The Roseview High Rumors

CHAPTER FOUR - Pedro

Pedro resisted the urge to make a paper airplane and aim it at the back of Augusta's head. He knew it was a childish thing to do, but pissing her off during lessons was something he enjoyed doing.

"Are you following?" Augusta asked.

Pedro nodded. "Yeah. Absolutely. Carry on."

Augusta shook her head in disbelief, but continued writing and explaining the maths question she was solving on the board.

Eight weeks after their chaotic meet and greet, Augusta and Pedro had settled into a problematic arrangement. Augusta had band practice on Tuesdays and Pedro had football practice on Wednesday and Thursday. She worked part time at her parents organic food store on Fridays and Sundays. He did cardio and weight training on Mondays. Neither of them were interested in changing their schedules.

Denning came at Pedro with guns blazing, so he was forced to back down. With great reluctance, Pedro agreed to work out on Sundays and Augusta switched to Wednesday and Thursday for work. To outsiders it appeared to be a fair compromise. Augusta and Pedro thought otherwise.

Considering each other disruptors of schedules, they drove each other nuts.

"Who the heck uses this crap in real life?" Pedro huffed. He threw his hands in the air and rolled his eyes. "Has anyone ever needed a quadratic equation to make a living?"

Augusta's head snapped in his direction. "Actually, throwing a ball and diving from a platform are real life activities that can be modeled by quadratic equations," she replied in a cool voice laced with ice.

Pedro closed his eyes to stifle an eye roll. He doubted any athlete gave a damn about a squared variable or a freaking graph. "Sure, Augusta."

"Positive. Sport is more scientific than you realize."

"Really. That's good to know, Augusta. Even a broken clock is right twice a day."

"You're welcome, Pedro. Some things look ridiculous from the outside. Imagine someone putting a helmet and heavy padding on before deliberately getting bashed and tackled by huge opponents. Just to struggle for a tiny ball." She shrugged in distaste. "It seems kinda barbaric. Doesn't it?"

"How could you over simplify the art of football like that?" Pedro hissed.

Augusta pouted and talked in a baby voice. "Aww. Does it hurt? Would you like a juice box or a cookie?"

It was a good thing they had their private lessons in a glass study cubicle at the school library. All eyes were on them, and they would get detention or worse for fighting. Who knew how heated their arguments would get elsewhere?

Pedro scowled but did not respond to her diss. Augusta smirked, and continued gesticulating as she explained the equations step by step.

"What did I say just now?" Augusta asked.

"What did I say just now," he replied tongue in cheek.

Pedro fixed a cool gaze on Augusta. She had her hands on her hips, and she pursed unimpressed lips at him. The whiteboard Augusta was using for his lesson was covered in quadratic equations.

He suppressed a chuckle. For a moment her frown of disapproval looked cute.

Augusta scoffed. "Ha! Ha! Wise guy. What did I say before that?"

"You said four ways to solve a quadratic equation are factoring, completing the square, the quadratic formula and graphing," Pedro replied.

Augusta stepped back and flared her eyes as her hands flew to her chest in shock. "Wow! That's incredible," she said.