How To Date A Christian Dork: A Helpful Handbook For The Datingly Impaired.

Tip 8: Don't Introduce the Dork to Evil Cousins

Tip 8: Don't Introduce the Dork to Evil Cousins

It was Monday, two days after my second unfortunate incident at the mall. School was over, and I was headed over to Brett's—with Val this time round, in case Brett and I had another argument—to help him out with our Maths assignment.

"It's been a while since I went over to Brett's place," mused Val as we got into her car. "I wonder if Aunt Lisa is still around."

"Wait, you've been to Brett's before?" I asked.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, yeah, I guess. Parties, dinners and stuff like that. In fact, Brett and I were pretty close, until his mom died..." I raised an eyebrow. Val had told me that Brett's mom was dead, even before he had, but she'd never added the part about them being close.

"Well," she explained. "My mom and his were pretty close; they'd been friends all the way back from high school. We'd go over to their place sometimes, and they'd come over to ours. After his mom died, his dad just shut everyone out."

I kept quiet, mulling over this new information. I wasn't surprised that they knew each other; Brett and Val ran in the same circles in society. In less than ten minutes, we were in front of Brett's massive front gate, and one of the security men opened it. We drove into their parking lot—yes, they had their own parking lot—and got out of the car.

Brett was waiting for us at the front door. I had informed him beforehand that I'd be bringing Val along so it didn't faze him to her there with me. Something had fazed him though; his short blonde hair was ruffled, as though he'd run his fingers through it multiple times. His breathing was deep, as if he was trying to calm himself down.

"So...here's the deal. My aunt and her husband have to leave town for a few weeks. Unfortunately, they can't take their kid with them, so they left her with my family, and my father said I should make sure that she's always entertained. If tells him that I've made her unhappy, my dad will blow a gasket."

"That's no issue," I said, shrugging. "Your house is huge, I'm sure she'll find something to keep herself occupied with during our sessions. It's not like we have a choice either way, we can't miss several weeks, much as I would like to, because of a little kid."

"And," added Val, "if push comes to shove, I could always take her off your hands whilst Kay tutors you. I love kids."

"Look," said Brett, a slightly deranged look in his eye. "You have no idea how grateful I am to you for offering to help Valerie, but Isobel is evil incarnate. Nobody in their right mind would willingly take her on."

Val brushed him off with a wave of her hand. "Pfft! How old is she, ten? I can handle her, no problem."

Brett still looked unsure, but he nodded anyway. "Thanks a lot, Valerie"

"No prob, Brett. What are old friends for?"

~|~|~

Ten minutes later, Brett and I were seated at a large mahogany desk in the latter's study, with half a dozen textbooks spread out before us. The door was wide open, on orders from Aunt Lisa. I had almost snorted when she told us. There was no way anything untoward would go down between Brett and me.

"So the log of 1 is..." I started.

"Zero."

"And the log of a number itself is...."

"One."

"What about log of negative numbers?"

"They don't exist."

I smiled in satisfaction, leaning back in the chair. I'd finally managed to drill something into his thick skull. "Now try solving this."

I gave him a fairly simple question to solve from the assignment. In less than a minute he had handed it back to me, correctly solved. Maybe I was a better teacher than I thought I was. Giving him a harder question, I leaned back in my chair to take a little snooze.