Allegro Vivace [PG version of Special Tutoring]

4. Amy finds out

So... the second I left his place, I googled liebling (thank god for autocorrect, I searched for leebling) means darling, according to Google. That got my heart palpitating with excitement, not that I could do anything because...

Ethan's coding took up all his spare time. His running sessions became shorter and lesser, much to the collective disappointment of female population in our neighborhood. I found out the hard way that he decided to reward both stupidity and brilliance with more homework, that villain. Seems that like cheer, schoolwork especially maths is all about practice, practice and more practice.

We had to have the week's tutoring a day earlier (when the coast was clear, i.e. Qin was away for a Broadway show with her friends) because of Regionals being on the coming Saturday.

"What's the point of doing well or badly, if you are going to give me more homework either way?" I protested, as I tossed my belongings together haphazardly. "I don't even have that much schoolwork! And I am swamped with all my school activities."

"Just because the American school curriculum is too lenient on you, doesn't mean I am going to." He tossed me another page, just for my defiance. "Besides your GPA is only starting to recover. At the rate you are going, you won't even get into the U (meaning the Ivy League University that was in our town)."

"Big deal. I want to go Parsons to study fashion design."

"And take part in Project Runway, and let Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum say Auf wiedersehen to your lazy ass." When I gaped at him, he shrugged it off with a "It's on tv". I was surprised, to say the least. I thought he only lived to eat, code and play his violin.

Then another awkward silence, as I inched my way to the door. He paid me no heed, his fingers typing furiously at the keyboard.

"When are you going to finish the project?" I was clearly making zero headway in furthering any relationship with him. How could I, if he spent our lessons with his eyes zeroed on the monitor screen instead of my face?

"Almost done. Only left the functional testing," he sounded almost weary when he said that. I glanced at him, observing the dark shadows under his eyes. Did he look thinner?

"Are you ok?"

He brushed off my concern. "I am fine, it's nothing. Now go. Auf wiedersehen." He said with a wry smile.

He picked up his violin and started applying his bow to the strings almost immediately as I left. Now that I thought about it, the only thing in his routine that didn't change was his playing "Salut d'Amour". Hate that song. These days, I couldn't spend much time poring over his fascination with the song because I was consumed by the Homecoming activities. I chaired the organizing committee for the pep rally, and was part of the homecoming court (Amy was Homecoming Princess). Notwithstanding the piles of difficult homework I had to do on top of my usual school work and increased cheerleading practices, I was also exhausted from travelling and cheering at the away games, on top of the pep rally and cheering at the Homecoming game. It was probably a miracle, I didn't fall off our Junior class' float, which I spent the parade waving half-heartedly from.

The Homecoming Dance was a huge success, even though I had to wear the ugly ass LBD, and grimaced at the camera with my long-suffering date, Darren while Amy and Sam Rhodes grinned like the pre-ultimate IT couple they were. Homecoming Princess with Homecoming King snogging together at the dance, sounded so wrong, looked so right, except you shouldn't ask the Homecoming Queen who stood at the side, staring daggers at the victorious Amy.

Amy sparkled at the Homecoming Dance. Everyone admired her curves which were further enhanced by the unforgiving bandage dress she wore. Sam Rhodes' eyes obligingly bulged at them, even though she hadn't worn the lacy bare-back that she had planned. Though I suspected that he could have been suffering the effects of the laced punch *lol*.