The Tutor (girlxgirl)

One

"Will Viviana Cabrera come down to the principal's office?"

Vee had just signed into her study hall. She walked over to the moderator of her study hall and asked if she could go to the principal's office. Her moderator wrote her a hall pass and Vee made her way to Mrs. Courts office.

When she arrived, the door was already open and Mrs. Courts waved her in. Vee quickly stepped into the office and sat down in the closest chair.

"Do you know why I called you in here?" Mrs. Courts looked up from her computer to look Vee in the eye. Vee shook her head, "You failed pre-calculus this quarter. You need to get a tutor to raise your grades."

Vee had a worried look on her face, "Ma'am, I don't think I can afford a tutor."

Mrs. Courts removed her glasses from her face, "Don't worry, we provide in-school tutors for free," She put her glasses back on and looked at her computer, "Starting next week, you're going to be meeting with Amber Teagan in the tutoring center during this period."

"Tutoring center?"

"It's the room in the back of the library," Mrs. Courts explained before she took her glasses off again, "If you fail pre-calculus again this quarter you know what's going to have to happen."

Vee began to shake her head quickly in reassurance, "Don't worry, ma'am. I will do the best I can this quarter."

Mrs. Courts sat back in her chair, "Okay, that is all. I will also be calling home about this," She pointed to the door, "Please close it on your way out." Vee nodded and quickly made her way out the door.

~

Today was her first day tutoring, and Amber didn't know how to feel. She's never tutored anyone before so she doesn't know if she'll be good at it. Her friends have been no help either; they all think it's dumb she's doing this, but Amber needs the community service hours.

Amber got to the tutoring center first. There was no one in the room except a nun who was sitting at a desk in the corner playing solitaire. Amber chose the desk closest to the window and began to set up her materials. She brought her precalc textbook, notebook and flashcards with important equations. For their first session, they're working on matrices.

The girl Amber was tutoring was Viviana Cabrera. Amber didn't know her very well because they didn't run in the same friend groups. But they have had classes together and Viviana always seemed pretty nice, if not a bit showy. Also, most people in their grade seemed to like her so she couldn't be too bad.

It took Viviana another ten minutes before she entered the tutoring center. Amber was a bit annoyed. The tutoring was for Viviana's benefit, not hers.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late," Viviana plopped down at the table, dumping her bag on the ground, "I got distracted." Viviana started laughing and Amber couldn't figure out why.

Nonetheless, Amber forced a smile, "It's fine." Amber looked around the room as she waited for Viviana to take out her books and get ready. There weren't many people in the tutoring center. There were about ten tables in total, and only three of them were occupied; but that just helped make the area feel more private.

"My matrices test is on Thursday and Mr. Paul gave us this review sheet to work on. I started it, but I don't think I did it right."

The two spent the rest of the session working on the worksheet. At first, Amber struggled to explain the different concepts involving matrices to Viviana in a way that made sense to her. However, Viviana made it easier by asking a lot of questions. Even though the questions annoyed her slightly, it helped her grasp a better understanding of what was confusing Viviana.

By the end of the session, Viviana was able to do the last ten questions by herself and only made two minor mistakes. Amber had to admit, she was proud.

"Thank you so much!" Viviana had a bright smile on her face.

"It was no problem, Viviana," Amber smiled back.

Viviana laughed, "Only my mom calls me Viviana. Call me Vee."

Amber continued to smile, "Sure."