Played.

6: "It's Beautiful."

The bus journey ended quickly, interrupted by Marcus standing and saying, "Up you get, this is our stop."

I hurriedly followed him off the bus, with no idea where we were headed.

Turning down a couple back roads, we eventually arrived at a large, cream colored house with white pillars and a white roof. It had a long, paved driveway which was split halfway up by a fountain, that was gushing sparkling, clear water. Around the fountain was an assortment of flowers, mainly pinks, purples and white in colour.

"It's beautiful." I breathed.

"Thanks. My mom spent loads of time on it when we first moved here." He said, leading me up the driveway, toward the astonishing house.

"It's lovely, she should be proud."

"Oh, she is. Trust me."

"Did you move here recently?"

"No. It was a couple years back now."

"Where did you use to live?"

"Up in Canada."

"Oh, the accent makes sense." I laughed. "I lived in England for my first couple of years, then I moved out here."

"What was that like?"

"Different." I answered, as we reached the antique door covered in flowers, similar to those around the fountain.

Marcus inserted his key and twisted it in one sharp movement, unlocking the door. Pushing it open, he gestured for me to enter first. "After you."

I stepped in, instantly amazed by the beauty of the house. It was even more beautiful on the inside. The front door led straight into an open living area, with light marble tiled floors and precious white sofas, three to be exact, all arranged neatly on top of a white rug, facing the fireplace above which was a wide, flat screen TV inserted into the wall.

On the other side of the room, there was a broad, white, grand piano, that glowed in the light coming in from the many windows lined up along the front of the house. On either side of the living area, there were staircases, meeting in the middle and leading up to a second floor.

"Come on, I'll show you to my room. It's right this way." Marcus said, beginning to walk across the room toward one of the staircases.

"Your house is so beautiful."

"Thanks." He smiled, ahead of me on the marble stairs.

He led me down two hallways, eventually coming to a white door. "It's in here." He turned, pulling the handle down.

We entered into a spacious, cream colored room, with a king sized bed against the centre of the wall, brown and white covers draping it. Above the bed was a long, wooden noticeboard with a collage of certificates, for various different achievements, attached to it.

In the corner was a polished, wooden desk that had an Apple Mac computer balanced on top of it and neatly piled papers to the side of the monitor.

Opposite the bed, on the cream wall, there was another TV inserted into the wall, and below there was a snowboard and a surfboard, each being held up by hooks that were drilled into the wall.

"You snowboard?" I asked, surprised, upon noticing the object.

"Uh, yeah. Every year, my family head up back to Canada to snowboard." Marcus blushed.

"That's so cool. You surf as well?"

"No, that's my brother's, he's letting me borrow it. He's trying to teach me."

"For real? So he surfs then?"

"Yeah. He's pretty damn good at it too."

"I might have to take him on sometime."

"You surf as well? I would never have guessed."

"Why, because I'm a girl?" I questioned in a mocking voice, putting my hands on my hips. "Girls can surf just as good as guys, you know." I poked his shoulder playfully.

"I know, I know." He held his hands up in defence, laughing. "But let's see if you're just as good at studying." He promptly changed the subject.

"Mmm. You're on."

                                                                ****

The tutor session was nearly over, just 10 minutes to go. It wasn't all that bad, it was actually quite fun. Marcus wasn't too bad either, he was a really nice, funny guy.

"Try this equation, it's for photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide plus water makes...?" Marcus tested.

"Oh, I know this one! Glucose plus oxygen, but it has to be in the presence of sunlight and chlorophyll."

"Well done!" He smiled, high-fiving me and passing over a bag of candy.

There was a knock at the door, interrupting us. "Marcus?" The deep, male voice echoed through the door.

"Yeah? Come on in." Marcus shouted in response.

The door slowly reeled open, revealing the figure that the voice belonged to.