Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SIMONE
I half expected my next tutoring session to be just as chaotic as the first time I showed up.
When I opened the door to my car, I listened for fire alarms or screaming babies.
It was quiet, which was an improvement, and when I knocked on the door, Elias answered with a much calmer demeanor, a towel slung over one shoulder and a smile on his face.
He looked tired, like he hadn’t slept much the past few days, but at least he wasn’t trying to burn the kitchen down.
“Hey, come on in.”
“Good evening… Elias.”
I didn’t often use a student’s parent’s first name, but he’d insisted and it felt rude to continually ignore his preferences.
From the way his smile grew to stretch across his face, he appreciated the effort.
It was wrong that I found that smile so charming.
Not once in ten years of teaching had I ever thought of a parent as charming.
There was just something about Elias that made me more aware of him.
I did my best not to let those emotions show on my face, following him to the kitchen where the table was cleared off and something was cooking on the stove.
The baby was standing in her playpen, chewing on a ring toy and watching us curiously.
It was an improvement from our last meeting where she’d been screaming, and while Elias went to get Jasper, I squatted in front of her to say hello.
“You look happier than when I last saw you. Has he stopped trying to cook nuggets?”
“No,” Jasper grumbled as he trudged into the room, looking just as unhappy to be there as last time. “Dude thinks all kids love nuggets for some reason.”
Elias grimaced. “Rooster said kids like them.”
“Rooster’s probably an idiot,” Jasper shot back. “Why would you take advice from some random biker?”
“He’s got way more experience with kids than I do,” Elias grumbled, plucking Isla out of the playpen and propping her on his hip.
“The pediatrician said to let her move around more so we’ll be in the living room.
The stuff on the stove is only keeping warm, but I’ll check it in a few minutes. You, uh… have fun?”
The way his face twitched like he was trying not to grimace had a small laugh escaping me. It surprised all three of us. Jasper looked at me like I’d grown two heads, while Elias looked elated. I shook my head, pointing to the living room.
“Go do baby duty. We’ll get started in here.”
He gave me a mock salute and winked at me as he headed into the living room to play with Isla.
Jasper’s gaze shifted between me and his guardian, narrowed almost suspiciously, but I ignored him.
Middle schoolers liked to find meaning in every interaction, and he’d just use whatever he came up with as an excuse not to study.
I wasn’t going to give him that opportunity.
“Okay, today I’ve brought some of the material we worked on earlier in the semester.
Since you weren’t here for that, I want to see how much you can remember or if your last school district didn’t hit things that we did.
Answer all the questions without complaint, and I won’t give you any homework for the rest of the week. ”
That motivated him to at least put in a little effort.
He still rolled his eyes, but he put pencil to paper and started working without needing threats to motivate him.
I figured some positive reinforcement might help since he’d been so combative lately.
Technically, I wasn’t lying to him. The material was from last semester, just not for my class.
I’d asked Mr. Karlsen, who taught 8th grade math, to give me some of his earlier work in the semester.
If Jasper was as advanced as I thought, the material might not be too difficult for him to understand.
While he worked, I took in his appearance.
He kept his hair short, so it was hard for most people to tell it wasn’t being taken care of, but I noticed how dry Isla’s hair looked earlier.
Jasper’s was the same. Clean, but dry and messy.
Isla especially looked like she was getting mats in her hair. That wasn’t good.
Dropping my gaze back to the paper, I tapped on the question he was working on with the end of my pen. “Read that one a little closer. There’s something you’re missing.”
He growled and grumbled, roughly erasing what he’d done, but I saw him read over the question again, and when he narrowed his eyes, I knew he figured it out.
If I could get him to start being more diligent in his work, Jasper might be better jumping a grade in math at the very least. I wasn’t sure about the rest of his subjects. I hadn’t asked.
A babble drew my attention to Isla crawling into the kitchen, Elias creeping behind her in an army crawl, following but not stopping her movements. He looked adorable, following behind her with a patient smile, smirking when she looked over her shoulder and squealed when she realized he was there.
The difference between our first study session and now wasn’t night and day, but I could tell how hard Elias was working.
Once Isla got distracted pulling herself up on her brother’s chair, he pushed to his feet and checked on the stove, intent on not letting it burn while he waited for Jasper to finish his work.
Jasper didn’t blink when Isla reached for him, just swept his free hand out and held it near her head, protecting her in case she overbalanced and fell so she wouldn’t hit her head on my chair.
I scooted back to make a little room for her, and she turned at the sound, looking up at me with big brown eyes.
“Going to help your brother study?” I queried, my lips quirking when she gave me a big gummy grin.
She only had a few teeth, and the way she drooled made me think she was going to get more soon enough.
I didn’t have a ton of experience with the little ones, I’d gone straight into middle school teaching after getting my certification, but I knew the basics.
When she reached for me, I offered to pick her up, pulling her into my lap so Jasper wouldn’t have to split his focus.
“That math is a little much for you, I’m afraid. Start with counting.”
