therapy | luke hemmings a.u

:: Three

:: T H R E E ::

The bell rang signaling the end of History. Ellie grabbed her bag and made her way to her locker where she stuffed her books and bag before shutting it and making her way to the cafeteria – it was lunch. She grabbed a tray and stood in line where she was joined by Kira about a minute later. The two greeted each other with “hellos” and moved up the lunch line picking out what they wanted. They then made their way to their usual table where Michael was sitting along with his best friends Calum and Ashton.

“Hi boys!” Ellie said warmly as she sat down next to Michael who pecked her on the cheek.

“Hey Ellie!” Calum said excitedly.

“Well hello there, Elaine.” said Ashton as he giggled making Ellie wince. No one except her parents called her that.

“Oh shut up, Fletcher.” Ellie retorted. “No wait Fletcher actually sounds good.” She groaned.

“So, Ellie.” Said Kira and everyone directed their gaze towards her. “How’d you do on your math paper?” she asked. She knew how much hard work Ellie had put into that paper.

“Well… it’s not that good.” Ellie pouted making everyone’s eyes go wide. She sighed and said, “I might as well tell you all.” She looked down at her lunch tray. “I got an A+!” she exclaimed looking up abruptly making her friends’ faces break into grins.

“I’m so proud of you, babe.” said Michael as he kissed the side of her head.

 “Oh please!” huffed Ashton and Calum. “We’re proud of her too, okay lover boy?”  they said making Michael raise his hands in surrender making Kira and Ellie laugh.

“Oh and there’s this other thing.” Ellie said as she saw Luke walking into the cafeteria. “I’ve been asked to tutor Luke in math since he pretty much failed the paper.” She said – her eyes still on Luke.

“He failed? I thought he was silent yet smart kind of guy.” said Kira looking over at Luke so did everyone else.

“You guys! Stop staring at him like that!” Ellie exclaimed shocked at how stupid her friends were being. “And he might be smart for all we know, but I think there’s something wrong. He might be having problems at home or something since he didn’t want me to meet at his house like a normal tutoring would be.”

“Where’d he ask you to meet him?” piped up Michael suspiciously. “When?”

“Tomorrow at the Allison’s coffee shop. It’s close to where I live anyway.” She said nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders.

-

The next day Ellie woke up early for a change. She went through her usual morning routine and went downstairs to grab some actual breakfast other than the snack bars she had been downing for the past few weeks.

“Do my eyes deceive me? Is the queen up early today?” Jane said teasingly as her daughter entered the kitchen and plopped her school bag onto the table.

“Oh ha-ha, mom.” Ellie rolled her eyes as a smile formed on her lips. “Where’s dad and Jake?” she asked when she noticed her father and brother were missing.

“Oh didn’t Jake tell you honey?” she asked making Ellie shake her head curiously. “He has joined the school basketball team and they have tryouts today so he asked dad to drop him off early.”

“Oh.” Ellie said as she took a sip of her coffee – with milk just the way she liked it. Jake’s school was a 15 minute drive from their house. Ellie and Jake didn’t go to the same school since he didn’t like it there and decided to go to another school instead. “I didn’t even get to wish him good luck!”