The leaves were falling down and the wind was getting cooler. Reese was driving through the road with orange-hued leaves bordering them and only the Autumn sky in view. 

He stayed up all night trying to finish his English assignment. The normal Reese wouldn't care to submit it, but there was a piece of him that didn't want to get yelled at by Mr Diggory in front of the entire class, especially Heather.

Once he reached the school, the first thing Reese did was submitting his assignment.

Reese always got to his classes late on purpose just so he could miss a few minutes of the boring lecture. Math was his least favourite subject, not only because of how confusing it was, but also because of his math teacher Mrs Reagan. She gave him detention on the very first day of school because he was fifteen minutes late to class even though it was because he was lost trying to figure where the classroom was. 

Reese didn't mind getting punished or called out for his mistakes, but being in the detention room for one whole hour with nothing to do and no one to talk to wasn't something he fancied. 

It wasn't just Reese who hated Mrs Reagan. She was the teacher who had the reputation of giving students detention for even their minor faults.

Though Reese usually got to his classes late, he wasn't ready to take that chance with Mrs Reagan. Once he entered the class his eyes fell on Heather who was sitting there with a book wide open. She was jotting down something on her notebook.

He decided to not disturb her as she seemed really deep into what she was doing.

A few seconds later, Mrs Detention-lover came to class.

"Okay class today we are going finish off matrices."

Even though Heather missed a week of school she still answered most of the questions which Mrs Reagan asked. 

"Well, that is the end of that chapter. Now that we have finished the first chapter we'll have a test this Friday. You have two days time, so I expect everyone to come prepared. You can use the rest of the class to do your work silently."

Reese nudged Heather's arm and passed her a note. She was in no mood for getting in trouble, so instead of opening it she just tossed it back to Reese's table.

Reese on the other hand, wasn't just gonna let the quiet girl stay quiet. He kept the folded note on her table again.  

Heather calmly picked up the note and decided to give it back to him. But as she turned towards her right, she saw Mrs Reagan standing there with her arms crossed. She snatched the paper away from her hand and began to read it out loud.

"I hate this rude and arrogant detention giving math monster and her dull class. How do you manage to stay focused in this stupid class?".

The whole class gasped.

Heather's eyes shifted to Reese who was sitting there looking at Mrs Reagan with his mouth wide open.

"Well, looks like Miss Goody Pants is not so good after all.", said Mrs Reagan looking straight at Heather, dislike written all over her face.

Reese stood up from his seat grabbing their teacher's attention, "Mrs Reagan, it wasn't her it was me who wrote that."

"Oh, so both of you were passing notes in my class, huh?"

"Well, you were the one who told us that we could do what we wanted silently.", he fought back emphasizing the word 'silently'.   

Mrs Reagan was a little taken aback by his words. She was not used to students back answering her. "Okay then, do you know what this rude and arrogant detention giving math monster going to do about it?", her gaze shifted from Reese to Heather.

"Give both of you detention!"

"But Mrs Reagan- ", but before Heather could say another word the bell rang.

She was really mad, mad at both Reese and Mrs Reagan.

Never in her entire school life has she ever gotten a detention. This was going to be the first red mark in her clean record. As she was walking back to her locker in complete fury, Reese came up to her worried. 

"Heather I'm so sorry for what happened. I didn't think that snake would catch us passing notes."

"Catch us passing notes? Us? I didn't even do anything!", Heather spit back.

"Actually, you tossed it back to me when I first gave it to you. So technically you did.", Reese replied snickering, hoping his adorable laugh would melt her anger off. 

"Just don't talk to me again. Just leave me alone.", Heather slammed her locker door and walked back to her next class.

   *   *   *   

The evening was bright and sunny, but Heather and Reese were stuck in a classroom with some random teacher who was casually falling asleep. While Heather was completing her homework, Reese was waiting for the teacher to fall asleep.

"Psst... Psssssst..... Talk to me, please.", whispered Reese from behind her.

"You are the only one in this classroom. Please talk to me or else I'll die of boredom."

Then Reese pretended to get a seizure to grab Heather's attention and then ultimately curled up and died.

But none of his charming performances was going to make her talk to him. 

"Okay I get it, you are mad at me but can you at least tell me how I can make it up to you? Please.", said Reese with pleading eyes.

Still no response.

"Fine, don't talk to me. When I came to this school I was so alone. I thought I'll never make any new friends. But when I saw you yesterday after one week of agony I thought I had one more shot at making a good friend."

Heather couldn't take the blabbering anymore, "Oh shut up, I know that you have a whole gang of jocks who transferred schools for you, okay?"

"Oh, so you can talk?" Reese raised an eyebrow at her. "Looks like the sympathy strategy doesn't work on you, Freckleface." 

Heather quickly shot him a foul look.

"Okay, okay, once again I'm sorry. I'll never call you that again."

She then went back to complete her homework. 

"Hey come on, don't go back to ignoring me now. Just tell me when I can take you out a date so that I can make it up to you.", Reese coolly said, leaning back on his chair.

