Beyond the Ordinary

Chapter 54

A/N - Kate in Kyle's hoodie^^

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KATE 

I slipped off my soiled shirt and put on Kyle's pale blue hoodie, letting it fall just barely above my knees. Its scent of honey and lime enveloped me and I pulled the hood on as well before heading out of the bathroom, flipping the light off behind me.

"Where should I put my shirt?" I asked Kyle as I reached the kitchen.

He perked his head up from his laptop, a small smile stretching onto his face. "That hoodie's like a dress on you."

I laughed, dropping my backpack onto a chair beside him.

"Here, I can take your shirt. My mom had to do a load of laundry anyway so I'm sure she can wash it," Kyle offered, taking my shirt.

I watched as he disappeared around the corner before taking out my phone, sending a text to my father to tell him where I was and that I'd be home around seven, before responding to Axel's last text.

AXEL - Hey baby I miss u so muchhhh ;)

I smiled before responding,

KATE - I miss u too.

"Who are you texting?" Kyle asked, coming up behind me, startling me.

"Oh, no one," I lied, quickly shutting off my phone.

"Didn't seem like no one to me," he stated, shutting his laptop and moving it out of the way.

He sat down in the seat beside me, his knee bumping against mine. I quickly shifted over so that it wouldn't happen again.

"So, what are you gonna teach me?" Kyle asked, pulling a pencil out of his bag.

I pulled a pencil out of my bag and my computer as well, before copying down a few practice problems off of Google into his notebook.

Once I finished writing down three problems, I said, "Okay, so for the last problem..." and my voice trailed off. "It requires some complicated math in it, but I still want to see how you solve it so I can see what areas I need to help you with."

With a nod, he took his notebook from my hand, his eyes gazing over the problems, then, after a while, he began scribbling inside the lines, writing out the process step by step. When he finally reached the final problem, he sighed and handed me his notebook, not even bothering to try it out.

"You're not even going to try?" I asked him, surprised.

He just didn't seem like the type that would give up. In class, he was always writing down the notes, okay, maybe copying them from my notebook, but he still never gave me the vibe that he would give up without even trying.

He shook his head. "I'm not you, Kate, I can't figure out how to do complicated math in a matter of seconds."

I looked through his answers, confused. "Your math is all decent, you're just making silly mistakes, like here," I said, pointing to problem number two, "you forgot a negative," I revealed to him.

He just shrugged, staring off into space while spinning his pencil around his fingers.

My phone buzzed beside me, but I didn't move to answer it, still confused as to how he was making such silly mistakes on things he should've mastered in middle school.

"Kyle, I think I know how to help you," I insisted, putting my pencil down.

Kyle glanced at me, looking surprised, but then looked away and continued to stare off into space.

"You just need to practice some of the things you've learned in middle school, it happens. I mix up my positive and negative numbers all the time," I said.

This was a lie, I'd mastered adding, subtracting, multiplying, and even dividing positive and negative numbers by the time I'd hit sixth grade, but he didn't need to know that.

"You do?" Kyle asked, sounding surprised.

I nodded, smiling weakly. "Yeah, all the time. Now, where can I find some index cards?"