Dear Ocean Sky

Chapter 15.2 | Alex

"Thanks for coming to tutorials with me," Kata said to Alex as they walked down the hall to the algebra classroom, right before advisory.

"Of course! I said I would be your tutor and a tutor doesn't leave her student. Especially since her student needs her so much." Alex said smugly, nudging Kata.

"Wow. I think you need to give yourself more credit." Kata remarked sarcastically, laughing.

"Oh, your right!" Alex replied, playing into Kata's words. "I'm not a tutor, I'm a pal, a sister, and adviser, there's nobody wiser, not when it comes to algebra." Alex fell into the melody of the popular song she was quoting in her last few words. Kata looked at her in confusion. Alex swallowed hard. "Sorry, it-it was a Wicked reference. I, um, like I said around the time we first started talking to each other, I'm a weirdo." Alex tried to laugh at herself as she had a few weeks ago, but now she actually cared what Kata thought of her. She considered Kata a friend, but what if Kata realized how weird Alex really was and didn't want to hang out with her anymore? Kata looked at Alex, noticing her laugh had been half-hearted. She brushed her shoulder with Alex's, and just that tiny bit of contact made Alex feel a little better.

"You are a weirdo," Kata said softly. "But I am too, and like I've said before, we weirdos have to stick together." She paused as they arrived at the doorway to the math classroom. They grabbed calculators and scratch paper, then went to a corner of the room and sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. "Besides," said Kata, looking over at Alex. "Where's the fun in being normal?" She smiled then laughed a little. Alex loved it when Kata laughed. She especially loved making her laugh, it meant she could make her happy.

"Thanks," Alex said.

"What are friends for?" Kata replied, getting her worksheet out of her binder. "Now as much as I think you should be somewhere else because you've already gone to tutorials with me this morning and twice yesterday since we're here we should probably work on math."

"Yeah, you're right. So what are we working on now?"

"Well," said Kata, studying the sheet of paper in her hand. "I was having trouble with this problem." She pointed to question 12 on the sheet. "I think I finally got it, but I'm not exactly sure if it's right, plus I'd like to be a little more confident in my ability to solve it." Kata handed the paper over to Alex who started looking over it. She was quiet for a minute, going over the numbers in her head to work out the problem.

"Ok," she finally said. "So yes, you got the right answer but I think you took the most complicated way possible to get there." Kata laughed.

"I could have told you that myself," she remarked. Alex laughed too.

"How about I work it out on scratch paper so you can see how I do it? I think my way is probably simpler." Kata nodded, agreeing with Alex. Alex grabbed her piece of notebook paper and put it on top of her binder in her lap so that she could write on it. She wrote the equation out at the top of the paper. She started explaining the first step to take, as she was writing it. Kata scooted closer to her so that she could see the paper better.

Alex was very aware of the little space between their bodies. She stopped writing for a moment, distracted by Kata's movement. Alex was uncomfortable by how close they were to each other, just like she was with every other person who tried to get close to her. However, unlike other people, Alex didn't want to move away from Kata. She actually found herself leaning into Kata's body heat.

"Earth to Alex?" Kata called, pulling Alex out of whatever trance she had been in.

"What?" she said, startled and gathering her thoughts. " Oh sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night, I guess I just zoned out," she explained truthfully. Kata breathed out a soft laugh.