After looking up the meaning of the word obtuse, my mind felt subjected to some kind of humiliation ritual. I knew Amanda saw me as this inept student but to birth me with such a degrading adjective? That seemed a bit extreme. I mean, it's really not my fault that I have trouble retaining vital educational information, or any information that is  deemed as 'important'.

Obtuse? Am I really obtuse? Judging me solely on my academic performance is a shallow way to go Amanda. I'm pretty sure I could hold a perfectly decent and mentally stimulating conversation with her, over a cup of coffee - well, maybe not coffee per say since coffee isn't exactly my type of go to drink. It tastes weird. Bitter and disgusting. I don't understand why anyone would want to subject their taste buds to the inconceivable taste of coffee.

It is an acquired taste anyway. My dad once told my mom that I was an acquired taste. At the moment I didn't know what he meant by that. I actually received it as a compliment until I looked it up. So I guess coffee is also an acquired taste too. But I don't know, Amanda made me want to give coffee a shot. Maybe we two could hold a decent coffee date and talk about intellectual stuff, maybe even throw in some of those big words....

The way she looked at me as I doodled the mathematical formulas she'd written on the whiteboard, teaching me about the basics of trigonometric ratios , trying my best not to wander off topic, or stare at how tight her pant suit fitted around her ass, I could just feel the disdain she had for me as a person. It's like she was looking down on me and I hated it.

Reminded me of my father and how he hates me. I can handle my father's disdainful glares but not hers.

Pressing the tip of my pencil hard enough on my book as I wrote in a fit of rage  , it snapped broken, the charcoal grey grafite bouncing off my paper, Amanda twisted her neck enough to glance back at me ,her attention grabbed by the echoing of my breaking pencil. I try to locate my sharpener inside my backpack, her eyes still glued on me.

She was in the middle of explaining integration using long division and my mind was befuddled with all these equations, afraid it'd slip into a coma of confusion. That and the impending anger I'd harbored towards her for calling me obtuse! She was starting to act like my father and I hated that.

" Are we still together?" Her voice tickled my eardrums with its mellifluous flow but I refused to answer, hands digging deeper inside the pockets of my backpack, trying to locate my sharpener. " I'm not really going to repeat myself on this particular topic, Maxwell. "

" It's Max ," I grumbled under my breath, finally getting ahold of my plastic sharpener, drawing it out before fitting the tip of my pencil inside the gaping hole of it.

" What was that?" She asked.

" I said my name is Max," I didn't mean to bark but I did. " Not Maxwell. "

Her eyebrows shot to her hairline, a mesmerized look on her face , calmly setting the mark pen down on the tray next to the whiteboard eraser as her arms folded across her chest. " Is that so?"

" You want me to address you as Mrs Dawson, the least you can do is respect my wishes too, and call me Max, not Maxwell" The crunching sound of me twisting the pencil inside the sharper, watching its skin peel off as I sharpened it filled the silence. I avoided her eyes once done with the task , setting the pencil shavings aside together with the blue sharpener and dove right back to scribbling formulas I knew nothing about. I never pass any of her classes so I really didn't give a shit.

I don't even know what it was that I was scribbling, something about u-substitution with a bunch of dx and factored constants and integration -

" Are you sure you're okay?" Her voice sounded so close to me and that's when I lifted my gaze only to see her standing right in front of my desk. That look she had previously worn, one that reminded me of how much of a failure I was , had soon dissipated into a look I had never ever seen on Amanda's face before in my entire life of knowing her.

The same look your mother would give you when you're in bed with a cold or something. A look of concern and sympathy. I blinked at its oddity, completely unlike Amanda.

" Why do you care? " I snorted a response. Now it was her turn to blink at my capricious mood. Her mouth slightly parted at that reply. I pretend to write the Greek words on the board, trying to ignore her presence even though I could vividly smell her from where I sat, that aphrodisiac scent that brought an unwelcomed jolt in my pants. She was kind of hard to ignore. But still, I persistently tried.

" That's polynomial long division," She spoke out of the blue, disrupting the peaceful sound of my pencil scratching my paper as I frivolously doodled nonsensical formulas.

" Huh?" I finally fed her my gaze, addled by whatever it was that she was talking about. Without my consent, Amanda reached over for my pencil, snatched it from my fingers and begun scribbling some numbers coupled with letters and greek symbols industriously, consuming me into a fire of confusion.

