I got to school after saying goodbye to Andy and thought about him for a while. At the front door of the highschool, someone reached out to grab the door before I did, and it was Mr. Grant.
He was holding a stack of papers and looked like he was getting back from the post office. He was outside too, and gave me the usual glare indicating how much he hated me.
I looked at him and he held open the door for me. I walked in quietly, awkwardly and he checked his watch. "Well you're late, don't you think?" He said, staring straight ahead of himself like always.
I didn't know if I should answer so I kept quiet for a while. Then I felt him look at me and was afraid he would give me detention for ignoring him.
"Uh, yeah." I said and walked to the front desk and he walked to his class room.
The lady gave me a pass and I headed to my third period and it ended fourty-five minutes after.
I spent my lunch time gathering homework from my teachers and finished it in the library.
The rest of school was the usual until I got to Calculus. I guess it was usual though, because everyone let the Andy subject go, and Mr. Grant was as mean as always, everything was normal. Except I still had to stay after for tutoring.
I gathered my stuff and sat by him and he opened the textbook, beginning our lesson. It went on like the day before. So eventually I got it. His phone rang while he was in the middle of explaining something and he gave it a quick look, then continued talking to me. When it stopped he acted like it had never gone off.
Then it rang again, louder and more annoying. He simply rejected it and kept talking with an annoyed sigh. "Show me if you get it this time." He said, and I did. I understood and he went on to talk about the next step. His phone rang again, but he kept talking and it was driving me crazy.
"Aren't you gonna get that?" I interrupted.
He shot me a glare and shook his head, finishing his sentence. "Why?" I asked and he slammed his pen down in frustration and turned around to answer his phone.
"I'm busy." He said.
I heard the woman's voice again and assumed it was his poor mother's. "Your sister went over to your house to be kicked out, how rude can you be?" She said.
"I'm in the middle of something, mom." He groaned, and rolled up next to me and nodded to me to continue figuring out the problems as if he wasn't on the phone.
"What is it? Are you with a girl?" His mother asked excitedly and I was beginning to understand that he really had trouble women, it made sense since he was so mean. But then I came to the conclusion that he just pushed them all away. There were plenty of women who liked him on our school. Our teachers, the young and single ones who just got ignored when they tried so hard.
He was probably like that with everyone else.
"Will you stop calling me?" He demanded, sounding distracted because he was watching me do the work.
"What's her name?" His mothers muffled voice asked.
He hung up and set his phone aside and I looked at him incredously. He looked back at me his eyes were so scary, but I tried to ignore it. "What?" He snapped.
"Did.. Did you just hang up on your mother?"
"That's none of your business, let me see your work." He was about to lift it up but I pulled it away from him. I was beginning to scare myself at how brave I was being. "Diana..." His tone was dark and mean. His eyes were worse and I definetly had pissed him off.
His phone rang again and I narrowed my eyes back at him. "You're being a child." He shot.
"I'm being a child? I would never hang up on my mother!" I said.
"You don't know my mom." He snapped and reached back for my paper.
"I don't know mine either." It slipped out and he looked like he was so confused. He was still mad, but as his phone rang I narrowed my eyes at it and he picked it up.
"What." He answered and I held back the urge to smack him upside the head.
"I'm sorry, honey. I know you're busy, I just hate that you're lonely." While his mother spoke he turned and tried to put space between us so I wouldn't hear.
"I know. I'm not." His tone never changed.
"I'll let you go now. Be nice to girls."
"Bye." And their conversation was done. His mother sounded really nice and he was being so mean to her.
When he set his phone down he glared at me. I handed him my paper as if I was feeding a cage animal and he snatched it from me, steam errupting from his ears. After he went over it he slammed it on the desk he sat at right in front of me and I couldn't hold back the flinch.
"My family relations are none of your business." He spat rudely.
I breathed out, sensing he was more scary than usual. "I'm sorry." I said, though I probably sounded like I didn't really care.
He didn't say anything and I wondered if he would yell at me this time. Instead he sighed and scooted closer and picked up his pen, twirling it around his fingers and held the edge of my paper. I was relieved he said nothing, but his silence wasn't any better.
After a while of it, he set it down and looked at me with hard mean eyes I almost began expecting, and getting used to.
"You don't have it all down yet," And he scooted closer to me and went over the lesson in a mean and aggravated way.
That was that and we finished my tutoring. It was pretty late and he refused to let me go home because he didn't want me to go until I understood everything. I thought that was pretty ridiculous.
I didn't thank him, I didn't want or need to. He just opened a door for me and let me go, making me feel like I was leaving prison.