Heather almost dropped the pen in her hand after hearing those words. This boy who is sitting right behind her got her into detention and now is asking her out on a date. 

"Are you serious?!?", asked Heather in disbelief."You got me into detention and is now asking me out?"

"Why not? I would love to get to know you."

Heather rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not going out with a delinquent."

"What! Now I'm really hurt.", said Reese placing his hands on his heart. "But back to what you said, is me being a delinquent the only reason why you wouldn't go out with me?"

She scrunched her eyes as if she was thinking and then replied, "No, if you weren't a delinquent I would find another reason to reject you."

"Oh come on, don't hurt my fragile heart like this.", said Reese pouting. "Tell me what I have to do to prove that I'm worthy of your valuable attention."

Heather knew that Reese wasn't going to shut his mouth unless she came up with something that would zip his mouth. Suddenly an idea came up in Heather's mind, an idea that could end entirely different from what she expects, but still was worth a shot.

"How are your grades, Reese?", asked Heather.

"What? Why are you asking?", asked Reese, confused as to why she was suddenly so interested in his grades.

"I'm trying to make small talk here, Reese. You are the one who told me that you were bored, right?", answered Heather.

"Do you want the truth or the lie?"

"Truth, of course."

"Well, the truth is my grades are really low. I failed almost all my classes last year and I don't think this year is gonna be any different.", he said looking down at his fingers.

"Why not? Classes just started and you still have a lot of time to pull it back up."

"I- I can't.", Reese sighed. "Enough about that, tell me what I should do in order to make up for the trouble I caused you. We can at least be friends then."

Heather gave Reese a small smile and said, "Ace you mid-terms."

"W- what?"

"Did I stutter? I said 'Ace your mid-terms '."

"You know I can't do that right.", Reese replied, not happy with the task he got.

"If you can't do that then I can't be your friend."

"But... ", Reese knew that he wouldn't be able to ace his exams like that. He gets distracted way too easily and can never concentrate on doing something for long. Even though he gave up his hope of befriending Heather for a few seconds, it came back up in full speed when another idea arose in his mind.

"You know what? Fine. Fine, I'll do it.", he looked back at Heather. "I'll ace not just my mid-terms but my finals as well.", Reese stated, his voice full of confidence.

"But for that, I need you to tutor me, you should become my study buddy.", said Reese.

Heather scrunched her eyes and cheeks again as if asking him 'What the hell is going on in your mind?'

Before Heather could say anything Reese continued, "I'll never be able to study well on my own because I lose focus easily. But if I have a smart girl like you helping me with lessons, I have hope."

Heather knew how she should answer to that proposal. She knew she was supposed to say 'No', but it came out as the opposite.

"Yes, I'll be your study buddy."

Reese couldn't believe what he heard. He sure wanted Heather to be his study buddy, but he never thought convincing her would be that easy.

"Wow, are you serious! This is going to be fun.", a genuine smile formed on Reese's face causing his dimples to pop.

"We are going to study, not to have fun. Plus, I have a few rules.", Heather said in a more serious tone. 

"What rules?"

Suddenly they heard the teacher waking up from his sleep. He slowly stood up from his chair and stretched himself. 

"Okay children, detention is over. You can go home now."

They packed their stuff and quietly walked out of the classroom. 

"What are the rules you were talking about earlier?", questioned Reese as they both were walking toward the school exit.

"Okay rule number one, I will fix the time for our study session, you can neither be late nor make any excuses to skip it.", Heather started.

"I can work with that." 

"Rule number two, you must do the homework that I give you."

"Definitely!", Reese gave her a thumbs up.

"Rule number three, no flirting."

"Oooo! Gonna be really hard but will try my best."

Heather rolled her eyes. "Okay, now the last and most important rule, no calling me Freckleface."

Reese couldn't help but let out a loud laugh at that statement. 

"Hey, I'm being serious here.", Heather fought back.

"Sorry couldn't help it. You are way too cute.", said Reese between his laugh.

"Hey, I said no flirting."

"It's just a compliment. Take it or leave it."

Once they have reached the school gate, Heather turned to face Reese.

"Our first study session is going to be tomorrow at the library after class. We'll start with studying for Friday's math test. Got it?"

"Yes, Madam.", Reese gave her a small wink and walked away, already breaking the third rule.

 As he was leaving her sight, Heather once again shouted out to him, "Be there at the library as soon as class is over. Don't be late."

______________________________________________________

Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did please do vote, it means a lot.

Life isn't going really well. One of my friend is mad at me and I don't really know the reason for it. She is ignoring all my texts and I don't know what to do. Today another friend of mine opened up about her mental health to me and I'm really worried for her. My best friend is having relationship problems, and seeing all my friends in such situations doesn't make me feel any better. Being cooped up in my house all the time isn't helping either. Every single day I hear news about students committing suicide because of not being able to attend online classes due to their financial background, and it really affects me. Today one of my favourite actor was found hanging in his apartment. 

Being on Wattpad and focusing on this book is a good distraction from everything happening around me, but still sometimes I feel empty inside. 

I just wanted to get that out of my chest. Thank you for reading.