TWO || Tuna Sandwiches Are Awesome

By the time I get home, the sun is almost completely below the horizon. I bounce on the heels of my feet, kicking the door because my arms are full. A faint voice yells "coming!" and I wait, trying to sort my books out in my arms.

A moment later, the door opens just a crack, and my Aunt Xena's face peeks out. When she sees it's me, the door swings open and she ushers me in. Aunt Xena lives by herself in a lovely suite that was designated for three people. The walls are adorned with old paintings and there are vintage furniture decorating the room. When I suck in a deep breath, I catch the scent of cedarwood and vanilla, since she likes baking. I kind of love this place.

"Hey, Aunt Xena," I drop my books on the counter and sit down to eat. "How was work?" She works as a pharmacist and she loves it, helping people in need and meeting new people in general; she's quite the extrovert. Earns a lot of money, too, but she refuses to get a house. Good thing, too. We're both so attached to this place, I don't think I could bear to leave it.

So no, leaving this place would just be a bad idea.

"'Twas good." Aunt Xena ties up her hair, which is black like mine, but has grey streaks from age. Despite that, she still looks young. When I asked her, she just said 'moisturiser'. The wonders of lotion. I should really start moisturising or else I'll end up wrinkled and gross. "Betty came today, asked for ibuprofen for her high fever. She's always getting them this time of year. Also bought some Mykrox for her blood pressure. You know what she should do? Quit smoking. Or else she'll be dead by forty. What about you, kiddo? Good day at school?"

I shrug, remembering Maxine and the Jaxon video, the list of Studs and tutors that confirmed my fate. "It was alright. Some drama, but it turned out good." I've decided that having someone I'm lusting over as my Stud isn't going to be that bad. It'll just motivate me to impress her more and teach her as best as I can, therefore winning the competition.

Jaxon and his sharky stupid snobby face don't stand a chance - his Stud probably hates him already. I've got this thing in the bag. "You remember Jaxon? Well, he's back and he's more annoying than ever." I sigh and wave my fork with some pierced macaroni on it before shoving it into my mouth.

Aunt Xena senses that I don't feel like talking about it much and stays quiet. We eat the rest of our dinner in comfortable silence, the only noise that can be heard being the scrape of the chair as either of us stand up to get more apple juice. This is one of the best moments in my daily life. Having dinner with her. It's the little things that make everything so nice about this place.

Once the food is finished, I stand up and shake the books out of my bag. English homework, history homework. That'll be easy enough to finish. I tell Aunt Xena so, and she smiles as I walk back to my room.

It's the bigger room out of the two bedrooms; I told her it was okay if I had the smaller room, but she insisted, so here I am. There's a queen size bed with soft pastel yellow bedsheets and blankets, as well as two sunshine yellow pillows. There's an ashwood desk opposite the bed, with books piled up on it and a desk lamp. On the other side of the room, there's a clothes cabinet. Decorations sit atop of it, from flowers in a vase to a stuffed cow to a clay figurine I made of a shrine I saw in Kyoto.

I flop onto the bed, opening my English book and digging in my backpack for a pen. It's a pretty easy exercise on passive voice and active voice. I finish it in a quick five minutes and toss my history book on my desk, too lazy to do it now.

Instead I pull out my phone and check my texts. A few from Eden, none from Maxine sadly. The clock reads that it's already eight, not that Aunt Xena cares when I sleep. She's cool like that, so as a gift, I try to go to sleep at around ten or eleven to be a good kid. I read the texts from Eden.

So what are you and Maxine doing huh

oOoOooOh if you know what I mean

Call me, okay? My parents are making me watch FRIENDS and it's hurting my eyes :(

Poor Eden. Subjected to the hell that is Friends the TV show. Who knew his parents were that cruel? Laughing a little to myself, I tap contacts and decide to call him, since I'm not that mean that I would let him stay and watch that horrific sitcom. The phone buzzes in my hand and I can hear the clattering of dishes outside of my room.

He finally answers the phone. "Hi, Angel." I can hear him whispering and talking to his parents, the sound of footsteps that get louder with each step as the noises of the television and laugh tracks fade into the background, until they're barely heard. "Thank god! I thought you'd left me. So, Maxine, huh? That's pretty spicy." Before I can reprimand him, he continues. "When are you meeting? I mean, you have to teach her at some point. You hear? Don't waste all your time on -"

"God!" I interrupt him, just in time, so I don't have to hear what cursed thing he was about to say. "You better not say anything, you stupid..." I trail off and sigh, my other hand going down to fidget with the fabric of my shirt. "We're meeting on Saturday to study, thank you very much."

