Millie~

Ever since the volleyball incident with Nick, there had been very little Ward vs. Wright action. Most of the student body had given up on us but we would still get the occasional stare when one of us would pass a Wright in the hallway.

As I walked to my Maths class, the streams of students parted with a clear of my throat. My heels clicked on the tiled floors as I walked and passed Nick and Ivy Wright who were standing next to a locker talking. Immediately, the halls filled with the gossip of 'do you think they'll have another fight?' and 'how can Millie Ward glare at someone as hot as Nick Wright'. That was by far my personal favourite. Sure, Nick Wright was good looking but he was quite simply Nick Wright and the thought of talking to him made me want to strangle myself.

My Maths classroom was flooded with chatter, indicating I was one of the last to enter. I took my seat which I had silently but very obviously reserved for myself during the first week. Some jock friend of Aiden decided to take it on the third or fourth day and let's just say that  they wouldn't be doing that again.  Aiden was still on my case about the whole sugar and spice nickname thing and according to him we were very much a couple. That boy wouldn't give up despite the countless brush offs and threats.

The teacher, Mr Ryans, entered the room, pulling me from my thoughts, with a large pile of papers. Immediately he started handing them out to us. 

"These are the tests you took last week," he began and I sunk in my chair. This will not be good. Maths had never been my strong point, exaggerating the point that I would never really thrive in the family business. I sighed as the dreaded paper landed on my desk, and cringed at the big red F that covered it along with the words, See me at the end of the lesson.

I leaned back in my seat as Mr Ryans began talking about some algebraic equation for angles in a triangle. When the bell rang, I slowly gathered my belongings after yet another lesson of gobbledygook. When the last student had left, I walked to the front of the classroom.

"You wanted to see me Mr Ryans?" I asked as he set his board rubber down on the large wooden desk.

"Millie, you're last test result was far below average and as far as I'm concerned, no other test you've done for me has been better," he said as he leaned against the desk, "Now, I'll get in touch with your parents and-"

"No!" I half screamed at him, dread filling me. If my parents found out about my bad grades I'm not sure what I would do. The fact that the family's multi-million pound company was based on maths didn't sit too well with the fact that I was failing the very subject. It wasn't that they would be angry at me but more of the fact that I would feel so much more disappointed in myself.

"No, I mean, couldn't you arrange a tutor or something?" I struggled, inwardly cringing at my suggestion, "I really wouldn't want to bother them with something like this,"

Mr Ryans sighed indecisively, "I'm not sure." My eyes widened as I panicked and searched my brain for something that could prevent him contacting my parents.

 "Please Mr Ryans, it doesn't matter who it is!" I blurted out.

He was silent for a moment, clearly thinking over what he was about to say. Either that or he was just torturing me.  "I'll see what I can do. Be here today after school please," he finished.

"Thank you!" I rushed quietly before hurrying out of the classroom. Breathing a sigh of relief and letting my shoulders sag, I hurried to the next lesson. There were still students milling in the hallway when I reached my Geography class. I quickly took my seat next to Cindy in the corner of the classroom. Her curly bright hair had been pulled into a half-up-half-down style and was secured with a green bow, which made her fiery hair stand out even more.

"Hey," she said, giving me a small smile. Over the past couple of weeks, Cindy and I had been talking more frequently and I had found she was different from all the other girls. I quote from Cindy; most girls were scared of me but fortunately Cindy wasn't.

"Hi," I smiled back, pulling out a pen from my bag and waving it in her face. We both laughed as we remembered our first meeting when I had asked for a pen.

"I like your hair today," she commented as we waited for the teacher. I had tried a Vanessa Hudgens inspired updo for school today but wasn't too sure whether I liked it or not. Brushing that aside I thanked her before I felt a hand land on my shoulder. Cindy quickly averted her gaze to her nails as my brow furrowed. Turning my head around quickly, I looked up and scowled when I caught sight of the shaggy blonde hair.

"Aiden, what a surprise," I commented sarcastically, crossing my legs as I turned away.

"Sugar, why so cold? You're wounding me," he continued, placing his hand over his heart melodramatically.

"And you're embarrassing her," I heard a quiet voice say as I was thinking up my next 'wounding' retort. The whole room went silent, and once I got past the shock of the fact that somebody had jumped to my defense, a small smile crept onto my face as I turned to face Cindy.

"Excuse me?!" a now red faced Aiden asked angrily, facing Cindy. Her bright eyes flashed to mine and I bit back a small laugh as she turned to face Aiden.

"All I'm saying is that your desperateness is embarrassing your victim and the surrounding people who unfortunately hear your uncomfortable remarks," Cindy sat up a bit straighter as she finished and it was safe to say that all of the students in my Geography class were well and truly stunned. The teacher walked in and clapped her hands together, spoiling all of the fun and Aiden's shocked ass trudged back to his seat.

"Desperateness?" I whispered teasingly to Cindy and the small smile turned instantly into a grin.

"It's a word!" she whisper-shouted at me, "He had it coming, can't he take a hint?!" she continued as the teacher handed out worksheets for us. I shook my head as I silently laughed and wrote my name at the top of the paper.

"I hope he can now," I replied before we both erupted into a fit of silent giggles which continued throughout the whole lesson. Cindy could barely contain herself when the teacher asked her for an answer which caused me to lose even more self control. I'm pretty sure the teacher thought I had even more problems than she thought before, but thank god I didn't end up telling another Geography joke. The rest of the day passed quickly and soon enough I was stood outside Mr. Ryans' classroom. Knocking twice on the old wooden door, I opened the door and walked in.

