Chapter 6 Tutoring

"Okay, we're done for today. I need to be somewhere now." I say standing up from the library chair.

I'm in the library tutoring Jace Harris or rather just finished tutoring Jace Harris for the day. I had given Rose a head start earlier.

"No assignment I guess?" Jace asks.

"Nope. You'll just have to go through what I taught you and make sure you don't forget them." I say.

"Okay." Jace says.

"I'll call you tomorrow when my lectures are over and....please don't be late. If you're busy at the time I call you, just reply with a text." I say.

"Okay, got it." Jace says.

"Okay then, gotta go." I say and start making my way out of the library.

I really gotta get to the restaurant.

I haven't told Mr. Martin about the tutoring stuff so being late for work will be really hard to explain.

Michelle and Amber already left earlier and they agreed to cover for me till I get there.

"Mia!! Wait up please." I hear someone from behind say. I turn to see Jace running towards me.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Umm....I....there's something I wanna ask you." Jace says on reaching where I'm standing outside the library.

"I thought you said you didn't have anymore questions, why this now?" I ask.

"The question has nothing to do with the lecture or whatever." Jace says.

My phone chimes and I see a text from Amber.

"Where are you?"

"You should better get here soon."

Oh..no....

Can't his question wait till maybe tomorrow?

"Can't the question wait?"I ask.

"Umm....it can....I guess....."

"Then ask me later." I say.

"Oo....kay." Jace says. One would know how hard he's trying to hide his disappointment.

Not like I care anyway........

Okay.... I do care.

"Hey, I can tell that you really wanna ask me the question for you to come running after me but I've got somewhere I need to be in the next five minutes. Ask me later. Infact it should be the first thing you ask me tomorrow before we start, okay?" I say.

"Okay, no problem." Jace says.

"Good, see you tomorrow then." I say and start walking away, trying so hard not to run.

I'm really lucky that Michelle and Amber had left the car for me. They had their boyfriends drive them out of campus, probably to the restaurant.

Jace's POV........

"See you." I say not minding that Mia is already 1000km away from me.

I'm exaggerating of course.

She must really be in a hurry.

But where could she be rushing to?

It's none of your business, Jace.

Yeah, it's none of my business.

Mind conversations can be fun, isn't it?

It's Jace Harris here. I believe you know me already.

I stare as she keeps walking in a haste.

I notice how hard she's trying not to run.

Why is she always in a haste?

I had just figured out that she was the girl I bumped into like a week ago.

She looked so familiar that I had to do a little digging in my memory.

I wanted to ask her if she remembered bumping into each other the other day but now I think it would be dumb to ask her such.

How would it be when I'll be like "Hey Mia, do you remember bumping into someone while running through the hallway last week, I was the one you bumped into."

And then she may be like "I don't remember" or she would probably start apologizing for bumping into me that day and that's the last thing I wanna hear now.

I really don't know why I wanna tell her. I mean it's not like it's something important.

I don't think I'll tell her. It's not necessary to tell her. I'll probably come up with a random question tomorrow if she reminds me of the question I wanted to ask her.

Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.

"Yo, Jace." I hear a familiar voice call out.

"Yes?" I answer.

"Aren't you coming home?" Idris asks.

This is Idris Jackson, my long time friend and my room mate too.

We live together in an apartment not too far from the campus.

"I'm coming." I reply.

"Then come on, let's go. What are you staring at?" Idris asks.

I just realized that I've been staring at the direction Mia had gone through not minding that she's no longer there.

"Nothing man, lemme just grab a few things and then we'll get going." I say tapping Idris' shoulder. I get back to the library to grab my bag and my notebooks.

I then hurry outside so not to keep Idris waiting for long.

"Let's go." I say.

"So how was the tutorial stuff?" Idris asks.

"Not bad." I say.

"Not bad? What do you mean by not bad?" Idris asks.

"Well, I can't really explain. It's only my first day. Ask me after like five or seven days, okay?" I say.

"Okay, dude. You wanna grab some burger and fries on the way?" Idris asks.

"Yes..yes....I'm starving." I say.

"Good." Idris says.

************************************

Mia's POV......

"Hey guys, I'm so sorry. I lost track of time." I say.

"Yeah, you should be sorry. Now go and put on your work T-shirt. Mr. Martin will be here soon." Michelle says.

I quickly rush to the room where female employees change their outfits to their work outfits. I take out my branded T-shirt from the wardrobe and change into it immediately. I then reach for my badge which has 'MIA', as in my name inscribed on it. Fully prepared, I rush out of the room back to where I'm supposed be.

"You're so damn lucky, Mia. Where the hell have you been?" Amber asks.

"I was where I told you guys I would be, in library, tutoring Jace Harris." I say.

"Yeah and you told us it would be two hours stuff but then you spent three hours if not even more." Michelle says.

