Dumb

Chapter 1

“For gods sake Lucie, how many times do I have to call you?”, I flinched as my door slammed open, rolling over to face my mum and yanking my headphones out. “Sorry, I was revising.” My mum eyed me as I lied through my teeth, eyes cast down. 

She scoffed, her head bobbing up, “Obviously you haven’t been revising. At all. The school just called and told me you got an F on your last test! AN F!” Her voice went shrill at the end, rising to a high before her shoulders slumped and her eyes stared into me. 

“I-I’m sorry, I’ve been trying really hard, honestly. It’s just really hard. I’m sorry.” I stuttered, blowing my cheeks out as I played with a loose string on my jumper, not able to look at my mother. And it was true, school had been hard. Not only was I bottom set because I generally wasn’t that smart, but I also had so many other things on my mind.

“It’s not good enough Lucie,” it never was, “I met a lady at book club today. Her name is Liz, she will tutor and that it the end of it. I don’t care if you think it’s stupid because you absolutely need to get better at school. Overall.” 

That was the kind of women my mum was, she went to book club and had nice dinner parties, she was good to her kids. I tried to remind myself it was for the best as I nodded and lay back, the door closing with a satisfying click.

The sun blared down on the pavement, my backpack slung down my arm as I huffed, kicking the dirt along the street. It was 2 minutes to 5pm and my mum had just dropped me off at my tutors house. 

I made my way up the driveway, my fingers tangled in my hair as the sounds of pounding music filled my ears, good music. It was coming from inside the house, which was small and quite quaint. Peeling white walls and a black door, a sort of failing garden out the front.

A deep bass rippled through me as i reluctantly rung the door bell and knocked a few times, the melodies stopped and a few low key shouts came from inside before the door swung open. A boy around my age stood at the door, deep blue eyes glanced at me, before they resumed to stare at the ground.

“I’m here for tutoring. Is Liz Hemmings here?” I stared at him for a second, taking in his terrible haircut, sandy hair swept across his forehead, sometimes falling in front of his eyes. 

“Yeah, she’s upstairs I think. I um, i don’t know.” A grin came across my face as i watched him stand there awkwardly, before another face popped up beside him. A women with the same face and sandy hair stood there, smiling invitingly. 

“You must be Lucie, I see you’ve already met Luke. Come in, we have lots to do!”