Lesson #2: Power of the head nod

Derek was really bad at calculus, and that wasn't an understatement. He had a thirty percent in the class and that was only due to writing his name on his papers and a few homework problems he copied from his friends who only knew a little more than he did. It was a miracle they hadn't kicked him out of the class.

"Stiles, I don't get it," he grumbled, probably for the tenth time in the past hour. We were lying on his bed, both on our stomachs, staring down at his book as he tapped a pencil against his notebook. The night before, we spent two hours doing five homework problems. After school today, we went straight to his house, and now here we were, an hour later, only on problem two. "Show me again?"

"Derek," I groaned, trying not to rip out my hair. "It's right here in the book. It tells you how to do the problem, literally right here." I pointed to the problem in the book that explained it, and he stared at it for a moment before shaking his head with a sigh. "Okay, okay. Let's go over the steps again." I started walking him through the problem, only to realize halfway through that he wasn't even looking at the paper where I was writing down the steps, but instead he was watching me. "Derek, you can't learn anything by watching me talk. You have to follow along while I'm doing this, or you won't get a better grade."

"Right," he answered, quickly. He cleared his throat and looked away from my face, now staring at the notebook. "Okay, sorry. Continue." I hesitated, feeling the heat creep up my neck. Derek was the only person who ever looked at me this much. Every time I turned around, he was looking at me. I was a little self-conscious that maybe there was something wrong with me, or that I had something on my face.

"Okay, anyways," I sighed, continuing on with the problem. By the end of my explanation, Derek still looked confused. He tried the problem on his own, got it completely wrong, and then threw his pencil down in frustration. He got up and started walking out of the room. "Where are you going?" I demanded, jumping up to follow him. "You almost got it, Derek. We can try again!"

"No!" he answered, obviously annoyed. I wasn't sure if it was with me, or himself. I followed him out of his room and down the stairs, hoping to get him to come to his senses about this. He needed to learn it, or he was going to be kicked off his teams. "Stiles, this whole thing was a bad idea. I'm too stupid to learn any of this shit."

"What? No, you're not!" I argued, grabbing his arm to stop him from walking away from me. It was probably a bad idea, but I hadn't really thought about it before I did it. He turned to face me, my fingers still gripping his bicep as he crowded me against the wall in the kitchen. "Derek, you're not stupid, okay? You just don't understand it yet, but you will. We'll work until you get it. I promise, I'm not going to let you fail." Here he was again, his stupid eyes staring into mine, making me feel all kinds of weird things. I wished he would just cut it out.

"What if I never get it?" he asked, biting his lip nervously. I could tell this was really getting to him and it made me feel sad. I never had to worry about not passing a class, so I didn't know what he was going through. This was his senior year and if he failed calculus, he couldn't graduate. Even if Derek wasn't helping me win over the girl of my dreams, I would still say yes to helping him.

I smiled a little, hoping it was reassuring. "You will," I answered, letting my hand fall from his arm. He was still standing a little close for comfort, but he was the one in a bad mood, so I wasn't about to ask him to move. "Why don't we take a break for like an hour and then we can get back to it?" Derek stared at me for a few seconds before he opened his mouth to answer. He was cut off by someone else walking into the kitchen.

"Oh, sorry! Am I interrupting?" someone, who I could only assume was Derek's mother, asked. She was carrying armfuls of groceries, which she looked like she was about to drop.

"Not at all," I assured her, shoving Derek lightly to get him out of my way. I grabbed some of the bags from her arms to lessen her load. "You looked like you needed a hand," I explained, smiling when she gave me a look of relief.

"Yes, thank you," she replied with a smile as we took the bags over to the table and sat them down. "Are you a friend of Derek's?" she wondered, giving me an oddly suspicious look. I couldn't tell if she was just happy that I was Derek's friend, or if it had some other kind of meaning.

"Not that kind of friend, mom," Derek grumbled, joining us over at the table. He began taking things out of bags to set on the table to be put away. "This is Stiles Stilinski. He's helping me with calculus."

