Quiet || hs

5

"See you guys tomorrow." Coach dismisses his class. "Eversteen, can I talk to you?"

I sigh tiredly as I make my way to his desk. "Yes sir?"

There were a few students in the room when he looked around, cautiously. "I'd like to talk to you about your work in this class."

"Am I doing bad?" I question even though I do the work in here.

"You're on the right track, but then you seem to turn the other way at the end of each problem." he explains. "I want you to come to my office for tutorials during lunch."

"Lunch?" I ask. "Coach, I've got to eat."

"I'm not stopping you from eating, you can bring your food." he tells me. "I just think you need some help on what we're doing now."

"So it's just for today?"

"If you want to pass the test you're having on Friday." he nods. "I suggest coming on Thursday too or will you skip again." he teases, smirking at me.

I chuckle. "No sir, I'll be here."

"Alright, see you at lunch then." he says. "I'll be in my office." he says before putting his attention on another student.

-

"Hey," I say softly as I enter his office.

Coach shifts his eyes from his papers to me then to his watch. "I thought you weren't going to come."

"Yeah sorry, Monique held me back."

"Rylee, I don't need to hear excuses right now." he says, standing up and closing the door behind me. "Take a seat." he gestures one of the two seats in front of his desk.

"What's this?" I ask when he hands me a paper. I slowly sit in one of the chairs and set my bag in the other. "Oh wow, a 58?"

"This is the quiz I gave on Tuesday." he answers, sitting back in his chair. "I want to go over the problems you got wrong." He hands me a piece of paper and a pencil. "Rewrite the problem."

I nod, doing what he told me. He goes over the steps at a slower pace. I admire the scribbles he wrote under the problem I wrote.

"You do the next one on your own." he says, pushing the sheet towards me.

I nervously write the problem. I wasn't entirely listening and he noticed. He gets up from his seat, removing my bag to sit next to me.

"Sorry, I-"

"Don't apologize, babe." he says with a deep voice. My ears perk up and my heart skips a beat. "I need you to focus on what I'm doing this time, okay?"

He grabs the pencil from me and writes again. This time I follow along on what he was doing. His green eyes glance at me and he smiles.

"I-I think I got it." I stutter, taking the pencil back.

I do the next problem without his help. I ignore the feeling of his eyes burning into me.

"Yeah, that's right." he claps. "Good job, Rylee."

"Thanks," I blush, feeling awkward.

He raises his hand and rests it on my shoulder. "Do about two more problems then you can go if you get them right."

He gets up and sits back in his chair. I work on the two next problems I got wrong. For some reason, I felt nervous and not focused. The feeling of his presence made me tense. He probably thinks I'm stupid and irresponsible. I don't want him to think of me that way. Math is usually my best subject and I don't know why I'm not doing well.