Chapter 3
"Tad"
You spend all Tuesday frantically worrying about your "date" with Tad. For once in your life, you're actually dreading the end of school. When you get out of your last hour, Tad is waiting at the door. "Let's just get this over with quick," he groans. You follow Tad to his beat-up red car. He gets in, and you wait by the passenger door. And wait. Tad is just sitting in the car, and the doors are locked. "Will you just give it up already?!" you yell. He glances up at you from his comfortable seat in the car, then unlocks the door. "Thanks a lot," you say to him sarcastically as you sit in the passenger seat. He starts up the car, and he begins to drive to his house. He's not saying anything, and it doesn't seem like he's going to say anything, so you decide to say something. "So...you already need tutoring? It's the second week of school..." you say. He turns on the radio. "Hey!!" you shout at him. "Chill out," he says, "I was just turning on some background music." He turns the music down a little. It's all quiet between you two, except for the music in the background. "Uhmm...?" you trail off, wondering if he's going to answer your question. "Oh, right," he says. "I need tutoring because I've already taken this class...and failed it. So our teacher thinks it would be helpful if you would tutor me so I'll pass this year. But I could care less if I do or not." He pulls into a driveway. "We're here." "Obviously," you say. He laughs softly to himself and reaches across you to open the car door for you. You look back at him, then look away, blushing and get out of the car. You follow him into his house to his kitchen table. You sit down, and he goes over to the fridge and tosses you a soda. You catch it and fumble nervously with the cap. You can hear him silently laughing at you from the other side of the kitchen. He seats himself and takes a sip of his soda. "Okay, do your thing," he says. You're not really sure of what you're supposed to do as a tutor. You drink a bit of your soda to pass the time. Tad just waits, looking at you. He clears his throat. "Oh, yea, uhmmm...well, what do you have trouble with in geometry?" you ask. He looks around and tells you, "Well, everything." You both laugh. "Okay, well, anything we learned today that you don't get?" Tad stands up. "This is really boring," he says, and walks over to the living room and turns on the TV. He slumps into a recliner. "Wait, what are you doing?" you ask. "We have to-" "Oh, so you'd rather talk about math when you could spend some quality time with me?" he asks. "Well.. I um.. uh..." you stutter, going red again. "I was just kidding," he says laughing. He points to a couch diagonal to the TV. "Sit." You look over at the couch. As tempting as it is, you know that you should get some math done. "I really don't think...." you trail off. You look at Tad, then the couch. "Fine," you mumble, and walk over to the couch. You both get through half of an episode of whatever is on, when Tad gets up and turns the TV off. "You hungry?" he asks. "Uhm, yea a little," you reply, "what do you have?" "Actually, I was thinking we could go out somewhere," he says. "Y-yeah, sure," you smile. He grins and grabs his keys, "Don't get too excited, we just don't have anything good to eat around here. It's not a date." You nod and follow him out the door. He runs to the car. You laugh and get in. The two of you drive to a nearby McDonald's. He orders a BigMac and fries, and you get the berry parfait. When you both get your food, Tad parks in the parking lot and stops the car. "We should just eat in here," he says. He turns on the radio, and one of your favorite bands are playing. You pull your attention from your yogurt. "Hey, turn that up!!" you tell him. He looks you in the eye. "You like this band?" You gape at him. You exclaim, "Of course I do! They're amazing!!!" He smiles. "Well, that's cool because I have a couple of tickets for their show coming up in a few weeks...If you'd like to go." "I-I'd love to..!" you say happily. "Cool, it's settled. Want some fries?" he asks. He doesn't wait for you to answer, he just leans over and pops a fry in your mouth. He laughs, "Aw, how cute." You blush and nervously wipe your mouth with a napkin. The two of you talk and finish your food before you head back to his house. You seat yourself back at his kitchen table and pull out some math notes. "Alright, I guess we should.. probably get back to work on this now," you say, even though honestly, it's probably the last thing you'd like to be doing. You point to a triangle on your math notes and you try to explain to him that in order to find the area of a triangle you would need to multiply the base times the height and divide the product by two. Tad didn't even try to pay attention to what you were saying. First he was examining his jeans, then he was drumming on the counter, and then he rested his hair in his hands and blew his hair out of his face. You put a pencil in front of him. You say, "Okay, now you try." He turns his head in his hand to face you. "How about you do that for me?" You roll your eyes and laugh. "Uhmm, no thank you. Maybe we should find the circumference of a circle?" you suggest. Tad grins and says, "Maybe we should just take a break?" You glare at him. You argue, "But we haven't done anything! I'm going to get in trouble if I don't tutor you!! If you don't get better grades, then you may be assigned to a different tutor!!!" He grinned even wider. "Would you be disappointed if I got assigned to someone else?" You freeze. You're not really sure how to answer that. That question caught you off-guard. "Well, I-" You're cut off by Tad leaning closer to you. He reaches a hand to your cheek and brings his face closer to yours as his lips softly press against your own. You stay still, frozen by shock. His hand traces the outline of your jaw as he deepens the kiss. You pull away and he lifts your chin up towards him with his forefinger. You smile at him, "You're going to fail this class." "I don't care," he says.