Derek's mom made an oh face, and then it turned back into her pretty smile. "You're the sheriff's kid, aren't you?" she observed, opening up cabinets to begin putting things away. I started separating the cold things from the noncold and gave her a nod. "I love sheriff Stilinski. He's such a great man, always helping everyone and-"

"Mom," Derek groaned, cutting her off. She gave him a guilty smile, but it shut her up. "I thought you were working late tonight?"

"Change of plans," she answered, casually. "I thought I'd cook you and the girls dinner tonight. And of course, Stiles is welcome to stay." She gave me a sweet smile, which I returned without even having to think about it. It had been awhile since I had a home cooked meal, with my dad working all the time and what not. The last time I ate something other than fast food or pizza was probably at Scott's house when his mom had a night off from the hospital.

"That sounds amazing," I chimed in, earning me a glare from Derek. I looked away, before he could make me feel guilty. I didn't want to intrude, so I guess if he asked me to leave, I would. But I really did want to eat something good for once.

Derek sighed and finished putting away the last few groceries. "Does that mean Laura will be home tonight?" he asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice. I sensed that he wasn't happy about that idea. Laura must have been an older sister. I thought I remembered her going to Beacon Hills in the past few years, but I wasn't sure. She was probably popular like her brother.

"Yes, she will be," his mom answered without turning around. She was already starting on dinner, prepping some vegetables. "She should be here any minute."

"In that case," Derek mumbled, grabbing my wrist to drag me with him. "We'll be up in my room working on math. Yell if you need something." Derek didn't even wait for his mom's reply before bolting out of there. As soon as we were back in his room, he slammed the door shut and plopped back down on his bed. "Okay, let's get this homework done and then we'll get to lesson two of our plan."

As much as I wanted to talk to him about his family, I knew it wasn't my place. Not to mention, this homework was going to take us forever anyways, so we needed to get started. "Alright, let's do it," I said enthusiastically. Derek shot me a glare, but didn't say anything else. An hour and a half later, we had successfully finished his ten problems, though I did most of the work. He was beginning to grasp the concepts though, so I took it as a win.

His mom called us down to dinner shortly after we finished. "We can get to the plan after dinner, if you want," Derek offered, and I nodded in agreement before following him downstairs to the kitchen, which smelled heavenly. I assumed, since he didn't tell me to leave, that he was okay with me staying for dinner.

When we walked into the kitchen, Derek and I slid into the last two open chairs against the wall. His two sisters were there, along with his parents. His older sister, Laura, looked just like their mom. She smiled at me in a very suspicious way when I sat down. "Derbear, who's the cutie?" she wondered.

"Shut up," Derek nearly growled, his eyes shooting daggers into her. It was odd to see him glare at other people, because when ever he looked at me, it was always in a much softer way. I didn't really understand him. "Stiles is tutoring me in calculus."

Laura laughed a little, shaking her head. "Tough job," she teased, leaning over to elbow my arm. "How much is he paying you?"

That was a loaded question. He was paying me by helping me win over the love of my life, so I guess it was a lot. Once I had Lydia, I would feel like a millionaire. "Nothing," I said, but I smiled so Derek didn't think I was being rude about it. "We're friends. I'm just making sure he can still play football. It'd be a shame to waste that much talent." Now I was just blabbering on because I didn't know when to shut my mouth. Still, the look I got from Derek made my heart swell. He looked surprised, but in a good way. Did he think I didn't know how talented he was? It wasn't a freaking secret. "Anyways, I like helping him. It's not so bad."

"Isn't that just the sweetest thing," his mom gushed, giving us a sweet smile as she hugged her husband's arm. I glanced at Derek and saw how red his face was. I could practically feel the heat radiating off his cheeks, they were so red. "Aw, he's blushing!"

"Mom!" Derek yelled, his fist clenching around his fork. "Seriously, will you all leave Stiles alone?"

I felt bad that I was making him uncomfortable. Maybe it wasn't my fault directly, but it was because I was here. "It's okay, Derek. I don't mind," I tried, hoping it would calm him down. He glanced at me, again in that soft way I couldn't really understand.

