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Chapter 3

I hated admitting when I was wrong. It was like telling everyone in Eighth Grade you had cooties. But, nonetheless, here I stood in Mrs Sander classroom admitting my worst fear.

"I'm so glad you reconsidered, Sienna." She smiled brightly. She was currently teaching a Senior AP Chemistry class. Luckily, they were busy working on some science project, chatting away, unable to hear our conversation.

I held my breath and bit the bullet, asking, "What do I need to do?"

Mrs Sanders softly smiled and took out a pen and paper. It was a chart with dozens of students' names.

"Well, I'll assign you a tutor and then you both can figure out a schedule to follow. It'd pretty simple, let me see." She tapped the pencil onto the wooden desk and scanned through the names. I waited to see what nightmare I'd be paired up with.

"Here's one! Pippa Walshaw. She's an excellent student and has currently finished tutor someone else. Got a B+ if I'm correct." She pointed over to a girl with curly brown hair and braces, she didn't have a bad fashion sense, but I would lose the kitten sweater.

I guess she didn't seem so bad. I could get along with her.

"She's also great at History too, considering you're failing at that also." Wow, thanks for the reminder Mrs Sanders. Really needed.

"Great, thanks for the help." I put on my best fake smile and grabbed my bag. Just as I was about to walk out of the door, Mrs Sanders called me back.

"Sienna, wait!" thankfully no one but me heard her. I groaned and turned back around. What did she want now?

"Forgive me for the intrusion, but Andy tells me you're failing in quiet a lot of your subjects." Does Andy not understand the rules of being a guidance councillor. One of the main ones being confidentiality. Him and I are going to have to have a little talk.

"What's it to you?" I shrugged.

"Well, in my opinion and hopefully yours too, I think it would be much easier to find one student that can tutor you in all instead of getting a few to tutor you in only a couple. Don't you agree?"

I sighed and pulled my bag further up my shoulder. "I guess." I didn't have time for this. Was I going to get a tutor or not?

"In that case, I might offer you someone else." I looked back at Pippa. She looked smart, surly she had to be good at more than Chemistry and French.

"Fine, who?" I didn't have time to waste. I already promised Rya we would go shopping after school and I wanted to leave early so we didn't have to wait in lines.

"Roman Lawrence." My whole body froze. Did she just say who I think she said? Oh hell no.

"No." I said bluntly. I did not want to be tutored by Roman Lawrence, not unless I wanted social suicide.

"Why not?" Mrs Sander looked confused and furrowed her eyebrows. How could she not know why I didn't want to be tutored by him? Barely anyone did.

"He just doesn't seem that... friendly." Friendly? More like he had very little friends.

Mrs Sanders only chuckled and tucked her pencil behind her ear. "I can assure you; he is a very lovely boy and is the perfect fit for your situation." Perfect fit? More like the worst nightmare.

"What's wrong with Pippa?" I never believed there'd be a day where I begged for Pippa Walshaw to tutor me. But here we are.

"Pippa is a very smart girl indeed, but she only has a B average in French and Statistics and I'm sure it would be better to have a student who is exceedingly high in all subjects in order to make your tutoring sessions the most efficient. Roman has gotten straight A's throughout all his high school career and can speak multiple languages, including French. I would assume you to be ecstatic at the idea." I would assume myself to be electrocuted at the idea.

Do I really want Roman Lawrence, a.k.a THE nerd of the high school to tutor me? Oh hell no. But from the look on Mrs Sanders face, it seemed like I had no choice.

"Urgh, fine. I'll take it." We would have to set up some rules. The last thing I wanted was to be seen with him.

Mrs Sanders frowned and took the pencil out behind her ear. "Here's the thing, Sienna. Roman can be rather picky in choosing students to study." Excuse me?

"I thought people did this for extra credit?" how could you be picky when most students would help out anyone, they got given in order to have an extra few numbers on their credit score.

"Roman is extraordinarily bright, the smartest person in school if you ask me. He barely needs the extra credit. Therefore, he likes to choose the people he tutors." That sounded a little dickish. 'I'm too good to help just anyone'. Real stuck up.

"Then what do I do?" I huffed. I didn't have time for this.

"Ask him." Hu?

"Ask him?" I repeated. "As in talk to him." Yep, bye, bye social life.

"It's not that difficult. Just ask him and he'll probably consider." Fuck, I had to actually talk to him. Why couldn't Mrs Sanders understand that this was public humiliation?

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'll give you Pippa, but I'm afraid you won't get the grades in all the subjects to get your GPA up to where you need it to be." fuck, I really needed to get a much higher GPA.

I had to do this, didn't I? Oh, fuck me.

That was how I ended up in our school library two days later, peeking round the corner of a bookshelf with Rya as we watched Roman Lawrence read some weird Science book.

"Is that him?" Rya whispered. I had to have some backup in this.

"Of course, it's him, he's worn those some fucking glasses since the Ninth Grade.

"He's grown into them a bit more now." I looked back at her and gave a look to say 'really?'. "What?" she whispered. "Just a comment."

Roman Lawrence looked like a nerd. The baggy jeans mixed with the tattered, grey sweater, and green beanie resting on his dirty blonde hair resting on his shoulder that looked as if it had been washed in grease this morning made him look slightly homeless, not to mention that extremely out of season converses and thick rimmed, black glasses he's been wearing since the Nineth Grade. Rya was right when she said he'd grown into them but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. If he grew a beard, I would mistake him for the homeless.

Was he homeless?

Not the point right now, Sienna.

"How are you going to go about this?" Rya whispered behind me. I turned back so we stood behind the wall and sighed.

"He has to put that book back at some point, and we he does, I'll go after him."

"Why am I here?"

"Because you, my sweet, little, sidekick, are going to make sure no one sees me. Clear?"

"Loud and clear captain." She saluted. We stood for almost an hour behind that freaking wall until Roman finally got up to put the book back.

"This is your chance." Rya whispered. No shit sherlock. I innocently scurried across the room as Rya followed behind. I looked back at her. "What?" she looked around the room.

"Do something!" I hissed. She looked around the room once more before pointing at a random corner on the floor.

"Oh my God! It's a snake!" her acting skills were so dry I almost died of dehydration. Despite that though, everyone seemed to get up and evacuate the floor.

"There's a snake?!"

"Oh my God!"

"Someone help!"

"Really?" I mouthed back to Rya who shrugged. I rolled my eyes and chased Roman down the aisle. He had to be here somewhere.

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