A Little More Than Xs And Os

A change of plans

I look at her in awe. "What are you doing?" I ask her, looking to our hands. But I don't let go.

"It's a plan of mine to get Aaron and his weirdo friends to stop checking me out. Didn't you say they hated you?"

I laugh, which may actually help with her plan if they see how much 'fun' we're having. But then we walk out of sight of the pizzeria and we both shake our hands free.

"Sorry, I just can't stand it when guys that stupid hit on me. I had to make them realize I was 'taken', otherwise they would never leave me alone."

Peyton's brilliant ideas always took me for a curve. But I understood what I was supposed to do now. I understood perfectly. And her plan might just run adjacent to my plan.

"Do you realize we both have something in common?" I ask her. She looks up from her sneakers to my face. "What?" she asks. I look back in the direction of the pizzeria. "Those idiots. We both hate them. But they like you."

She sighs. "Indeed. It is a blessing and a curse." She looks back down at her shoes and I can't help but smile at her and chuckle. "I would say that same thing for me, but I'm too ugly to say that about myself." I get a laugh out of her just as she kicks a rock off the sidewalk. 

"Oh, come on, Adam. You're not that ugly." We both laugh. Then something about her expression changes. "But haven't you dated like...all the girls in school?" I would almost say there's sadness or maybe jealousy in her eyes and voice. I wiggle my eyebrows. "I guess you're hinting that I'm not so ugly after all?" She flips her bangs out of her eyes to give me a scowl. "No, that's not what I was implying." But we still both shake our heads and chuckle. 

"Okay, well, I'll be honest. I didn't really want to tutor you. The football thing was another reason, but I just thought I would hate your guts. I realize now I don't necessarily hate your guts." I roll my eyes. "Gee, thanks." She nods her head to a couple houses down the street. "I live right down here. So if one of us can't stay after school, we can at least meet up at my place. That is, if you can make it here all the way on foot." She cocks an eyebrow at me and bites the corner of her lip. I nod, sarcastically rolling my eyes. "Don't worry. My parents will make sure I get this tutoring. And I will too if it means I get my car back." She goes to laugh for a second and then stops herself when we reach her house. 

"Thanks for walking me home. See you at school?" I scratch the back of my head. "I don't think I really have a choice." She looks down at her shoes again and smiles. "Okay, see ya." She goes to walk back to the house but I hold up a hand to stop her. "Wait."

"What is it?" she asks. My eyes drift to a garage with a red Chevy Z71 truck parked under it. "Who's is that?" I point to the truck. She walks over to it and pats the hood. "Mine. Well, when we get it running. It was my brother's." I nod along to every word. "I love Chevy trucks. How much more do you have to do to get it running?" I ask. She taps her chin. "I don't think there's much more to do. I know I have to get some parts for it but I'm not sure. It's been a while since I worked on it."

I run my hand on the hood. "It's nice. Is this another reason you didn't want to have to stay after school?" She looks up into my eyes. "You're good at guessing." I smile. "Well how else do I fail all my classes?" She bites her lip and laughs.

"I'll see you tomorrow!" I call to her as I start walking.

***********

"Adam, come on, wake up." Kelsey tries dragging me out of bed but I don't feel like getting up. Until I remember I told Peyton I'd see her today and I'd feel like I stood her up if I didn't show.

I catch Trevor going down our neighborhood street right at his usual time and jump in with him. Today I wear Nikes, a Hollister tee, and a pair of jeans. I felt like I needed to start improving my clothes if I was improving my grades.

We get to school and I watch the girls watch me. Yeah, that's right, even without my sports car all I have to do is wear my nice clothes again and I'm good.

"Hey Peyton." I say as I approach her in the school's courtyard, girls around me whispering and giggling. Peyton turns to me and takes one look at what I'm wearing and the girls around me and snorts. "Get lost." she says. Oh, okay, I see. I'm not supposed to talk to her in school but, yet, if a guy hits on her she wants me to come to the rescue. It doesn't work like that, Peyton.

I turn to Trevor with a smirk. "Dude, what are you smiling at? You just got turned down. And I was almost positive the other day that she liked you. She's confusing for someone who's supposed to be a tutor." I laugh as we walk away from her little group.

I throw a few waves at girls who pass me in the halls. "Boy, you got your mojo back, don't ya?" I laugh and run my hand through my hair. "All I have to do now is get my car back and get back on the football team." He shoves me playfully and I scrape the wall. I hear sobbing coming from the cafeteria.

When we walk in to the people eating breakfast, I see Colleen and automatically wish I didn't make eye contact with her. She buries her head in her hands and a group of her dumb cheerleader friends surround her.

"Do you know anything about Aaron breaking up with her for that geek Peyton?" One of her friends comes up to me. I look at her dumb founded. "I didn't have a clue until you just told me. And why would you ask me if you already seem to know the whole situation?" I snort. She rolls her eyes and jumps back over to Colleen.

Now I know that Colleen dumped me for Aaron. Yeah, well how does it feel to be dumbed by Aaron, Colleen?

Aaron is being a jerk. Someone needs to stop that. It won't be me entirely, but maybe me and Peyton can put our heads together.

No, no, no. We have tutoring. I need to get my car back and her and I don't need to be spending so much time or else people will get suspicious. But, maybe that's what we need...

*******

I open the door to the library. "Good news, I found out what classes I'm taking and did you know that there's textbooks you can take home? Who knew right?" I say to Peyton sarcastically. But I know she must be hiding a smile somewhere, or maybe Aaron actually did ask her out and that's why she's not showing her amusement.

I sit down beside her and she looks up from her own textbook. I pull out my own and flip to a random page, staring at her all the while. "Peyton, what's up?" I ask. She puffs out her cheeks and sighs. "Well that jerk Aaron dumped his girlfriend for me. He's so sleezy. I turned him down and his girlfriend, or should I say ex, is threatening me. Not that I -- a soccer player -- am afraid of that dumb cheerleader."

I nod, agreeing with her. "Anyways, let's get started. The sooner we get your grades up, the sooner we can stop pretending we're friends."

Pretending.... Pretending?

"Okay." It's all I have to say.

"Okay, you're in Math 3. Okay, I can work with that." she says while she looks at my paper with my class schedules printed on it.

"Here's my homework." I bring out my binder from under my seat and pull out a few sheets of papers Mr. C assigned to me. She eyes them and says she can help no problem. Gosh, she's sounding just like the girl I hated previously.

She walks me through it step by step. When will people realize, I'm not stupid. I understand everything she's explaining. It's just a repeat of what I learned in class. How do people think I haven't been held back? I ace the tests, I just fail the class. I have a photographic memory; I don't need to take notes and I just don't want to do the work.

I don't have doubts about Peyton though; as long as she doesn't act like the jerk she was just being, I'm sure she'll figure out soon enough that I'm probably just as smart as she is.