Morituro

Tutoring the tutor

Two weeks and a lot of shopping trips later, the days of virtually no stress and spontaneous outings have become practically extinct—except on weekends of course. The dreaded school year has started up again, although slightly better than before, but it's still school, so actually enjoying it is unheard of.

I tap my mechanical pencil excessively on my hard cover note book. I'm fully aware that it's probably one of the most annoying sounds in the history of the planet, and slowly driving everyone around me to insanity.

I'm despicable and proud.

Todays lesson of science about the solar system is boring me immensely. I let out an unsatisfied sigh.

I appreciate the stars, I admire them, but why on Earth do I have to learn about them?

I continue my scheme and pick up the pace. Mischief painted on my freckle dusted features.

The late afternoon sun fills the room with a comfortable light, adding to my apathy towards the subject. I barely take note of the words falling monotonously out from the mouth of the tutor.

"Miss Montgomery, What is the name of the brightest star in our solar system?" Miss Fredricks asks rubbing her temple with two pruned fingers, my scheme obviously causing her to lose what little patience she has.

"It's Sirius ...- I mean isn't it like Pluto or something."Val giggles and flips her hair , as if she's clueless. It's clear to see that she's actually quite intelligent—she could be the smartest out of all of us. Why does she pretend not to be ?

I find I'm the only one who realizes it , since everyone is focusing on their own activities. They must be used to it.

Val might be a good model but she  falls short with her acting. Every time she auditions for an acting job, she never gets the part—she cry's even days after and I've only know her for less than a month. She cry's only in front of me and JiJi though, never allowing the most important person to see her anything but confident and put together.

I look around the table at the 6 teens ,as they too cannot focus on today's lesson.

Jiji is busy drawing doodles on her notebook, which are more like little masterpieces covering every inch of her once blank page. She turns over to a new page and continues.

Dimitri sits playing "Rock Paper Scissors" with Lucca. Dimitri currently winning—he's quite the trickster and uses sly tactics to win every time.

Angelo sits next to Val. His hands and gaze are kept under the desk, texting his new flirtation. Every now and again I see Val look at what he's texting and she then looks back to her note book sadly.

I'm quite observant.

As usual, my foe, Juliano rests his head on his arms, as he sleeps. His dark eyelashes occasionally flicker lightly on his cheeks. I'm always tempted to either stoke his cheek or slap it mainly the latter, but instead I keep my hand away from him. Knowing him he wouldn't take it lightly .Miss Fredricks doesn't even scold him for sleeping in her class but if it had been one of us—we probably would never hear the end of it.

If he's not sleeping in class, he's not even here. They always say he's on a "trip" or he's "traveling" but I doubt that. Lucca being the whiny person he is, would never allow his brother to go on vacation at all ,without him. Being the close family that the Dellucci's are, that could also never be the case.

As everyone becomes increasingly restless in the makeshift classroom—Which is actually the dinning room in my fathers home—I take it as my cue to continue but with more fervor.