Herobrine's Revenge (The Wielder Chronicles Book Two)

~ Tali and Harry In-betweener ~

~ Tali and Harry In-betweener ~

- Tali's POV -

"Tali, I'm very disappointed. Your grades are lower than they have ever been before, and you've failed to hand in yet another assignment. Sometimes I cannot believe that you're Nya Analove's sister."


Mr Abigail sighed, sagging in his chair behind his desk. My paper on 'Wood Architecture' sat in front of him, already a week late.


I shifted uncomfortably on the spot and mumbled, "Sorry, sir."


He looked at me sternly. "So you should be, Miss Analove. Keep up this poor work and you'll most likely fail ninth year."


I physically flinched. No one had ever been that brutally honest to me before, and frankly it was pretty alarming. "I will try harder, sir."


"Good. You're dismissed, Miss Analove."


I shuffled quickly out of the suffocating classroom, anxiety making my movements stiff. He was right. I was a terrible student. I could literally sense his utter disappointment that I was heading towards failure. But there was also something else in his tone; Nya Analove's sister. Almost as if he was saying, I can't believe she's so stupid when perfect little Nya had the best grades in the year level.


Which was true. A lot of people find it strange.


That night, I sat at my desk, in my small, pink-carpeted bedroom. Nya's was just down the hall, but of course, Nya was staying in her own apartment now. I wouldn't be able to see her as often anymore.


I remembered back to the times where Nys would tutor me, when we would laugh over the smallest things, and learn math methods at the same time. Those were the good days.


But now that Nys was gone, I couldn't do anything but sit there, my homework lying in front of me tauntingly. I just didn't understand any of it. Nys was the one who had taught me everything up to this point. I sighed. There wasn't really much point trying.

***

"Oh my Notch, I'm gonna be doing biology too!" Lara said in her over-the-top, high-pitched voice. We were sitting around our "group's" table. Lara sat opposite me along with Kaira, while Sara, Cherry and Violet sat either side of me.

We, or should I say, they, were discussing VCE subjects they're going to take next year. I was sort of sitting there like a lost cause, since I didn't know if I was even going into VCE.

"I want to take up Art," said Violet, who was like, the most artsy person I knew. "And definitely IT."

She turned to Sara expectedly. "Sara?"

"I'm doing Media and Legal Studies."

"Kaira?"

"Music, phycology, dance and drama."

"And Cherry?"

"Sociology and probably geography."

Cherry turned to me, her eyes filled with mild curiosity. "What about you, Tali?"

I thought to myself for a moment. If I told them VCE might not even be happening for me, they would probably to tell the entire school about it. So I just said,

"Business management." It was the subject I would take, since someone needed to take over my family's small café business. Nya was apparently pursuing other career options, so that left me with the job.

"Oh, cool." Cherry said, flicking her dyed pink hair over her shoulder and moving on to the next topic of conversation, which I barely listened to. But it only took a few words to get me pulled in.

"He's like, the best tutor ever! He does mostly basic maths and English, but he does s couple of other subjects too!"

I stuck my nose into their conversation. "A tutor?"

Lara nodded excitedly. "Mum got him for a couple of lessons, you know, since I need some help with my maths and stuff. And oh my Notch, he's so hot!" She fanned her face, and the other girls started asking more questions. I waited patiently until they shutted up a little.

"When can I ask him for a lesson? And what's his name?"

Lara looked over me critically. "Weren't you listening? He lives in some apartment, somewhere. Here's his address. And his name is Harrison James."

The bell for last period went, and I said thank you before heading off to class.



*ONE WEEK LATER*



Knock knock knock.

I walked slowly to the door, brushing through my knotty chestnut hair. I didn't even realise it was Saturday morning until I opened the door to a young, very attractive boy.

"Hi! My names Harry James, and I'm meant to be tutoring Tali Analove?" He said energetically, even though it was 9am.

I gaped. That was this morning? I still had bed hair! Oh no...

"S-sure! I'm Tali, and er, welcome to my house." I silently cursed myself for letting the awkwardness of the situation get to me. Harry didn't seem to mind.

"Are your parents home?" He asked, turning around a little to scan the living room.

I shook my head. "No, my parents work on Saturdays." He gave me a sympathetic look.

"That must be tough."

I shrugged. I guess it was, a little. But I've grown to never even notice that they're gone.

Suddenly I was aware of my clothes, or should I say, pyjamas. "Um, I'm gonna quickly get changed..." I said as I sped off to my bedroom. Once I got inside I closed the door and took a huge, deep breath. Calm yourself, Tali, you're only alone in a house with an extremely attractive boy who is currently SITTING OUTSIDE WAITING FOR YOU.

After I hastily got changed into some reasonable looking clothes, I walked to the living room, but it didn't take me long to realise that Harry wasn't there. Notch save me.

I heard a soft yell from behind me. "Hey, Tali? Do you mind giving me a little tour?" I turned around to see Harry looking at a painting my mother drew which was hung up on the wall.

