Mira jolted awake to the sound of her alarm going off, Pickles nearly suffocating her as he slept peacefully on her chest. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, carefully sliding Pickles onto the couch as she got up and threw on her work shirt and grabbed her keys.

She hummed to herself as she drove, taking in the lit up city. It was one of the few things that relaxed her, passing the crowded sidewalks, bright signs and billboards filling her field of vision. There was some sort of positive energy that radiated off the streets, lifting the weight off her chest whenever she passed by.

She parked behind the café and made her way inside, the smell of freshly ground coffee beans filling her lungs. It was a small, but cozy shop, the sitting area made up of sofa's and padded seats, the lighting soft.

"Hey Mira," Erik, one of the managers smiled at her as she slipped behind the counter and grabbed her apron.

"Hey Erik, how's your night been?" She responded, sliding her backpack under the counter.

"Surprisingly slow, which means the nights been great so far. I'll have you up at the register for the night, sound good?" He asked, shuffling about, making lattes.

"Sounds good to me," she responded, stepping up to the register. Surprisingly, Mira didn't really deal with any rude customers at the cafe, despite the large concentration of assholes that populated the city. She liked the brief encounters, making small talk with strangers while she rang them up. They didn't know her and she didn't know them.

Like Erik had said, the night was fairly slow, dying down especially as it got later in the night. They closed at ten, but the place emptied out around eight, giving Mira the chance to pull out her computer and work on homework while she sat at the register.

The door bell jingled as the time read 9:56, and while she would usually turn them away this close to close, the man who walked in was abnormally good looking, his face decorated by a sharp jawline, high cheekbones and a pair of cloudy grey eyes. She'd serve him, just so she could get a chance to look at his face a little longer. If only all the other customers were is gorgeous as him, she'd work doubles any chance she got.

"Are you still open?" He asked, his voice low and smooth.

"You made it just in time," Mira smiled. "What can I get for you?"

"Just a black coffee," he replied, pulling out his wallet. She wasn't surprised, he didn't exactly come across as the vanilla latte with cream and sugar type. Still, she would never understand people who chose to drink black coffee.

She rang him up, sparing a glance at the name on the card. Adrian Westbrook. She passed it back to him and grabbed his drink.

"Long night ahead?" She asked as she handed him the coffee.

"The real question is when is it not," he let out a long breath, his fingers grazing hers as he took the cup from her.

"Thank you, Mira." He said glancing down at her name tag and offering her a slight smile.

"Of course, have a good night." She replied.

"I'll try," he called over his shoulder as he made his way out the, making Mira laugh softly to herself. And like that, he was gone.

"That guy was hot," Erik stated as soon as the door fell closed. Mira snorted.

"Aren't you married?"

Erik smirked.

"Hey, I can still window shop." Mira scoffed.

"Yeah we'll sounds to me like you were about to break through that window."

Erik shrugged. "Fine, the hot guy is gone, and we are officially closed so start sweeping. Chop, chop." He motioned towards the broom. Mira grabbed the broom and got to cleaning up the cafe.

It wasn't until around eleven that all the closing activities had been completed and they officially locked up for the night. She said bye to her coworkers and made her way to her car.

Instead of her usual route, a long line of flashing police cars forced her to take the back way. That was one thing about the city, shootings and robbery's were a nightly occurrence. Just thinking about what could have happened made her sick to her stomach. It was a sick world they lived in.

***

Morning practices were fairly routine at this point, consisting of mainly conditioning. Mira had already begun jogging towards the track for their three mile run when the coach called her over.

"What's up, coach?" She asked, praying no one had seen her snorting adderall the previous morning.

"I got the grade report back, and you are walking a very thin line for being ineligible to play these next few games. You have to keep all your grades at a C- or higher and your statistics grade is barely making that cut." He frowned, running a hand through his thinning grey hair. "I can't control how you do in school but I need you to really try, don't let your grades ruin your chances for getting recruited. You're a smart girl, Mira, I know you can do better." He gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "Now go join the others."

Mira did as she was told, her brain working a mile a minute. If she got pulled for academic ineligibility that would look absolutely horrible to recruiters, and she wouldn't stand a chance at going to a good school. And all because of a fucking statistics class.

One way or another she had to figure out how to get that grade up. How exactly? She had no idea.
Stats felt like rocket science to her no matter how many times Mr. King explained it to her.

"Someone's in a bad mood," Jayla commented as she jogged alongside her.

"Yeah we'll if I don't get my stats grade up soon I might be benched until further notice, so I'm basically shitting bricks because I don't really know how to do that," Mire exclaimed between labored breaths.

"Oh shit. Why don't you get a tutor or something?" She asked. It wasn't a bad idea, although it would be a hit to Mira's ego, a tutor might actually keep her in the game.

"Yeah, I guess I'll talk to Mr. King after class." She walked into class and took her usual seat when an unfamiliar face walked through the doorway. The guy exchanged a few words with Mr. King, before settling down at an empty desk.

Mira glanced over to see Jayla was just as intrigued by this new character as she was. He was gorgeous, with a head of sandy gold locks and bright emerald green eyes. She figured he had to be new given Mira knew most of her graduating class and was fairly certain she wouldn't have forgotten him she'd seen him in the hall.

"Alright class, before we get started, I would like to introduce our newest student Mr. Xavier Levine." He motioned towards the new kid who gave a shy smile in response to the classes prying stared. "Now, let's get back to looking at normal distribution."

Mira listened intently as Mr. King lectured, scribbling down notes and trying her best to follow each step of the practice problems, but when it came time to finally do one on her own, she was completely lost. What didn't help was that she kept making awkward eye contact with Xavier. She wasn't staring at him like some creep, or anything, it was just that every time her eyes trailed in his direction, his gaze was locked on her.

The bell rang and Mira took her time gathering her things, Jayla giving her a reassuring thumbs up as she made her way up.

Once the room had mostly cleared out, Mira made her way up to Mr. King's desk.

"Hey Mr. King, I've been struggling a bit lately, as I'm sure you can see with my quiz grades, but I was wondering if you had any tutor recommendations?" She asked, smiling hopefully at him.

"Actually," he looks over her shoulder. "Xavier, would you mind staying a moment?" Mira glances behind her to see Xavier still packing up his things.

"Of course," he set his bag down and walked over next to Mira.

"Xavier has already taken this course at his previous school and has registered to be a tutor. Mr. Levine, Mira here is actually looking for some tutoring help with this class. Would you be able to work with her?" He asked. Xavier's brows shot up.

"Oh yeah, for sure," his bright emerald green eyes flashed towards Mira, offering her a soft smile. She returned the smile, hoping the heat rushing to her cheeks wasn't too noticeable.

"Great, there you go Mira, I'm sure he'll be able to help you out." Her exclaimed satisfactorily.

"Thank you so much Mr. King," Mira thanked her teacher before turning her attention back to Xavier.

"I'm pretty flexible, so we can do whatever works for your schedule." Mira gripped the straps of her backpack. She in fact was not very flexible, juggling soccer and work, but it was already humbling enough to have the cute new kid tutoring her.

"Oh yeah for sure, I'm free this afternoon after class, if you wanna get started?" He offered. Mira smiled, bobbing her head up and down.

"That's perfect," she lied, imagining her coach's face when she told him she'd be late to practice.

"Great, I'll see you in the library then," Xavier slung his bag over his shoulder and they parted ways as they stepped into the hallway.

God, why was she such a pushover.