death || rsl

2

"Hey, Maddie, Mr. Yorkley told me I had to talk to you."

The sound of Leif's voice made me go out of my little fantasy world, to now pay attention to him.

I knew that if it was Mr. Yorkley who told him to talk to me, it was because he needed some kind of help with something. I managed to express a 'why?' and quietly waited for an answer. Leif's hand made its way right to his hair, as if he was very nervous.

"Er.. Well," he started saying. "I mean, I need some help with British literature. It's not my thing and Mr. Yorkley told me you were the one who I had to talk to if I needed some help."

He didn't even look at me. I really didn't like this guy. He finally looked at me, giving me the puppy eyes, which I'm sure he used to convince any girl to do what he wanted to. I hated the feeling in my stomach at the sight of his baby blue eyes.

"How come you need help if its the first day?"

"Um, yeah, I know, well, Mr. Yorkley and I know it, but I'll make an effort."

Leif has always been a good student. I've been in some classes with him.

"Why do both of you think you need to make an effort? Clearly, you're not afraid of talking in front of everyone."

He shook his head and looked away again. "No, it's not like that." I waited, but he didn't say anything else.

"Really, I simply can't understand why you need my help. You write your essays and then expose them orally, without any difficulty."

He looked at me with a sad smile. "It's not that easy for me." He made a pause and acted as if he was going to say something else, then shook his head and stood up. "Never mind, forget I asked you."

+++

"Maddie, honey, is that you?" My mom's voice came out of the hallway. She was cuddled up in a corner of her office with a cup of coffee, writing on her laptop.

I didn't have to see her to know it. She was a writer. She lived behind her novels.

"Yeah." I replied.

Before I could pour some orange juice in my glass, the sound of her footsteps coming towards me surprised me. She rarely got away from her writings when I got back from school.

"Good, I need to talk to you and then I gotta fix myself." She pointed to her waisted shirt. "I'm going out with Nathan, but don't worry, I'll give you money to order pizza."

She sat down with a serious expression, which meant that what she wanted to tell me wasn't good.

"What happened?" I asked whilst I put my glass on the table.

"I received a call from Mr. Yorkley, just in the middle of chapter 15."

Oh-oh, she knew about Leif.

"Mr. Yorkley?" I asked, pretending I didn't know.

"Apereantly, there's a guy with learning disabilities and he was told to ask you for help. You signed up to give classes this year, for extra credit. My question is, Maddie, why wouldn't you help someone who suffers from something as serious as dyslexia? I've been told this guy has a scholarship for his sports abilities, but his disability requires some extra help in some subjects. He needs someone who can write his speeches down, that doesn't seem much work. You told me you wanted to be a tutor this year. Tell me why you decided not to help this poor guy, and it better be a good reason." She severally told me.

Shit.

Leif suffered from dyslexia? Was this some type of sick joke? I've been to school with him basically my whole life. Every girl, Miranda included, knew everything about him.