The Best Thing ||A Darry Curtis Fanfiction||

Chapter 5

When Darry and Kacie finally got home, the first thing he made her do was sit on the couch to ice her face for a few minutes. She didn't complain once of the pain she was in, even though a dark bruise was covering the entire left side of her face. Even Soda and Ponyboy, who'd worshipped this beautiful high school girl since the day they'd met her, came to ask if she was okay. She said yes each time, not wanting to bother anyone too much.

After a little while, Darry suggested they tried to study a bit, and they moved to the kitchen table, where he jotted down a few problems. It took a little while, but Kacie solved them. Too bad they were wrong... Darry said this in the nicest way possible, but it still discouraged her.

"Try 'em again," Darry said. This time he watched to see where she was going wrong.

"You're not even using the right formula," he told her after the first problem. She looked up at him.

"What?"

"The formula. That's not the one," he said, then jotted down the correct one. "Try that." She still got it wrong, and three more times after that. Darry couldn't see how she was getting something so simple so wrong.

"I give up! I don't understand this!" Kacie yelled at him after more failed attempts. He put his arm around her. Kacie felt sparks, and her stomach turning over, and butterflies flapping throughout. She took a deep breath, and tried to focus on the work.

"You can do it, Kace. It's easy," he reassured her. She sighed, loud, long, and over dramatically.

"But it's not, Darry. Geometry is the hardest thing in the entire world and I quit because I'm never going to have to use it in life ever," she said, starting to get annoyed.

"Do the problem again, Kacie," he told her. She shook her head.

"Nope."

"Just do it. I invited you over to practice so you don't fail. Why can't we just do that for a little while?" He asked. She blushed. As much as she had wanted it to be, it wasn't a date. It was a study session.

"You're right. I'm sorry for wasting your time, Dar," she said, picking up the pencil. He gave her a small smile.

"You weren't." And then after a moment, "Do you know what you're doing wrong now?" She shook her head.

"It's still wrong?" She asked, frustrated. He looked it over.

"Unfortunately." He scribbled out the real way to do it.

"I don't see how that's different," she said. He gave her a funny look.

"There's a different answer." She blushed.

"Oh... oh yeah." He laughed at her and she smacked his shoulder.

"Shut up! You know I'm bad at this," she exclaimed. Still chuckling, he spoke.

"You're not bad, Kacie. You just don't pay enough attention. You were doing the formula completely wrong, even after I gave you the right one," he exclaimed.

"No I wasn't. I was doing it just fine," she argued.

"No, you messed up right here," Darry responded, pointing to the exact place when he finally found it.

"Can't we just be done with this?" She exclaimed.

"Do one more problem correctly and we will be. Deal?" He asked.

"But what if I can't get one right?" She asked.

"You will." She nodded.

"Fine." He scribbled a problem willed with symbols and numbers bigger than Kacie could calculate, and she glared at the paper.