"Er, sure, definitely - no, I mean, I don't mind, its just - well I do mind a little bit, but it doesn't matter I'm just being paranoid 'cause you know-" I rambled on, just managing to stop myself before the awkwardness got really out of hand.

He just smiled warmly. I begun showing him around the house - starting with the hall. We strolled down leisurely, and he promoted the idea of twenty questions, since we were going to be seeing each other for the next few weeks every Saturday and Wednesday. He started with the simple question of, "What's your favourite colour?"

Oh, well that didn't take much thinking. "Pink." I said immediately. "What about you?"

He grinned. "Orange."

Just like Nya, I thought, but quickly shook it from my head. Next he asked, "What's your full name and how old are you?"

"Well, technically my full name is Talia Heather Analove, but no one calls me Talia. And I'm 15-going-on-16. What about you, er, Mr James?"

He frowned and grimaced. "Ugh. Please don't call me Mr James. I'm not that old." I laughed at his expression of disgust. He cleared his throat and said, "I'm 18 and a half, and my full name is Harrison Robert Shane James. Not very original, I know."

I smiled timidly. "I dunno. I like it."

To my surprise, he blushed a bright red and turned away. "Er, thanks." He said quietly. "Next question. Do you have any siblings?"

I bit my lip. "Yeah, that's her room there. She's my older sister." I tapped on the door, indicating that this was her bedroom.

Harry shuffled uncomfortably. "By any chance, is your sister's name Nya Analove?"

I frowned. Yet another person who knew about my perfect sister. "Yep. That's her."

I expected Harry to go on with more questions about Nya, completely forget he was here to teach me, but he continued walking past. We continued our game of twenty questions until quarter to 10, and by that time Harry was deep into teaching me fractions (well, at least, he was attempting to).

"Do you get in now, Tals?"

I felt my heart flutter when he used the nickname 'Tals', and when he turned to me with his glittering green eyes and infectious smile, it began beating a million miles an hour.

"Er.. Yep!" I say as confidently as I can, trying to keep my composure.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Then can you answer this question?"

I sighed. This morning was going to be a little longer than I thought.



***



*TWO WEEKS LATER*


There were several important things that happened during the course of these 14 days.


Number 1: My grades were gradually improving.

Number 2: I learnt about Nya and Harry's friendship.

And most importantly,

Number 3: I was in love with Harrison Robert Shane James.


I found out when I did this quiz in some girly magazine Kaira had leant me. Something along the lines of, 'Do you have a crush?', or something else lame like that. I'm very into a lot of girly things, but magazines... No, magazines don't exactly scream 'me'.

Well, the test had come out with the answer of 'YES! YOU ARE TOTALLY IN LOVE!!' And so I could only presume that Harry, the only boy I hang out with, was the cause of this.

But it makes sense. Recently, whenever I've seen him, I've gone all dizzy and fluttery. At first I thought I had some kind of rare disease, but Mother had me tested and that obviously wasn't the case. Oh, not to mention my embarrassing habit of blushing when he's near me. Now that's what you call annoying.

He makes me feel so... Happy, just by being there. And I heard enough teenage gossip to know that those symptoms were one of the first few you get when you're in love.

Well, I should probably speak up about it... But, after some convincing by Violet (who, strangely, knew a lot more on boys than Kaira, Lara or Cherry) I had decided that today, being my last tutoring session from Harry, I was going to confess to him.

And boy, were the nerves eating me from the insides.

Also, Harry told me about how he met Nya in the jungle where she had lived in for several months. He also mentioned another boy... Zach, I think his name was? That had become his mate over the short period of time.

I had dressed up especially well just for this morning lesson, and since I got up three hours too early, I was completely ready and drumming my fingers on the dark wood table.

I heard a loud knock knock from the front door and raced up to answer it, feeling the familiar jumping of my heart at the sight of Harry waiting patiently for me to invited him in, which I did so.

"Hi Tals! Ready for another interesting lesson on algebra and linear equations?!" He asked eagerly, and I groaned. Not more school work.

He sat down at the dining table and slammed down a pile of heavy looking textbooks in front of him. I gingerly pulled out a seat beside him while he opened some math book.

"Now, can you please answer questions 1, 2, and 5? Ask if you have any problems."

The lesson went by like a breeze, and literally all I could remember was Harry's smile when I got an answer correct or his supporting comments if I had difficulties. His laugh when I got a silly answer still lingered in the air. I could hear the rain hitting the outside pavements like bullets.

Sooner than I had hoped, he looked up at the clock to where it had struck 1pm. "Sorry Tals, I've gotta go. I have a cleaning job at the Uni in half and hour. But it's been really, really good teaching you, Tals. I'll miss you." He said meaningfully, and pulled me into a short embrace.

It may have only lasted a few seconds, but those moments would stay in my mind forever. It may sound stupid, cliché even, but I've never felt this happy in my entire life. I felt complete.

He got up to leave, collecting his books and strolled over to the front door.