Math is for Lovers (student/teacher)

7: "What are you staring at?"

I walked into Mr. Kaynes' office after class and let out a drawn out sigh as I saw the other teachers in there having a conversation. They all stopped and looked between Mr. Kaynes and I. It was normal for students to come into teacher's offices, that's why they even had office hours, but it must be weird for them all the same.

"I'm here for my tutoring session." I said unwillingly.

"I'll be with you in a moment Kelsey, just take a seat anywhere. We were just about to finish our meeting." Mr. Kaynes called from the center of the crowd with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Whatever." I said to more to myself than him since he couldn't hear me anyway. I took the rolling chair from his desk and moved it in front of his desk so I could sit in it. I dug out my notebook and textbook from my bag and plopped them down loudly on his desk.

It took about ten minutes before their stupid meeting was finally over. By that time the teachers seemed to relax about having me there after seeing how much distance I put between Alex and I. I'm sure that's what made them uneasy, but it was obvious to see that I wanted to be almost anywhere else but here.

I had to wait while everyone left the office. Some teachers lingered a while afterward to ask questions about something. Each of them looked me over for any signs of threats, especially the female teachers. Well Alex, you're even a hit with the older ladies. I thought as he sat down once everyone left the room and he could relax for a few minutes.

"Okay, so are you ready to start?" He asked pulling the textbook away from me and looking it over.

"Shouldn't you know that book by heart by now?" I asked jokingly.

"The edition changes practically every year. I know the content, but the book always changes. Let's get started." He said with a smile as he pointed out the problems for me to try.

I was about to start working when he started taking again, "Take your phone out and turn it on silent." He instructed.

I looked at him, hoping to convey a look that said 'you're kidding right', but he didn't care. He tapped the desk with his fingers and looked at me, waiting for me to comply. I groaned as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned it on vibrate just to annoy him if anyone actually called me.

He moved the phone just enough so I wouldn't be tempted to touch it during our session. I wish he would give that kind of personal attention to me without needed tutoring as an excuse. I shook my head to clear those thoughts. I wasn't going to have those thoughts and I could fight it if I had to.

"Now start and let me know when you're done. I have to clean some stuff up while you work. If you have any questions call me.

We spent almost an hour going over problems and admittedly I had gotten a little better. I understood how to accurately do the work without messing up every few seconds. With a few more tutoring sessions I would be fine, if we weren't constantly learning more things. That was just going to complicate things because I wasn't sure if I could keep up.

Right about now I wished that I was better in Math. Then I wouldn't have to worry about it, but unfortunately I got my mom's inability to do Math and my dad's height. I could live with it though, I just had to work harder in Math and then I could do well in it.

"Thanks Alex. This really helped." I said with a smile as the tutoring session finally came to an end.

"I already told you to call me Mr. Kaynes."

"Right, sorry. Linda just kept calling you Alex so it got stuck in my head. Why do you let her call you Alex?"

"Because she isn't my student and it's her job. Kind of like the one I thought you had."