Stuck With Me

Anais ///*

“Anais. Kai. Stay behind for a moment.”

These words from my teacher made me stop packing up and turn to look at her. It wasn’t usual for her to make students stay after class. This was probably the third time she had asked me. The part that confused me was that Kaivon was called up at the same time.

My eyes found him, more specifically the annoyed curve in his eyebrows. We locked gazes and some of that annoyance pierced through to me. Neither of us had ever exchanged any words; even today, this was the first time we had ever exchanged a simple glance. The only reason I knew his name was from the couple of times the teachers called it. He often got told to be quiet.

“Come take a seat.” Mrs. Jenkins smiled, but it didn’t soothe much of the tension. She extended out her arm, signaling for us to sit at the two chairs across from her.

I reached my seat first, taking off my backpack and placing it in my lap. My ankles crossed underneath me, and the foot that touched the floor started swaying from side to side. From any point of view, it was never a good thing if a teacher asked to see you.

Kaivon slumped into his chair after. The audible thump only added to his pissed-off demeanor which I thought was a little much. “Why am I here?“ He didn’t waste a minute.

“We are here to talk about your grade.” Mrs. Jenkin’s smile remained. His attitude bounced right off of her. It was a mystery to me how she did it because even I was getting slightly irked by him.

His elbow tapped on the armrest before his thumb pointed to me. “Why is she here?”

“I’ll get there.” The glow from the computer screen illuminated Mrs. Jenkin’s face. A small image of it reflected in the lenses of her glasses. It fell painfully silent aside from the clicks of her mouse. “Okay. Kaivon St. Lewis.” She said under her breath. “You have a twelve percent in my class.”

My eyes widened and my head almost snapped in his direction. I forced it to drop to my backpack instead. It was almost impossible to get a grade that low in a class. The disbelief was threatening to express itself more blatantly so I tried to fidget with my keychain to stop that from happening.

“We’ve been in school for about two weeks and you haven’t turned in any homework or completed a single assignment.” She continued. “The highest test score you’ve got is a twenty.”

Regardless of what I was actually here for, I don’t think it was really necessary to bring up all of that in front of me. A grade wasn’t that secretive of a thing, but the two of us were practically strangers after all.

“Yeah, I already know that.” Kaivon crossed his arms and sluggishly shook his head. He was rightfully upset this time. “And now another person does too.”

“It’s good that you’re aware.” She exhaled and went back to clicking around on the computer. I had a feeling as to what was coming next.

“Anais Vasquez. Wow, you have all A’s and perfect attendance.” Her head leaned in closer to the screen. “Oh, but you don’t have a footprint outside of school. No sports, clubs, or after-school activities.”

Mine wasn’t as bad as his and I knew that. Yet, something underlying in her tone made it seem like what she read was just as bad. Either way, this was still unnecessary information for Kaivon to know.

“That’s correct.” My face was plastered with a smile. I was starting to share some of Kai’s irritation. So far we’ve both caught jabs that we already knew for no reason. This was a waste of time.

Okay. That was the last thing I heard before I fully zoned out. She started going on a tangent about the importance of having a balance between academics and personal interests. Something about how colleges want to see a student who can do both and not just one or the other. The usual things that we are all told at least ten times a month now that we’re seniors. This was turning out to be an even bigger waste of time.

“Okay. Anais, I want you to tutor Kai.” Her words snatched me back in. I could tell that Kaivon did too.

“Why?” We both asked at the same time, but his voice overtook mine.

“For you to play this season, you need a C.” She responded to him first. “Your coach and I both want to see you on the field. I’m sure you want to too.”

“We’ve tried this before.” He sighed and it sounded like there was a lot of exhaustion behind it. “It doesn’t work.”

“It never hurts to try again.” She smiled.

“Um, what about me?” I added myself to the conversation. “Why does it have to be me? I’m not even the highest in the class.”

“Yeah, I’d much rather have Annel.” He mumbled under his breath. His eyes trailed me up and down before turning back forward. My eyebrows scrunched together. That wasn’t needed, but I’m going to choose to believe he only said that because she’s known for being good at biology and he’s close with her.

“You’re the second highest.” She must have not heard him. “Also I think this would look good on your applications. You’re going for the Youvo Scholarship right?”

I nodded.

“They like to see personality and since it’s too late for you to apply to clubs or sports, this would look great.” Her tone made it seem a lot better than it probably was. “It would also be considered volunteer hours so even better.”

I didn’t have anything to say. If this would get me a better chance at the scholarship, then I’d do anything. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to join any after-school program, I just didn’t have the money for it. Most of them had a minimum hundred dollar fee, and the sports were even more.

