My Church Girl

Chapter 5

When Tuesday came, Harper stood at Ava's doorstep, her math notes clutched in her hand. She took a deep breath and rang the bell. The door swung open and there she stood, not just the church girl, but suddenly someone... different. She wore simple home clothes, her hair loosen, her smile welcoming. For a moment, Harper became speechless, caught in the sudden realization that the girl before her was actually beautiful in a way she had never noticed before. 'It's only because of this stupid dream.'  she tried to convince herself.

"Hey," Ava said, her voice pulling the dreaming girl back to the present. "You're just in time. Come on in."

"Hey, thanks for helping me out with math." She pronounced, trying to hide her anxious.

The other girl grinned warmly, "No problem. I'm glad to help."

They sat down, a respectful distance between them, textbooks and notes forming a barrier of academia. Harper cleared her throat, "So, um, quadratic equations?"

"Yes, they can be tricky, but once you get the pattern, it's not so bad." The smart girl assured her.

However her student's mind wandered somewhere else, as the lyrics of the song from her dream echoing in her head, preventing her from concentrating on the explanations.

Biting her lower lip the confused girl asked our of the blue, "Ava, do you know the song 'I Hate Everything About You'?" 

The girl in front of her paused, her pen mid-air, a flicker of surprise crossing her features. The question was so random, that she needed extra moment to swift her thoughts from math to the song, "Yes, I love that song. Why do you ask?"

Harper's heart skipped a beat, her facade momentarily faltering, although she quickly recovered and respond, "Oh, no reason. Just popped into my head."

The blue-eyed girl regarded her for a moment, sensing there was more to the question, "It's quite a powerful song. Full of emotion."

The girl with an emerald eyes nodded, relieved that her interlocutor didn't press further, as she concluded "Yeah, it's... intense."

They returned to the math problems, but Harper's thoughts were elsewhere, the dream replaying in her mind's eye.

Her tutor, meanwhile, concentrated on the textbook, "See this graph? The curve represents the equation."

Although glancing at the page didn't help, as the lines and numbers were a jumbled mess, he still said, "Uh-huh."

Ava tried to explain the concept, but her student was barely listening, the proximity to the girl from her dream was too distracting. "Does that make sense?" A clarifying phrase interrupted her thoughts.

Nodding mechanically, she snapped back to reality, her response automatic, "Totally. Makes perfect sense."

The study session wore on, Harper's mind a whirlwind of confusion and unspoken questions.

The proud tutor smiled reassuringly, "You're doing great, Harper. Now we can go to the church, today will be something interesting."

----

On today's session Ava encouraged everyone to express their deepest affections through art. She distributed the art supplies, her hands finally reaching the green-eyed girl, with a playful smile. "Here you go, but let's keep it innocent this time," the girl teased, her voice light, "so if I spot my face or body on your canvas during this heartwarming exercise, I'll take it as a confession of your undying love for me." She chuckled, but her words were met with Harper's sudden flush of color, a bashful attempt to mask her bewildered reaction, leaving her to wonder at her own response.