Bad Boys Fall For the Innocent

Chapter Eleven ~ My Crew

Chapter Eleven ~ My Crew

"Okay. What's wrong?" Maddie asked as she parked in the library's parking lot, turning to me with a questioning expression. "You're quieter than a dead cricket."

I looked at her with a serious expression, saying something that you probably shouldn't be saying and really just find out for yourself. "Can I trust you?"

"Of course! What kind of question is that? It's the dress, isn't it? I knew purple and yellow was an un-trustful combination! I should have gone with the grey and black, way more neutral. But look at your dress! Wait, I've never seen you wear a skirt before...pretty color choices. Hey! Maybe we can hit Barney on Broadway. Hug a dinosaur, or sing a creepy friendship song, what do you say? Do you think he'd except us? Or is it not enough color—,"

"Maddie!" I cut her off and left her with a bewildered expression. "Sorry, I just have a hard time trusting people. But you're my friend, correct?"

She nodded, "As blue as the sky."

"But it's not always blue so that's irrelevant—never mind, look, I came from a really bad place and a lot of people hated my guts for no reason." I looked down sheepishly, "I just don't want you to be one of those people too."

"Riya, I'm not one of those people, okay? I like you for who you are, not for whatever clothes you have or how good at school, got it?"

I looked up to meet her eyes, smiling. "Got it." She gave me a tight hug before we exited the car.

"But can I trust you?" She asked curiously, turning to me with a raised eyebrow.

I immediately gave her a serious look. "No. Because the truth is, I've been lying to you. I do work with Bruce Wayne."

Her face lit up with surprise, "Shit, I knew it!"

We cracked up and headed inside the library.

"Hi Ms. Marian, how are you?" I smiled warmly at the librarian at the check out center.

"Good to see you Riya! I'm doing just fine, thank you. The kids are at that far table over there." She nodded in the direction of our usual spot.

"Thank you," I replied before heading over there. A group of six kids immediately came into vision, sitting at a large rectangle table looking bored as ever.

"Hey guys! How are you?" I asked, a grin forming. They whipped their heads and a small smile appeared on their faces. "Okay, everyone, I would like to introduce my friend, Maddie."

A chorus of, "Hi Maddie," went around the table.

"Hey guys!"

"Maddie," I gestured to the girl with curly sun bleached blonde hair and adorable freckles. She was only in sixth grade but had a really smart mind, but just had a short attention span. "This is, Loretta, but we like to call her Dory."

Her glare was enough to burn a hole through wood. I laughed, and a blush immediately crept up her face. I turned to the brown haired boy sitting next to her, his nose currently in a book, probably a famous novel by Stephen King. "This is Kory, and we call him, Klaus." Kory didn't look up until the boy sitting next to him elbowed him in the arm. He looked up at Maddie and I, smiling, before pushing his glasses further up his nose.

The boy sitting next to him had bright red hair and was looking at some kind of new invention in front of him. "Next we have Jackson. Hello, Jackson Storm."

"Hello, Ms. Hermione," he grinned sheepishly and I just had to smile back at him.

"And then this is Angelo," I looked over to the seventh grade Mexican boy with a beautiful accent. "We call him Manolo."

Maddie turned to me, a huge smile on her face, "Like from the Book of Life?" I nodded and she turned back to him, "Oh you are so lucky! Manolo is the best!" Marcus chuckled, smiling with those pearly teeth of his.

"And this is Andrew." Next to Angelo was a boy wearing a letterman's jacket that had the middle school's soccer team logo on there. I crossed my arms when I saw his feet lying on the table. "Get your feet down. Now." He sighed but did as told. "Thank you. He doesn't like these 'stupid' nicknames, so we just call him Grumpy Drew. Isn't that right kids?" The whole table laughed and Andrew just rolled his eyes.

I whispered to Maddie, "Harry's brother." She nodded in confirmation before I turned to the last person in our little group. "Lastly, this is Jayla, our very own, Alicia Keys." Jayla blushed, looking down and letting her curly frizzy hair hide her face. She had an amazing voice, and hearing her sing was just beautiful. Every once in a while, she would pair up with Angelo's guitar skills and play for us. Best little duo I had ever heard.

"And I guess that's it. Oh wait! We have one more person. Let's welcome the shadow in the corner, Harry!" I pressed my lips to keep myself from laughing as I watched the kids burst out laughing and point at him. He was just sitting off to the side looking at his phone before I put the spotlight on him.

Harry looked up and waved his hands like a prince, "I humbly thank thee for applauding the greatest man in the world."

"Harry, meet Maddie. She's new to our group so why don't you fill her up on what's happening."

I nudged Maddie and she had the most shocked look on her face. "What? No! Riya!"

"Just go!" I pushed her over the cliff and now she couldn't come back up flying. She waved shyly to him and walked over, both of them immediately getting into a conversation.

"There. My work here is done. Now, let's get to work! Math, here we come!" Everyone groaned but obliged, pulling out their textbooks and notebooks from their backpack. "Everyone turn to page 5 and let's start with the introduction."

~*~*~*~

"So how was it?" I asked Maddie as we sat in our seats. She turned to me with blazing eyes bursting in excitement, hopping around the seat in glee.

"Amazing! Oh the kids are wonderful! I can't believe that you get to work with them every week! And I can't believe they aren't good at math."

"I know," I said as I chuckled, "It's quite unbelievable, they're all so smart but struggle with Math!"

"And the nicknames! Oh they're so cute and fit their personalities so much, it's amazing."

"Why thank you. So maybe you'll come with me next week?"

"Definitely." She put the gear into reverse and pulled out of the parking lot. "So are you getting paid for tutoring or what?"

"They offered it to me but I said no, just helping them is a reward enough."

"Aw, that's so sweet of you. How long have you known them anyway?"

"I worked with them through the summer so they could get a head start this year. Loretta and Kory are in sixth grade now, Jackson and Angelo are in seventh, lastly, Jayla and Andrew are in eighth."

"Oh cool, for how long will you tutor them?"

"Not that long now. Andrew, Kory, and Jackson really improved, so they might not be with me after the end of the month. That's gonna be really sad. But hey! A couple more students probably will come, so that's gonna be exciting."

"Yeah..."

"So um, how was your time with Harry?" I raised a pressing eyebrow.

I watched in amusement as she blushed. "Amazing. Gosh darn, he's so sweet."

"I think he'd like you to keep coming."

"Yeah," she stared absentmindedly at the road ahead.

I loveeeee this chapter, even though my exciting scene isn't here yet...but ahhhhh! I want my own little crew. But just hang in there for the next one... I'm almost done with it anyway! It's definitely going to be an early update ;) Mwahahahahah. Boys, you're in for a ride.

~Rainbow