Eden's laugh is comforting. It's soothing and nice; you can always tell it's genuine. Anyway, did you hear?" Eden trails off, talking about drama and gossip. "End-of-year party's around the block, Angel," Eden suddenly says, snapping me out of this whole gossip haze. "I know you're asking Maxine, but what are you going to wear?"

"If by around the block you mean four months, then yeah, Eden. I haven't planned what I'm going to wear. Let me guess; you have." Eden isn't flamboyant, if you could call it that. He just really, really, cares about how he looks. If he came up to me one day and said he had a whole schedule, notebook, and map dedicated to it, I wouldn't be surprised.

He really does look nice, though, with sandy blonde hair and a nice, tanned complexion (as for me, let's put it this way: cockroaches probably live in my hair and if I got any paler I'd be translucent). It would be a shame to waste it.

"Yeah, duh, of course I have!" He laughs. "There's this really pretty deep blue dress that's off-shoulder, and Dalla's matching with another blue dress, light blue. I haven't seen her wearing it yet, but I know she'll look amazing," he sighs. Dalla is his girlfriend, which is pretty pathetic, considering that I'm five times more extroverted than he is and yet his love life is more alive than mine.

Although, with Maxine in the mix now, maybe I'll get to revive it. After a few more minutes of talking, he hangs up. Tomorrow is a big, big day, and I probably shouldn't spend the night before it scrolling Tumblr. But I will anyway, because of who I am as a person.

↠↞

When my alarm jolts me awake at the designated time, I almost smash it to pieces. But that's every day, so I'm used to this potent rage and urge to shatter my phone. I gave in to that urge one time (more like, I wasn't fighting it), which explains the spiderweb crack in the corner of the screen. Whoops.

My phone stops its incessant ringing as I walk into the bathroom, patting down my hair. It's no use, though. My hair is, as I said before, probably a cockroach home. At least I'm contributing to the ecosystem.

Once I'm out of the shower, I throw open my closet doors and decide that I'm wearing a white dress patterned with blue flowers. For extra effect, I throw on a denim jacket. Popping open a tube of eyeliner, I sit down at my vanity and start applying it. Contrary to teen fiction movies, sometimes nerds actually wear makeup and wear something other than a grotty sweater and sweatpants. Who would've known, right?

Aunt Xena's left a note for me, plastered to the dining table. Going out early, sorry kiddo. Won't be home 'til late. I left money. Order anything, or you can go eat out with friends if you want. Don't drink alcohol. Don't have the S-E-X. Most of all, I love you. XOXO, Aunt Xena. I smile and slip the note into my pocket.

My books are all in my bookbag, ready to go. I grab a Milky Way and unwrap it, slipping on my socks and shoes. The door is kicked open by my knee because my hands are full, and I stick the Milky Way into my mouth so I can push the lift button.

Cognaissance Library is a library just down Crysthin Street, a ten-minute walk at most. I pull out my phone and check my texts. One from Eden. None from Maxine, sadly, so I decide to text her first, no matter how pathetic that is.

I go so far as to type 'hey, I'm arriving early at 6?' before deciding this is just a lame excuse to text Maxine. I hit backspace and look up. I'm here. The library is a big building, towering above me. Bookshelves line the walls and there are people sitting at tables, reading or using the devices. I take a seat at one of the tables and open my sketchbook.

Just as I lift my pencil to start drawing, the book is snatched from my hands. An embarrassing squeal escapes my mouth as my hands fly up to retrieve the precious book, which it out of reach. Maxine holds the sketch up and tilts her head up to see it. "You draw this?" No correct response from me, just a humiliatingly high-pitched "give it back!". She laughs. "Aww, you're adorable. Relax."

She tosses the book onto the table. One of the pages has a folded corner because of this but it doesn't matter. I can fix it. "Yeah, yeah. Sit down, won't you? You're early." There's definitive silence as I wait for her to say something, but nothing. She just nods. "So, I was thinking we should start with Maths."

Maxine shrugs and takes a seat, digging out a few notebooks and a shiny new textbook still covered in its protective plastic. Mastering Essential Maths Skills for 10th Graders: 2nd Edition, the cover says in big bold letters.

"Let's start with the standard book first," I suggest, "and then we can move on to that, if we have time. I'll teach you all of the subjects." Since I haven't read the standard textbook in a long time, I scan the subjects page, Maxine following, peering over my shoulder to see.

