2
On Monday, after the final school bell rang, Will made his way to after-school maths. Typically, it was one of the worst hours of his life, as he struggled to even solve one sum, let alone follow along for the entire hour after his brain was already fried from a full day of classes.
As Will stepped into the classroom, he came up short. Someone had taken his spot.Amanda, Jack’s cousin and one of Will’s friends, was his usual partner for after-school study. She met his eyes and offered him an insincere shrug. The guy in the seat next to her was vaguely familiar, dark-haired and dark-skinned, a student he’d seen in passing probably hundreds of times but never actually talked to. To be perfectly honest, Will was barely even aware of the kid’s presence in this class. Will took a stab in the dark that this was Birch, Jack’s beloved tree. Will only murmured an irritated hello to Amanda before walking past. He thought he’d have at least until the party before having to set eyes on Jack’s newest fascination.
Will wandered to the back of the classroom to the only empty desk and sat down. Mrs Gray’s was the only class where everyone sat as close to the front as they could: She was more likely to pick on people at the back.
Will was laying out his homework when the conversation in the room died. He sighed at the mess that was his assignment and looked up.
Oh.
It wasn’t Mrs Gray, but a young man Will hadn’t seen before.
“Sorry I’m late,” he greeted in a deep voice. The young man made his way to the teacher’s desk and placed a pile of folders down on the middle of the table. A sub? The man looked young enough to be a student-teacher. He studied his athletic build and broad shoulders. A plain black shirt clung to the man’s torso, giving the impression of the muscles underneath.
He introduced himself. “I’m Gabriel O’Connor. From today onward, I’m going to be taking over your after-school maths tutoring.”
Will stared at O’Connor’s abdomen and rubbed his own. How did guys do that? How did they put on bulk and have it look good? While Will admired his new tutor, O’Connor explained that for personal reasons Mrs Gray wasn’t able to make after-school tutoring sessions, and he’d been asked to sub-in.
“Because I’m only here at short notice, I haven’t gotten the chance to look through all your files, so Mrs Gray left a small test you can do for me.” O’Connor walked between the tables handing out little booklets. “I’ll also collect up the work Mrs Gray gave you over the weekend at the end of class.”
Cassie, who was seated directly in front of Will, swung back to face him. She subtly nodded toward O’Connor and mouthed hottie . Cassie was best friends with the captain of the soccer team, and ever since Dune had let Will join the team, she’d always greeted him whenever they met. She was dark-haired, blue-eyed, and petite, and pretty much the entire school had a crush on her. Even Will, who liked guys, had crushed on her at one point.
He leaned forward with a playful grin. “How are we meant to concentrate on maths with that in front of us?” he whispered.
Cassie swung around fully and leaned close with a matching grin. “What if he knocks his pen off the table and has to bend down to pick it up?”
“What if he’s showing us how to do a sumand takes a hands-on approach?” Will covered her hand with his and pretended to show her how to write a number.
Cassie giggled. “What if—”
“You can flirt to your heart’s content after class,” O’Connor said, standing next to Cassie’s desk. He gave her a sideways look, and she turned back around with red cheeks. “Thank you,” he said.
Will sat back, fighting off a blush of his own. He gota good look at O’Connor, and it was hard to tell whether the blush was strictly for embarrassment. O’Connor’s features had an edge to them: sharp, distinct cheekbones, a sharp jawline, dark eyes…and even the shape of his lips was perfect. Damn. Having him as a tutor would be distracting.
O’Connor tapped on the test sheet he placed on Will’s desk. “Concentrate please.”
With great effort, he tore his gaze from O’Connor. Nothing sobered him up faster than seeing six pages of maths questions he wouldn’t be able to answer. When the clock finally ticked over to five, Will only had half of the questions attempted, and of thosehe had answered he didn’t know if he had done them right or not.
“Will Simmons?” O’Connor called, reading the name off of a piece of paper. “Do you mind waiting a few moments?”
Will slowed as he packed up his school bag. O’Connor hadn’t told anybody else to stay. He wasn’t in trouble for talking at the start of class, was he? If that was the case, then O’Connor was even stricter than Mrs Gray. Amanda waved over her shoulder at him as she went out with Birch, and Cassie sidled up to him, sporting a cheeky grin.
“What if…” Cassie leaned in close to Will and dropped her voice. “What if he gives special lessons to naughty students?”
Will smiled. “Think he’ll use that ruler?”
“I’ll wait for you outside. You can tell me all about it.” Cassie nudged his elbow. She mouthed good luck to him as she went out the doorway.
O’Connor was seated behind his desk with a folder opened in front of him. He glanced up and nodded to a chair. “You can pull that up. We’ll be a few minutes.”
Will went from confused to concerned. A talk that would last long enough to need a seat?
“You’re on the football team?” O’Connor asked.
“Yes.”
“What’s the grade requirement for that?”
Will dragged the nearest chair over and sat down. He rested his schoolbag against one of the chair legs, but kept his homework and test sheets out and on his lap. “We have to get at least fifty percent in every class. If we drop below that,we can’t play.”
