Chapter 5

The minute the words tumbled out of my mouth, I instantly wanted to take them back. But that’s the thing with words, once they’re out in the open, there was no way of taking them back.

Parker’s eyes immediately shot open as he registered my words. “What?” he stammered, not sure if he had heard me right.

“Umm… tutor me, you know, in history.” I repeated sheepishly, nodding towards his history textbook as I nervously picked at some of the loose ends of my shirt.

The only thing running through my mind during the prolonged silence that followed was how much of an idiot I was. I had seen the guy a few times before while running or during school, I barely knew him, and I quite literally just introduced myself, but now I was asking him to tutor me. How much more embarrassing could this possibly get?

A pin could drop in the silence that surrounded us, but just as Parker opened his mouth, to what I thought was to laugh at me or reject my plead flat out, he surprised me.

“Why would you need my help?”

I froze for a second, thinking that I didn’t have an answer for him, but after thinking about it for a moment, a few reasons sprung to mind. “Well,” I started confidently, “You have an AP history textbook so you’re probably really good in history, and in case you didn’t know, I just moved here. I didn’t take history at my old school and that’s the only class that I’m struggling to catch up in. I don’t really need you to help me memorize dates and events and all that, I just need somebody to help explain the material to me that I’ve already missed, and maybe help me with an assignment or two. Plus, I don’t really know anybody else that’s good in history at this school.”

While I thought my argument was satisfactory, if not brilliant, my confidence started to diminish as the clock kept ticking and I was left without a response.

“Umm… I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, umm… yea.” I mumbled, hoping to find a way out of this situation instead of dig myself a deeper grave.

“You say you don’t know anybody else that’s good in history at this school, but you barely know me.” he stated, startling me from my position where I was previously staring at the tiled floor. “Have you even heard some of the things people say about me in the halls between classes?”

“I’ve heard mumbles, but that’s it.” I admitted. “Saige that people avoid her because of something that has to do with you, but they shouldn’t because she’s a great person. They’re wrong about Saige, so who’s to say that they’re not wrong about you to?”

Parker looked stunned by my response, but he shook himself out of shock quite quickly to reply. “And what if they’re not?”

“I don’t mind.” I shrugged. “Right now you seem like a decent person, and I just need help in history.”

Before I could fully convince Parker to tutor me, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Where are you? I thought you’d be a couple minutes, lunch is almost half over! Hurry up girl

My eyes widened as I read the text from Saige before snapping my head towards the clock that hung on the wall above my head. 11:20. It really had been twenty minutes already, yet it felt like I’d only been in this room for a measly five.

“Well, since you don’t look to into helping me, I’ll just find another tutor.” I stated, breaking the silence once again as I slipped my phone back into my pocket after sending a quick reply back to Saige that I would be there soon. “But I have to go because apparently I’ve been standing up your cousin. Maybe I’ll see you again soon.”

Turning around, I didn’t expect Parker to reply to my slightly rude remarks, but he shocked me by speaking up just as I pushed open the door to the classroom.

“I’ll think about it.”

His words shocked me, as I truly thought my idea about him tutoring me was a shot in the dark, but if he really would consider it, it would really help me with learning more than a month’s worth of material on my own.

Deciding to leave the conversation there, I turned back to offer him a smile, and although I didn’t get one in return as I left the art room behind me, I headed towards the cafeteria with a small feeling of accomplishment.

After all, I’ll think about it definitely wasn’t a flat out no.

Once I entered the cafeteria, I stopped to look around for a moment. I could clearly see a small line up at the cash as fellow students waited in line for food, and all the tables were pretty much full with teenagers enjoying their lunch as they ate and talked with their friends. There were a couple of rowdy boys getting into a laughter filled argument in the middle of the cafeteria, but behind all the hustle and bustle, I could see Saige picking at the last of her cafeteria food alone at a spare table.