"But we haven't learnt probability and induction yet."

"I know. But I think it's best if we cover everything now, as opposed to having to catch up with the teachers if you have any difficulty with a particular problem." This probably sounds like gibberish to her. "Well, let's just get to it. Are we meeting on Monday? I'm free all after school."

Some part of my brain says that it sounds like I'm asking her on a date, but I ignore it since that part of the brain is usually idiotic anyway. "I'm looking forward to starting on Biology. It's one of my favourite subjects." This has no relation to the previous conversational topic, but my mouth hates me so it decided to say it anyway. Either that, or I've been possessed. Neither of those are good.

Maxine's mouth twists into an indifferent frown, her nose slightly scrunched up. "You'll have to wait, then. It'll probably take us a week to cover all of this..." She gestures to the mathematics textbooks. "I'm stupid, remember? That's why I'm here." She smirks and it's sad, how she says it like it's a fact, like she's used to it. It makes me wonder how it feels. Living witth that people have been telling you: you're stupid.

At least, I assume people have been telling her that. What other explanation could there be? Why would she just decide all on her own that she's dumb? She's staring at me, a chunk of hair hanging down over her golden brown eyes.

I shake myself out of my daze and flip the book to the first page. And as I find out, Maxine's not stupid. She learns quickly how to solve and understand problems. It makes me wonder even more about her. With what I've seen so far, she should have no problem with her studies.

We work for three more hours, my notebook filling up with scribbles, numbers, and lines. Abbreviations help her the most. And it's awesome and depressing at the same time, because here I am, spending so much time with her like I've always wanted, and all we're doing is talking about maths. But this is for her.

I'm reminded of the horrible video and the one and only Jaxon, who is just as horrible. "Let's take a break," I say, almost pleadingly, sinking back into my chair.

She scans my face, squinting, and whatever she saw must have been enough for her because she nods and digs in her bag for something, coming up with two sandwiches. "Tuna or ham?" asks Maxine, and I answer "tuna", because ham sucks.

Maxine hands me one of the wrapped sandwiches, the one with mayonnaise and tuna. I thank her and unwrap it, watching her unwrap her own. When I take a bite, I expect it to taste average or maybe even below average, but this is good. In seconds, the whole thing is in my mouth, leaving only bread crumbs and faint drips of mayonnaise.

"I can cook, you know. My mum..." An expression of discomfort crosses her face for a millisecond, but it passes, and she's back to her cold, indifferent face. If my eyes weren't so sharp, I'd probably have missed it. Lucky they are. "My mum forced me to try out some girly skills, because she didn't like my totally cool masculinity." She looks at me and smirks, which makes my insides melt into goo.

"Yeah," is all I can get myself to say. Great! When I'm nervous, I'm either super talkative, 100 words per second, or totally closed up and speechless. A few minutes later, she finally finishes her sandwich. "Let's get back to it." There's a pause. "Hey, Maxine... I've... how did you become a Stud? You're pretty quick to understand, and you come up with lots of great ideas to solve stuff..." I trail off.

She brushes me away. "No big deal," is all she says, before flipping open to our last page. "Basic mathematical probability," she reads, before turning to me.

"Okay, well." My tongue juts out to lick my lips, restraining myself from being intrusive as usual. "Probability is the chance of an event happening, right? There are independent events and dependent events. So, like..." Why is this so hard all of a sudden? "An independent event is when one of the... uh, it's when of the outcomes... it doesn't..."

She seems to notice my nervousness, because she raises one of her eyebrows. "You okay, nerd?" I shake my head, although my mouth still feels stitched together. "It's alright. Jesus. It's not like you can teach me like this anyway." She waves my protests away, which is easy, since they're just weak "no"s and shakes of my head.

Digging through her pack as I dig through mine for a water bottle, she pulls out a pack of cigarettes. "Want one?" She asks, but I swipe her hand away, her cold fingertips brushing against mine, pointing to the NO SMOKING sign plastered against the window. "I'll do it outside, then. I'll be back in five."

She sticks the smoke in her mouth and gets up from her seat, chair making scraping sounds as she retreats to the door. A few minutes later, spent being face-down on the table, Maxine comes back. "Hey. Get your shit together now or else." I moan into the table.

After a few minutes of threatening and kicking (I pretend it doesn't hurt me, but they do, ouch), she finally gets me to sit upright. "Gracelynn. Jesus. Just do your job and teach me maths."

So I do.