Teach Me (GxG)

Two

It was exactly 5 o'clock when Hobbit Girl rang the doorbell. Good. She was on time.

I opened the door, seeing her wear different clothes than those that she wore at school. This time, she wore a fitted sweater with a newer beanie. That exceeded the expectations that I had for her, so I was impressed.

"Come in. I'll show you where we'll be sitting." I motioned her to follow me. We went to the dining room the was connected to the main kitchen. My notebook was placed neatly on the table already.

"Okay, Hobbit Girl, you start by telling me what you need help with and I can try to help you understand it better, okay?"

"Noah."

"What did you say?"

She grabbed her hair and ran through it with her fingers. She never looked at me. Instead, her eyes were on her textbook.

"Noah. My name's Noah Alexander."

I was stunned for a moment. I had never heard her speak this much at a time. Then, my surprise turned into delight.

I guess she didn't like being called "Hobbit Girl" so she put her foot down and told me her name. My lips twitched, begging to smile.

"Okay, Noah, what should we work on?"

We practiced topics about cells and cellular functions for about twenty minutes. Despite this, she only spoke when she absolutely had to, so I had to keep the conversation going.

"Peypey! I'm hungry!" I heard Avery whine. I swung around to see her standing with her favorite teddy bear Mr. Rainbow.

I turned to Hobbit Girl looking at Avery. "Sister?" She asked.

"Yeah. And she's hungry." I stood from my seat. "I have to go feed her. I'll be back."

She shook her head. "No, I should probably leave anyw-"

"No. You are not leaving until you understand everything that we talked about. I need you to pass in order for me to pass. We don't have time to waste." She stayed planted in her seat.

I walked over to the oven and put frozen chicken nuggets in there. My mom would kill me if she knew that I went to the store and bought frozen chicken nuggets for Avery, but I didn't care. I didn't have time to make an actual meal. Besides, Avery likes simple things like chicken nuggets.

Avery slowly made her way towards me. "You're having chicken nuggets, okay?"

"Okay." She tugged at my skirt. "Is that your friend?" She pointed towards Hobbit Girl."

I chuckled. "No, Avery, I'm her tutor."

"What's that?"

I ruffled her hair. "Aves, a tutor is someone that helps to teach someone something that they don't understand."

She looked at me with a confused face. "And you're a tutor?"

"Yes I am."

She pondered for a moment. "So, can you teach me why I like my friend Max?"

I smiled. "Well, a tutor can't teach you everything, because no one knows everything in the world. Sometimes you have to figure out the answer yourself, alright?" She nodded her head as she processed what I told her.

Soon, her nuggets were done and I was back at the table.

"Okay, I have some questions that I made that can help to determine if you fully understand or not. If you do, you can leave. If not, we can practice for fifteen more minutes. Then I will give you the practice questions again to see if spending more time on it helped."

She shook her head before quickly finishing the questions. I graded them in a flash.

"Out of the ten questions... you answered one right." I sighed. "Okay, fifteen more minutes." She shrugged and listened attentively as I went over everything again.

The next time she answered the questions, she answered them all correctly. I smiled. "I'm an awesome tutor."

If I wasn't mistaken, I could see Hobbit Girl smile from that statement.

"Next time, we'll talk more in depth about cellular respiration and photosynthesis."

She shook her head and stood up. I ushered her to the door and watched as she left.

"What a day."

Avery was fast asleep after eating and the house was quiet and peaceful. I scrolled through social media for a few minutes before I felt my eyes getting heavy.

•••

Over the course of the week, I tutored Noah at the school library. My reputation was taking a hit, but no one dared to say anything to my face about it, so I couldn't give a shit.

She was slowly learning, but she always failed the questions that I made up the first time. This led to our tutoring sessions being longer than expected, but I would do anything to pass.

I didn't have to tutor her today, but I had a photoshoot planned for a popular teen brand.

Paola, my manager, talked me through what to do while I was getting my makeup done. "Make sure you smile with your eyes and be polite. After that last photo shoot blogs have been calling you a brat."

I sighed. "I will, stop worrying."

I posed in the outfits. Modeling could be fun, but mostly it was still just a boring job that I went to.

The stylist was scanning for my next outfit. "Which outfit speaks to you?"

I tried so hard to ignore where my eyes kept landing. Of course, that failed.

"Can I wear that sweater?"