Chapter 2

                My eyelids were heavy as I struggled to keep awake during class. Mr. Richter’s voice drowned on monotonously, looking as if he was going to die from old age any second now. To keep myself alive in his class, I began to count the wrinkles that were on his forehead, creases becoming more prominent every time he raised an eyebrow.

                The classroom door suddenly creaked open, catching the attention of just about every student in the class. They all looked just as tired as I was, and a little glint of satisfaction sparked in their eyes when it was noticed that Mr. Richter’s lesson was being interrupted. My eyes gradually rose up from my desk, glancing over to door, where a too familiar figure was standing. 

                Jace Wasson, the very same male that was there just two days ago at Julianne’s therapy office for his sister, was standing right before my eyes. I took him in with my eyes, noticing every little detail about him- from his effortlessly ruffled hair to his drowsy dark eyes. I hadn’t ever realized that he was ever in one of my classes until Julianne pointed him out to me. Just as Jace was trudging towards the back of the classroom to take his seat, Mr. Richter stopped him. “Mr. Wasson, would you like to explain to the class why you’re late, yet again?”

                Jace was facing his back towards Mr. Richter, so I could easily see the amount of irritation that had clouded over his face. “I overslept, sir.” Jace muttered, his voice without an ounce of emotion other than coldness.

                “And what were you doing last night that kept you too occupied to get your sleep?” Mr. Richter pestered. “What is it that you damned teenagers do these days? Party? Sex? Smoke?”

                I studied every body movement that Jace made, noticing that his fists were clenched, his lips pressed into a tight line, as if he was trying to hold back the use of profanity in his words. “Contrary to your belief, sir, I did nothing of the above last night.” Jace spat, making students gasp. “And besides, what I do in my spare time does not concern you.”

                Mr. Richter was fuming, the vein in his forehead popping out. His face was turning red, and if this was a cartoon, then there would be steam coming from his ears. “G-Get out of my classroom,” Mr. Richter paused, taking in deep breaths, “now!”

                Jace rolled his eyes, swinging the door wide open. “Gladly.” He muttered sarcastically, slamming the door behind him.

                Mr. Richter glared at the door that Jace had left out of, shaking his head in disgust. “Kids these days.” He muttered under his breath, taking a quick moment to settle down. After Mr. Richter relaxed, his eyes reached to mine. “Everly Winter, please come see me after class.”

                I frowned in concern, wondering if I was in trouble. As far as I was concern, I was doing well in Mr. Richter’s class. “Uh, okay.” I muttered quietly, thoughts filling my head.

                Once the bell rang, kids filed out of the classroom quickly, eager to get out of AP Calculus. I made sure to pack my things extra slowly, and once everyone was out of the room, I got up from my seat, approaching Mr. Richter’s desk. He was staring down at his black binder, the grade book. I cleared my throat, Mr. Richter’s eyes peering up to mine. “Sir, you wanted to see me?”

                Mr. Richter nodded, pushing his eyeglasses up to the bridge of his nose. “Right, Everly Winter.” He muttered, taking one last glance at his grade book. “I was wondering if you would be interested in some extra credit on exams, along with some service credit.”

                I raised an eyebrow in confusion. “That would be nice, but what would I have to do?”

                “I know this is going to be a huge task for you, but I believe that you’re the only student in this class who could accomplish it. You have the highest marks out of the four classes I teach, and that’s very impressive, considering the fact that you’re only a junior.” Mr. Richter nodded in approval. “I wanted to know if you could help Jace Wasson catch up on his work. He’s been missing most of my classes, and is barely passing by in my class. If he keeps up his attitude, then he will for sure fail, and won’t be able to graduate.”

                My eyes widened, my lips parting. “J-Jace Wasson?” I repeated, thinking back to the cold, sour tone he used when he first met me in therapy and when he spoke to Mr. Richter. Jace always had an intimidating look on his face, and his good looks only made him more unapproachable. “Sir, I don’t think I’m the right person for this job-.”

                “I’ll even do a letter of recommendation for you when you decide which university you want to apply to.” Mr. Richter threw in at the last second, suddenly making me rethink my decision.

               I grew up in a middle class family, my mother was a housewife and my father worked at a law firm. We weren’t rich, but yet again, we weren’t struggling to pay for our bills. But if I wanted to apply to a quality university in my senior year, then my father would have to start working extra hours, and my mother would have to find herself a full time job. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put my parents through all that trouble. A letter of recommendation from an AP Calculus teacher suddenly didn’t sound too bad, after all. “I-I’ll,” I stuttered, a feeling of hesitation visible, “I’ll do it.”

                I was fortunate enough to have my lunch period the same time as Julianne does because I wasn’t the kind of girl who had a load of friends. If Julianne hadn’t gotten the same lunch time as I did, then I was almost positive that I would spend my entire spare time eating by myself.

                “Do you have anything for lunch?” Julianne whined, rubbing her stomach. “I’m starving.”

                I dug through my bag, pulling out a turkey and cheese sandwich that I put together at the last minute this morning. “I have this.” I muttered, holding the sandwich by the corner of the bag that it was in. “It got kind of deformed in my bad, though.”

