Played.

3: "Hello?"

I sat down on the bus, finally on my way home. To my surprise, the usually packed bus was pretty empty. I stared out of the window, not focused on what was outside, but instead focused on Mr Parker's words, that were running through my head:

"Maddison, you're failing."

The words played over and over in my head. The more I thought about it, the more the reality hit me.

Looking out of the window again, I scanned my surroundings, only to realize that I had missed my stop. I sprung up, quickly pushing past the standing people, who must have appeared along the journey, and making my way to the door.

Reaching up, I lifted a plastic lid, to reveal the emergency buttons for the doors. I swiftly pushed the 'open' button, and hopped off the bus, hearing the driver shout "hey!" behind me.

As I walked down the street, I felt a sudden vibration in my pocket. I dove my hand in and retrieved my phone, which showed that I had a text.

From Bailey:

are you alright? what did mr parker want to talk to you about? xx

To Bailey:

i'll call you when i get home and tell you then xx

With that I put my phone back into my pocket and continued on my walk home.

Suddenly, I remembered the yellow paper that still remained unread in my bag. I pulled it out, curious as to what it could be, and read it carefully.

In need of tuition? Marcus is here to help! Marcus Bieber is willing to tutor anyone in need. For more details, contact...

I looked up, fetching my phone from my pocket again. Smoothly unlocking it, I saw that it showed another text from Bailey. Ignoring it, I looked at the paper. Am I really about to do this? I punched in the number at the bottom of the paper and listened as the phone rang.

"Hello?" The cheerful sounding voice answered.

"Um, hi. Is this Marcus?"

"Yep, that's me. How can I help?"

"I was given one of your poster things, and told I should call you."

"Oh, you must be Maddison."

Confusion took over me. "How do you know that?"

"Mr Parker told me to be expecting you."

"Oh, right, sorry. Anyway, I just wanted more information about this tutoring thing."

"Classes are every Thursday, after school, at my house."

"That's awesome, thanks. I'll see you then."

"Great, bye."

"Later." I ended the call.