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 Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:48 pm
The F in Effort
He was a little tense still, but it wasn't from the shove anymore. "Fine, you can come over," Jack said as he glanced at who she was waving at. "But you pay a vending machine snack per session."
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:01 pm
The F in Effort
Chel's hand balled into a fist, and she was tempted to say something in protest (in retrospect she would have said how's this for payment? and socked him, but alas, she wasn't quick enough). Instead she blinked, because she realized this was the closest she'd been to him the entire time. He really wasn't bad looking. Potentially an a** to tap later.
Emphasis on a**.
"Fine. See you Tuesday." She still wasn't sure why she'd accepted. She could have just as easily ignored him and continued failing. Maybe part of her really wanted to try to succeed for once.
Maybe she wanted to see that teacher eat his words.
She knew it wasn't going to be possible, but she didn't say anything more, stalking after Chris with a quiet word; those close would hear you ain't gonna believe the day I had brah-
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:09 pm
House Visit
Chel had never seen a house with a gate before. At least, not the kind that was meant to keep people out. Like a real like electronic gate. Holy s**t. It was clean too, and two stories. For Chel who lived on bankruptcy burnout road, it was quite a step up.
She followed behind him rather dutifully, taking everything in surprisingly silently. When she entered the house she was stunned to find it actually had one of those cliche ******** vases. Despite her better judgment, she reached out to touch it.
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:20 pm
House Visit
Her hand was smacked away. "Watch it." It was almost as though he had been anticipating it.
After gesturing for Chel take off her shoes at the entrance, Jack led her to the kitchen. Both of his parents were at work as per usual, which meant hopefully that they'd never ever have to cross paths with her. The table was large enough for them to spread their papers out which, given the degree of issues Chel had, was a good thing. And despite having issues with her himself, Jack came prepared.
"We'll start by reviewing the chapter again," he told her as he pulled out loose leaf, a calculator, and several mechanical pencils. "Linear equations aren't hard once you get the basics."
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:24 pm
House Visit
Chel set her backpack on the table, but didn't look keen to start. In fact she was beginning her usual delay tactics, walking around the table once before gasping at the kitchen and walking into that too.
"Holy s**t, you guys feeding a circus or something in here? What the hell do you need so much space for?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 7:51 am
House Visit
He clicked his tongue. "Because. Get back in here, we need to start." More delays meant more of a chance that someone would come home before she left.
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 9:34 am
House Visit
Chel scowled at his bad manners and returned to the table. "Who taught you to be so rude to guests? Your mom needs a slap upside the head." Harsh words for a person who knew what that really meant.
If Jack was expecting Chel to pull out notes or a calculator, he'd be expecting someone who actually tried to study. Chel only had one pen and a notebook mostly filled with drawings and the half attempt to write things down; words were mispelled, jumbled and out of order and mostly devolved into curse words. Oddly enough there were a few pages that just had her name written somewhat neatly (neat relative to the rest of her handwriting, that is) over and over for a few lines.
"Go ahead Ms. Frizzle. Take me on a ride."
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 10:13 am
House Visit
He expected nothing; it was why he had brought so much out himself.
Ignoring the comment (like it was the first of its kind), Jack went on to trudge them through the first section of the chapter. It wasn't just Chel's stubborn attitude that became a problem; she seemed to lack even a basic understanding of spelling, judging by what vocabulary words she jotted down, and her handwriting was atrocious. Some numbers ended up looking like something else entirely. But at least tenacity was something they both had in common.
"Is it starting to stick?" he asked over an hour as he took a gulp of water.
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 10:19 am
House Visit
Chel wasn't sure what she had expected. To be made fun of, maybe? Probably not- doctors didn't make fun of their patients. More like she expected belittling and patronizing. The "anyone can do it!" attitude that bled through once people had figured out there was something wrong with her. The same patient smile that made her feel broken a thousand times over.
But Jack wasn't like that. Oddly enough, he was so forthcoming in his insults and stubbornness that it actually became a sort of strange catharsis. At least someone was just willing to out and say she was s**t at this. At least someone was acknowledging it was hard and stupid and not trying to brush her aside like she was some kind of special case student. What was sad is that for Chel, being thought of as stupid was relieving in comparison to being thought of as broken.
So in an odd reversal, she told him a secret. She was very quiet for a moment, finishing writing the word she was one (moments later it became blurry and unreadable. She'd just written that and now she couldn't see it). "You know I don't even know what I'm writing." There was something surprisingly akin to a blush on her face. "Even if I get this down now it won't be there later."
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 10:32 am
House Visit
Here he would have accused her of just being high all the time or something, but an hour of drilling the same s**t over and over again made even his brain numb to some of it now. "That's what happens when you party so damn much," Jack said as he pulled open the bag of chips she had brought as payment. His mother was so strict about what he ate, it was a little like getting something off the black market. But even he knew excessive drinking wouldn't account for what he had seen.
"Do we have to do it twice a week, then?" he asked as he popped a chip in.
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:28 am
House Visit
"No, god no," Chel said tiredly. She thought about explaining, but if Jack wanted to blame it on her personality, so be it. Better her reputation take a hit than her pride.
But come time next week, Chel was there at his doorstep holding a twix between her fingers and feeling rather dumb about it all.
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:30 pm
House Visit
He wasn't aware he had put an arm around her to lead her in until after the fact, and when he questioned himself as to why, the only answer he could come up with was that she looked strangely meek--just as Lina did--and it invoked some instinctive need to take her in. The moment didn't last long.
"Keep it," he told her as he got them both water bottles from the fridge. "Not a huge fan of candy bars anyway. How was the homework?" Pull out the papers, get his binder, bring out the pencils...
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:35 pm
House Visit
If Chel was bothered by the arm she didn't say so. What was one more arm to the mix? "Didn't do it," Chel said plainly, shoving her twix back in her backpack. She was rather angry about the candybar actually. She didn't exactly have money to be throwing around and wasting. To him it was 99 cents, but to her it was 99 cents.
She looked at the table with the same look most people gave a dirty bathroom or a pile of laundry that needed doing. Instead her eyes wandered to the rest of the house, the kitchen again.
"Show me your room," she said idly, already walking to the stairs like she'd been there a thousand times before.
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:07 pm
House Visit
"Hey!" He intercepted her path, arm extended to the wooden handrail like a police line. "We're here to work, not invade my privacy." With a disapproving look, he added, "This isn't going to work if you don't even do it on your own afterwards."
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Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:09 pm
House Visit
Chel gave her sideways grin, ducked under his arm (the woes of being tall) and ran up the stairs, peaking in closed doors until she found what she assumed to be his room.
She never agreed to playing fair.
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