The Tables Have Turned

Chapter 9

“Hailey,” Alex called me and I turned around to face him, giving him a questioning look. We were now walking to the sports hall with our clothes in our hands.

“At what time do you want me to tutor you?” He asked, his voice clearly showing the lack of excitement.

“Um I don’t mind. Whenever you like,” I answered, shrugging.

“Okay,” he replied “I’ll be there around five.”

A few moments of silence passed before I answered.

“Thanks, Alex,” I said quietly, avoiding eye contact. I was so bad with eye contact. I can’t look into people’s eyes a lot, it makes me uncomfortable.

“Whatever,” he then replied in a cold voice and quickened his pace so that he was now walking next to the group of girls in front of us.

 I sighed as I quickened my pace as well to walk with Chase and Josh.

“What’s up teddy bear?” Chase asked and I gave him a blanks stare.

“Teddy bear?” I echoed and Josh burst out laughing.

“Yeah!” Chase said, grinning “You’re so adorable! Just like a teddy bear.”

“Er thanks?” I asked uncertainly and he laughed, ruffling my hair. That boy is crazy.

I slapped his hand away and shot him a glare before walking into the girls’ changing rooms.

“You remembered to bring a shirt,” Carson joked when I put on a red tank top under the white see-through sports T-shirt.

“It was hard to forget after last week’s incident,” I said dryly and the girls laughed. Because the weather was unusually warm this week, I brought my sports shorts instead of pants.

I tied my hair up in a ponytail and joined my classmates outside.

“Hi,” I greeted Coach Mathew when I saw him.

“Hey,” he replied casually and his smile turned into a smirk when he noticed that I was wearing a tank top today.

Before I could tell him a sarcastic comment, pairs of hands were wrapped around my arms and legs. I let out a squeaky scream as Chase and Paul carried me. Paul held my legs and Chase held my arms as they lifted me up.

“Put me down!” I screamed at the boys who were now swinging my body from left to right.

They started laughing as I yelled at them.

“Coach!” I said, hoping he would tell them to stop but no such luck. He was actually laughing along with the rest of the class. How responsible, I thought sarcastically.

“Let me go!” I said when I felt my head spin.

“Okay,” Chase said and I let out a sigh of relief “On the count of three.”

“One,” they swung my body to the right “Two,” to the left “Thr—”

“Don’t you dare let me go!” I screamed at them. If they let go now, I’ll fly and when I land I’ll probably end up breaking something.

“You’re so confusing,” Paul said, frowning and I scowled.

“Alright boys, enough playing,” Coach Mathew finally said “Put her down.”

They pouted but eventually did as he told them. I stumbled when I tried to walk because my head was spinning due to all the swinging.

Paul immediately caught my arms and steadied me. I shot him a glare and he smirked.

 “Stupid,” I muttered under my breath, walking over to Mariah and Carson who were watching me with amusement.

“I heard that!” Paul called after me and I turned my head slightly to look into his eyes.

“Good,” I answered before averting my attention to the girls. I heard him chuckle and I smiled.

Did I mention how much I hate sports? Coach Mathew found my hate for sports extremely amusing. He kept on laughing at me the whole time and I gave him my best death glare but sadly, it didn’t affect him.

When he finally said the most beautiful words I have heard today, I felt so happy!

“You can go change,” he said and I suppressed a ‘YAY!’

I quickly changed my clothes and went back outside, waiting for the rest of the class.

“You know, Hailey, you should stop glaring at your teachers,” Coach Mathew said, smirking “It doesn’t have an effect on me. You’re just wasting your time by doing so.”

I pouted. “I thought I had an awesome death glare that would make people cry,” I admitted and he burst out laughing.

“You call that, a death glare?” He said, amused “You’re cute.”

“And you’re annoying,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Please,” he said, rolling his eyes and carried on confidently “I’m your favorite teacher.”

“You are not,” I answered “I prefer Mr. Papadakis.”

His name was all that we needed to burst out laughing. Papadakis… Such a funny surname.

“Admit it!” Coach said “I am your favorite teacher.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” I replied and he smirked.

Everyone was done getting dressed and we started walking back to class. I stopped before leaving the sports hall and turned back around to look at Coach Mathew.

“You’re pretty cool for a teacher,” I told him and he smiled.

I smiled back before walking out of the sports hall.

“Student-teacher relationships are forbidden,” I heard Alex mutter, making me laugh.

“He may be young and cute but he’s not my type,” I replied and he looked surprised that I heard him.

He stared at me blankly for a minute before snapping out of it and looking away.