As if sensing my gaze on her, she raised her head almost immediately and her eyes latched onto me. Waving me over, I smiled at her before moving in her direction with my lunch bag still hanging in my hand.

“Now, where the hell were you little missy?” she asked as I sat down across from her. “You missed one of the football players lip locking his girlfriend for a good ten minutes, I was almost certain that they were going to start shedding clothes when one of the teachers came in and asked them to stop.”

I snorted a laugh as I opened up my own lunch that consisted of a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “I’m sorry I missed it,” I replied, my words dripping with sarcasm as I took a bite of my sandwich before continuing, “But you’ll never guess where I was.”

“Were you talking to a teacher about transferring into a less challenging class, finding a hidden path that linked the school with the mall, or wait, were you in the bathroom because your monthly gift decided to show up?” she asked, her guesses getting more ridiculous as she continued to speak.

Shaking my head in amusement, I replied. “Sadly, the answer would be no to all of those.”

“Well then, where were you?”

“I was with Parker in the art room.”

Although the rest of the cafeteria was still as loud as it has been, a wave of silence seemed to fall over our table at my words, one that I was getting a little too familiar with this lunch period.

“Parker?” she asked. I nodded. “Parker Collins? My cousin Parker?” I nodded once more. “What the hell were you doing with Parker Collins?”

Even though her question seemed like it could hold anger, there wasn’t an ounce of anger in her voice as she spoke in disbelief and shock.

“I’ve seen him around a couple times, he hangs out where I run before school, and he’s your cousin, what’s wrong with saying hi to him?” I asked with a shrug before devouring the rest of my sandwich.

“Saying hi?” she asked as she raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “It took you more than twenty minutes to say hi?”

I smiled sheepishly at her question, before explaining everything that had really happened in the last twenty minutes.

“So let me get this straight,” she said as I finished up my explanation, “You just walked into the art room unannounced, introduced yourself to my cousin, and then just asked him to tutor you?”

Nodding, I kept quiet as Saige continued to speak.

“Huh?” she said, before changing her tone quickly. “Are you crazy? You don’t just walk up to a guy that is basically a stranger to you and ask him to tutor you.”

“Well he’s not a total stranger, I’ve seen him around before and I know he’s your cousin.” I responded. “Plus, I really need help with history.”

“I’m not saying that he isn’t a good choice for a tutor,” she sighed, “Because he is, I mean he practically has a perfect mark in that class, but aren’t you worried about what people are gonna say when they find out he’s tutoring you?”

“Why should I be worried?” I asked nonchalantly. “I don’t care what people I don’t talk to think about me. If they want to talk shit, let them. Anyways, he didn’t exactly say he’d tutor me, he said he’d think about it.”

“If you want I could probably put in a good word for you when I get home,” she offered with a smile, “Or I could just say that he has to tutor you if he wants to keep living.”

I laughed at her response, but shook my head to decline her offer. “If he doesn’t want to tutor me it’s fine, I’ll ask my teacher to find somebody willing, so don’t worry about blackmailing him into helping me.”

We both ended up laughing for a few seconds, and when we settled down the topic changed from Parker to our weekend plans.

“So, what are you up to this weekend?” I asked as I pulled out an apple from my lunch.

Saige shrugged in response. “I don’t know, I’ll probably just laze around the house in hopes of something good coming on the television, finish a project I have, you know, the usual.” she replied. “What about you, any big plans for your first real weekend in Byrendale?”

“Nope,” I replied whilst shaking my head, “My dad’s more than likely working tomorrow so I usually just go on a run in the morning and then hang around the house for the rest of the day.”

“Well since we’re both not busy, why don’t we hang out tomorrow?” Saige suggested with a shrug. “I could show you around the main part of town and stuff.”

“Sure, that sounds fun.” I replied after a second.

 Just as Saige started to go on about a couple of good restaurants, diners, and hidden little shops that were scattered around the town, the lunch bell blasted through the school speakers.