I didn't like the awkward tension, and knew it would never go away anytime soon, but I still liked to pretend that I could break it and said, "See you tomorrow, Mr. Grant."
He grunted a, "Yeah." And kept walking to his car.
I went home that day and finished everything I had for my other classes then fell asleep, having no time for food.
...
Driving to school because I woke up a bit late, I turned up the volume really loud to Journey, Who's Crying Now and parked, ignoring the fact that I would be late to my first period.
I heard the bell ring and saw Mr. Grant get out of his car and immediately looked at the source of music and glared at me. I didn't know why, but he was walking to my door and stood there.
I turned down my music and opened my door and swung my legs around to face him. "Yes?" I said suspiciously.
His glare hardened. "Your music was so loud you probably didn't realize the late bell already rang."
"I heard it." I told him.
My CD turned to Open Arms and reached to turn it up. "Diana." He growled.
I froze and looked at him. He was gripping the end of my door, trapping me in. "Why are you so irresponsible?" He shot.
I wanted to slap him, but he was an angry and bitter asshole teacher. I couldn't touch him, it wasn't fair because if I said something like, Well you shouldn't treat your mother like dirt, he would give me detention or something. And he could just say whatever. He even cursed at me when he found out I had a tutor.
I didn't trust my mouth then, because I was sure I wouldn't be very nice, and I tried to pull my door shut. He grabbed my wrist, and I jumped. Was he allowed to touch me? He let go, probably realizing he shouldn't be doing that and stepped back. "I can't do tutoring today. Study your material and don't daze off in my class."
And he left. I shut my door again and he turned around and glared at me once more, probably expecting me to get out and go to my first period. I hit my head back on my seat and ran my hands over my face, controlling my frustrated breathing. I turned off Journey and added in Jack Johnson and had him serenade me to serenity.
When I felt it was time for me to go, I grabbed my bag and headed to first period.
...
"Diana, remember when we danced at that party in eigth grade?" My friend Connor asked me. I've always preferred him over other guys because he was truly nice. And nice to look at. He was my first kiss, too. "And we made out after that?" He reminded me.
I chuckled and tried to nudge him away. "Of course I remember."
He threw his arm around me and pulled me over in a friendly side-hug. "Oh those were the days."
Connor liked me too throughout the years, but we always kept our relationship friendly. We wouldn't flirt much but the older we got, the more friendly he was.
We were in the library and he was helping me catch up on many things I missed the previous day during lunch. "Wanna go to Whataburger or something?" He asked.
"Do we have time?"
"No."
I sighed. "I can't miss any more classes, it's been screwing me up."
He nodded in understanding and proceeded to help me out. He was a much better teacher than Mr. Grant.
But Connor was really boyish. But Mr. Grant was awful, so there was no comparison.
Why was I comparing a teacher to Connor anyway?
After lunch and every other class he and our friend Erin joined us, and they walked me to class. Erin and I were like the typical bestfriends, we knew eachother since kindergarden. Only we'd been pretty caught up with our personal life and such, so we hadn't been talking as much. "Can we stay over this weekend?" Connor asked.
"My brothers make sure to come over everyday now, so I don't think that would be a good idea."
"Do you want to come over?" I sighed and shook my head. "That's fine," He told me with a knowing grin. "You get your rest in, Sleeping Beauty."
And I was seated in calculus once again, so very hungry. I hadn't eaten all day. That's what made class worse.
I was thankful there was no tutoring for me, so I could pick something up on my way home.
I watched Mr. Grant pace around the room, holding a worksheet and reading us the previous days homework answers. I watched when he turned his back and couldn't help but stare at the veins that bulged out of his build and could not get over how it was such a shame how he was such a mean person. He was so handsome.
I watched him work things on the whiteboard and watched his face. It was still hard and mean, but I saw how into it he was when he was teaching. It was amusing, and I wondered what his smile looked like. I was pretty sure I'd never seen it before. I would've noticed.
Soon after class ended I packed up my things and got up relieved, so relieved because I would get to eat something for once.
I headed to the door, but: "Diana, I need to talk to you." I sighed and let everyone behind me leave before and felt Toby behind me touch my butt. I turned around and slapped him away.
I walked to his desk and stood in front of him, waiting impatiently because I was so hungry. "Sit down, tutoring is back on." He told me.
I felt my eyes go wide in misery and couldn't control a groan in frustration. "It's nice to know you like to have me as a tutor." He spoke sarcastically.
I was angry, "We both know I don't."
I pulled up a chair and sat beside him. He looked up at me and toned down his anger the slightest. "Let's change that then."