We arrived to class and found Mr. Papadakis already there.

He frowned at us as we went in but wasn’t that frown permanent on his face?

I snickered when he started talking. Will I ever get used to him? I guess not since most of the students were laughing too. He didn’t seem to notice as he carried on explaining what went down during World War I.

I already knew this stuff because I had to study them last year so I started thinking about sleeping. I was really tired especially after that sports period. History was our last period and I knew that I wouldn’t have time to rest because Alex had to tutor me today and I had a lot of homework.

I put my history book on top of my copybook and rested my head on them. A few minutes later, I was asleep.

The last thought that came to my mind before I fell asleep was, ‘thank God I don’t snore.’

~~*~~

I heard laughs and hushed voices but I couldn’t make them out. I felt something on my face but I ignored it until I felt a sharp stab on my left cheek. My eyes flew open and my eyes met Paul’s light blue eyes.

“What the hell?” I screamed, jumping back and out of my chair.

Paul, Chase, Alex, Josh, Mariah, and Emily stared at me for a few seconds before they burst out laughing like maniacs. I didn’t know what was going on but I did notice that the class was empty except for us seven.

Did the bell already ring?

“What?” I asked, feeling confused and self-conscious.

Mariah gave me a small mirror from her purse and a gasp escaped my lips when I saw my reflection. My forehead was colored yellow and my left cheek was blue with a black spot and I guessed that the spot was the final stab that made me wake up. The worst of all was my red colored nose.

“What did you do?” I asked, wide-eyed “This better not be permanent.”

“It’s not,” Paul assured me and I relaxed slightly before he added “I think.”

“It better not be or else…” I said, glaring at every single one of them. I then remembered my conversation with Coach Mathew about my glare and felt like laughing but I held it in. I was being serious now.

“Or else what?” Chase asked, smirking at me.

“You should watch out the most Chase,” I answered coldly “We live in the same house after all.”

His eyes widened slightly at my tone but when he recovered, he laughed.

“Can we go now? I want to get this stuff off my face. It’s itchy,” I said and Chase nodded.

“Bye!” I waved at my friends as Chase, Emily, and I got in the car and drove back home.

The first thing I did was wash my face. The yellow and blue went off quickly but the red on my nose wasn’t going off.

“Chase Gregory Walker!” I screamed and opened his bedroom door without even knocking.

His surprised eyes looked at me as I came in. He noticed the red on my nose and burst out laughing.

“CHASE! YOU’RE AN IDIOT! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” I screamed at the idiot who was on his bed, laughing his ass off.

I attacked him and sat on top of him as I started punching him. He was still laughing like the idiot he is and I was getting angrier by the second. My face is probably the same color as my nose now.

I know this was his red pen! He looked so smug when he said that the red nose was his idea.

“Hailey,” he managed to choke between fits of laughter and I punched him harder.

“What’s going on?” I heard a familiar voice ask.

“Alex! SAVE ME!” Chase screamed dramatically and I punched his chest again.

“You’re so violent!” Chase said, rubbing the spot where I hit him.

“You deserve that!” I retorted before jumping off his bed and facing Alex who was extremely amused.

I punched him as well but unlike Chase, he didn’t feel any pain and that made me angrier.

“I look like freaking Rudolph because of you idiots!” I exclaimed.

“Calm down, Hailey,” Chase said nonchalantly “It’ll get off. You can use alcohol or nail polish remover.”

“But I’m allergic to this stuff! If it says on my face longer that an hour it will start swelling and itching,” I complained and watched as his eyes and Alex’s eyes widened.

Alex’s eyes changed from surprise to amusement when he said, “It’ll be freshman year all over again.”

I felt my cheeks heat up at the incident. It was during our first high school basketball game and we drew on our faces and in the middle of the game my face started itching. I ended up with a swollen, red face for two days.

“What happened back then?” Chase asked.

“Nothing,” I snapped, feeling embarrassed.

“Hailey’s face became three times bigger and it stayed red for two days,” Alex said, smirking at me and Chase burst out laughing.

“You,” I said, poking Alex’s chest “Should’ve told them to stop drawing on my face in class! You knew I was allergic to this stuff.”

“I forgot,” Alex replied and I narrowed my eyes at him. The amusement vanished from his eyes and was replaced by a blank stare.

“I don’t have to remember everything about you,” he said “I don’t want to remember.”

He mumbled the last part but I heard him and flinched slightly at his harsh words.

I deserved it, I told myself.

But it still hurt.

 An uncomfortable silence followed but I didn’t let it drag.

