when she was under a lot of stress the simple focal seizure could turn into a bilateral tonic-clonic seizure which was a very scary thing to go for everyone that was around.
"Sorry, I'm just tired I didn't sleep well last night." Bex sighed. "Can you help me with this stupid lock?" She asked and pointed to her locker. Jason chuckled "How have you made it to your junior year and still can't figure out how to open a combination lock?" He asked and fidgeted with the lock for a few seconds and it popped open. "The more important question is why do you have the combination to my lock memorized?" Bex asked with a raised eyebrow. "Don't worry about it." Jason shrugged and opened her locker. Bex just shook her head and sighed and began to get what she needed out of the locker.
"Are you ready for the game Friday, Jason?" Mr. Carver asked, starting the nightly dinner conversation. "I am. We're down a player but we have one that's been on the bench for a while and he's ready to step in. I'm confident we are going to win." "That's what I like to hear." Mr. Carver smiled. "Why are you down a player honey?" Mrs. Carver asked. "Lukes face is so swollen he can't see at the moment." Jason replied. Bex cringed. "Oh Goodness, what happened??" Mrs. Carver asked. Bex went to speak but Jason cut her off. "He got a little too handsy with Bex, without her consent so I handled it." Jason said.
It was only then that Mr. and Mrs. Carver noticed the bruising on their son's knuckles. "I'm glad you protected your sister Jason but you need to take care of your reputation too." Mr. Carver said. "He tried to get her to have sex with him Dad, and when she wouldn't, he went and found someone else to do it with and Bex was a mess. I'd rather put a tiny dent in my reputation than let someone get away with hurting my sister."
Their father went to speak, and Bex knew by now that He and Jason would only end up arguing and Bex hated it when they fought. "I'm going to start math tutoring for Mr. Jones." Bex spoke up, changing the conversation. "Oh thats wonderful Rebecca. You are very good at Math." Mrs. Carver smiled "Isn't that great honey?" She asked her husband, also trying to stop the impending argument between him and Jason. "Are you getting extra credit for doing your teacher's job for him?" He asked. Bex sighed. Her father and Mr. Jones didn't get along at all. When Jason took his class last year he was the only teacher who refused to pass him because he played sports. Jason barely passed his class with a C last year breaking his honor roll streak which Bex found hilarious. Her teachers tried to do the same thing with her but she told them she would rather do the work, and put in the effort for her grades, which is something Mr. Jones respected. Bex wouldn't let her parents' money get her through. She would do it on her own.
"So, who's your victim Bex?" Jason asked with a smirk. Bex looked down at her plate and moved her mashed potatoes around with her fork. "Eddie Munson." She said quietly. The silence that fell upon the Carver's dinner table at that moment was almost deafening. "Hell no." Jason finally spoke up. "I agree, I will be speaking to the principal, and Mr. Jones tomorrow morning. My daughter is not having anything to do with that Munson boy!" Her father spat. "Guys, Its just a small tutoring session probably once a week." Bex sighed. "I don't know if you should be taking on anything else Rebecca, you have so much already going on." Her mother suggested. "You literally just told me you thought it was wonderful, before I told you it was Eddie Munson." Bex argued. "Look at it this way, If I can get Eddie to pass math this year, He'll finally graduate and we won't ever have to deal with him again." Bex said, and she didn't know why, but the thought of her never seeing Eddie again after this year, made her sad.
"I don't like it Bex. I don't trust him." Jason said. "Then trust me." Bex said. "You know I won't put up with anything I don't like." Bex said. "Where are these tutoring sessions going to be held?" Mr. Carver asked. "I don't know yet." Bex sighed. "That will be figured out tomorrow when I talk to Eddie." "If he so much as lays a finger on you, I'll kill him Bex." Jason said. "Why would Eddie Munson want anything to do with me? He has his own crowd and we have ours." Bex said and rolled her eyes. "Just trust me. Please. I'm 17 I can handle it." "I guess we will have to see." Mr. Carver said. "May I be excused? I have homework I need to do." Bex sighed. "Sure." Mrs. Carver said and smiled. Bex stood up from the table and went upstairs to her room.
Bex shut the door to her bedroom and leaned against it letting out a sigh of relief. Her family was truly exhausting when they wanted to be. She walked to her dresser and opened it retrieving a night gown, she stripped off her school clothes and tossed them into the laundry basket. She pulled the silk nightgown over her head and walked over to her vanity and sat down and began removing her makeup. Once finished she took her long blonde hair out of the pony tail and let it cascade down her shoulders.