Saige sighed bitterly. “Well it looks like it’s time for me to go to English.”

I laughed at the unimpressed look she had on her face, because if there was one thing I had learnt about Saige in the past couple of days, it was that she absolutely hated English. How she was passing the class at the moment was beyond me, but she harboured a serious hate for her teacher.

“Have fun.” I said sarcastically, waving as she stood up with her empty lunch tray.

“You make fun Ms. I-have-spare,” she replied jokingly, “But when you go to history last period and I roam the halls on my spare period, we’ll see who’s laughing.”

“Yeah yeah,” I waved off, “But I’ll text you tomorrow morning to see when you wanna go out.”

She nodded and with one final wave, she headed towards the class she hated while I gathered my garbage and headed to grab my Calculus binder from my locker once more. Hopefully I would be able to catch up on a lesson or two during this spare.

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Waking up Saturday morning, I wasn’t surprised that I was already wide awake as the clock struck eight ‘o’clock. Maybe it was because I woke up early every morning to run, or maybe not, but my body didn’t let me sleep in all that much on weekends.

I knew that my dad had probably already left for the office, so as I got ready for my morning run I turned my music on before plugging in my headphones and heading out of the house.

Since it was a Saturday and I didn’t have anywhere to be until I texted Saige to hang out, I decided to take a much longer route than I had been running for the past week. It also might have had something to do with the fact that, even though it was a chance, I didn’t want to risk running into Parker at the pond this morning. I had embarrassed myself enough yesterday, and after not seeing him for the rest of the day at school, my hope was diminishing for him to me my tutor.

Shrugging off my worries, I cleared my head and let the cool air rush around me as I ran.

Through the roads of Byrendale and over a few hills, it was almost an hour later when I turned back onto my street and made it up my driveway.

I was almost positive the slight wind had nipped at my cheeks enough to turn them pink, and as I entered my house and turned to look in the mirror that hung in the entryway, my thoughts were confirmed. My hair, which had been pinned up in a ponytail, was all tangled in a mess inside my elastic at the back of my head, and my cheeks were a little more than rosy pink.

Slipping off my shoes at the doorway, I turned to head upstairs when I saw movement from the corner of my eye. Turning to peek into the living room, I stood in the entrance, shocked at what I was seeing.

“Dad,” I said in shock, surprised that he was home on a Saturday morning. Turning towards me, he smiled as I continued to talk, “What are you doing home?”

“Well,” he started; folding up the morning paper he had been reading and taking his feet off of the living room table. “Since I’m still new to the firm and this first case isn’t something of great difficulty, I got the day off. If there’s any trouble one of the secretaries will get a hold of me, and I thought that maybe we could go shopping for some new furniture for the house. Your room still needs a bit of stuff, and so do a couple other rooms.”

My eyes brightened at his words. “Can we get paint for my room?” I asked, the thought of covering up the plain white colour that currently adorned my walls making me excited.

“Sure,” my dad replied, chuckling at my obvious excitement. “But since I’m no good at painting, make sure to get somebody to help you so there isn’t a repeat of your last paint job.”

At his pointed look of humor, I smiled sheepishly, remembering the last time I painted my walls.

I was about fourteen years old and I had just started high school, and since I thought my childhood room didn’t fit me anymore, I decided to redo it. I went with my dad to the store to buy a new bed and dresser, even going as far to install hard wood flooring with the help of one of my dad’s old college buddies, but when it came to painting the walls, everything went awry.

All my new furniture had been set up in the middle of the room, and my floor had been covered for protection, but even though my dad warned me to cover it all with plastic or blankets, I was too excited to start splatter painting my walls that I completely forgot. By the time I remembered my dad’s warning I had already finished a whole wall, and there was no undoing my mistake. Half of my bed had been ruined by flying paint, along with a majority of my new oak dresser.