“You’re above that mark, just about.” O’Connor put the file aside and looked at Will. The way he looked at him wasn’t stern, but it wasn’t exactly friendly either. “Mrs Gray let you take extra assignments when your grade fell below it, and she weighted the value of those extra assignments to get you above the requirement for the team.”
Will tensed.
“I’ve been told there was some discussion about these extra tests, and the principal decided that extra assignments will no longer be given. He decided it’s not fair on the other students if some are given special treatment so they can play soccer,” O’Connor explained to him.
“It isn’t special treatment,” Will said defensively. There were a few teachers at the school that didn’t like the soccer players, especially since they regularly missed classes for matches. Despite what his athletic build suggested, O’Connor was clearly of the same opinion as those other teachers.
“It isn’t?” O’Connor raised an eyebrow.
“If you aren’t happy with a result you get on a test, Mrs Gray lets you do an assignment to bring up your grade. You have to stay on after school and do it under her supervision, so most people don’t bother with it,” Will explained, leaving out that nobody in this class had grades as bad as him. He realised very quickly that losing Mrs Gray for tutoring was a bad thing. Even if she was strict, she at least gave him a chance to keep up with everyone.
O’Connor regarded him thoughtfully. “Can I see your test?”
Will winced, separating the test from his homework to hand it over. It wouldn’t convince O’Connor that Will hadn’t been getting special treatment. But even if Mrs Gray let him do extra assignments, he did put in the work to get a passing grade.
O’Connor’s thoughtful face became resigned as he flipped through the pages.
“I suck at maths, okay? And I’m terrible at tests.” Will crossed his arms. “Especially when we have no warning.”
“Let me have a look at the assignment you did for Mrs Gray over the weekend.” O’Connor held out his hand.
The timing of this was awful. Will offered up the homework assignment, knowing if Jack hadn’t been so busy gushing about Birch during their study session, it would have been half-decent.
When O’Connor squinted at the sheets, Will sank down in his chair, embarrassed. Every sum had been scribbled over at least twiceand rewritten again. He had noexcuse for this assignment to be bad, not when he had it for two weeks. “It’s nothing to do with football,” Will muttered quietly. “I’m just bad at it.”
“Well,” O’Connor said, “a lot of this is wrong. But I can see it’s not because of a lack of effort on your part. I can work with effort. How are you in your other subjects?” His voice suddenly became a lot friendlier, and Will relaxed.
“I can manage them fine,” Will said honestly. At least with the other subjects, if he put in an hour of study, he got to see results.
“Then it’s just my subject you hate,” O’Connor said with a slight smile.
“I don’t hate maths.” Will despised it, but he wasn’t about to tell his new maths tutor that. “But it’s hard to like something you’re terrible at.”
“Are you good at football?” O’Connor’s gaze slid over his body. Will’s cheeks warmedagain. He knew O’Connor was probably deciding if Will looked athletic or not, but it still felt like he was being checked out. He usually hated people looking so closely at his body. But all Will felt from the dark eyes assessing him was a nervous flutter in his stomach. O’Connor’s gaze suddenly lifted to Will’s, and his eyebrows rose.
Will looked away quickly. “I’m okay,” he said. “Decent enough to play in matches.” It felt like O’Connor was just watching him squirm, so he kept talking. “What about you, sir? Do you play anything?”
“No team sports for me,” O’Connor answered. “I run.”
Will chanced looking at O’Connor’s broad shoulders. O’Connor noticed. “And I work out,” he added.
Will could tell.
O’Connor stood. “I’d better let you head off before it gets too late. I’m sorry if I jumped down your throat at the start. It wasn’t fair to assume you were slacking off just because you play football.”
“It’s fine.” Will pulled his backpack onto his shoulder. O’Connor walked him out the door while Will compared their heights. O’Connor was a full head taller.
“I’ll be starting from scratch tomorrow,” O’Connor continued, “But if you have any problems following the lessons, let me know. Mrs Gray has given me rough ideas of the topics she wants me going over in the tutoring sessions, but I can make room for parts you don’t understand if you need the extra help.”
“Thank you, sir.” Will really was relieved to hear that. He didn’t like always going to Jack for help, and since he would apparently now have to pass his assignments the first time around, O’Connor’s offer was doubly appealing. He lingered as O’Connor locked the door. He pretended it was because he was being a diligent studentand not checking his tutor out. “So, will you be the one correcting the assignments from now on?”
“That’s right,” O’Connor answered. “Don’t worry.” He clapped Will’s shoulder. “I don’t want to fail anyone, so if you need any extra help, I’m happy to give it.”
“Are you a student-teacher?” Will questioned.
O’Connor sighed. “Do I look that young?”
“Yes.”
O’Connor cracked a smile. “Glad to hear it. But no, I just finished up my college course, and I happened to have the qualifications to run a few tutoring sessions when the school posted that they were looking for someone.”
“So this is your first time working as a tutor?” Will asked. O’Connor gave him a look, and Will continued. “Usually new teachers aren’t given sixth-years, never mind tutors. Whether or not they’re young.”
O’Connor shrugged. “I’m a good teacher.”
“I hope so.”
O’Connor chuckled, his eyes glistening in amusement. Once again, he squeezed Will’s shoulder. “Go on. I don’t want a complaint lodged against me on my first day for keeping a student too late.”