You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

44

"Nolan!" I said when I reached him.

Our second period was math today, and I desperately needed his help with some problems I couldn't solve even with Cody's help.

Nolan, who was sitting at his usual spot beside my desk, stirred.

"Yeah?"

I stifled a laugh that almost escaped from my throat when he raised his head to look at me. He was frowning, and his eyes were squinting at me. He looked so grouchy, but the sleepiness in his voice was enough to offset the crankiness on his face. I didn't know why that somehow seemed almost adorable to me.

It helped that he didn't snap at me anymore whenever I tried to wake him up, which I was assuming was a nice by-product of our growing friendship, especially since I still had to do it in Mr. Jameson's class.

"Please help me!" I presented my worksheet to him as I plopped myself down on my chair. "I can't solve this. I was actually having trouble understanding Mr. McMillan in class the other day, too."

"Then why didn't you ask him?"

"I thought Cody could help me," I said, groaning. "I don't really like the way Mr. McMillan teaches us. When he tries explaining things, I just get more confused."

Nolan straightened up a little more. "Cody? Why him?"

"We study together, remember?"

"Oh," he said, reaching for his pencil.

"Yeah, he often helps Ashley and me when we get stuck with math and chemistry questions. His chemistry is better than his math, though. Sometimes I feel bad that he helps us so much," I said, grinning.

"I could help you, too," he muttered, pulling the worksheet towards himself.

"What?" I said, wondering if I'd heard him wrongly.

Did he really just say that?

"Nothing," he said, tracing along my working with the eraser end of his pencil.

"Could've sworn I heard you say you could help me," I mumbled.

"What if I did?"

I looked at him, not bothering to disguise the hopefulness on my face. "Then ... why don't you study with us? I could really do with your help! You're so good at all the subjects."

After all, our exams were coming up. If Nolan joined us on our study group sessions, he would also be getting more revising in.

He looked up from my worksheet at me. "You want me to?"

"Of course!"

Part of me wanted him to come so that I could interact with him more outside of classes, especially now that our weekly forest night outings were on hold. He still had lunch with us a few times a week, which was admittedly quite a lot, but we pretty much never hung out apart from that.

Although he was starting to get along somewhat nicely with my best friends, I wouldn't say that the distance between them had been bridged so much that I could justify asking him to join us in our every group activity. Besides, Nolan still chose to sleep whenever possible during the day.

His reply came after a few seconds of pause. "Okay."

My mouth fell open slightly. I couldn't believe he actually agreed, considering how difficult it had been at the start to get him to join us for lunch.

"Yes!" I beamed at him. "We're going to study together after school tomorrow. Are you free then?"

"Yeah, I'll come."