Inferno

~135~ Should Have Looked The Other Way

Emma's POV

Having Mason here is getting less awkward. It's still awkward, don't get me wrong. I hardly went into the same room as him for the first couple of weeks. It's so odd to have your teacher, a super hot teacher, in your house. Little by little I have been, though. Sasha has a night class, and mom finally convinced him that he doesn't need to hide out upstairs when Sasha is gone.

He stays upstairs a lot still, but he does come downstairs for dinner. He grades papers a lot downstairs too.

He's downstairs grading papers at the table. The rule at our house is that we're not allowed to do homework in our room. We have to do it at the kitchen table...So, I have no choice but to sit here with him. Sasha told him about this rule, so he knows exactly why I'm sitting down. I'm still having trouble looking at him.

I grab a soda from the fridge and sit down.

He looks at me, and I can tell he feels awkward too. "Would you like me to go in another room, Emma?" He asks softly.

I just shake my head. "You're good, Mr. West" I say with a smile as I open my math book.

"Emma, will you please call me Mason when we're here? Please?" He asks, looking at me hard.

I sigh and nod my head. "Would you like a soda, Mason?" I ask with a smile.

He smiles back and nods his head. "That would be great."

I get up and grab him a soda and we both silently do our work.

After about twenty minutes, he shakes his head in disgust.

"Did you think the test today was too hard? There's a lot more lower grades than what I was expecting" he says, writing an F on a paper.

I nod. "Yeah. This one was tough" I admit.

He looks at me and nods. "Did I word things incorrectly?" He asks, genuinely questioning.

I shake my head. "No. We just covered a lot of material really quickly. Plus with the History project you assigned last week, it's been a lot."

He nods and looks at me for a minute. "You got an A, though. So why wasn't it hard for you?" He asks.

I shrug. "School is easy for me" I say, going back to my work.

I can tell he's thinking about that.

"So should I re-tweak the test or cancel the project?" He asks seriously.

"Re-tweak the test" I say, looking at him surprised.

He just nods. "Thanks, Emma. I'll throw this test out and redo it all. I'll make new study guides tonight. This is going to take me forever" he says, shaking his head in frustration.

"You're going to throw out the tests?" I ask, shocked.

He looks at me and nods again. "I want you guys to learn this stuff. I went too hard on this section because I wanted to squeeze in that project. That's on me" he says, getting out his computer and bringing up the test template.

I say nothing. This is why he's been my favorite teacher these last few years. He really does care about us.

The next day in class, Luke and Trace are still goofing off when Mr. West walks in with a stack of
papers.

"Alright guys, settle down" he says as he watches Luke and Trace until they do.

"Your tests were awful yesterday, guys" he says, looking at all of us.

"After a discussion with someone, I realized that this one was my bad. I should never have squeezed in that project with such a heavy section. I'm sorry. I've still got to test you on these chapters, though. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm passing out these new study guides I made last night. Go home and do them. Tomorrow I'll give you guys a new test. You can have your book and these study guides to help you with the test. If you do these study guides tonight, there's no reason you shouldn't ace the test. Consider it a gift, for me being stupid" he says with a grin.