She babbled and bounced in my lap, content to just be held and talked to.
I noticed Elias watching us, leaning against the counter with an expression on his face I didn’t want to look too deeply into.
He could keep that smolder to himself. I was not getting into anything with one of my students’ parents, even if he was only a guardian.
Hoping to distract the man, and myself from the flutters in my belly from the way he looked at me, I asked, “What kind of hair care routine do you have for her?”
The immediate wince made me think he knew her hair needed more care, but I wasn’t sure if he just didn’t think he needed to put in the effort at her age, or if he didn’t know what care she needed.
“Uh… She takes baths every other night, and I shampoo it. I know it looks like a rat’s nest, but she screams bloody murder when I try to brush it. It’s easier to just leave her be.”
I shot a look at Jasper. He was protective of his sister. I was curious if he knew any better.
He noticed me watching him and frowned. “What?”
“Nothing. Finish your work.”
I assumed if he knew there was more, he would’ve said something.
I’d overheard his grumbles around his guardian before, and he wasn’t shy about telling Elias when he was doing something wrong.
I gave my focus back to the biker, who was leaning a little closer, present and ready to learn just like when I’d shown him how to cook spaghetti.
He might not be as bad for the children as I first thought.
We paused in the middle of our session so that Jasper and Isla could eat, Elias awkwardly mentioning the schedule the pediatrician recommended.
He served me up a portion as well, and I was pleased by the improvement.
His cooking still needed work, the simple shrimp scampi a little more watery than normal, but it was better than burnt.
Isla ate the noodles without throwing them, too, and I could tell Elias was relieved to have made her something she didn’t hate enough to throw all over him.
I chose not to grade Jasper’s paper in front of him, allowing him to escape after he was finished as a reward for actually trying instead of half-assing it like he had before.
When I was done, I decided Elias needed a lesson in biracial hair care.
It might be easy to leave it alone now, but her hair would need special care for her whole life and he was setting her up for failure if he didn’t start caring for it now.
“Show me what you have for hair care.”
He frowned at me, but dutifully led the way to the bathroom upstairs. The tub was filled with toys, he obviously tried to make bath time fun, but when he handed me the two in one kids shampoo, I had to fight not to wrinkle my nose.
“That’s it?”
“Uh, yeah? I got it because I was afraid of getting soap in her eyes. It says no tears.”
I sighed. “That’s sweet, but not what her hair needs.
” I considered the problem, but decided the best way to make sure she got what she needed was to go with him to the store.
Men were notoriously blind, so even if I wrote him a list, he’d likely miss something.
“Let’s go. I’ll show you what to buy, then we can come back here and I’ll show you how to use it. ”
“Oh, uh, really?” He looked stunned by the offer, but didn’t protest, nodding in agreement. “Sure, that sounds great. Let me just tell Jasper.”
With Isla propped on his hip, he knocked on the door at the end of the hall with the big ‘keep out’ sign scrawled messily on a piece of paper taped to the door.
Elias didn’t enter Jasper’s room until he got an irritated “What?” from the boy, and when he did open it, he only poked his head in, making me respect him a little more.
He respected Jasper’s space, which would go a long way in getting Jasper to warm up to him.
“Hey, we’re going to head to the store and pick up stuff for Isla’s hair. Did you want to come or–”
Jasper growled, and Elias stepped back just as the boy ripped the door open, stomping past us both down the stairs. It was as much answer as he was willing to give, apparently.
Elias shot me a pained smile. “Guess we’re all going. We can take my car, if you’re comfortable with that. It’s got Isla’s car seat.”
I nodded, gesturing for him to lead the way, and followed them out the door.
It surprised me when Jasper nearly shoved Elias out of the way to buckle his sister in himself, and he didn’t even try to claim the front seat like most kids his age might.
He sat in the back, right up against the car seat, and I could practically feel his unease as we pulled out of the driveway.
We arrived at the local supermarket without any fanfare and Jasper allowed Elias to put Isla into the basket seat of the cart before taking over and giving her his full attention.
He was attentive and sweet with her, never scowling or cursing around her.
It made me admire Elias a little more for keeping them together.
It was obvious how much Jasper loved his sister.
Finding a home where they could stay together likely wasn’t easy and losing access to his sister on top of everything else might’ve been the tipping point for Jasper.
Elias didn’t realize it, but he likely saved the young boy from a life of violence if Elias hadn’t taken them in.
With Jasper in charge of the cart, I led the way to the hair care section of the store.
I explained each product and what it was for as I set it into the cart and couldn’t fully hide my smile when Elias’s eyes got bigger and bigger the more I added.
He’d learn eventually that healthy hair required a good routine and the right products, especially for hair like Isla’s.
“She’s a baby…” he croaked as I added a new wide tooth comb and spray bottle. “She doesn’t have that much hair.”
“You’ll see the difference, I promise. You’re a parent to two mixed kids now. They’ve got different needs than you do with your hair. If you don’t start taking care of it now, you’ll damage it. Believe me, it’s worth it.”