Always Been There 채니

Chapter 6 - For Free

Rosé sat at her desk at home and stared at her computer screen. She was sure the blinking line on her newly opened Word document was mocking her.

You. *blink* Will. *blink* Fail. *blink*

For most of the semester, Professor David Martinez had only assigned the class to write one or two-page papers, which Rosé could handle. She had known this big English paper was coming since the first day of class when she had read it on the syllabus. This big paper was only the first of three she had to write for the semester. Rosé knew she was screwed.

She had designed her academic calendar in such a way that she only took the English classes she absolutely needed to graduate. Nothing more. This literature class was one she should have taken her sophomore year, but she had put it off. But there was no more putting it off. She needed to pass this class to get her diploma. Ashley had been amazing in helping her, but Rosé was starting to feel guilty that she was taking up too much of her time when Ashley herself had just as much work.

"Ugh!" Rosé groaned and slammed the lid of her laptop shut. She still had a week before the paper was due. She still had time.

Professor Martinez had suggested she get a tutor and had given her the number of someone named Johnny Suh. She let out a breath and picked up her phone. She needed help.

"Hello," the guy over the phone said.

"Umm, hi," Rosé hated that even talking on the phone to someone she didn't know made her a bit nervous, "Is this Johnny Suh?"

"That's me," Johnny said, "Who is this?"

"Oh, umm, I'm Rosé. Rosé Park. I'm, uh, wondering if you're doing any tutoring right now? Professor Martinez gave me your number."

"Oh sweet!" Johnny said, sounding excited, "Yeah, I can tutor you. American Lit, right?"

"Yup," Rosé said relieved that Johnny sounded like a nice guy, "I have to write a 10-page paper and I'm so lost."

"No worries," Johnny said with a laugh, "I can help. What's your paper about?"

"Well," Rosé said, "Martinez had us choose a book and I chose 'Animal Farm' cause I thought it was about animals. But apparently, it's not, even though all the characters are animals."

Rosé was sure she sounded like an idiot and hearing Johnny chuckle on the other end of the phone only confirmed her suspicion.

"Easy enough," Johnny said, "That's one of the classics and not hard at all."

Again, Rosé felt like an idiot.

"OK, good," was all Rosé could say, "Can we meet later?"

"Let me check," Johnny said. Rosé heard some noises in the background. "Sure," he said, "Five? At The Bean?"

"Sure," Rosé said.

"Great," Johnny said, "So, it's $20 per hour."

"OK," Rosé said letting out a breath. She already knew this tutoring was going to be expensive.