WE'VE ALL GOT HEARTS

Chapter 2

I make my way to the math room after school, coming from the opposite side of the building after band. The hallways have already emptied, for the most part, except for a few drama kids who keep peeking in and out of the auditorium for the always-late director.

"Hey, Ivy! Why are you still here?" The rude-sounding question came from Alice, a girl I sit next to in French. She's actually very friendly, just a little nosy. Also, she correctly meets the qualifications of a stereotypical white girl, but that's a different story.

"Mrs. T said she could use a hand in teaching some of her precalc students."

I watch as Alice's face scrunches up in disgust for the job I have. "Have fun. I bet Holly is going to be there, so have fun with that." Alice has no particular fondness toward Holly. He's kind of got a huge reputation around the school for essentially being more edgy than most of the rest of us. Congratulations, I guess. Personally, I don't feel any particular opposition to him. There's no reason I should; he is nice enough from what I have personally seen. People just misunderstand his actions.

I suppose that happens to everyone, though.

I wave goodbye to Alice and head up the steps to the math room. The class only has two other people besides Mrs. T and I: Mica, who is one of the freshmen who always waves to me in the hallway, and Holly.

Mica is by Mrs. T, watching her pencil on his paper as if that would help him absorb the knowledge. Eventually, he looks up and, seeing me, waves hello.

"Hi Ivy!"

"Hey Mica." Mrs. T turns around, finally recognizing my presence.

"Ivy! Good to see you! I'm going to have Holly and you head to a different room so that I can focus. You know how poor my attention span is."

"Sounds good. Thanks, Mrs. T!" I know turn my attention to Holly, who is sitting at a desk, feet up, and eyes shut.

I go over and try to wake him as gently as possible. "Holly. Holly, it's time to do math." No progress. I gently set my hand on his shoulder, and the moment I touch him, he shoots out of his sleep.

"Hey Holly. Sorry for waking you up, but it's time to do some math now."

He rubs his eyes before looking around the room with tired eyes.

"Mrs. T said that we had to go to another room because she can't pay attention to two things at once. Is there anywhere specific you'd like to go?" I figured that I might as well give him first choice.

"Outside, probably."

"Sounds good." I turn around to address Mrs. T. "We're going outside, Mrs. T. Bye."

I pick up my bag with all of the practice packets I was given. I turn to Holly, who has a look of shock on his face.

"Wait, we're actually going outside?"

Now quite confused, I say, "Yes; you said you wanted to go outside, so we're going outside."

He obviously doesn't understand, so he shrugs, then picks up his bag and we both head outside.

"Okay, so you just do the problem, and I will tell you where you're wrong until you get stumped. It sounds mean, but it's helped me more than any other method."

He throws up his hands. "You're the math whiz. I'll go with it. Don't expect me to get very far without a problem, though."

"It's perfectly fine. And have some faith in yourself."

He rolls his eyes and begins working on the first problem. I quickly realize that I am not fast enough to do the work with him, so I finish the question on the packet I was handed.

"Um, I don't know what to do here." I turn in his direction, and he's already got three problems done. Damn. I'm still on the first.

"Let's see. Oh, I see. You forgot to add the three in at the beginning." I point to the first operation done.

"Oh God. Sorry," he says, quickly erasing the mistake and fixing it.

"No need to be sorry. That's what I'm here for. I don't mean to sound rude when I correct you, if I do. I never can quite tell."

"You're not; you're just helping me."

We look at each other for a moment and chuckle. I'm so thankful that he's polite. I don't really know what anyone has against him.