Chapter Thirteen
Channing
“Have I ever told you how much I hate this class?” I finally got Mike to sit in back with me during chemistry.
“Shut up. She’s going to start.”
Hamburg started setting our tests on the corner of her desk. We were allowed to look at them during the entire period, but we couldn’t get them until the end. It was her way of adding to the suspense. She loved seeing the looks on our faces when we picked them up.
That was her one indulgence. She kept her lectures short now. She said that a lot of the idiots were gone, so she mostly stuck to the science. It was refreshing.
After going over the chapter material, she turned off the projector and walked around to the front of her desk. “Six of you failed the test. For two of you, that’s your last straw. You’re out of here. What are you people thinking? Read the material.” Hamburg took a moment to look at everyone. Then she dismissed the class.
“You have to show me your grade when you pick up your test,” I told Mike.
He got his bag and stood up to leave. “You have to show me your test too.”
“Fine,” I said, “we’ll do it. I’ve been working hard. I have nothing to hide.” We walked down the steps towards Hamburg’s desk at the bottom. I snatched my paper up, closed my eyes, and handed it to Mike.
“You got a B.”
“You say that like you’re disappointed,” I said.
“You could’ve gotten an A.”
“I worked my butt off for that B, so screw you.” Mike was holding his paper. I grabbed it out of his hand. “You got a C.”
Mike took his paper away from me and started to walk away really fast. I sidestepped him and caught him in the middle of the hallway. “Are you going to pass the class?” I asked.
“Yes, it was just one bad test.”
“You need to work harder. Stop focusing on nailing your tutor and listen to her.” He followed me out into the courtyard. “You know she told me to tell you guys to stop hitting on her.”
“She did?”
“She says that the guys are relentless and that there’s nothing she can do. That’s not okay, Mike, and we both know you’re doing it.”
“It’s that bet,” Mike said. He took a seat at our table. “It’s getting out of control.”
“And what about you? She won’t get with you.”
“I’ve been pretty quiet lately. I know I don’t have a chance.”
“You’d better,” I said.
“Alright, I get it. You think you should tell the other players to stop? It might be better to let them go on making asses out of themselves.”
“No, they’re torturing the poor girl. She can’t stand it. She must’ve been desperate if she had to ask me.”
“The guys are going to hit on her no matter what. They all want to win the bet.”
“I hate that you’re right. She’s going to have to deal with this crap all year.”
“Not if you win the bet,” Mike said.
“I don’t even know if she’s interested.”
“She went to dinner with you. Of course she is.”
“You’re probably right. At dinner, she acted like we were just two friends eating together. I don’t think she’s open to romance at all.” I checked the time on my phone.
“But you want to win that bet, don’t you?” Mike asked.
“I don’t think any of us will win the bet.” I started to get up.
“Maybe she’s asexual.”
“She’s not asexual.” I walked off to go to the tutoring center. I was three minutes late when I walked into the study room.
“You’re late,” Ava said when I sat down.
“I’m three minutes late.”
“Oh, so you think you can just walk in here whatever time you want to.” She was playing with me.
“I pay you by the hour. We’re wasting time.” I took out my books. “Did you have fun at the diner?”
“I did. It was nice to eat something that wasn’t made on campus.” Ava hurriedly looked back down at the book. “What are you working on?”
“I’m still on literary devices. These things are evil. I don’t know what half of them are. When I look them up, I can’t understand a thing the book is saying. You’re going to have to explain it all to me.”
I had a list of problem terms written on a yellow notepad I was carrying around. She explained every single one of them to me; she never once hesitated. She always knew the answers. It didn’t seem like there was a single subject that tripped her up.
I couldn’t believe that she could hold that much information in her head. It seemed impossible to me that she was tutoring me in the same classes that she took a year before. In that short amount of time, she had memorized the material so well that she could recite it. Half the time she didn’t even use the book. She just went by memory.
I listened and took the relevant notes, but I was stuck in the little pauses when she’d stop talking, and the tiny sounds our bodies would make. In those moments, there was a connection. I was starting to think that it might be enough to pull her in.
We were going over the English monarchy when I interrupted her. “I got a B on my chem test.” I pulled it out of my bag to show her. “Hamburg didn’t even write me a mean note.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“I’m going to pass,” I announced, “and it’s all because of you, so I’m taking you out.”
“That’s nice.” She pointed back down at my civ book.
“No, I mean it. I’m taking you out for a real dinner. This is an accomplishment.”
“I’m too busy.”
“I said I was taking you out. I didn’t say that you had a choice in the matter. You’re going—Wednesday night.”
“I won’t let you dictate my schedule to me.”
“You’re coming, though, right?”
“Not if I don’t have any choice in the matter.” She kept her eyes on the book.
“Would you like to go out with me Wednesday night?” I asked.
“Yes, I would love to.”
“Good. l told you, you didn’t have any other choice.” I grinned.
She looked at me, then back down at the book. “I could’ve said no.”
“Back to work.” I glared at her and pointed at the book playfully. The rest of the period, she’d read, then look up at me. I could see her staring out of the corner of her eye. When our session ended, I tested her and got up to leave without saying anything.
She didn’t do anything at first, as if she didn’t actually expect me to leave so fast. She didn’t even have her things together. Then she stammered a quick goodbye before I walked out.