Funny You Should Ask

2

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        He saw her again in the library a few days later. He'd been studying for Hotchkissmyass' class because his talk with Shaun made him realize that he needed to kick his academics up a notch. Like, maybe not being late to class. And doing the required reading.

        When he saw her he was turning a corner around a bookcase and had to stop before she saw him. He took a step back and tried to think up a game plan. In all honesty he was thinking that he might need her to pass the class, but how could he convince her to agree to teach him? Obviously he should try hard not to flirt with her since that didn't work last time. Then...how?

        But then he remembered how he met Cassidy and he sucked his breath in and walked past the girl without a second glance. No way was he getting seduced by a hot tutor again. No freaking way. But then he heard her.

        "Wow. You just shocked me." Axl stopped walking and turned around to face her. She looked surprised. "I saw you hovering behind those books, looking very out of place, might I add, and knew you would harrass me some more. But then you didn't. So now I really wanna know: what gives?"

        "I decided that you were not smart enough to tutor me." It kind of shot out of his mouth before he thought about it, to be honest. He hadn't thought of going the douche route, in fact, earlier he decided the flirty approach anyways. Of course, that was before he'd hid behind the books. Anyway, she looked quite pissed actually.

        "On what basis?" She demanded. He looked away, feeling awful. He knew she wasn't Cassidy, but all he could see was Cassidy. He realized then that maybe this why he'd said what he'd said.

        "Your hair." Fuck! Had he really just said that? She took a step forward and narrowed her eyes up at him.

        "Listen buster-"

        "Buster?"

        "I don't know what your problem is, but I was actually going to tell you that I could help you. I was going to tell you that someone is paying your tuition and that you should be so fucking grateful for that. But now you insult me and my hair without any basis for this, and now I am pissed."

        "Like I fucking care." Oh god. He never was this mean! Or was he? Well maybe with his family and friends. But with a pretty girl? Never! Well unless they talked bad about his family. But then she slapped him and said:

        "Like hell you will when you fail and get expelled!", before walking off. Axl stood there stunned. ‘Wow, that was actually pretty epic!’ He thought with a smile growing, before wincing and placing a hand where her’s collided on his cheek.

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“I’m in love.” Hutch put down his sports illustrated and looked up at Axl with a critical look.

“No you aren’t, Axl.”

“No, really, I am. I am in love. With another fucking tutor too!”

“Wait, hang on. Is this the girl that dropped the book on your foot yesterday?” Hutch asked.

“Yes.”

“We don’t know if she really is an official tutor, so maybe ‘another’ isn’t quite the proper word to say?”

“Whatever! All that matters is that I’m in love and I told her that she had stupid hair. Like, who does that?” Hutch rolled his eyes before looking back at his magazine.

“You, apparently.”

“Well this isn’t good. She slapped me.” Hutch once again dropped his magazine and then started howling with laughter. Kenny even looked away from his computer for a second. Axl’s face grew red with anger. “Seriously, Hutch. I’m telling you, she hates me now.”

“But isn’t this how it started with Cassidy?” Axl sat down on his bed next to Hutch and thought about it.

“Yeah. She moved my backpack and skipped me in line. I had a broken leg at the time.”

“Ah yes, the infamous broken leg story. The one that Sue gave you?” Hutch hadn’t really met Sue yet, but he knew all about her. Sometimes, Axl wondered if he’d have to watch out for Hutch because he seemed genuinely interested in his sister, and he couldn’t afford to have another friend date her. At the moment he wasn’t sure if Sue and Darrin were still on, but it still hurt because bros before hos, even if that ho was his sister. That and it just isn’t cool to date your best friends little sister.

“That is beside the point, Hutch. She is in my brain and so is the french revolution. I actually opened a book today. A book.” Hutch propped an eyebrow up.

“Well, I mean, college students tend to open books…” He replied. Axl gave him a look that said “Really?” He then grabbed a can of frosting and started spooning out frosting, a habit he picked up from his mom, sort of by accident. Sure, Axl loved anything edible, but when he was at the campus store looking at the limited and boring options, he saw the baking section and grabbed a can of frosting. When the cashier (a girl who looked to be about his own age with dimples the size of Texas and braces, really the spitting image of Sue) raised her eyebrow, he shrugged and said “Axeman loves to bake!”

Presently, Hutch grabbed his frosting and put the cover back on. “Really, Axl? Really?”

“I am so stressed! Who says someone’s hair makes them stupid?”

“We’ve been over this, man. You!” Axl sighed a dramatic one and laid down.

“What the fuck am I gonna do, man? She hates my guts! I hate my guts! I’m such a douche and she’s a princess!” Hutch looked disgusted.

“Don’t talk that way. First off, there aren’t any girls who are princesses, unless they’ve got royalty pumping through their veins. Secondly, you don’t hate your guts. You’re your biggest fan, and you know it!” He pulled Axl up into a sitting position and then punched his shoulder. “The Axemans got this!”

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He wasn’t late to class that Wednesday. He even set his alarm for a whole hour before class started. He was on top of this. Well, he liked to believe he was. He sat where he sat on Monday and hoped she wasn’t too disgusted by him to not sit where she did last time. Unluckily for him, she was. She stopped right in front of the row and pulled a face.

“So you’re coming to class now. Great.” She drew this last word out like a Tony the Tiger Grrrreat! kind of a way, but in an awfully sarcastic tone.

“I would like to be able to stay in college,” He replied, shrugging, all the while hoping she would at least crack the start of a smile. But, she didn’t. Obviously.

‘God, Axl, you’re so LAME’, he thought. He fought every muscle trying to cringe and smiled instead. She looked like she wanted to spit on him and continued

down the steps towards a different seat.

Okay. So he wouldn’t follow her. Instead, he was going to try going at this slowly.

On Friday he sat next to where she sat on Wednesday. It was shockingly close to where Hotchkissmyass taught, and he was realy risking a lot for this girl. She did the same thing she did on Wednesday, even repeating the Grrreat down to the T. But this time she sighed in defeat and took her seat next to him, after glaring daggers at him of course. He smiled a toothy grin, holding back his cheeky replies (“Oh, look the princess is gonna sit next to me!”, “You should be honored to be next to the Axeman!” So on so forth). And so this continued for a few weeks and Axl actually learned things.

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Authors note: sorry this is short! I wrote essays longer than this earlier this week so I had no time! I'm also stuck and have no readers so I probably won't update soon.