“Okay.” Kai’s chair scooted across the floor. “I’ve got something I need to do, can we bring this to an end?”

He was really a character. One that I don’t think I’d get along with. I hope he isn’t this bad later too, and that this is all because of the situation. If that were the case, I could understand it.

“That’s fine.” Mrs Jenkins sighed. “Make sure to discuss a schedule that works for the both of you.”

Kaivon stepped out of the way of the chair and started walking towards the door. Either we were going to talk about this a different day or he was expecting me to follow after him. It better have been the first reason.

I looked back to Mrs. Jenkins and her hand shooed me away. The expression on her face made it feel like she was encouraging me to go after him. I had an inkling that this was why he acted the way he did, no one went against him. That being noted, I still got up and followed after him.

When I opened the door, he was randomly standing in the middle of the hall with his eyes glued to his phone. That was for sure someone who had something to do.

“So what days work best for you?” I decided to just ask him because I had a feeling he wasn’t going to, and I wanted to go eat.

His eyes reluctantly found mine, staring at me momentarily, almost like I shouldn’t have asked him that. “It doesn’t matter.” He looked back down to his phone. “Just tell me a day and I’ll be there.”

“We can do a trial day today. It’ll be a short session.” I offered. “That way we can hurry up and see if it’s a good fit or not.”

He stayed quiet, his fingers tapping against the screen. A laugh slipped from his lips before his eye met with mine again. “Yeah, that’s fine.” He brushed me off and then turned around.

“Wait,” I called out. “Where should we do it?” His indifference towards this was adding to my irritation. Maybe it’s because it wasn’t just indifference, he seemed more than upset that I was going along with it.

“I don’t care. Pick a place.” He said and then kept walking before hearing my response.

“The staircase in this hallway.” My voice raised. I would say it was to make sure he could hear me, but it did relieve some of that weight in my chest. He gave me a thumbs up and I sighed when the feeling returned. At least that was a confirmation of some sort.

For now, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that his mood is because of Mrs. Jenkins. It’s not his personality. If I think this enough, maybe it’ll come true, even though deep down I knew it wasn’t.

I stepped into the cafeteria and the noise of chatter echoed through my ears. It was better than silence. I’ve never liked when it was too quiet. Though unfortunately, I wasn’t usually one to start a conversation. That’s why I was happy to have friends who could talk a wall off.

This only really happened with strangers, especially since my friends can talk a wall off.

My eyes found one of them, she was sitting at the table we always sat at. That was Julia, she would usually get there first, and then Benny and I would go back and forth as to who came next. Today, it was me.

As I sat down, there was Kaivon. He was a couple of tables away and I had a perfect view of him, which meant he had one of me too. It was almost too perfect, so much so that it was hard to believe that I hadn’t noticed it before. The expression on his face was way less grim and I even saw the faint shadow of a dimple on his cheek. Maybe that’s who I’d get during the tutor sessions.

“What did Mrs. Jenkins want?” Julia glanced at me as she took a bite of her sandwich. Every day without fail, her lunches were always the same. A ham sandwich with no toppings but mayo, a snack-size bag of Doritos, and then she’d pick from an assortment of fruits to bring. There was some difference there, but still, I never understood how she didn’t get tired of it.

“I have to tutor Kaivon.” I sighed while grabbing out my lunch along with a notebook and the biology textbook. My lunch wasn’t very exciting either. It’s always just the leftovers of dinner that I made the previous night.

“Oh.” She laughed. “It’s finally your turn to tutor someone. Now you’re officially a part of the dork club.” Her tone was so excited that it read maliciously. “How bad can he be?” She must have sensed something from my tone. We were in the same boat when it came to Kaivon. Neither of us knew anything about him.

“Hopefully not too bad.” I uneasily smiled as a few memories of the last ten minutes flashed in through my mind.

I was wrong.

It’s after school and my butt has been sitting on this step for the last hour waiting for him to show up. I understand being a little late, but this is too much. Once it hit thirty minutes, I was upset. Every minute after that, the tinge in my chest started spreading. It heated my body in a way that filled me with discomfort, and that only worsened my mood. Earlier, he was pushing it. Now, any patience that was there has vanished, along with the little respect I had for him.

The only reason I’m still sitting here is because I have to take the bus, and it doesn’t come for another hour and a half. He didn’t know that though, so he stood me up, while knowing that I’d be here waiting specifically for him. He has until my bus to get here, and when he does, he better have the best excuse.