The Wrong Number

20

"Not bad, Ruhan," Alankrita said, handing Ruhan his sheet of sums, "I honestly thought you'd get more of them wrong."

"The faith you have in me brings me such joy," Ruhan replied as he stuffed the sheet into his physics notebook. Alankrita gave him a wry smile which he returned without batting an eyelid.

"I've prepared five questions for you to solve in the next thirty minutes, "Alankrita said, opening her rough notebook and laying it on the table in front of him, "You may begin."

Ruhan looked into her book, and his eyes widened, "How am I supposed to finish these in half an hour? It'd take me ten minutes just to figure out the first one!"

"Fine, then. Forty five minutes," she said. "Now that my mother isn't here to smother you with sympathy and baked goods, I can get along with helping you get a good grade. I'll be in the living room watching T.V. if you need me."Alankrita said. "How come you don't have to do all this with me?" Ruhan cried, appalled at the injustice that was being inflicted upon him. Alankrita stopped mid-step, looked him dead in the eyes and said, "I just spent eight hours in a school where I'm expected to be better than everyone else at everything, and then one hour going over notes for my Erudite test this Saturday. The only reason you are here is so that I can make sure you don't screw up and bring our average grade down. Understood?" she glared at him and he pursed his lips and nodded. She huffed and stalked out of the study. Ruhan's eyes followed her back as she left. Almost as soon as she was out of sight, he let out the breath he was holding and whipped out his phone. 'I am in mortal peril here,' he typed, 'please help.'

The reply, much to his relief, came quickly.

4:21 pm, Crazy Stalker: what are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be doing project work?

4:22 pm, Ruhan: how do you know? Are you spying on me?

4:22 pm, Crazy Stalker: no, you idiot, you told me you were discussing your project with Alankrita after school

4:22 pm, Ruhan: a guy can dream, okay?

4:23 pm, Crazy Stalker: don't change the subject. You're supposed to be studying.

4:23 pm, Ruhan: yeah, technically. But it's soooo hard.

4:23 pm, Crazy Stalker:it won't kill you to try.

4:23 pm, Ruhan: actually I think it might

4:24 pm, Crazy Stalker:honestly you are SUCH a drama queen

4:24 pm, Ruhan: :'(
4:25 pm, Ruhan: what is Kepler's third Law?
4:28 pm, Ruhan: HELP I DON"T EVEN HAVE MY TEXTBOOK HERE

Suddenly, Ruhan heard approaching footsteps. Before he could hide his phone, Alankrita emerged into the room. She stood at the doorway with both hands on her hips, her eyes switching from an embarrassed Ruhan to the white iPhone in his hands. He tried to come up with an excuse.

"I was just-"
"Give it."

Ruhan opened his mouth to say something but Alankrita's glare shut him up. She held out her hand and he sighed and slapped the phone onto. "Good,"she said, holding the phone up, "You can have it back when you're done," and turned around. Ruhan held a hand out to try reasoning with her.

"But-"

"Yes, I do have a nice butt," she said, turning around,"Now concentrate on your work and don't be a whiny baby,"she said, and stalked off.

Ruhan grumbled and cursed under his breath. What made it worse was that he couldn't really argue with her - she DID have a nice butt.

*****