" Here....we have to find the anti derivative of this equation," She declared, her hand industriously working out something leaving a trail of her handwriting which looked ten times more attractive on paper than it does on the board.

" You know I don't really get any of these," I said , cutting her off.

" What's not to get , this is simple Abc work," She peered back at my blank face.

" But I still don't get it!"

" That's because your mind isn't in class," She slammed the pencil down and faced me with a critical stare. Still pissed at her , I found myself glaring down at my paper, the word obtuse ringing inside my head.

" What's wrong? Why are you suddenly so mad?" She asked. My lips pressed together, my jaw ticking trying to hold back any insults that dangled on the tip of my tongue. " Did I say something to annoy you?"

Silence.

" Max?" I inhaled sharply at the mention of my name. Whomever said women are men's weakness sure did not lie. I wasn't good at holding grudges and the sweetness of her voice when she called me by my name wasn't doing me any justice. My hardened heart begun to mellow before my glassy eyes looked up at her . She was concerned or at least she looked that way.

" I just don't get this stuff, that's all," I lied . Some parts of that was true, I didn't understand any fucking thing on this but a huge part of me was mad at her . For treating me the same way dad treats me. Like I was less than.

" Okay," She sighed. " Maybe we can go over it one more time....a bit slower. "

" Whatever," A unenthusiastically replied , expecting her to revert back to her high and mighty attitude but instead, Amanda sauntered back to her desk , grabbed her chair and sauntered back to my desk with it in her arms and set it down next to mine. The whole time, my eyes were widened to near goofballs at the unexpected turn of events. Was she really going to lower her dignity and intelligence and seat next to an obtuse creature like me?

" Scooch over," She ordered, setting her chair close to mine and lowered her butt on to it, our thighs bumping almost immediately and the warmth from hers staining through my garment.

" What are you doing?" I tried not to sound alarmed by this proximity yet failing.

" Helping you out," she said that like it was an obvious thing, grabbing my pencil and dove right back into my paper, where proceeded to  write equations as I watched in shock. " So, this is integration using long division and completing the square..." The first thing I notice is that she's left handed as she wrote, completely unaware of my perturbed expression. I never knew she was a leftie. Also, I notice how she nibbled on her bottom lip, focused as she scribbled on the paper ,which was really adorable.

" Are you familiar with the integration rules?" She asked once done writing on the paper, those blue eyes consuming mine with such intensity I felt shy.

" No,"

" Mean value theorem?"

I shook my head no.

" Fundamental theorem of calculus?"

Same response.

She let out a sigh of defeat, leaned back on the seat ,her face lifted to gaze at the white ceiling. The fluorescent bulbs seemed to flicker abit . This was her getting tired of my obtuseness, she would probably hand me over to another calculus teacher. I know I'm a piece of work. Can't really blame her for that.

" What do you know?" Her voice was quiet .

" Nothing really," I shrugged.

" Why doesn't that surprise me?"

" Because I'm obtuse," Her reaction to the mention of that word startled me when she jerk off her seat, addressed me with bewildered eyes before coming to a slow realization of this.

" Is that what this is about?" She asked quietly once again, forehead marred with worry lines running horizontally on her face, it made her look ten years older than what she was.

" What do you mean?" I weakly responded.

" It is , isn't it?" She nodded slowly, a watery smile tugging loosely at the corners of her lips. It's like she could read me like an open book, could see the damage she'd done by calling me that. Aware that as much as I was this impulsive individual with a carefree attitude, I was still a fragile being with breakable emotions.

" Max," She went. " I didn't mean that when I called you.... that word. " Her hesitancy to address me with that adjective was laughable. A few hours back she was so reckless with that word, throwing it on my face like it didn't hold any insensitive effects on me.

" You mean obtuse?" I said , watching her visibly squirm at its ring.

" I was mad at you when I said it. I didn't really mean it," She spoke, an aura of humility embracing her with such unfamiliarity I thought she was joking.

" Yeah well, maybe you shouldn't have called me that in the first place," While her voice was soft spoken, mine came off harsh trying my best not to glare at her. " It's all I can think about and ....to be honest, it hurts."

