four - tutoring sucks

Storm's second attempt in tutoring Nashi was proving similarly hopeless to the first time.

"Okay, I'll try something easy this time." Storm said clenching onto his pencil a little too aggressively. It was threatening to snap any second. "If the gradient of a straight line is five then what would the gradient of the line parallel to it be?"

Nashi held her head in her hands squeezing her eyes tightly shut as she tried to think of the answer. Meanwhile Storm sat there resisting the urge to stab himself with the pencil. She had to get it. It was literally the most simple and basic question and he was pretty sure any freshman would know the answer.

"W-Well..." Nashi started. "Parallel lines are always equal so..." she paused for a second trying to gather her thoughts. "The gradient would be the same so my answer is..." Nashi looked up to his eyes with a hopeful gaze. "...five?" She squeaked with no confidence whatsoever.

Storm breathed out in relief. "Oh thank mavis you got that right." He shrugged. "If you didn't I would've stabbed myself I swear."

The pure happiness that bloomed across Nashi's face couldn't help but make Storm have a genuine smile. He was happy that she was actually trying. Though that didn't mean he liked her. She was still loud mouthed and annoying.

Storm flipped to the next page in the textbook. "Now onto the next-"

"Wait." Nashi interrupted. "That took a lot out of my brain so can we take a mini break?" She asked.

Storm's eyes darted to the clock. It was 4:40. So it took her 40 minutes to get one question right. He sighed under his breath. That's means he only had 20 minutes left with this tutor session. Principal Dreyar demanded at least one hour lesson every day.

"A break would be good." Hunter suggested looking up from his phone for the first time in those 40 minutes. Storm had actually forgotten he was there.

"Okay, whatever." He agreed.

Silence fell over the three. It suddenly occurred to Storm that him and Nashi had never EVER had a civilised conversation. They were always arguing. Hunter was in no way contributing to conversation as returned to looking at his phone.

"So..." Nashi said breaking the awkward silence. "Why don't you use magic?" She asked tilting her head.

Storm crossed his arms and redirected his attention elsewhere. "I'm not answering." He said.

"Why not?"

"Cause it's stupid question."

"You're a stupid question."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Shut up." Hunter groaned. He had already sat through at least four arguments and he wasn't in the mood to listen to another one. Everything was silent once again.

"So..." Nashi said once again breaking the silence. "Is anyone else waiting for Alexis to walk through the door with food again?" She paused waiting for an answer but no one said anything. "Okay... I guess it's just me then."

The door of the library opened and Nashi's eyes lit up. That was until she saw it was Rose who was empty handed. Rose strode her way to them before stopping in front and inspecting the textbooks.

"Hm... you're only on the basics?" Rose said flipping through the pages of Nashi's book.

Storm nodded his head rolling his eyes in the process. "You would not believe how hard it is to teach her."

Rose looked up from the textbooks and pointed her head to Hunter's direction. "Principal Laxus has a job for you. He told me to watch Storm and Nashi while you weren't here."

Nashi crossed her arms slumping lower into her chair. "Why do I feel like we're being treated like children?" She muttered with a pout.

"Cause we are." Storm rolled his eyes. He was rolling his eyes way too much lately.

Hunter got to his feet and stuffed his phone into his pocket. "Good luck with those two idiots. They gave me a headache every five minutes." He said to his sister followed by a sigh. While Hunter walked out, Rose took a seat on the chair he'd just left.

Rose crossed her arms. "We're not leaving this library until you're out of the basics." She declared.

Both Storm and Nashi groaned.

__________

Hunter took his time to get to the school gym. For all he knew, Laxus was going to make him do some ridiculous training exercise so he wanted to avoid it as long as he could. When he got to the gym, the first thing he could see was Gale duct taped to the wall. How exactly did he get there? Hunter had no clue. Was he going to ask? Nope. So Hunter continued his way to the next person he could see which just so happened to be Alexis who was sitting on the bleachers. She was frowning down at her phone and hadn't even noticed that him yet.

"Where's Principal Dreyar?" Hunter said interrupting her.

"He left just after Rose went to get you." Alexis replied quickly not tearing her eyes from her phone. She was chewing at her fingernails now. She was definitely agitated and Hunter wanted to know why so...

He snatched the phone out from her fingertips.

"Hey!" Alexis yelled. She tried to get to her phone but Hunter held the phone high above her head tilting it down so he could read it. "Hunter, stop!"

Of course, Hunter ignored her pleas reading what was on the screen. It was on her messages. Hunter didn't scroll but there was one text on the screen that caught his eye.

I'm in love with you.

Hunter was about to read more when Alexis gave him a swift kick to the part of his body where the sun didn't shine. Immediately, he collapsed to the ground in utter pain clutching onto his now very injured male parts. Alexis' phone hit the ground shattering into a million pieces.

Alexis cursed under her breath before crouching down near Hunter. "Are you okay?" She asked feeling a tad guilty.

"OBVIOUSLY I'M NOT!" Hunter shouted and then groaning in pain.

"W-Well you shouldn't have taken my phone, you Baka!" Alexis retorted crossing her arms. Besides Hunter's groans of pain, it was silent for a few moments before Alexis sighed and helped him up onto the bleachers. "Sorry." She mumbled as she pulled him onto the seat. "Sorry about throwing the cake at you too." She sat down next to him.

Hunter just let out a deep breath. "Whatever." It was silent once again. Hunter avoided looking at the girl next to him until eventually his eyes fell on her, now very broken, phone laying on the ground with remnants of glass scattered around it. "Sorry about your phone." Hunter muttered.

"It's fine. You gave me a pretty legit excuse to why I couldn't answer a text." She said wryly. She let out a soft chuckle trying to lighten the mood but Hunter could tell she seemed upset. Though he wasn't sure if she was upset about the phone, that text or even himself. Maybe all of the above.

The gym door opened and in came Laxus. The first thing he did was look at poor Gale who was still taped to the wall. Gale looked like he was ready to murder someone and that made Laxus smirk in amusement.

"Learned your lesson yet, Redfox?" Laxus questioned the boy. Gale turned his head away glaring at the wall. "I'll take that as a no. Keep it up and you'll be there for another hour." Laxus warned before walking to Hunter and Alexis. His eyes immediately darted to the shattered phone on the ground. He stared up at the two teens questionably raising his brow.

"I need a phone."

Laxus sighed. "And I'm paying for it aren't I?" Alexis smiled and nodded. Laxus rubbed his temples in frustration. Parenthood was basically seeing all his hard earned money disappear into his kids' filthy fingertips.

"What's the job you wanted me to do?" Hunter questioned changing the subject.

"Oh right." Laxus said. "I need the both of you to be my recon team."

Alexis frowned. "Like spies?"

"Of a sort, I guess."

"Isn't that cheating?" Hunter asked.

"No. It isn't. You'll be going to practice matches for other schools and scoping out the competition." Laxus further explained. Alexis made an 'Oh' sound in realisation. "I chose the both of you because you're the most observant of the team."

Hunter didn't hate the job but he didn't absolutely love it either. But he figured it was better than being duct taped to a wall like Gale. Then again, maybe spending a few awkward hours with Alexis wasn't the best. It was a sort of 'which option sucks less' situation.

"Okay." Hunter said making up his mind. "When's the first practice match?"

"It's actually in a couple of days. Blue Pegasus Vs Twilight Ogre." Laxus said.

The blood drained from Alexis' face. "You have got to be kidding me."

___________

This chapter has been sitting here untouched and unedited for a while now soooooo I'm just gonna post it lol.