My dad was so angry at me, but tried everything he could to exchange my messed up furniture. I remember him coming through the front door hours later with a frustrated smile on his face, but he had managed to only pay around $300 to replace everything with brand new pieces.

We laugh about it now, but at the time I was grounded for probably a month, working daily at my dad’s office filing papers to pay him back the extra money he had spent.

“Don’t worry dad,” I said reassuringly, “I’ll make sure to cover everything with layers of plastic and get some help with painting.”

My dad nodded at me, but suddenly I remembered that I was supposed to have plans today.

“Oh wait,” I said in a deflated voice, “I just remembered I promised a friend that we’d spend the day hanging out.”

“Then we’ll just do it another time,” my dad replied with a smile that showed me he wasn’t mad in the slightest.  “You should hang out with your new friend.”

“Well maybe she’ll want to come,” I suggested, “I’ll call her to see if she wouldn’t mind coming along, if that’s okay with you.”

My dad looked shocked for a second that I would rather invite Saige along furniture shopping than spend time with her in town, but he smiled at me after a second. “It’s fine with me if she’s okay with it.”

I smiled at my dad as I turned and headed upstairs to take a shower. Taking my phone out of my pocket, I dialled Saige’s number, waiting three rings until she picked up.

“So, how do you feel about furniture shopping?”

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“I still can’t believe you agreed to this.” I commented as we walked a couple steps behind my dad in the parking lot of Ikea.

“It’s not like I was doing anything else.” Saige replied with a shrug. “I mean it’s not as good as strolling through the city, but I’d take looking for furniture any day over the English essay that is waiting for me on my desk at home.”

I chuckled as her tone turned spiteful at the mention of English.

“Well, I’m glad you’re joining me on this momentous occasion.” I said jokingly, wrapping my arm around her neck jokingly as we headed into the store in a small fit of laughter.

Entering Ikea, we were instantly submersed into a land of bedspreads, countertops, and cute little trinkets that could look end up looking either disastrous or utterly beautiful in our new house.

“So,” my dad said as he turned around to face us, “Where do you want to start?”

“How about we go look for things for my room while you go and look for a couple of things for the rest of the house”? I suggested, nodding to the back of the store where I could see a couple of bedroom displays set up.

My dad nodded as he looked down at his wrist. “Okay, but meet me in the kitchen section as soon as you’re done.” he replied. “I don’t want to be here all day while you girls fool around.”

“We will dad.” I smiled in reply, before saying goodbye to my dad and dragging Saige towards the bedroom furniture.

“What exactly are you looking for?” Saige asked as we looked at the majority of different things I could put in my new bedroom.

“My dad ordered a bed for me before we got here, so I don’t need that, but I was thinking of getting a new bed set.” I explained. “I left my dresser back in my old house, so I need one of those since my clothes is currently packed into my closet as tight as it can be, and maybe a mirror of some wall decorations. I’m thinking of getting a darker purple colour for my walls, so just furniture that would look good in a room that colour I guess.”

“Okay,” Saige nodded, taking in what I had told her, “What about this?”

Taking my eyes off of a black and white floral bed set, I turned to look at what she wanted to show me, only to role my eyes and crack a smile at her sense of humor. She had a wall ornament in her hands, but it definitely wasn’t something I was looking for. It was a four piece picture collage with ready-made pictures painted on it, all of which were half naked clowns with ridiculous make-up covering their faces.

“That’s not exactly the type of thing I was looking for.”

“Are you sure,” Saige asked teasingly, “I think it would really fit into the whole look you’re going for.”

“I’m sure Saige.” I said, rolling my eyes again before turning around and looking at a few more bed sets.

Just as my eyes latched onto the perfect bed set, one with different shades of purple and a small floral design on the sides, Saige spoke again.

“Well what about this than?”

“I’m pretty sure I don’t need…” I said, my voice trailing off as I turned around to see what ridiculous thing she had picked out this time.

