Still Believe

Chapter 2: Would you like a tutor?

WHAT? Ha, wow. "What? Excuse me?"

"Would you like a tutor?" she asked me.

"Ha, you really think you know me? What if I told you I had an A in math."

"What if I told you that you were lying?"

I looked away. "Okay, so I'm not the best in school."

"But that cna all change with a couple of lessons. I'm a senior, so I understand all of the things you're learning. It's never too late, Leslie."

"I don't see the point in trying to fix my grades when I'm already a lost cause."

"Who told you that?" she asked, very hurt by that statement.

"James, Wesley and the principal."

"James and Wesley," she said. I groaned. Now they were gonna hate me even more.

The boys looked up.

"I heard you were being mean to my friend Leslie over here. Is this right?"

"Yes." James said, ashamed.

"No, it wasn't us." Wesley said, trying to get James to follow along.

"Yes it was." James said.

"I hope you know that she has feelings too. And I think all three of you could be good friends if you try and get along."

"Ha, that's never gonna happen." I said.

"You never know. I could tutor each of you in the same class and set up study dates for you all to learn together. Maybe that's why you're having problems."

"We already learn together?" I said.

"I mean in a non-classroom environment. Maybe you're all different without the pressures of a class or your peers expecting you to be the way you are."

"Look, I'd love to get at least a C as much as the next person, but you've really got it all wrong. I'm okay and I don't need anyone to tutor me or try to help me with school."

"Leslie, it would be nice." James said. "All of us are failing math."

"There, then it's settled. I'll tutor each of you seperately, then we'll have a group tutor session so you all can try to work on the things you don't understand."

--

How did I get stuck with this chick.

So, she's tutoring me on Mondays and Wednesdays, James on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Wesley on Thursday evenings and Fridays. Really? Then on  Saturdays we'll all have a group tutor session and help each other or whatever. How is this going to help our arguments? They already hate me and I hate them. This isn't going to help.

We started on Monday with me. We met during free period in the library where she tutored me in math for an hour, and then I had half an hour left. She taught me the basics of math which I already knew and gave me a test she wanted me to complete before free period was over. It was a fifty question addition test, which was pretty easy, but it did wear my brain out. I don't see how this is going to help me, James and Wesley get along.

Then on Tuesday she tutored James, and from what I heard it was easy for him, too. So maybe I'm not stupid. He said he learned a bunch of stuff you could teach a kindergartener.

On Wednesday I was tutored in the library again, where I was taught more complicated addition. This time I was given a twenty question test that took me the whole half hour to complete, and even by then I was almost done but not yet done. On Thursday I asked James about it, and he said it got more complicated for him, too. But what was weird was, in math I actually understood a small part of something.

On Friday we asked Wesley how it went, and he said Thursday night was easy and Friday was harder. So we were all pretty much giving up on this mystery.

On Saturday, we all showed up at Alana's house. She had indivisual tests for us, and we all completed them in twenty minutes.

"Leslie, tell the guys what you learned this week."

"I learned basic addition, then harder addition.." I said.

"James?"

"I learned subtraction, and then it got harder."

"Wesley?"

"I learned multiplication, it was easy then it got hard."

So this is where she was going. She wanted us to help each other with the other stuff, and that way we could get along better.

This wasn't gonna work. Not now. Not any time. I was a lost cause, and she knew nothing--

But sure enough..it did work. But I wasn't gonna get my hopes up. The whole rest of the hour, we taught each other, or basically just talked about the basic stuff we learned. I'd never actually had a normal conversation with anyone in a while without snapping, so it was..nice.

Afterwards, Alana told us to rest because next week we'd learn hard stuff. I went home and thought about it. She wasn't asking for money. Or pride. She wanted to be our tutors because..she wanted to do something. But I couldn't find out what that was.

--

On Monday in class, I actually paid a little attention. I didn't really understand what the teacher was teaching, so I asked Alana about it.

Alana explained it to me and we went over and over it Monday and Wednesday but I still didn't get it. On Saturday, James and Wesley said they had problems with it, too. But they hadn't spoken up like I did.

Alana broke it down and explained it to all of us. She gave us twenty example problems, and I got eighteen right. This was just weird. James got thirteen right and Wesley got twelve. The next week, we went over it again and I got nineteen right. We went over it for about a month and I finally found out what I didn't know.

About a month of this, the test came. Alana wanted us to study together, so James, Wesley and I, met at the library during free period every day the week before the test.

On Friday, we were sitting around doing practice problems in our workbooks when James spoke up.

"You know..these past couple of weeks have been fun." he said.

"Fun? Dude, since when is math fun?" Wesley asked.

I giggled, but didn't look up from my workbook.

"Tell you what. If each of us gets more than a C on this test, we'll keep up this tutoring thing, okay?"

"Why would we stop?" I asked. "I mean..yeah math is hard but I think it's helping us."

The guys smiled at each other. They'd never heard me say anything like this before.

"Leslie Fell, you actually like getting better grades." James said with a smile.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." I said, but I couldn't help but giggle.

"Hey, it's good. I'm really proud of you."

I hid it, but inside it made me feel good. No one's ever said that to me before.

And that night, I went to bed with a smile on my face.