She didn't really have homework like she said, she had finished it all before dinner, she just wanted an excuse to get away from the table. Bex stood up from the Vanity and went to her writing desk and sat down. She opened her backpack and grabbed her planner and opened it. She only had one day that she didn't have anything to do and she usually spent that day resting after school. She sighed and grabbed her Pen and hovered over Wednesday. which was the only Blank day that just so happened to be tomorrow, before she simply wrote "Side Quest:Eddie Munson" Bex smiled to herself as she tucked her planner back into her backpack.
Bex walked down to the table the next morning for breakfast. "Wow, usually I'm having to beat your door down to get you out of the room on time." Jason said. "I got up earlier today." Bex shrugged and sat down helping herself to some breakfast. "Oh, I looked through my planner and Wednesdays are the only day I have available to tutor." Bex said. "We have church Wednesday evenings, Rebecca." Mr. Carver said. "I can skip Wednesdays." Bex shrugged. Her father folded his morning paper and put it down, which he rarely ever did. "Absolutely not." Mr. Carver said. "Okay, well then I can tutor Eddie for a couple hours at the library and then Jason can pick me up for church." Bex sighed. "I just don't know if I want you spending any amount of time with the Munson boy." Mr. Carver said. "We talked about this last night. And I thought we were in agreement that it was only one day a week and it was fine." Bex said. "That was before it was going to intervene with Church. What do you think the people at church will think if you don't come because you are spending your time with Eddie Munson?" "I don't see how it would matter." Bex mumbled. "I'm just trying to help him pass math." "You know how people in this town talk honey, and I know you hear the things they say about that boy." Mrs. Carver said. "Mr. Jones is relying on me to help Eddie pass so he can graduate. I already told him yes. Jason can drop me off at the library for a couple of hours and then he can come get me and we will meet you guys at Church."
"Fine. But if you miss Church one time the tutoring is over. I will not have my daughter being accused of being in that cult of his." Mr. Carver said. "Fine." Bex said and waited until he picked his newspaper back up and started reading before she rolled her eyes. She glanced over at her mother who was giving her a stern look having seen her roll her eyes at her father. Bex sighed and shoveled her scrambled eggs onto a piece of toast and added a couple of bacon strips and threw another piece of toast on top before standing up. "I'm walking today." She said and walked away from the table and out the door without another word.
"I don't like this one bit, she hasn't even started tutoring that boy and her attitude is horrible." Mrs. Carver fussed. "I'll keep an eye on her." Jason said. "She's probably only doing this as a favor to Mr. Jones. You know Rebecca, she has a hard time saying no to authority figures." "You obviously don't remember her toddler years." Mr. Carver scoffed. "What I'm trying to say is she's probably just as unhappy about it as we are." Jason shrugged. "I won't let that freak try anything with her and we will be at church on time tonight." Jason smiled. "Good." Mr. Carver said.
"Is it true?" Chrissy asked Bex at gym class while they were stretching preparing to run the track. "Is what true?" Bex asked. "Jason was telling me this morning that Mr. Jones asked you to tutor Eddie Munson." Chrissy said. "Oh, yeah thats true." Bex nodded. "Let me guess, you think its a bad idea." She sighed. "Honestly, no. I don't think Eddie is as bad as everyone says." Chrissy Shrugged "Okay but you wanted to get Blaire back for ruining my cheer uniform the other day?" Bex asked. "Well yeah, what she did was uncalled for. Eddie..is different though. Don't tell your brother I think that. I know he hates Eddie." "I won't." Bex said. "I promise. He and My parents are really..iffy on the whole thing." "It will be okay. If anything, I'm always here to have your back." Chrissy smiled. "Thanks Chris." Bex smiled. "Anytime." Chrissy said. "Girls! Less talking, more running!" The gym teacher hollered.
Bex was making her way to science class when she heard a commotion in the hallway around the corner. "Come on guy's. Give it back!" Bex knew that voice. She sighed and turned the corner to see Luke and a couple of the other guys on the basketball team holding a freshmens science poster board out of his reach. The freshman was Dustin Henderson, and Bex had promised Steve that she would look out for him this year since he graduated last year and wouldn't be here. Bex approached Luke. "Give it back to him." Bex said and glared. "Or what?" Luke scoffed and tossed it to one of his team mates who began pulling the things that were stuck to the poster board with glue off, and crumpling them. "Stop!" Dustin exclaimed.