                Julianne shrugged, taking half of the sandwich out of the bag. “Who cares?” she mumbled carelessly, taking a bite. “Delicious.”

                I laughed, rolling my eyes. Just as I was about to pull out my books from my bag to study for an upcoming test next period, a certain someone caught my eye from across the cafeteria. Jace Wasson was seated along with Ryan Leighton, some guy that he always hangs around with. From what I’ve known, the two of them were inseparable and have been best friends since toddler years. Ryan Leighton was the only human being that Jace could tolerate.

                “That’s him, right?” Julianne poked my shoulder. “That’s the guy that you saw at Dr. Roberts’ office.”

                I nodded, watching the corners of Jace’s lips twitching upward sat something Ryan said. His eyes suddenly went past Ryan’s shoulder, looking straight at me. My breathing hitched, but I didn’t dare to look away from his gaze. His eyes pulled me in, and for a moment, I couldn’t hear Julianne repeatedly calling my name.

                “Everly,” Julianne snapped her fingers in my face, making me snap back to reality, “Earth to Everly!”

                I blinked, turning my head to face Julianne. “What?”

                “I was asking if you wanted to go to the mall with me after school today.” Julianne raised an eyebrow. “But it seems as if you’re too busy staring at Mr. Jace Wasson.”

                I turned and glared at Julianne, feeling flustered. “I-I was not staring at him!” I argued. “It’s just I remembered that Mr. Richter asked me to help him catch up in class today.”

                A grin spread across Julianne’s face as she began to nudge my elbow teasingly. “Really?” she giggled. “Does this mean that you’re going to get one on one time alone with Jace?”

                I groaned, not liking how Julianne’s voice went teasingly. “Julianne, nothing is going to happen between Jace Wasson and I, okay?” I raised an eyebrow. “Look at us. We’re complete opposites.”

                Julianne shrugged, peeling the crust off her sandwich. “That’s what you say now, Everly.” She held back a smirk. “Let’s see what happens.”

*

                “Determine the change in y with respect to x, given that…” my voice trailed off as I copied down a function on a blank sheet of paper. Once I finished jotting down the problem that Mr. Richter went over in class, I passed it across the table for Jace to solve.

                Jace ignored the problem that was in front of him, his eyes focused on mine. I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat, raising an eyebrow. “Is there something wrong?” I asked, after a moment of silence. “Do you need help?”

                “No.” Jace shook his head simply. “Can I leave yet? Calculus is boring as fuck.”

                My eyes widened slightly as I glanced up at the clock that hung over the wall behind me. “You can’t leave.” I said sternly. “You’ve only been here for ten minutes!”

                Jace rolled his eyes stubbornly, crossing his arms, leaning back in his seat. “Your point being?”

                I pursed my lips, my eyes narrowing into thin slits as I stared back at Jace with irritation. From the ten minutes that I’ve gotten to know him, I’ve already figured out that he was rude, lazy and extremely impatient.

                “I saw you looking at me during lunch today.” Jace suddenly spoke up, making my eyes snap up to his. “Were you checking me out?”

                I let out a frustrated groan, digging my nails into my palms under the table. I also forgot that along with rude, lazy and extremely impatient, he was conceited as well. Great.

                “I was not.” I protested. “What has that gotten to do with anything, anyways? Solve the problem.”

                Jace scrunched up his nose in disgust, shaking his head. “I really don’t want to.” He muttered under his breath, closing his eyes briefly. “I’m tired as fuck.”

                I clenched my jaw, fighting back to urge to roll my eyes. “Keep the language to a minimum, would you?”

                A sullen smirk suddenly appeared on Jace’s lips as he leaned across the table, a few dangerous inches away from me. “What’s wrong, Winter?” he called me by my last name, only irking me further. “You don’t like the word ‘fuck’?”

                “Oh my God.” I cursed under my breath. “You have got to be the most annoying twat that walks on the surface of Earth.”

                Jace snorted, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms. “Offensive.” He muttered sarcastically under his breath.

                I sighed, shaking my head. “Look, none of us want to be here, okay? Do you really think that I’d want to waste my precious time tutoring you?” I asked bitterly, feeling my blood boil in my veins when Jace took his phone out from his pocket, tapping away on the screen. “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you not have any respect?”

                Jace did not answer for a short moment, his eyebrows furrowing into a frown as his eyes scanned over the screen of his phone. “I-I’ve got to go.” He stuttered, pushing his chair back, scraping it against the floor. I watched with anger as he hastily gathered his belongings. Was he really this disrespectful and rude?

                “Are you kidding me?” I snapped. “Did you not hear a word I just said?”

               Jace closed his eyes for a brief second, letting out an exaggerated sigh, as if he was dealing with an incoherent child. “Yes, I did, because you seem to never shut up.” He groaned, running a hand through his dark, ragged hair. “I’m leaving, tell Mr. Richter. I really don’t give a fuck.”

*

                “…and then he tells me that he doesn’t give a fuck!” I rambled on, still feeling angry from my incident with Jace earlier today. “Who the hell does he think he is? I swear, Julianne, he is so arrogant. I’ve never met someone that irritable in my life before.”

