Special Tutoring

Nationals

"I am glad I am rooming with you," said Emily, sitting down primly on the side of her bed, her gear and duffel bags at her feet. Unlike her, I had already thrown myself on mine, and was in the midst of divesting my luggage of their contents and spreading them out on the bedspread like a hawker displaying his wares at a market, when my phone chimed.

I raised a palm to pause the conversation while I read the messages on my phone. There were a couple from Ethan already. I had tasked him with messaging me at least 4 times per day while I was away so that I wouldn't miss him so much. He couldn't come because of school and $, of course. The air tickets were not cheap and he shot down my suggestion to accept monetary help from my parents.

Oh so sweet, there was a selfie of him making sad puppy eyes and hugging his pillow. Captioned "Missing you". *swoon* I replied him quickly with  my version of "sad puppy eyes" and captioned it "Miss you too. Sleep tight <3. *Muak*".

"Me more", I replied Emily, tossing my phone aside to begin crossing off the items against the checklist that my mother had prepared for me. I gestured with my pencil at the bed on the other side of Emily's. "Considering who we are bunking with."

It was obvious that Mrs Carter had not considered the trying bonds of teenage female friendships when she assigned Amy, Emily and I to the same room earlier this morning. The Chinese 18 levels of Hell had nothing on this, though I had to admit that Amy had it worse. At least Emily and I were speaking to each other. The martyred expression that Amy had assumed when Mrs Carter made the announcements seemed carved in stone as she came into the room, dumped her stuff summarily on the bed and left immediately after. Other than at practice, we hadn't seen her since.

"I didn't see Amy at dinner just now. Did you?"

"Yeah, she was sitting with her friends from another school."

"Oh...Mai?"

"Yeah?"

"What's going on between you two? You guys hadn't spoken to each other for days, and she's so antisocial now. She just grunts in response and walk away whenever I try to speak with her. Did I do something to piss her off?"

"No, it's her, not you. Just leave her alone to think things over. She will talk to you when she is ready to." I crossed my fingers behind my back.

"Okay, but I can't get this nagging feeling that there is something that I have done to offend her. She keeps giving me the evil eye whenever she thinks I am not looking. There was this time I was practicing French with Trevor, and she sat herself across from us. She said nothing and just kept slanting glances at us. "

"You're thinking too much."

"I hope so too. But Trevor wouldn't look her in the eye either. It was extremely awkward..."

Not as awkward as it would be, sharing a bathroom with her. This room situation was a power keg that was waiting to go off. All it needed was a catalyst. Nevertheless I decided to concentrate on getting Emily's mind off Amy. It would not benefit anyone if she found out the true reason behind everyone's jittery behavior. That Amy loved Trevor, and Sam beat him up for it. Or that Amy hated me for not telling her that Trevor and Emily were dating and I hated Amy for calling me a slut.

"...then Sam Rhodes turned up and sat next to Amy. I could see that Trevor was a bit agitated so I suggested to him that we should try out the new yoghurt place behind Stella's and we left Sam talking to Amy. I thought they broke up at the party?"

"Dunno. I thought so too." I recalled the tug of war outside the restaurant. "He's back in school already?"

"According to Rachel who got it from the football team, the court decided to release him back into his parents' custody pending the hearing."