Our Classic Christmas Story

Chapter ten: Strange (Aiko)

Monday. The worst day of the week. But on the bright side, I have tutoring with Bennet, and I got a cd player from my mom this morning so I can finally play my Ariana Grande and Bruno Mars cds.

I get into ELA class and sit next to Bennet, "Hiya, thanks again for yesterday"

"No problem," he says, "by the way, you look nice today" he compliments.

"Thanks!" I'm wearing my usual, a pink cropped long sleeve jacket with flowy sleeves and at the cut, a button up under that, a white skirt, knee high socks, dark pink fancy heeled boots, and my hair up in a high ponytail.

Jinx and Silv sit down next to me, in time for us to finish our conversation.

"Hey, Bennet"

Bennet looks surprised, I guess he's not the only one to notice this rare act from Jinx. I'm waiting for this to go south.

"Hey?" he responds.

Jinx doesn't say anything, she just smiles. I look at Bennet, he shrugs.

There it was, ladies and gentlemen, the one and only time you'll ever see Jinx be nice.

-

Day goes on, still just as strange, Jinx follows Bennet and is very nice to him. She says hi whenever he looks her way, asks him for help (not answers) with math, and just smiles whenever she sees him looking at her. This is so unusual I might throw up.

"Hey, uh, Aiko?"

I turn around, Bennet's standing behind me, "What's up?" I ask.

"Is something wrong with your friend?"

"Honestly, I have no idea, this has never happened before... I mean, her being nice to someone outside of our group." I explain.

He nods, but he doesn't seem upset by the fact that no one knows why Jinx is treating him nicely now. Which worries me, is he falling for Jinx too? Just like Conner...

I shake my head, trying to get the image of him and Jinx out of my head. Bennet leaves. I feel weird, like I wish he was in all my classes yet when I'm around him I feel like I'm going to explode with embarrassment. Why? Why do I feel the need to impress him and make him happy? Maybe... no, it's too early for a crush. I mean, Conner broke up with me a week ago now. This can't be real, right?

-

I get home after my classes and everything seems to be okay, until I hear the doorbell ring.

"Miha! Bennet's coming up!"

No. I'M NOT DRESSED YET!

I scramble to put some clothes on because all I'm wearing is shorts and a very cropped tank top. I throw on a shirt, meanwhile realizing that my shorts are very small, whatever.

Bennet knocks, good. I opened the door, happy I at least cleaned my room. He's wearing his usual vest with a white button up and jeans. He looks at me and blushes, "Uh..."

I realize my shirt is long so I pull it up to confirm I'm not a no pants creep. He looks away, "Tutoring."

He walks past me and into my room, well that was just great, wasn't it Aiko?

I turn on music and get us some drinks again, two marble sodas. I pop mine in with ease but I look up to see Bennet struggling to figure it out.

"I can help you" I offer.

He looks at me, defeated, "Yes please..."

I pop his in too and hand it back to him, "Thanks"
"No prob"

He pulls out the lesson plan for today, "Did you finish the practice test I left you with last week?"

"Yes," I say triumphantly.

He takes it from me and examines it, pulling out a red pen he starts to correct it, "We'll go over what you got wrong later," he says, "for now, here's some practice problems, try em"

He hands it to me and our hands brush against eachother, I blush, snatching the papers from him. He blushes too, does he like me too? NO. As if another richy would fall for me.

-

We worked for an hour until my mom called and said that his car was here.

"Bye, Aiko!" He says as he walks out the door.

"Bye, Bennet!"

My heart flutters, I guess this is it, huh? I have a massive crush on Bennet. And here I am, simply waving him off... SIMPLY WAVING HIM OFF, IF YOUR GONNA SHOW HIM YOU CARE GO DO SOMETHING IDIOT.

"Wait, Bennet!" I call.

He turns around as I run out the door in my bare feet, almost freezing to death. I run into him with a hug, hoping this won't be too weird. I push away and he's blushing, I smile then run back inside, waving him goodbye from the window. I really hope that was the right thing to do...

He smiles and waves from the window of his car as Bruce drives him away.

"Soo," My mama says.

"Mamaa, It's not a big deal"

"It's not a big deal" She uses her fingers to imitate air-quotes and uses a very poor imprisoned voice for mine.

I roll my eyes, "Whatever"

"When is he gonna ask you out?"

"He did!" I shout, realizing I didn't tell her about the concert.

"When?"

"Well... he kinda brought me to that Bruno Mars concert downtown."

"Oh, so he's a richy too?" Mama says, crossing her arms.

"He's not like Conner." I spit back.

"When you come home crying cause he kissed Jinx, you better be crying to moma." she says.

I narrow my eyes as she walks away. But she's right, Jinx is rich and pretty and I'm just her henchman that does whatever she needs. Bennet is rich and handsome, they'll end up together eventually...