The decoration wasn’t lame at all, in fact, it was perfect. It was the same type of style as the clown one, a four piece wall collage, but the theme was so different. Instead of clowns, there were different pictures of world landmarks taken at nightfall. There was one of the Eiffel Tower, the Brooklyn Bridge, the London Eye, and Niagara Falls. It was breathtakingly beautiful as all of the landmarks were lit up, as if they were the only important thing in the entire city.

“It’s beautiful.” I said, taking into my hands to get a closer look at it.

Saige smiled at me as I looked up at her. “That’s why I picked it, I thought you’d like it.” she replied. “Plus, I think it’ll go really well on you walls if you paint them dark purple like you said you would.”

“Thanks,” I said in appreciation, before turning to show her the bed set I had found. “Now, what do you think of this?”

The next couple of minutes were spent goofing around as we tried to find a dresser that wouldn’t be too big in my room. Since we couldn’t carry both the bed set and the collage while walking around, we went to find a cart quickly before storing them in there as we found our way around the store.

“Well you guys seem to be having fun.” a familiar voice said behind us, and I jumped in sudden fright only to see my dad standing behind us.

“Gosh dad,” I said, calming my breathing down, “Don’t scare me like that.”

“Sorry.” he apologized, cracking a smile as he nodded towards our cart. “I can see you girls found exactly what you were looking for.”

“You too.” I said, acknowledging the cart that he was holding behind him, which seemed to pretty full if I did say so myself.

From what I could see, it looked like he got a new blender and toaster, along with a lamp, a couple of empty picture frames and a few decorations for the walls.

“I also ordered a La-Z-Boy chair for the living room, but that won’t be in for a couple of weeks.” he said, obviously noticing how I was eyeing the things in his cart. “Well, are you girls ready to head to the paint section before checking out?”

I shook my head, but before I could even open my mouth, Saige was already responding. “Jill’s still trying figure out with one of these dressers she wants for her room.” she said, pointing to the three in front of us that I was stuck between.

“Then let’s see these dressers than.” he said as he pushed his cart in next to mine as he helped me choose the best one.

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Fast forward about an hour and a half and we were pulling into our driveway with a car filled to the brim of new furniture and trinkets.

“Finally,” I muttered, unbuckling my seat belt as I slid out of the backseat. Being the gracious friend I was, I let Saige have the passenger’s seat so she wasn’t squished by all of the boxes piled into the back, but that meant that I had to spend the fifteen minute journey home with my feet resting on two cans of purple paint and a blender box digging into my ribs.

Saige laughed as I cracked my back after standing up straight. “You know I could’ve sat back there while you took the front seat,” she said, reaching into the car to grab a can of paint.

“No, it’s fine, and so am I, see.” I said, standing up with a final crack of my back.

“Well now that that’s sorted,” my dad said as he walked passed us with a pile of bags from the trunk, “Do you think you girls can help me bring in some stuff?”

“Already on it.” Saige announced, waving the can of paint she was holding before walking inside.

“She seems fun.” my dad said nudging me with my new bed set as he passed me. “I’m glad you’re making friends here.”

“So am I,” I replied with a smile as I grabbed two boxes from the back seat and followed my friend and dad inside.

After shoveling all of our purchases out of the car and into the house, Saige and I were lounging in my room talking while my dad started dinner downstairs.

“I still can’t believe you’ve won this many track meets,” Saige said as she ran her hand over my awards board. When I started to win medals and ribbons for track, my dad bought me a tack board to hang them all up, but now it was overflowing and I was in desperate need of a new one. “Like what are you, a cyborg or something? I mean come on, first place at 4000m at states, who does that?”

I laughed at her as I rolled over on my bed to face her. “I just train, and push my hardest when I race.”

“Yeah right,” she said in disbelief, “I bet you power up with magic or something before races, because I know that if I ran a 4000m race, I would be dead on the track by the 2000m mark.”

