After Class (Janet and Aaliyah)

Chapter 31

Acacia

She was waiting for me outside on her driveway with these low-riding, baggy sweats and a tank top that reached just above her belly button, with the word "Cali" written in big black scroll across the bust. Her bookbag hung lazily off one shoulder, and when I got close enough to see her face, it had a bright smile on it. I couldn't wait to get her back to my house.

I got out to open her door for her, which made her blush. When I did this, she kissed me softly on the lips, uttering, "Hey."

"Hi," I said back, timidly, running back to the other side. "How are you?"

"Good."

"Good."

"Thanks for coming to get me."

I smiled and put a hand on her thigh. "You got it."

She picked up my hand, examining my nails. "You have pretty lil hands."

"Yeah?" I laughed.

"Mhm. They're nice."

"Thank you?"

"You're welcome." She lifted my hand up and kissed it. I bit my lip.

I only lived about ten minutes from her, and soon I was pulling into my driveway. She was trying to get out of the car before I even put it in park.

"Slow down! What's the rush?" I asked, trailing behind her as she let herself into my garage.

"You said we had to study first, so let's get on it. So we can get to more... Pressing matters." She sat down at the kitchen table and pulled her book out.

"If this is all it takes to get you motivated, then..." I sat next to her.

"That's alllll it takes, baby. What's the lesson?"

"The lesson is this C- on this quiz." I grabbed it out of my own bag.

"Oh."

"Yeah. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm sorry? I don't know."

I gave her a disapproving look. "Everybody in the room knows you're better than this," I said softly, putting my hand on hers.

"It's just us in here," She looked around, matching my tone.

"Exactly."

She let out a puff of air in a bashful chuckle.

"And why are you looking at me like that?" I added.

"Because you're looking at me like this." She bit her lip. "Acacia, ion wanna study." She shook her head.

"Well, we're gonna. And the sooner you shape up, the sooner we can-"

"Aight, say less. Let's go."

So she focused and let me show her exactly where she went wrong. Much to my surprise, they weren't careless mistakes--she really did not understand--and I ended up teaching an entire section to her over again, going over what the class learned in three days, in just over an hour and a half. By the end, her head was laying on the table, hanging on by one more ounce of focused attention, but she finished. And I was proud.

"Okay, so do you understand now?" I huffed, running my hands through my hair.

"Yeah."

"Really? Because I'm gonna see if you don't on this retake, so be real."

"Yeah, I get--wait, I thought you said you don't do retakes."

I looked down. "Not normally, no."