You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

17

"You got that wrong."

A finger appeared on my math homework that I was reviewing while waiting for Mr. MacMillan to come in and start the lesson, pointing to a problem.

"Huh?" I snapped my head up.

"This one," Nolan said. "You did it wrong on the first step."

"Oh," I said, blinking in surprise. "Then what should I have done?"

He flipped open his own binder and took out his own worksheet. Leaning closer to me, he placed it next to mine.

"Here. You have to divide this first," he said, using his own pen to point out his own working.

I frowned and stared at his solution. Seeing the complete lack of comprehension on my face, he sighed.

"Are you that bad at math?" He stared at me before lowering his head to his worksheet. "Here, the first thing you need to remember is that you can't take the variable out like this..."

As he explained each step that he took, I realized why his grades were so good. He knew exactly what he was doing. The question was, how was he so smart and efficient at this when he paid virtually no attention in class?

I was also wrong about what I had assumed about him before—he could be a good tutor if he wanted to be. While pointing to each of his steps with his pen, he explained his working slowly to me.

His handwriting was neater than I expected. I noticed that boys tended to have scratchy handwriting, but Nolan's was fairly tidy and legible.

"... did you get that?" he said, suddenly peering at my face and frowning at me.

"Yeah, I did!" I smiled quickly back at him, before he could wonder about my lack of reaction.

Well, mostly. Before I started spacing out about his handwriting, I did understand what he was explaining to me.

I got out my correction tape to rectify the mistakes. "Thanks, Nolan."

"It's nothing." He took back his worksheet and backed off.

"I thought you were asleep, actually," I said. "Why did you get up?"

"I wasn't," he muttered, pressing his hand against his forehead. "I'm not in the mood to sleep."

Who was this imposter wearing Nolan's appearance sitting next to me?!

"Does this have anything to do with .... earlier?" I asked hesitantly.

He gave me a quizzical glance.

"You know, when Ariel tagged along with you to lunch?"

Sneering, Nolan sprawled his arms straight across his desk and lay his head on one of them. "She's delusional."

I grinned as I finished the rest of my solution. He wasn't wrong.

"Did you go to the library?"

"It was the only thing that saved me. The librarian was furious that she wouldn't shut up. She ended up getting thrown out of the library," he said grouchily.

"Oh," I said, wincing. "Did she follow you all the way there? What about lunch?"

"Apparently, she didn't mind skipping lunch to hang out with me."

Yikes.

"I bet you finally managed to nap there."

"The best nap I've had today." His eyes slid shut. "She was waiting for me outside the library when I left."