A PLUS /h.s./

Chapter 23

Pretty short but here's an update for ya :) Pleasssee let me know what you think! What has your guys' favorite part of the story been so far? x

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"Mom!" I practically yelped, pulling my hand out of Harry's immediately. "Hi," I sent her a half smile before hugging her, partly because she's my mum and yeah, I did miss her, but also because I was hoping to distract her from the fact that I'm getting home at midnight and with a boy.

"Where's dad?" I asked her, looking around, completely forgetting that Harry was standing awkwardly behind me witnessing our reunion.

"He couldn't make it this time around," she half heartedly explained while she eyed Harry up and down, "Who's this?" She asked skeptically.

I inwardly groaned, "This is Harry, my, uh," I didn't know what to say. Teacher? Friend? Date? Boyfriend?

Lucky for me she didn't seem to care about my trailing off as she walked toward him and stuck her hand out toward him, "Nice to meet you Harry."

He cleared his throat before he gave her his hand, shaking it. She turned to me with a glare, basically telling me I was in trouble.

"Why are you home so late?" She asked me, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Of all days for her to show up, it just happens to be the one day when I'm home at midnight.

"I, uh, we were just," I stuttered before Harry spoke up for me, "We were studying, Mrs. Groves."

I shot him a thankful look. I've never introduced a boy to my mom and I was planning to keep it that way. She didn't even know my best friend (Scottie) was a male. Even though he's gay, she'd probably still get mad about me associating with the male gender.

"Until midnight?" She asked him with her arms still crossed.

"Yeah, we have a calculus test tomorrow and I was helping her with some of the information we've been learning about," he explained and I smirked at the fact that he was telling the truth even when he was lying. Because we did have a test tomorrow, even though he will be the one grading it and I will be the one taking it. We both still have it.

"Like?" She quirked an eyebrow, trying to catch us in our lie.

"Just about integrals, you know definite and indefinite and stuff. Boring, if you ask me, but she asked me for help today so I helped her. We were at the library 'til it closed at 6, but she still wasn't getting it so we went to the park down there," he pointed in the direction of the park behind my house before continuing, "And just lost track of time, I guess. I'm sorry for keeping her out so late."

"Hmph," was all she replied.

"Why did you need help with calculus? Aren't you good at math, Miranda?" She asked me and I heard Harry snicker, but lucky for me, my mom didn't.

"That's what I thought," I scoffed, "But the teacher completely sucks this year and I haven't learned a thing. Harry's helping me get my grade up though," I inwardly laughed at me insulting Harry when he can't defend himself.

"Hey, he's not that bad," Harry scoffed and I rolled my eyes, looking toward my mom, "Teacher's pet" I mouthed, pointing at Harry.

"What's your grade in that class?" My mom asked, digging her phone out of her pocket, most likely to look up my grades on the lovely website that the school has. I couldn't lie because she'd just see it online in about 2 minutes.

I cringed as I spit out, "I have a D." I closed my eyes waiting for her reaction and slowly opened one when nobody was talking.

"A D?!" She finally shrieked at me and I rolled my eyes. "That's almost failing, Miranda! You're graduating this year, how could you be so careless? It was a bad idea, having you live here by yourself. You obviously don't have the discipline you need. Maybe you should just come to London and live with your father and I."