At the shrill of the bell, all the doors of the classrooms opened, and the halls filled with chatter, laughter and footsteps. Nora and Benny walked out of their History lesson and tried to avoid the human traffic by heading to the back exit, taking a longer but more scenic route to the library.
"Will you study with us?" Nora asked.
Benny shook his head. "I just need to return some books. I have work tonight."
After a moment of silence, Benny chuckled. "I still can't believe you're tutoring Rafaello Ferreira. You two almost melted each other with your death glares on the first day, remember?"
"Oh, we still glare at each other," she said.
"Man, I wish he asked me to tutor him," Benny said. He nudged her arm, "I think he asked you because he actually secretly likes you."
Nora scrunched her nose. "Trust me, he doesn't. You can even ask him yourself. He asked me because 'I'm top of the class'. His words exactly."
"Mhm, that's because I'm not in your class."
"I got 99% on the last coursework on Faust. What was your score again?" Benny looked affronted, palming his fringe to the side with more impatience than usual. "Mr Grant has some personal vendetta against me. Miss McGrath would've given me 100% if she was marking it. She's way better than Mr Grant."
"I like Mr Grant, he's a no-bullshit teacher. But you're right, Miss McGrath is a generous marker," Nora said.
"You just like anyone who's just as mean and lean as you."
"That's right," Nora said with a smirk.
They entered the school library, which was an entire building of its own and, like everywhere else, required a short walk from the main school building. Three stories high, it had a vast dome-shaped ceiling that accentuated the grandeur of the building. Rows and rows of books reminded Nora of the library from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
Her beast was sitting on a table in the study area, flicking through the History of Football.
"Hey Rafe, meet my friend Benny," she said. Benny stiffened; his social reclusiveness obvious. Benny offered a shy wave.
"Hey, you alright?" Rafe said. "I'm Rafe."
Benny muttered something along the lines of 'everyone knows who you are' with a visible blush on his cheeks.
"Benny wants to ask you if you like me," Nora said casually, as she began unpacking endless books and stationary from her backpack. Benny's eyes bulged out, and he stuttered a feeble objection along with a nervous laugh.
Rafe looked at Nora thoughtfully and looked back at Benny in earnest. "Hate her guts. Honestly, she's impossible," he said with a grin.
Nora smirked. "You see?"
Benny let out a shaky chuckle. "Right, okay well, um, I'll leave you two. To study."
Whilst Rafe got distracted by a page in the book, Benny gave Nora an I can't believe you just put me on the spot like that, what's wrong with you look. She smiled innocently.
"You can study with us if you want Benny. I'll show you how to make a grown man cry," she said, and Rafe gave her the middle finger without looking up from his book.
"I'm good...maybe next time," Benny murmured and slinked away.
Rafe snapped his book shut. "He's awfully shy," he commented, taking a seat next to her closest to the window.
She shrugged. "He is. So am I, actually. That's why we're best friends."
Rafe snorted. "You? I've met strippers shyer than you."
Nora was impressed that Rafe had kept his word. He had come prepared with new stationary, his work finally in neat plastic wallets and not crumpled bits of paper surviving in the bottom of his bag or shoved in the side pockets of his school blazer. She briefly explained to him the rules of her test, and Rafe expressed his astonishment at how she formatted the test to look like an actual exam paper, except there were little cartoonish animals with squinty eyes with an air bubble that said 'good luck' and 'you can do it!' He pointed at them.
"Seriously? I'm not five," he said, looking at the childish drawings.
"Then stop acting like you are."
Rafe glared.
She would never admit just how much fun she had formatting and creating the exam papers for Rafe. Writing up each question, throwing in a challenge here and there and weighing it in marks...she began to enjoy her newfound little supremacy. It was great practice and revision work for her too.
"It's just a small touch...to make it less intimidating, that's all," she said. "Now, are you ready? I'll stop the time in half an hour. Good luck."
The library was so silent that near the windows, you could hear snippets of conversations on the street and the quiet hush of pages being turned.
The peace was short-lived as barely fifteen minutes into the 'test' and they ended up locked in a heated, whispered argument.
"I think when I look out the window," he hissed. "Stop watching me like a maniac."
If she leaned in any closer to shout in whispers, they'd be butting heads like two rams. "No, you're spacing out! You've been writing one sentence for ten minutes!"
