Initials

Initials {9}

Eli spun around to face me and waggled his eyebrows. I had to tutor him at math?! Oh my…oh wow. The teacher had probably checked my records. I had been the top of my old math class and done a bit of tutoring there.

“Come on shy girl. We can work at your house,” he said with a wink. I shook my head and his expression dropped.

“My parents are working and I’m not allowed to have boys over when I’m home alone.” I blushed. That sounded so lame. He played with his snake bites. “Um, I guess we could work at my place?” He sounded unsure. Aw man. I didn’t want to. “Yea,” I said.

I followed him onto his bus after school after texting Mickey. We got off at a nice looking house. It was light blue with a small garden out front and a pretty stone pathway leading up to the front door.

Eli let us into the house and looked around after slipping his shoes off. “I’m home!” he called. A man came out looking angry but his expression quickly changed to one of kindness when he saw me.

“Oh! Hello there. Are you one of Eli’s friends?” I nodded shyly. “She has to help me out in math. This is Sam. She’s really shy. Sam, this is my dad.” He held out his hand. “Hello Sam! I’m Mr. O’Dell.” I shook his hand.

“Eli, I got a call from the nurse today saying you aren’t eating. What was up with that?” he asked suspiciously. Eli gulped. “I, uh, collapsed today in gym while running on the treadmill. She just assumed I’m not eating.”

Mr. O’Dell nodded slowly. “Well, would you two like anything to eat?” he asked pleasantly. I shook my head. “No thank you,” I said. “No thank you,” Eli echoed. He watched us for a minute. “Well? What are you waiting for? Go get to work!”

Eli nervously led me up the stairs. He hesitated for a minute before opening a door. “Wrong one,” he muttered and led me to a different room.

We went inside. It was so not how I had imagined Eli’s room would be. The bed was a queen with a white cover and pillows. The walls were light tan and the floor had a fluffy white carpet. There were a few fancy paintings on the wall and a tidy desk with a TV on it. It reminded me of a hotel room.

He awkwardly sat on the bed and pulled out his math stuff. “Let’s get started,” he grumbled. “Alright, here’s how you do this,” I said and began to explain how to do triangle proofs.

“So…this is vertical angle?” he asked. I nodded. “Yep. And what’s the reason?” he screwed up his face in thought and I tried not to laugh at the expression. “Um…vertical angles are…something?” I rolled my eyes and scribbled the rest down. He had done good enough.

Eli’s dad opened the door and peeked in. “Hey Eli, I’m going out for a little. Make sure you clean up and eat before I get back,” he said and smiled at me. “It was nice meeting you Sam.” “Nice meeting you too sir,” I said and he left the room. We listened to the front door shut and the sound of a car driving away.

Eli glanced at a clock. “You better go. It’s getting late.” I got up. “My mom will be home tomorrow. Do you want to work at my house?” He nodded. “Yea.” “Your dad is really nice,” I said with a small smile. He nodded.

I texted my mom to come pick me up and sat in an incredibly awkward silence with Eli. “So…” I said just to break the silence. He chuckled. “You are so awkward.” “No I am not!” I said, making an awkward turtle with my hands. Eli laughed again.

He groaned and rubbed his chest. “Are you that hurt?” I asked. He nodded. “Running today was a terrible idea,” he whined. I rolled my eyes. “Than you shouldn’t have run!” “Bah! Shut up!”

I giggled.

My phone buzzed, announcing that mom was outside. “Bye Eli. See you tomorrow,” I said with a small smile. “Bye Sam!” he said and led me to the door. He waved at me as I ran into the car with mom.

“Well? How was it?” mom asked eagerly. I rolled my eyes as I put my seatbelt on. Eli had closed the front door and I was guessing mom hadn’t seen his face.

“It was alright. I helped him with his homework and we just kind of talked,” I said with a shrug. “Is he cute?” she asked, waggling her eyebrows at me. I internally groaned. My mom was so lame. “Not really,” I said.

She frowned. “Well…he’s nice right? And there was an adult there at all times?” I nodded.” Yea, he can be nice. Sometimes he’s kind of mean. And his dad was there most of the time. He left about 10 minutes ago.” She sighed. “Alright. Well, is he coming over tomorrow after school?” I nodded and smiled a little at the thought.