“I’m gonna try to get this off then we can start studying,” I said, avoiding his blue eyes.

I then rushed out of the room.

After five minutes of painful scrubbing and a lot of alcohol, the red marker was off my face but my nose was still red because it was swollen and I tried my best not to scratch it. It will only make it worse.

I grabbed my math book and copybook and went back to Chase’s room.

Alex was there chatting with Chase and when I came in, they stopped talking to look at me.

“At least the red marker is off,” Chase said and I scowled at him.

“Now I’ll never forget that you are allergic to markers,” Chase said, grinning.

“You better not forget,” I shot back and his grin widened. Idiot, I thought as I rolled my eyes at him.

“Where should we study?” I asked Alex.

Before he could reply, Chase spoke.

“Not in my room,” he said “I don’t want to listen to a math freak trying to do the impossible. Study in your room.”

“Are you saying that it’s impossible for me to understand math?” I asked, offended.

“Yes,” Chase replied confidently.

“You’re not better!” I retorted.

“At least I know the difference between x and x2,” he said and my jaw dropped in shock. He did not just say that.

I grabbed Alex’s arm and pulled him with me.

“I’m not talking to you anymore!” I screamed at Chase and started walking out of his room, still holding Alex’s arm.

Alex stopped walking, making me stumble backwards. I don’t know what the hell happened next but I landed on the floor.

Both boys snickered and I huffed angrily.

“Alex! You ruined my dramatic exit!” I exclaimed, glaring at the boy who looked like a giant from where I was, sitting on the floor.

“Aw come on Hailey,” Chase said, pouting “You know I was just joking.”

“Whatever,” I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest when I stood up.

I grabbed my stuff and started walking out of the room again but I was stopped by Chase this time. He wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug, making me gasp for breaths.

“Chase let go!” I choked out.

“Only if you forgive me,” he said and I scowled.

“Fine!” I screamed and he immediately let me go.

He flashed me a boyish smile and I rolled my eyes at him as I left the room with Alex.

It was awkward when Alex came into my room. I remembered all the times he came over to my old house when we were still together. I smiled slightly but immediately stopped before he notices it. It would creep him out but wasn’t he already used to my weird behavior?

It was really hard for me to understand what he was saying but I tried my best to concentrate on everything because I knew he didn’t want to be here so the least I could do is try to understand quickly.

“Number three is wrong,” he said, making me jump slightly. I was working on an exercise and it was silent as I concentrated and he just spaced out I guess.

“Oh,” I said, looking up at the equation and trying to figure out what I did wrong.

I finally sighed. “I’m sorry, Alex,” I mumbled, feeling stupid.

“What?” He asked. I didn’t know if he didn’t hear me or was confused as to why I was apologizing.

“I just don’t know what I did wrong,” I said.

He paused before speaking again.

“Its okay, Hailey,” he said and I was surprised by how soft his voice sounded “Here I’ll show you.”

He took the pencil from my hand and started doing the equation all over again. I found it slightly harder to concentrate with him so close to me, writing on the copybook that was on my lap.

“Here,” he said and that’s when I snapped out of it and blushed when I noticed that I was staring at his face instead of the copybook. He saw me but I averted my gaze before I could see his reaction.

I read what he wrote three times before I understood it.

We carried on studying for the next hour and when we were done, I felt that my brain was going to explode.

“Thanks Alex,” I said as I shoved my books into my bag “Hopefully, I’ll pass the quiz tomorrow.”

“You’re welcome,” he mumbled, avoiding my eyes. With a quick ‘bye’ he was gone, leaving me confused.

“Hailey! Dinner!” I then heard Clarissa’s voice from downstairs.

I went downstairs and my stomach rumbled when I smelled the pasta. Five plates of pasta were on the table and everyone was seated, waiting for me.

We prayed the usual prayer before we started eating. The first few minutes were silent as everyone started eating. I wanted to laugh but held it in, thinking how stupid I am. Why do I always laugh when people are silent while eating? Crazy much?

“How was your first math session with Alex?” Clarissa asked. I had already told her about him being my tutor, yesterday.

“It was good,” I said, shrugging “I understood what he explained even though it took a while.”

“It’s okay, you’ll get it eventually,” Tom reassured me and I smiled. I hope so.

“I asked him to stay for dinner but he declined,” Clarissa said casually “Is it just me or was he acting weird?”

I froze at her words and remembered his exit. He was acting weird. I didn’t say anything though, I just shrugged my shoulders.

Who knows what goes on in that boy’s head?

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