Relentless [Ashton Irwin]

Chapter 5

"What is this Odette?" My mum's eyes were wide as she scanned over my most recent school report. Mid years always declared if you needed tutoring or not. The majority of my school reports had been good, just a few fails here and there, but nothing my parents were too concerned about. "Your science teacher says you're not passing the grade and falling behind! And you are only just up to scratch with English even though you're in the top class"

My dad shook his head at me from across the other side of the lounge. He was never one to comment, always my mum speaking her mind.

"How are you failing class?" Her face was grim as she stared me down. I honestly didn't know what to say. I thought I had been doing perfectly fine this year, so to get this was a surprise.

"I have no idea. I thought I was passing English with flying colours...well at least last time I checked"

Mum let out a sigh and stood up from the grey leather couch. She rubbed her forehead as if she was thinking hard or feeling extremely frustrated. I couldn't tell which one it was. I hoped it was the first option.

"Is it Michael?" She asked openly. I felt my heart stop in my chest. She loved Michael like her favourite piece of jewellery. There was no way I just heard her say that. There was no way she thought that he was the reason for my crappy grades. She didn't even know that he had bad grades too let alone ditched school all the time!

I turned to face my dad whose face had fallen down. His eyes were almost pleading me that it wasn't true, which luckily for him it wasn't.

"No it's not him" I told her truthfully. "I don't even go to the same school as him so it's not possible anyway"

"Sometimes I just wished you did. Maybe then you'd be acing all of your classes" She mumbled. "I feel that is the reason for the sloppiness"

My mum walked out of the room to somewhere else in the house. Something told me it was to the room she shared with my dad.

My dad on the other hand switched the television on and flicked through the channels in search of something that sparked his interest. Soon enough, chatter from a soap flew from the screen and we remained quiet, only allowing the television to be the sound in the room.

I was in homeroom when I heard the notices. One of them in particular stood out to me. Science tutoring every lunch time with some year thirteens for those who were struggling with their grades. I swiftly took note of it in the diary the school provided us with. I figured it was best I signed up for it on my own terms before my science teacher suggested it to my parents and forced me to go.

"I thought you were good at science" A girl that was in the same year and was sitting beside me commented in a hushed voice.

"So did I" I whispered back, my eyes on our homeroom teacher. If she were to catch us talking we were dead meat.

"Maybe there will be some hot senior guys there" She was trying to be positive, but it really didn't help. It hit me then that I could possibly be tutored by lover boy if he had signed up. I was begging that he hadn't. I didn't want him around me anymore than I needed him to be.