"Ah, there you are Millie. I thought you wouldn't come and I would have to write to your parents," he commented wickedly and my jaw almost hit the floor. Yes, Mr Ryans was definitely going to be torturing me with that for the rest of my Maths career at Central High School. I was about to sit down at one of the desks when the door opened.

"Sorry I'm a bit late Mr. Ryans I..." he stopped himself short when I wheeled around to face him. Nick Wright?! Nick Wright was my tutor?! What on earth had I done to Mr. Ryans to make him hate me this much I thought.

"Millie this is Nick, your new tutor, Nick this is Millie, the one I was talking to you about," I looked at Mr. Ryans in shock; what is his problem?! I crossed my arms over my chest as my gaze flickered over to Nick. My eyes narrowed the minute I saw that smirk plastered all over his stupid face. The smirk grew when he registered the huge scowl that was plastered all over mine.

"I want you to meet twice a week in this classroom after school. Sort out which days you would prefer and make sure to let me know. I'll leave you to it," he glanced at me quickly and nodded at Nick before leaving the room quickly so that I couldn't say a word to him.  

"The big, bad Millie Ward is failing Maths?!" Nick said mockingly after the door had slammed shut, leaving us alone together.

"The shot stealing barbarian, Nick Wright is good at Maths?!" I retorted, raising my eyebrow for added effect. He snorted in response and folded his arms over his chest.

"Like I said, you would never have made it," he finished casually and flashed me a smirk, his eyes filled with amusement as he intentionally wound me up.

"You make me sick," I sneered, my eyes narrowing as I took at step forward.

"Wow, never heard that one before," he said sarcastically as he also took a step forward.

"Get used to it, I'm sure it won't be the last time," I replied and I mirrored his movements and took another step closer. We were about a meter away from each other now and all it would take was another step forward to close the distance between us. I couldn't help but notice the way his navy blue long sleeve t-shirt stuck to his arms perfectly and showed just the right amount of muscle.

"I look forward to it," he said quietly as he took the last step and winked at me. My eyes widened and before I knew what I was doing my flat palm was flying towards his tanned cheek. At the same time his hand snatched outwards and upwards and grabbed my own hand just before it hit his cheek. My reaction was to pull my hand away as quickly as possible but his iron grip would not relent. My eyes narrowed as I yanked on my arm once more but I still couldn't release it. In my attempt to break free, I brought my high-heeled foot up in order to damage his precious toes but his leg shot out and trapped my own one.

"Let go of me," I spat at him as I struggled once more to get my hand out of his. It was safe to say I was well and truly stuck. He jerked my hand forward and I stumbled closer to him, banging into his chest. His other arm wrapped around my waist to steady me as his warm breath tickled my ear.

"Before you attack me again, let's get some things clear," he began. Instead of snorting and coming up with a snarky remark, I stood stock still. My body was tensed and I was frozen.  "You need to understand that if you want to do well in Maths, you do what I say," he finished; his lips so close to my ear that they almost touched. A shudder ran down my spine and I tensed my body so it wouldn't show. The gods were really not working in my favour at that moment and I heard him chuckle as he released me.

I scowled at him as he walked over to the teachers' desk and picked up my file. I folded my arms over my chest and leaned against one of the small student desks. Nick began flicking through the file while he walked around the room before coming to a halt in front of me and letting out a low whistle.

"You really suck at Maths," Nick stated bluntly as he began to flick through more of my tests.

"Yeah, okay. Thanks for that. Now will you just teach me?" I demanded. He was really starting to piss me off and the scary thing was that he actually looked like some snarky old teacher, reading through the dumb persons work. Come to think of it, he could almost pass for Mr Ryans. I let out a small laugh at that point and he looked up at me and raised an eyebrow.

"What?!" he said, his voice was laced with a hint of annoyance. Was I getting to him?

"Oh nothing," I replied casually, a small smirk on my lips. He shook his head, his jaw clenched, and grabbed a textbook from the teachers' desk. He threw the book down on the desk in front of me and I didn't move.

"Oh I'm sorry, does her majesty need her chair pulled out for her?" he asked sarcastically. I sneered at him before roughly pulling out the chair and sitting down. He pulled a chair around so that he was sat on the other side of the desk, facing me.

"Let's start with a problem that a fish could probably do," he began as he flicked through the pages of the textbook to find the required problem. I raised an eyebrow at his attempted insult and I was about to say something when once again his comic timing cut me off.

"I meant to emphasise the word 'probably'. Here's one," he said, sounding bored and swiveling the book around so that it faced me. I gave him one last suspicious look before focusing my attention on the problem. After reading the question four times, I still had no idea what it wanted me to do, but Nick Wright was sat in front of me, so I read it through again.

"It would help if you wrote something down," he said as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest.

"It would help if you taught me something," I replied defensively, mocking his tone of voice and imitating his movements.

"Fine," he violently grabbed the notepad from me and started scribbling down equations and calculations. I watched the muscles in his arms tense as he wrote and then saw his brow furrow as he worked something out, before going back to scribbling notes on the paper.

"I haven't forgotten about those men from the alley... and the fair," I said, too quietly for my own liking. 

He sighed and paused, "Yeah, well, like I said before, you should probably forget about them,"

This time it was my turn to mess with him. I leaned forward so out heads were so close they almost knocked together. He looked up from his scribbling immediately and my breath almost caught in my throat at the sight of his chocolate eyes. They were so open at that moment that I almost felt I would sink into them if I looked at them any longer.

"But you emphasised on the probably," I said sharply, smirking at him. After he had registered what I had said, he leaned back quickly and ran a line viciously under the workings before standing up with force. His chair screeched against the floor, making me cringe.

"Look at the workings and make sure you understand them. We meet Mondays and Wednesdays," he said roughly, before storming out of the room, leaving the door to slam shut. Oops. Looks like somebody's temperamental.