The story behind Ruby

Math tutor

After a long a particularly dreadful weekend of chores and nothing-ness, it was back to school Monday morning.

I walked to the bus stop with Zayn and Jonah, but to my surprise, Ruby was waiting in line for the bus!

I was extremely happy that was back and I debated whether or not I should ask her where she's been for the past week when we got on the bus.

The vehicle rolled up and we filed in, I took my seat next to Ruby. She looked even prettier today than I last time I had seen her.

Right as the bus started, a thought hit me. The math homework. I had completely forgotten we had homework over the weekend. I pulled it out of my backpack and started doing it as fast as I could. I was in honors math, and our teacher hated when we turned in homework late.

Ruby glanced down at my paper.
"Your in honors math?" She asked me

"Yah, I started in 8th grade." I say, not really paying much attention the work any longer.

"Oh, well, the stuff they're teaching in my math class isn't really the same stuff my mom taught me when I was home schooled, so I've kind of been struggling," she said calmly, "is there any chance maybe you could show me sometime, like tutor me, just until I understand it better?" She asked hopefully.

"Yah of coarse! I'd love to help you! Is their a time you could meet up or something?" I ask.

"Well, if your not busy, Tuesday after school would work well for me." She says.

"Yah totally, I won't busy"

"Alright, here's my phone number, just call me or whatever if you have to cancel.." She says, writing her number on a scrap of paper from the side pocket of her backpack.

I carefully take the slip of paper from her hand and slip it into my back pack. A wide smile still on my face

"Thank you so much!" She says, as she stands up and leaves the bus.

"Any time!" I say happily.

********************

Tuesday dragged on to be the longest day of my life! I anticipated for the day to be over so I could help Ruby with her math, this was the perfect opportunity to get to know her, and I was very excited.

Last period I had art with her, and I sat in my seat in the back and waited for her come in. She walked in and smiled at me, she waved too.

I waved and smiled back. This week couldn't get any better!

During work time, I had my headphones in and was listening to music when I looked up and saw Ruby a few steps away from my desk.

"Hey sorry to bother you, but, are we still on for today?" She asked.

"No problem, you aren't bothering me, and yah , we are." I respond

"Perfect!" She said smiling brightly, and waked back to her seat.

****************
When school ended I got on the bus and sat by myself but talked to Jonah from across the bus.

"Hey what are you doing after school? Can you hang out?" He said, a lot louder then the bus driver would have liked.

"I can't hang out I've got a tutoring Job after school, sorry." I say with a frown, even though I wasn't sad about having a tutoring job after school at all.

"It's fine, who are you tutoring?" He questions.

Just then I see Ruby walk onto the bus, and I nudge my head toward her, meaning that I was tutoring Ruby.

"NO WAY" he mouthes so she wouldn't hear it.

"I know right!" I whisper just loud enough for him to hear.

I sit back down when Ruby joins me in our seat. "So what kind of math are you working on right now?" I ask, sparking up a conversation.

"Oh um just a second." She says as she pulls out her math paper and shows me.

"Oh yah I'm good at this stuff it shouldn't take too long to show you how." I say truthfully.

"Sounds great!"
******

We get off the bus and walk together to her house.
"So, why were you gone all of last week?" I ask, after a long debate inside my head.

"Oh.... I didn't feel well." She said quietly.

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm glad your feeling better." I say sympathetically.

She just nods and gives a faint smile before looking down at her feet much like I do.

Once we get to her house, she opens the door for us to walk in. It's much like I remembered it. It was very clean and modern looking, but still had a home-y vibe to it.

She invited me to follow behind her and I did, she opened a door down the hallway and I was a bit taken by the bold color that automatically filled my eyes. The walls were painted bright red , and I could tell that it was her room.

We sat down on her carpet and I explained the math to her in under 10 minutes, and helped her with a couple of problems on the packet. The whole thing only took around half an hour.

Right as we were finishing up, we heard a crack of thunder out side. We walked to the window and peered out, it was pouring extremely heavy rain.

"Wow that crazy! I can't let you walk home in that!" She said, even though my house is just across the street.

"I'd probably be fine." I say honestly.

"No no I insist, just wait here until it passes." She says.

"I'll have my mom pick me up on her way home from work in 10 minutes." I say.

"Alright, what do you want to do until then?" She asks.

I pause for a bit while I think of something to say.

"Tell me about yourself," I say finally, "I've lived across the street for 5 years now and I all I really know about you is your name, and that you like art."

She pauses for a bit to, contemplating how to respond to my request.

"Alright. But you have to do the same." She says.

"Fine, we'll just play a game of get to know you."