Laughing again, I sat up and shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s just something that I’ve always enjoyed and loved. I never think of it as competition or training, I just love the feeling I get when I pass somebody on the track or run with the wind on my side.”

“You sound like some cheesy infomercial or something.” Saige said teasingly, making me pull a funny face at her as she picked up her buzzing phone from my bedside table. “And unfortunately, it looks like I won’t be staying around to taste whatever it is your dad’s cooking down there. Too bad though, it smells delicious.”

“Why not?” I asked curiously.

“My rides here,” she replied, “But thanks for the invite today, and even though we were picking out furniture for the majority of the day, I actually had fun. Next weekend though, I’m definitely showing you around town.”

“Umm… yea I think my first track meet isn’t until the weekend after so I should be able to do that.” I replied with a smile.

“Oh,” Saige said, her eyes brightening, “Then pencil me in for the next weekend too, because I am definitely not missing your first track meet suited up in Freedyn colours. I wanna see if you’re actually as good as you say you are.”

“I’ll definitely remember to save you a seat.”

Obviously Saige’s ride didn’t want to be kept waiting while we continued talking, because the doorbell suddenly rang through the house, alerting us that somebody, assumingly her ride, was at the door.

“I got it!” my dad exclaimed from downstairs as I saw Saige roll her eyes.

“Come on, before my mom pulls a hissy fit for us socializing.” she said sarcastically as we headed downstairs.

“Parker?" Saige questioned as we reached the bottom of the stairs, where my dad was trying to invite Parker into our home. “I told mom I'd be right out, there was no need for you to come to the door.”

At the sight of Parker, I froze mid-step as my mind instantly flashbacked to my embarrassing actions of yesterday, but after a few calming breaths I shook myself out of it and stood back as Saige talked to her cousin.

My dad, probably noticing he wasn’t really needed at the moment, excused himself back to the kitchen quickly, leaving the three of us in the entryway of my house.

“Well thanks again for today Jillian.” Saige said with a smile as she slipped on her light jacket and tried to push Parker out of the doorway.

“You go on,” Parker said to Saige, “I have to talk to Jillian about something really quick.”

My eyes widened, as did Saige’s at her cousin’s words, and after one confusing look between the both of us, Saige held her hands up in a mock surrender position and headed out the door. “I’m going, I’m going.” she said, leaving me and Parker alone.

“So umm… what did you want to talk to me about?” I said nervously, taking a couple of steps towards him to cut the distance between us.

“Well,” he started, stuffing his hands uncomfortably in his pockets as his shoulders stood stiff, as though he was defending himself from something. “I thought about it a little more, and I think if you really need a tutor in history, you could meet me in the art room at lunch on Monday and I’ll try to help you catch up.”

“Really?” I asked giddily, surprised by his answer, but also excited that he was giving it a shot.

He nodded stiffly. “Yeah.”

“Well, thanks.”

With one final nod, and without a goodbye, Parker turned around and headed for the car, where Saige and her mom were waiting for him to leave.

Stepping up to close the front door, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.

What was that about?!

Even though I didn’t completely understand what had just happened myself, I text Saige back with what I understood to be the truth.

I think I just got myself a history tutor…

Smiling at the realization that I wasn’t alone in history anymore, I tucked my phone back into my pocket as I headed into the kitchen to help my dad with dinner.

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No cliffhanger for this one! But I hope you guys enjoyed it none the less because there’s a little bit of everything in this… some Saige, some Parker, and even some of her dad :)

Also, I’m back with a five thousand word chapter! Hurray, I’m finally getting my writing mojo back because I honestly wasn’t going to start this chapter for another couple of days, but I got it done just for all of you!

Thank you all for supporting this book so far, and, if you are awaiting the next chapter, I hope you’ll check out my finished novel Until I Met You, which is actually up for a WATTY AWARD under original fiction – romance!

Happy New Year to you all, and I hope this year comes with a lot more writing and fun :) xx