Together We Fall

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

"What time should I stop by your house?" Mason asks me as we walk through the high school parking lot.

He's about to start failing geometry while I have one of the best grades in there. We both have the same teacher just at different times so we'll be on the same path, he's just beginning to fall behind so today I offered to help tutor him.

"Anytime is fine it doesn't matter. Whatever works for you," I tell him.

"Then I'll be over there as soon as I can," he replies and heads to his car.

He just got done with football so he'll take a shower before he comes over. That gives me at least twenty minutes before he gets there for me to arrange something for him to work on.

When I get home the first thing I do is let Sadie out.

It's been a few weeks since I took her on a walk last. Mom's been walking her a few times a week while I've been busy with school and stuff. Sadie is my dog though so I need to take her on another walk soon, she loves them so much. I love our walks too and maybe the fresh air could be nice for me.

She runs out the back door to play in the fenced in backyard. I set my bag on the counter and grab a bowl of grapes from the refrigerator before making my way to the couch where I'll prepare a short lesson and wait for Mason.

About thirty minutes later my doorbell rings and I can see Mason standing on my porch from the window. He's wearing black jeans and a tight squeezed gray t-shirt. His hair is still wet from his shower as he watches the door patiently, waiting for it to open.

I pull open the door and he steps inside, "Ready to learn some geometry!" he shouts, faking excitement and I laugh.

We walk over to the couch and he sits beside me. I take a bite of a grape before getting out my textbook and a sheet of paper.

I flip through to find some problems about cosine, sine and tangent. He's been struggling with that more than anything and we've got a test coming up that he needs to be prepared for.

"Okay," I set the book on the coffee table and place the pencil and paper in his hand, "do you know the first step?"

He gives me a nervous smile, "I know I'm supposed to be figuring out which of the three I need to use but I don't know how to do that."

It's a good thing he asked for help, otherwise he'd be flunking this upcoming test. He doesn't even know how to do the first step which is something I wasn't expecting but definitely not something I can't handle.

"When using trigonometric ratios you first need to know which of the three to use. To do this, you have to be able to identify theta," I point to the small circle with a horizontal line through it laying in the corner of a triangle, "sometimes theta will be disguised as an angle measurement but it'll always be in a corner."

He listens to me carefully as I speak, absorbing my every word, "Since this is a right triangle we know there's a hypotenuse. Across from the right angle is always the hypotenuse so we can lable that 'h'. Depending on where theta is will depend on where the opposite and adjacent labels will go. The side closest to theta is the adjacent and the one across from it will be opposite so you can label those with an 'a' and 'o'." he does as I say and labels his triangle sides.

"Now this is where it gets confusing." I start, "The sides with numbers are what we'll be using so if the opposite side and adjacent side both have a number then we use tangent. Tan is opposite over adjacent," he quickly writes that down.

He's taking deep concentration into every word that I speak and I find myself enjoying being his tutor. I like helping people in school. I've always been so good at everything school work related and I'd hate to be one of the kids who struggle just to pass with a low C.