The usual blazing fire that danced inside her icy stare melted away, leaving a repentant look in its wake. Her sharp neutral expression faded into a sympathetic one. And with an apologetic smile , Amanda uttered the words ; " I'm truly sorry. I shouldn't have called you that. That was wrong of me to refer you as ....an obtuse student."

Saying I was flabbergasted by those words coming out of her mouth would be an understatement. I don't think I've ever heard her said sorry before, to anyone. Usually, she's Ms. Perfect, Ms. Always right so hearing her lower her pride and apologize to an undeserving nobody like me was like a breath of fresh air inside my lungs.

" Wow!" I chuckled quietly, taken aback by that. " The famous Amanda Dawson is actually apologizing to me?"

" Don't get used to it, " she pointed a warning finger at me. " I'm only doing this because you're being highly sensitive right now despite the fact that you constantly disrespect me. "

I laughed humorlessly, averting my gaze from her and back to my paper. A moment passed by, silence laced into the atmosphere except for the steady sound of her breathing. The crappy mood inside my chest drained the fun out of this, my fingers tracing the surface of my desk.

" Is everything okay?" Amanda chose to ask in that tender voice of hers. She was starting to surprise me with this soft side of her, a complete opposite of her usual terse attitude. " And don't lie to me."

" Even if I told you, it's not like it's going to change anything," I said in a low dispirited voice.

" Hey," Her hand alighted on my shoulder causing my heart to skip a beat . " I am a mother. I can tell when something's bothering a child and right now.....I  can tell something's bothering you. "

I sought comfort in her voice and decided to do the most impossible thing that I'd ever done before in my entire boyhood; Talking about my feelings.

" Where do I start?"

" How about you tell me why you woke up late, was it because something happened the night before that caused you to wake up late? Was it a nightmare that kept you up at night....Tell me."

Last night.

I subconsciously smacked my lips as memories from last night rushed back into my head. Dinner, mom cooked her usual questionable meal of boiled potatoes and gravy with a side of green beans. Dad wouldn't stop shooting me his infamous glares from across the table. Mom remained mute, didn't defend me even as dad started scolding me about anything and everything. Roxie visibly subtracted herself from the conversation by taking her meal up to her room leaving me to fend for myself.....it was really crappy.

I felt isolated. Persecuted. Betrayed by my own flesh and blood. But then again, it's not like it's a foreign occurrence of my father screaming at me . He's done it so much , I'm starting to get immune to it. Numb even.

" Did it have something to do with your father?" It's like she had infrared vision and could see inside my mind. It took everything in me not to scream in anger at everything that happened yesterday, to pour out my hurting emotions at her like a kid. My hands clenched into tight balls, the nails denting my palms, trying to regulate my breathing, a lump nuzzled inside my throat threatening to choke me dead.

I nodded at her question and Amanda sighed loudly before rubbing my shoulder comfortingly. The sensation was undescribable, like a million fireworks exploding inside my body , warmth embracing my soul.

" Would it help if I talked to him?" She asked in a caring voice and for the umpteenth time, I fed her a skeptical look. Why was she so out of character today? No bossing me around, no lecturing....

I shrug off the skepticism and decided to bask into this out of character experience of her attitude.

" What makes you think he'd listen to you?" I scoffed under my breath.

" Because he always listens to me whenever I call him to talk about you,"

" Daddy's girl, " I muttered to myself but with her sharp hearing, she picked up on that.

" I'm gonna let that slide because you seem heartbroken right now," I found myself laughing at that and she joined in before simmering down. " I can tell him to cut you some slack for a while. A week or two before you guys can go back to your cat and mouse rivalry."

" That sounds like a too good of a deal," I squinted my eyes at her , showcasing my doubting Thomas side. " What's in it for me?"

" If I say don't hit on me again we both know you're not going to obey that rule,"

" So if you knew that I wasn't going to obey the no hitting on Amanda Dawson rule , why'd you enforce it to me?"

Pushing herself off the chair she was seating on , Amanda sent me a wicked smirk and sauntered towards her desk but not before glancing at me from above her shoulder.

" Let's go back to our main agenda, which involves integration rules, okay?" She informed, that wicked smirk still planted on her lips. Grabbing the eraser, I watched with mesmerization and a twinge of curiosity on what lied behind that smirk of hers.