"I'm really sorry, I really don't know how I lost track of time." I say.

"Is that Jace dude really so dumb that you lost track of time while tutoring him?" Michelle asks.

"Hey!!" Amber yells.

"What? It's a fucking question." Michelle says.

"He's not dumb, he just has so many things he needs to catch up on." I say.

"Guys, on your working positions. Mr. Martin is here." Kelvin, one of the male employees says behind us.

Everyone starts making themselves busy. Not much people are at the restaurant now so some of the employees are less busy.

Supervising the employees to know if they or rather we're doing well with our jobs is the first thing Mr. Martin does once he comes to the restaurant.

That's why at the sight or even at the mention of Mr. Martin, everyone gets busy.

Mr. Martin is not a scary or mean boss that would just fire you out of the blue. He's a very cheerful kinda man. He definitely wouldn't fire you for not working when he comes in. He would just ask you few almost-not-serious questions and tell you to go back to work but we don't care, we still maintain our working positions when he's coming or in the restaurant as we're working. Who knows if it maybe different one day. Maybe he would come in a really bad mood and have a change of heart about certain things and it could be disastrous, I mean.....as we haven't really seen him angry, his angry side may be like the ripper side of Stefan Salvatore from 'The Vampire Diaries'

I hope that day never comes. I like Mr. Martin's cheerfulness. I don't even know how it's gonna be if he ever gets mad at any of us employees. I really don't wanna imagine it.

"Good evening, everyone." Mr. Martin addresses us as he enters the restaurant.

"Good evening, Mr. Martin." We all say almost in unison.

"I see we don't have much people here yet." Mr. Martin says.

"Umm.....it's almost dinner time so they will start trooping in very soon." Janet, a black haired girl who is one of the female employees says.

"Okay, I see you guys are doing well. A good number of people or rather customers have been frequenting this restaurant and it's because of your wonderful work here. We've more customers now because this place is the most recommended restaurant in this area and it's because you guys have been doing a wonderful job here. Thank you so much for bringing and keeping the shine of this restaurant. It's an honor to have employees as hardworking as you guys." Mr. Martin says.

"Thank you Mr. Martin. It's an honor to have you as our boss." We said almost in unison.

Wow, it feels like we've been practicing this for ages.

Look how we keep responding in unison as if we're robots.

Shut up, Mia.

Ok.....I'm shutting up.

Mind conversations as usual.

"Okay, that being said, let's get back to work. You all heard Janet, customers will start trooping in very soon. It's time to get busy again......really busy. So let's get busy." Mr. Martin says.

"Let's get busy!!!!" We yell to the extent that some customers who were already here looked at us in a questionable way.

You see why we love Mr. Martin. He's a really nice man.

"So Mia, tell me......"

Michelle interrupts Amber.

I didn't even notice they were still beside me.

".....us.....tell us, how does he look?" Michelle asks with one of her eyebrows raised.

"Who? Mr. Martin? He looks happy as always. Does he look different to you?" I ask rhetorically.

"Not Mr. Martin you idiot, Jace Harris." Amber says.

"Gosh, you may be a really smart chick but you're still clueless sometimes." Michelle says.

"Guys, seriously? You guys are seriously gonna ask me that again?" I ask.

"Yes, Mia. Is it so bad that your friends wanna know how your yet-to-be-friend looks?" Michelle asks.

"Yeah, if those friends are literally torturing me about it." I say.

"Well, I'm sorry if you see asking about someone as a torture but I'm gonna have to continue till you answer." Michelle says.

"So how does he look Mia? And if you say you don't know, I swear I will murder you." Amber says.

"That means you're gonna have to murder me 'cause I don't know." I say.

Michelle and Amber lets out a heavy sigh almost at the same time.

"He's handsome, isn't he?" Amber asks.

"I told you I don't know." I say.

"Yes, you do and you're hiding it because maybe you're ashamed or shy to admit it." Michelle says.

"You don't know that." I say.

"I do, infact we all do." Amber says.

"Mia, you may be difficult to understand sometimes but as someone who has known you for this long I really understand what you're doing right now." Michelle says.

"What are you talking about? I'm not doing anything." I say.

"Yes you're, Mia." Amber says.

"Jace Harris must be a good looking guy but you're pretending not to know how he looks because you're too shy to admit it." Michelle says.

"I'm not doing that." I say.

"Yes you're, I get that you never really look at guys but I've noticed that when you manage to look at them, you're always quick to say "he's ugly" but when the handsome one passes by all you say is "I don't know/I wasn't looking" and that's what you're doing now about this Jace guy. You can't tell me that you don't know what the guy you sat close to for almost four hours looks like. That's an unwise lie." Amber says.

Ouch!!!

The "unwise lie" part is kinda brutal.

"So if you'll please cut the bullshit and tell us how he looks, I think it would be better." Michelle says.