"I mind," he mumbled, looking away to continue eating his food. It was silent for a long time before the normal dinner chatter continued. Laura talked about college, and Cora about her classes as a sophomore. Derek and I sat next to each other in silence. Every now and then, he would glance at me. After everyone was finished eating, Derek and I helped clear the table before retreating back to his room.

"Sorry about dinner," I said as we sat facing each other on his bed. Since yesterday, I had grown a lot more comfortable being near him, especially after hours of working on math homework with him. "I don't have a filter, so when people ask me questions, I just ramble."

Derek smiled softly, shaking his head as he put his notebooks and things back into his backpack. "It wasn't anything you said, Stiles. It was my family. They don't know when to shut up." I knew there was more behind his words, but I didn't push him to talk about it. We had an odd relationship. I helped him with his math, and he was helping me get a girl. There was nothing else between us, so I didn't need to get him started on his family problems. "Anyways, let's talk about lesson number two."

"Yes, let's do that," I answered eagerly, waiting for him to continue talking his words of wisdom.

He rolled his eyes at my enthusiasm, but went on talking anyways. "Okay, so lesson number two: power of the head nod." I raised an eyebrow, waiting on him to elaborate more. I knew what a head nod was, obviously, but I needed more context here. He sighed. "Stiles, the first step in becoming cool is by knowing other cool people. You and I can't just start hanging out at school, so the first step is a head nod. When you see me in the hallway, give me a head nod. I'll return it. Lydia sees this interaction over the next couple of days and she'll begin to realize I'm acknowledging you. Eventually, and I mean in the distant future, we'll work our way up to actually talking in the hallways."

"Oh," I answered. It was starting to make sense now. "Okay, so all I have to do when I see you is give you a head nod and make sure she's watching?"

"Yes," Derek confirmed. "It's really easy. Once we get this lesson down, we can start talking about lesson three. But let's not get ahead of ourselves."

I nodded in understanding. "Okay, I get it. Anything else I should know?"

"I think that's it." He hesitated for a moment, as if thinking about it. "Yeah, that's all for lesson two. We start lesson three on Monday, but uh- can we still hang out tomorrow after school? I have a test coming up and more homework I don't understand."

I chuckled, shaking my head at him. "Of course we can. Here? Or we can go to the library."

"Here's fine," he replied with a hint of a smile. "So I'll see you tomorrow. And don't forget the head nod."

"I won't!" I promised, gathering up my things to leave. Derek walked me out to my car, mumbled an awkward goodbye, and stood outside until I was out of the driveway and on my way home.

+++

The next day at school, I readied myself for lesson two. The head nod. I never knew it would be so nerve wracking, walking around every corner waiting to see if Derek was standing there. We didn't have any classes together, so there was no telling when I'd see him. It wasn't until the passing period between fourth and fifth that I saw him. He was walking with Lydia, Jackson, and Danny. I felt my palms sweating, but I wasn't going to back down. It was literally just a head nod, so why was I making such a big deal about it? I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on my books. Derek and I made eye contact. He smiled slightly, just at the corner of his mouth. I tipped my head up as I passed, giving him a head nod. He returned it easily, his smile still hardly there.

The moment was over now, and he was behind me. "Did you just head nod Stiles Stilinski?" I heard Jackson ask, and I couldn't hear Derek's answer, but I hoped it was something good.

For the next few days, this went on. Every time I saw Derek in the hallway, no matter who was around, I gave him a head nod and he returned it. Once, I forgot, but he did the work and did it first, so I returned it. Lydia was the only one around to witness that and she gave Derek an odd look afterwards. I took that as a win. At least she was noticing me.

Derek didn't talk about Lydia while we studied, as much as I wished he would have. I asked him if she had said anything about me, but all he did was shrug and say he couldn't remember. We worked every day after school on his calculus homework and everyday we exchanged head nods in the hallway. It was beginning to get old, so I was looking forward to Monday. Lesson three was going to be a lot more exciting than a head nod.