Part of Me

02

02
__________________________

"There are no secrets that time does not reveal."
-Jean Racine

"WHAT?" Jason growled.

"Principal Rose is forcing me to tutor someone," I lied.

I knew that if I told them the truth, it wouldn't end well and they would just scold me for being too stupid to pass my classes. So, I made up a little lie. Well, it wasn't a lie, exactly. More like a deviation from the truth.

"It's everyday after school. I can just pick the kids up on the way home," I supplied, knowing that they were both too lazy to take my place. To be honest, though, I also liked picking them up. It was the only time of the day where we could all be ourselves. We were united in a way few other kids understood at the house, but we still knew little about each other because of the barriers that were put up at home.

"Darling, it sounds like a good idea," Diane said soothingly.

Jason growled lowly, "Fine," clearly unhappy that his wife agreed to this. "But if you're late to pick them up even once, I will make you regret it, girl."

I nodded quickly, assuring him that I would be on time to pick them up. He gruffly made a sound of agreement, somewhere between an animalistic grunt and actual articulation of the word yes.

"Thank you." With a glance at Jason for permission, I scurried up to my room that I shared with Mary. I shut the door behind me, putting my hands over my face and leaning my head against the door. I shouldn't have had to lie. I should've been able to tell them that I was being forced to get a tutor, but I knew what that would lead to.

• • •

The one good thing about this whole tutoring fiasco was that I wouldn't be forced to spend time with Diane after school anymore, which meant that I didn't have to suffer through her saying how pathetic I was.

Keeping that in mind and ignoring all the lies that I now had to keep straight in my head, I pushed the doors to the library open and made my way to the tutoring offices. There were three in total, all vacant except for one.

Great, I'm the only idiot that needs tutoring today.

Squinting to see through the windows, I saw two boys in there. One was sitting at a table with his bag slung across the back of his chair and the other was leaning against the table, talking so boisterously that I could faintly hear his voice from where I was.

They both whipped around when I let the door swing into the wall.

The one closest to me, which was the one seated in the chair, had a roundish face with dark skin and hair, making his eyes stand out. They were a bright green color. Not a forest green like most people had, but almost a translucent green. His friend shared the round face and dark hair, but that's where the comparison between the two stopped. While both were certainly taller than I was, the first one was taller than both of us, which became abundantly clear when they both stood when I entered the room. The second boy also had dark hair, but his was much longer than the first's who had his cut close to his head. He had dark brown eyes that were similar to mine, as well as an olive-toned skin.

"Which one of you is Cayden?" The second boy pointed to the first. "Great. Get out."

"Geez, who crawled up your as—"

"Mike," Cayden interrupted, taking a seat. "I'll catch up with you later, man." His friend shot him a sympathetic look, slapping him on the shoulder before slipping past me. "Sorry about him. Micah's—"

"I don't care," I replied curtly, dropping into the seat across from him. "I'm just here for tutoring."

Cayden gave me a nod. "Right. Well, what subject do you want to start with?" I shrugged and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him roll his eyes. "Principal Rose says you're really struggling with Pre-Calc. Why don't we start there?"

"Sure."

"What unit are you guys on?"

I shrugged again, just handing him the packet from class that I had yet to touch. "We have a test on Monday, I think."

"You think?" Cayden raised an eyebrow. "Devyn, do you even pay attention?"

"Isn't the very fact that you're here tutoring me evidence enough that I don't?" I questioned back irritably. "Can you just keep your judgements to yourself and help me understand what the hell a Logarithm is?"

"Okay, okay. Have you done any of the packet yet?" I shook my head, expecting him to roll his eyes or degrade me for being such an idiot, but he didn't. He just nodded and took the packet from me to look it over. "So, when you have to evaluate exponential and logarithmic equations and expressions, like this first one here," he flipped the packet so that I could see it, "you have to drop the negative sign on this side and add it on this side so that the log isn't negative anymore. Here, let me show you."

Taking a pencil from his bag, he scribbled the answer to the first one and showed it to me, patiently explaining it when I didn't understand it.

Math actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because once you get the process, it's a lot easier. Physics, however, is a different story, which Cayden found out the hard way.

I didn't understand it, therefore I didn't care enough to focus on it for more than ten minutes.

Every twenty minutes or so, I'd check the clock on the wall and the bouncing of my knee sped up every time the minute hand ticked closer to three o'clock. The elementary and middle schools were on a combined campus, so I just had to go to one place to pick the kids up, and it was an even shorter walk now that I didn't have to go back to the house first. Still, I couldn't be late.

"Got somewhere better to be?" Cayden asked.

I scowled and focused on my English essay until I felt an eraser poking my cheek. "What?!"

"You don't smile much, do you?"

"You don't shut up much, do you?"

He chuckled. "Oh, come on, Devyn. Ever since you got here, you've been miserable."

"I'm sorry, I seemed to have missed the part where I asked for your opinion. Oh, wait, that's right. I didn't."

Cayden rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying, Princess—"

"My name's Devyn."

"Devyn, maybe you should consider enjoying life more. It's a high school library, not a prison. What have you got to be so grumpy and moody about?"

"You have no idea what you're talking about," I growled, looking back to my essay.

My eyes drifted to the clock again and I was about to say I had to go when his phone ringing interrupted me. "One second, Princess. Hello?"

I started packing up my assignments that were strewn all over the table, but he was making it incredibly difficult by gripping onto my math packet and crumpling it. With a curious expression, I looked up at him and almost stepped back when I was greeted with him fuming.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he snapped. His once translucent eyes were a shade darker and his mouth was tightened into a line. "Again? This is the third fucking time, Mia. How could you be so selfish?"

Trying to ignore the clearly private conversation that he was having right in front of me, I ripped my packet from his grasp before he destroyed all the work that I spent an hour doing.

"I don't care! I don't have time for—" He pinched the bridge of his nose, breathing slowly. I recognized that technique all too well and for some reason, couldn't look away. "Fine—I said fine! I'll be there in ten minutes. Goodbye."

"Got somewhere better to be?" I mocked, unable to help myself. His gaze was piercing as he looked at me, almost animalistic. "Not so fun when it's your life that's being pried into, is it?"

"Fine. I'll stay out of your life, you stay out of mine," he suggested aggressively as he snatched his bag. "Don't be late tomorrow. I don't have all day to wait around for you."