The Tutor

Chapter 6

Observing Nora had become almost a hobby for Rafe. He had never met such a creature of habit before. It was fascinating, really. The next day, after the vandalising incident they met again, outside their English Literature classroom.

Rafe hated spending time in his room, so he made it a habit to come to the main school building earlier. At least there he could chat with his newfound friends and binge on junk food from the tuck shop.

"What's so funny?" she turned to him as he chuckled. 

"Have you been staring at that dick since yesterday? It's not going away, no matter how much you glare at it."

"True, I've been glaring at the dick in front of me and yet, here you are," she said with a bitter smile.

Rafe found himself no longer pissed off at her acerbic comments. In fact, he relished in her comebacks. She was so unpredictable, he liked to get a reaction out of her, no matter what it was. The fact that she was so stoic and deadpan made it even more fun. More fun than anything in Berk. He actually smirked.

"Fiesty as always, cara."

"How do you say obnoxious pig in Italian?"

"Hey look. I did not touch your book, okay? If I could draw a dick that well, I'd be concerned."

He hoped for a smile, but she was in a foul mood. Well, more than usual.

"Mm yeah right. If it wasn't you, it was probably one of your idiot friends." Nora leaned against the wall with a sigh.

"I don't know. And I don't care. I have better things to do."

"I doubt that," Nora said.

He snorted and shook his head. This girl would always have the last word. He could see her lip almost curled into a smile in response to his laugh. This was the longest conversation they'd ever had.

God knows what possessed him to do it, but after a moment, while she still had a trace of a smile on her lips, he took out his brand-new untouched copy of the book. "Here. Take it. And stop looking so miserable," he shoved his book into her hands and took the defaced copy for himself.

Nora's eyes widened as she ran her hand through the new cover. "Are you sure?" Rafe shrugged. "I know you have some sort of weird love affair with that book."

"No I don't," she muttered, embarrassed though she pulled the book closer to her chest. "But you can get into trouble for that."

"I'm always in trouble."

"Thank you," she said. "But... Why are you being nice?"

Rafe shrugged. "Dunno, probably going to get expelled soon from here anyway. So, I don't need these damn books. I'll be out of here with my shitty grades."

She took his unblemished copy of the book. "I've got something to help if you're struggling with the text." Her hand disappeared into her school bag and produced a pack of neatly stacked plastic wallets tidily filled with papers marked with thin tabs of different coloured sticky notes hanging out the sides.

"They're my notes. For the book. I've simplified the content and answered all of the exercise questions. I mean, if my homework helped you last time," she said, looking away, a little abashed. "But you don't need to take it if you don't—"

"Let's see," he said and looked through the notes. Hallelujah, these could actually keep him from being expelled. He practically had all the answers that could possibly come up in an exam on this text. "This might be what I need...you'll let me have these?" he asked, as he greedily took the notes.