In Search of Tomorrow ✓

Three

When the doorbell rang at seven o'clock that evening, I was too busy multitasking to answer it. Maddie was sitting at the kitchen table coloring and begging for my attention; I was trying to look at her picture while sweeping up a plate that Clare had shattered while trying to help me unload the dishwasher. The sink was still running from when I'd been cleaning plates, my sisters' toys were spread out all over the floor, and I hadn't even gotten around to the milk Maddie had spilled on the floor when...

Ding dong.

"Darn it," I muttered, propping the broom against the counter and turning off the sink with my elbow. "Stay away from the plate, okay, Clare?" I asked, tucking my hair behind my ear and hurrying to answer the front door.

Cameron was leaning against the porch rail, his hands in his pockets and his black book bag on his back. He smiled at me when I answered, and when I caught my reflection in the glass of the door, I blushed. There were not even words to describe the state of my hair or my rumpled t-shirt.

"You have something on your nose," Cameron said, touching the tip of his nose.

Subconsciously, I reached up and brushed something off my nose which looked suspiciously like spaghetti sauce. "Come on in," I said abruptly, to cover up the awkward moment.

Cameron stepped inside the living room and I shut the door behind him. He only had to walk a few feet before he got a clear view of the kitchen, and his eyes widened slightly at the sight.

"Your parents don't go out of town often, do they?" he asked.

I rubbed my hands on my grey t-shirt and went back to sweeping. "You have no idea."

For a few minutes, Cameron stood in the entry of the kitchen, watching as I swept and then tried to finish the dishes; then he finally entered the kitchen and grabbed some paper towels.

"I figured we'd work on math today," he said as he got down on his knees and began wiping up the spilled milk. "That seems to be your worst grade."

I brushed back my hair out of nervous habit and put a plate in the dishwasher with a little more force than necessary. "An F is an F," I said, "and I have three of them."

"Yes, but I took the libery of talking to your teachers." Cameron tossed the wad of paper towels in the trash can and then came up behind me to toss the shards of plate from the dustpan into the garbage. "They all said you were brilliant, but that your grades were terrible. Why?"

"You're here to tutor me; you're supposed to be the one with the answers."

"Fine," said Cameron, putting back the dustpan. I put in the last plate and shut the dishwasher with my hip as I began picking up some of Maddie's books. "Where are we working? I can go ahead and get set up while you finish."

I was about to tell him that the kitchen table would work fine, but a glance up told me that Maddie had spread her coloring over the entire table--the tip of her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth as she colored with such concentration that she broke her pink crayon.

"Living room floor okay?" I asked.

Cameron shrugged, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards as he watched Maddie color with utmost concentration, but then he picked up his backpack again and disappeared into the living room.

It was fifteen minutes before I'd finished cleaning the kitchen and settled my sisters down with quiet activities, and then headed inside the living room to conquer the second my first tutoring session. Cameron was sitting on his phone, books, calculators, and papers spread out in front of him, texting.