Tutor and Tutee (ver. 2) [HIATUS]

Chapter Two

It was after lessons and I was trying to find Nate so that we could discuss about the day and time of our tutoring session. I tried to catch up to him after the bell rang, which shouldn't be difficult since we were in the same class, right? Wrong. He disappeared immediately along with the students who scrambled their way out of class. I even asked several students from the neighboring classes if they had seen him but most of them shook their heads and the remaining few didn't even know who he was.
    Nate would usually go to the indoor sports hall to play basketball or whatever other sports with his buddies so I headed there to have a look. And he was there playing basketball with his friends just like I thought. It was expected for a jock like him to stay back just to play whatever sports with his buddies.
    I was too busy watching their intense game by the doorway in awe to even notice someone approaching me. Once I felt a tap on my shoulder, I looked behind to see Leo Hanson with a volleyball in his hand and a warm smile on his face. I knew who he was since he was from the same elementary school. He had a sister named Laura as well. However, they were rarely seen together.
    Even though Leo was from the same elementary school, he doesn't seem to remember me, either—which was understandable since we didn't talk much in our elementary school days. Not to mention, Leo and Laura were in different classes. I don't bump into Laura as much so I wasn't sure if she knew who I was or not. I've only caught glances of her with her friend. However, I've seen Leo in school before. He was also a fan of sports—mostly volleyball. He would be seen in the indoor sports hall playing volleyball after lessons.
    Leo was a quiet classmate of mine in elementary school. However, he seemed to have much more of a social life than before. He was friendly towards almost everyone, which made him a target of those who were in desperate needs of having a friend. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind being his friend as well but even if we did become friends, we would have a hard time hanging out with each other anyway since we weren't in the same class. And he usually wasn't seen during recess. For now, he was just a mere acquaintance who was easy to talk to.
    "Looking for someone?" he asked, warm smile still plastered on his face.
    I nodded. "Nate."
    "Oh, that guy."
    I thought Leo had grimaced but he was just looking at Nate with a blank expression.
I wasn't sure if Leo remembered him or not but Nate was a pretty well known jock in Denvous High. That could also be a possible reason why Leo knows him. I doubted that he remembers him since, like I said, we hadn't talked to him during our elementary school years.
    "So . . ." I started, catching Leo's attention. "Can you maybe help me call for him?"
    He smiled. "Of course—" His eyes suddenly shifted, focusing on something which seemed to be behind me before grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards him. I was surprised at the action before realizing that a basketball was making its way towards my direction so Leo had to pull me away before I got hit.
    I looked at him with a small smile. "Thanks." I looked down and saw that he was still holding my wrist so I gave a small tug. He noticed this and quickly released my wrist, blushing lightly in embarrassment.
    "Sorry," he said as he gave a sheepish smile before retrieving the basketball that was now rolling away.
    "Yo, pass it back."
    I looked at the doorway only to see Nate with a blank look. Leo glared at him before throwing the basketball to him rather forcefully and harshly for some odd reason. But Nate caught it with no issue.
    "I'm gonna have to get you and your buddies to move out of the hall now. I need the space to play volleyball with my teammates," Leo said with an innocent smile.
    Somehow, I could sense a menacing aura coming from him. I'm guessing that Nate and Leo were not in good terms with each other. That would explain Leo's abrupt and harsh action and language towards him.
    "The hell, man? We've only been here for less than ten minutes. Go play volleyball somewhere else," Nate said as he frowned.
    "We didn't get a chance to play yesterday since you and your basketball buddies were being assholes."
    I take back what I said about Leo being friendly, I thought as I just stood awkwardly between them. I wanted to break up the argument but it would only cause more tension, which I didn't want—so I stayed quiet and just listened to their argument, ignoring the fact that I was in between them. If I had been taller than Leo, it would seem as if Nate was arguing with me instead of him. But I was shorter than both of them. This was the first time I ever thought that being short was a good thing.
    "Whatever." Nate rolled his eyes before facing his friends who were surrounding the doorway. "We gotta go. The volleyball team needs the court." His friends groaned and sighed in annoyance before taking their bags by the resting bench, leaving the hall.
    Leo smirked before looking at me with a smile. "Well, see you around." He entered the hall with his volleyball friends who just arrived.
    Nate sighed in irritation before his eyes wandered off to me. "You're the guy who's looking for me, right? What do you want?"
    His tone was monotonous and his look became blank. It was as if he was lifeless. Ouch.
    I sighed. "Right . . . Sorry for intruding your game but I just wanna know when you'll be available for our tutoring session."
    Nate sighed in annoyance again. "Lemme just get my bag." Without waiting for me to say anything, he went back into the hall to grab his stuff before heading out again. "There, I'm done. Now, let's go."
    Nate just walked off, deciding not to listen to whatever I wanted to say. I glared at his back before catching up with him. "You can't just walk off like that."
    He just rolled his eyes at me, clearly not interested in whatever I said.
    I sighed only to usher him to an empty hallway.
    "So," I started. But before I could even continue, he just looked at me with a small glare that shut me up.
    "Yeah, tutoring, I got it," he said simply as he took out a small piece of paper and a pen, writing down some things before handing it to me. "My house, next week. Also, weekdays only. Got it, John?"
    My nose scrunched up. "It's Jone." I sighed again, only to nod after no reaction from him at my correction. "Yeah, got it."
    "Great." Nate's frown disappeared into a blank look before walking off with a small wave, not facing me.
    I didn't know how to feel at the moment. My feelings were mixed. A part of me was happy that I get to spend time with him in his house, and another part of me was annoyed at his rudeness and lack of emotion and conversation. Since when did he turn from an adorable geeky kid to some asshole of a jock? It's as if he was a different person!
    I only stuck my tongue out at him after huffing, pulling out my earpiece to plug into my phone as I listened to some music while walking.