                Julianne suppressed a laugh, her shoulders slightly trembling. “Everly, deep breathes.” Julianne advised while I glared down at my fingers, clenched into my fists. “Maybe he just really hates calculus.”

                I groaned, shaking my head. “No, Jules, you don’t understand.” I sighed. “No one can hate calculus that much.”

                “Just give him another try tomorrow.” Julianne shrugged, playing with the tips of her blonde hair. “Besides, that recommendation letter from Mr. Richter would look really good for you application to Brown University.”

                “Well, I’m not going to get anywhere near Brown if Jace doesn’t start cooperating.” I muttered, loose strands of my dark hair from my ponytail falling in my face. I quickly pushed them behind my ears, letting out a breath of frustration.

                “Maybe he had a legitimate excuse to leave today.” Julianne defended Jace as I shot her a look. Julianne simply shrugged at my reaction, closing her eyes slowly. “You never know, Everly. His sister does go to counseling every week. I mean, there must be something dysfunctional in his family.”

                I rolled my eyes, giving Julianne a look of disapproval. “Jules, just because you go to counseling, it doesn’t mean that you’re dysfunctional.”

                Julianne snorted, refusing to look me in the eyes. “Yeah, right.” She sputtered sarcastically. “Look at how I turned out, Everly.”

                “What do you mean, Julianne?” I acted oblivious to what she was trying to imply. “There’s nothing wrong with you, okay?”

                Julianne stared at me with her blue eyes that were once so bright, but now so dull. A small smile slipped across her face, but it never met her eyes. She suppressed a forced laugh before whispering in a voice so low, “You’re my best friend, Everly. You’re supposed to say things that like to me, even if you don’t mean it.”

                Ever since the incident that happened years ago, Julianne lost the glowing aura that always centered on her. Now when I stared at my best friend, I couldn’t help but notice a cloud of gloominess and desperation clouding over her. As much as I tried to reach out and help her, as long as her other friends and family, she wouldn’t let anyone in.  It took me an entire year after the incident to get the story out of her and give her professional help. Julianne had always been the more stubborn one out of the two of us, so she was reluctant to get a therapist at first, but after seeing how concerned I was about her, she finally agreed. And slowly after that, she opened up to her parents, but pushed away all of her other friends. Now in school, Julianne was known to be the “suicidal freak” and I was known as “the girl who was friends with the suicidal freak”.

*

                I spotted Jace at his usual lunch table in the cafeteria the next afternoon. Once again, he hadn’t bothered to show up to AP Calculus, but no one was really expecting to see him there anyways. For the past term, I would closely estimate that Jace had only showed up to class about nine times and throughout those nine times he showed up, he left approximately six of the times because he was arguing with Mr. Richter.

                Jace was seated across the table from Ryan Leighton, whom he usually was with anyways. Not bothering to acknowledge either of them, I stormed up to Jace’s seat, slamming my fists down on the lunch table. This caught the attention of a few by passers, whom were gasping at my bold intentions of standing up to Jace Wasson, of all people.

                “What are you doing here, Winter?” Jace seethed his words through his teeth coldly, an impatient glint flashing across his eyes dangerously.

                For a short second, I felt a shiver being sent down my spine, but I chose to ignore the feeling. “You’re coming to tutoring after school today.” I said- more like demanded.

                Jace snorted, rolling his eyes as he muttered some witty remark under his breath. “Okay, you’re funny.” He sarcastically spat. “Do you really think that I would come after yesterday’s episode?”

                Ryan gave his friend a punch on his arm, shooting him a look. “You don’t talk to pretty girls like that, Jace.” Ryan scolded his friend before turning his attention to be, giving me a grin. “You’re Emily, right?”

                I narrowed my eyes with irritation, crossing my arms, digging my nails into my skin to contain the anger that was slowly arising inside of me. “It’s Everly, thank you very much.” I snapped, trying my best not to glare at the two idiots in front of my sight. “Listen Jace, I need you to be prompt today or-“

                I felt a light tap on my left shoulder from behind, making me let out a groan. Why must I always be interrupted when I speak? “What do you want?” I instantly spat out, not bothering to see who was behind me.

                “Everly, watch your tone.” Julianne immediately snapped back at me, making me glare at Jace and Ryan as they smirked at Julianne scolding me. “You have student counseling today, why aren’t you at the meeting yet?”

                “I just needed to make sure Jace was coming today, that’s all.” I narrowed my eyes over at a certain figure with dark hair.

                Jace chuckled, rolling his eyes. “Okay, okay, princess,” Jace said mockingly, raising his eyebrows, “I’ll go if you want me so badly.”

               My eyes widened as I fought back to urge to sock him in the face right then and there. Julianne held my wrists back, as if she knew what I wanted to do to Jace Wasson’s face at the moment. “Breathe, Everly.” She hissed, pulling me away from the two.

                I obeyed Julianne while she dragged me out of the cafeteria, taking in deep breaths in the process.

                Jace Wasson will be the death of me.