"Fine, you guys should ask me again tomorrow when I'm back from tutoring him. I promise, I'll answer........"

Michelle interrupts me.

".......accurate answer. Not "I don't know" just "handsome" or "ugly", "sexy" or "not sexy"......"

I interrupt.

"......yes...yes.....I get it."

"Okay, better." Amber says.

As much as I hate to admit but Amber and Michelle are right. I've always been that girl who cares less about any guy so whenever I see a guy who is obviously good looking, I always kinda freak out because like I said, I should be the girl who cares less about any guy, who doesn't look at guys not to talk of saying if they're ugly or handsome.

It's really kinda scary to have a little change in life.

Jace Harris is indeed a really handsome guy. I didn't really notice so much that day his uncle introduced him to me, but now that I spent a long time with him, I noticed a lot especially his charming brown eyes and his amazing jawline.

He's handsome as hell!!!

I bet I'll notice more features since I'm gonna tutor him for as long as he learns something reasonable enough to get his grades up.

"Are you gonna discuss all evening or are you gonna come help serve some customers. So many of them are already here waiting to be attended to." Suzie says from behind.

"Suzie! we've missed so much. Where did you go?" Amber asks.

"Seriously Amber? We saw each other like two hours ago." Suzie says.

"Yeah but you left without saying a word." Michelle says.

"Yeah. I had something really personal I needed to settle and I also had to pick up some cooking ingredients. We don't really have time for any further discussions. Come on, let's go get busy." Suzie says, tying her strawberry blonde hair into a loose ponytail.

"Yeah, let's go." I say.

We all move to where some customers are sitting and start attending to them, each of us taking different tables.

************************************

I've always known that teaching is not so easy but I never knew how hard and stressful it could be. It's been like a month and few weeks since I started tutoring Jace Harris.

Very stressful period of time.

It hasn't been so easy for me, combining so many things at the same time. I finally had to tell Mr. Martin about the tutorial stuff and that I can't work at the restaurant everyday since combining it with tutoring Jace Harris is really difficult for me.

Mr. Martin being Mr. Martin granted me like three days off work. I now work in the restaurant on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays then I tutor Jace on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Sundays are normally totally free except if there's an exam or test coming.

Tutoring Jace Harris may not have been so easy but it's really progressive. Jace is a really good student. He understands stuffs so fast and it may have been what made tutoring him almost easy.

Emphasis on ALMOST.

We've covered a lot of things that I didn't think it was possible to cover in just a month. I feel that Jace can do well with just a head start because that's actually all he needed.

But giving him more wouldn't hurt though. Tutoring Jace Harris is sometimes an opportunity for me to study more because you understand more as you teach. I also sometimes check on Rose to see how she's doing and she's doing pretty well too.

I must say, I kinda feel proud of myself these days. I can't wait for tests to be written. Their performance in the tests will determine if I've been doing a good job or not.

I really hope that I've been doing a good job.

"Hey Mia." Jace calls out interrupting my thoughts.

"Yes?" I answer.

"Are you not leaving?" Jace asks.

"Ohh...umm....not yet." I say.

We're sitting at my under-tree spot.

We've agreed earlier that our venue for this.....tutorial or whatever would be either the library or my under-tree spot. We had just finished today's session.

"Why?" Jace asks.

"Nothing, I just feel like spending more time here." I say.

"Can you at least grab something to eat? We've been here for so long. I bet you're hungry." Jace says.

"I'm so tired to get up and go and then come back here." I say.

"Then lemme do it for you. Tell me what you wanna eat, I'll grab it quickly and bring it to you." Jace offers.

"There's no need for that. Don't worry, I'll get something to eat on my way home or I'll eat when I get home. I'm not really hungry now, I just need to rest a bit." I say.

"I swear I heard your stomach grumble during our session." Jace says.

"What? You didn't hear anything." I say and my stomach suddenly grumbles loudly.

Jace starts chuckling.

"Shut up." I say.

"I didn't say anything."

"But your reaction said something." I say.

"So what do you say? I should grab you something to eat, shouldn't I?" Jace asks.

"Ugh....fine, you win. I'll follow you out now." I say standing up from the bench.

"Yes! But that was a pretty loud cry from your stomach." Jace teases.

"Shut up, you did not hear anything." I say.

"I did hear something though." Jace says.

"Come on! Jace."I say.

"Let's go and console that stomach with food."

"Jace!!" I yell.

Jace and I leave the campus area.

Jace has been not just a good student, he has been caring too. Not everyone cares if you're hungry or anything else but he cares a lot. I kinda like his personality.

"So what do you wanna eat?" Jace asks me.

"I don't know, let's get there first."

"Okay, ma'am."

"Stop it." I say giving Jace a light push.

I think we're about to be friends if not already.