"We haven't even covered feminism in Sense and Sensibility!"
"Yes, we have! It was in last week's lesson!"
"This is a stupid test," he snarled no longer whispering.
"Don't you dare blame the test," Nora said, her finger pointed at him like a deadly weapon.
A loud clearing of the throat made them both almost jump out of their seats. Miss Norris, the school librarian, hovered over them, her hands full of books. She told them to take it down a notch or take it outside.
Once she'd left to patrol the east side of the library, Nora and Rafe both took a deep breath and glared at each other in silence. Nora sat back on her chair, crossed her arms and glared at the window. She could've been home by now, done with her homework and helping Grandma with tonight's dinner. She wondered if she'd make it in time to see tonight's movie 'Pride and Prejudice' on ITV.
She threw her pen on the test papers and paused the timer on her phone. He looked at her, puzzled as she stood up and walked over to his side.
"Get up," she said.
"Are you seriously considering taking this outside? I told you I don't hit girls."
"We're going to exercise."
Rafe scoffed. "Are you joking?"
"Come on," she pulled at the back of his chair.
"Sorry, are we power walking or weight training? Because I forgot my hiking sticks. Remind me also to bring some dumbbells next time."
"We'll just do some stretches," she said and threw his coat on his back and grabbed her own. "We've had a long day in school. It's harder to study after school, so we need to re-energise a little."
"Nora cut this shit out. I will not exercise like some old man. I'm fine. I have football tomorrow."
"Just trust me," she said. Maybe compared to the harsh way she spoke to him, the change in tone made him give in and go ahead with her request. Or maybe he knew that she could be just as stubborn as him. She waited until he was out of jokes, and there was no way she'd continue the lesson until he did as he was told.
Outside they breathed in a lungful of fresh cold air and did some basic stretches.
She heard a satisfying crack as she stretched her spine.
He gawked at her and tried to imitate her movements. "This is embarrassing," he said as they both stretched down to reach their toes.
He did exactly what Nora did with back stretching and grinned as he, too, heard his bone crunch. "Actually...That does feel good," he said, doing a couple of neck and arm stretches.
"It really helps to focus."
"You promised to tell me about another one of your superstitions," Rafe said as they headed back to the library.
"And you promised to finish my test first."
Rafe held up his end of the bargain. The test took longer than Nora hoped for, but the results of their tutoring sessions were already bearing fruit.
She began marking his answers and couldn't help but glare at his twitching leg that rattled the desk. "Stop it," she hissed as she crossed out an entire sentence in angry red ink.
Rafe winced.
"I can't help it. I'm nervous," he snapped back.
Nora looked at him and back at his papers. "You shouldn't be. I'm here to help. This is an excellent start."
She was busy marking, and from what she saw, tutoring definitely had not been a waste of time. He did listen to her, even if he didn't always show it. He could feel her gaze on her and tried not to get distracted. She looked up at him briefly.
Quickly he averted his eyes and settled back into his seat, looking out the window.
After marking, they went over his mistakes, and she explained her corrections and made sure he wrote up all the comments. Both let out a sigh of relief as the lesson finally ended, the sky tinted bright orange as the sunset spilled over the clouds.
"Sitting next to windows or doors," she said.
"Sorry what?"
"Another one of my quirks. I have to sit next to a window or a door. Otherwise, I feel unsafe. Like if there's a fire, it's the quickest way to get out."
Rafe thought about it for a moment. "Is that why you lost your shit last week when I had my backpack on the floor? You said something about safety. I wasn't listening then because I didn't care."
"I didn't lose myâ Nevermind. Yes. Can you imagine, because of your sloppiness, if we had a fire, someone would've tripped over your bag in an attempt to escape? And then someone trips over that person, and it all turns into chaos and panic? And someone dies?"
Rafe's mouth was slightly ajar. "Have you binged on Final Destination? Seriously, what's wrong with you? Me leaving a bag on the floor gives you this much anxiety?"
"Yes," Nora said and fiddled with her sleeves, feeling self-conscious all of a sudden. "I mean, you asked me," she said, a little more defensive than she would've liked.
Rafe nodded. "Okay cool, I dig it. No more shit on the floor."
His casual acceptance of this quirk made Nora smile.
He smiled back.