LAILAH
THIRTEEN
“It was super helpful, but I have to say that I was shocked at the security. I’ve never seen a library have that kind of protected section before,” I said.
“I imagine not, we are very blessed to have an archive of such old historical books. These are the only copies in the world, and we need to protect that history,” Mr. Phillips explained.
“I couldn’t agree more, it was so cool to read something that was written so long ago. Thank you very much for letting me have access,” I said, smiling at him.
“My pleasure, it’s students like you, who have such a thirst for history, which makes keeping that stuff around worth it. Now off you go, I don’t want to hold you back from your next class,” Mr. Phillips said, shooing me away from his desk.
I waved as I left the room and headed off for psych class.
It was another riveting class going over our case study.
I loved this class so much I almost wanted to change my major from history to psychology.
I decided that I was going to take another class next semester and see if it was still as interesting when it wasn’t the intro class.
As I learned from Organic Chem, not everything was as interesting at the harder levels.
After having such a wonderful morning, I almost considered ditching my chem class.
I knew we would be getting our quiz back, and I was not looking forward to seeing how badly I had done.
We would also be moving on to a new topic, and I still didn’t understand what we’d learned last week.
I took my normal seat in the middle section and steeled myself to get my test back.
Once everyone was in their seat, Professor Lark charged in with her TA close on her heels, holding a stack of papers.
“Well, class, I must say that these quizzes were atrocious. I think only two of you passed with a score of over seventy-five. I hope you take the feedback written on here by Hudson very seriously. It will be the only way to save yourself in this class,” Professor Lark admonished, motioning for Hudson to pass out the tests.
Proceeding with the lesson, she turned her back on us and flipped to the first slide discussing acid-base reactions.
Trying to follow along as best I could, I didn’t notice right away that my test had been set next to me.
I glanced over at it and felt the blood drain from my face.
A large sixty-four written in red and circled glared up at me.
I was so fucked if I couldn’t get my act together.
My tutoring session couldn’t come soon enough.
It was much too late to withdraw, and I needed to pass this class to keep my scholarship.
I didn’t care how it happened, but it needed to happen fast.
After class, I trudged my way to the coffee shop and ordered the biggest chai tea latte I could get.
I even asked them to put whipped cream on it to make me feel better.
I found my usual table and sat down to look over the test that I had bombed.
I read over the carefully written notes that the TA had left, and for the most part, I understood what I had done wrong.
Tomorrow we have a lab, and because I missed one, I was behind on my practical application.
I let my head fall onto my folded arms and groaned at the headache I could feel coming on.
“Someone looks like they need a cookie,” Cami said as she slid into the seat across from me.
“I need more than a cookie to make this better,” I grumbled. “Any chance you have something stronger hidden away in your room?”
“Lala, are you asking me if I have contraband in my dorm room? Would I go against school policy like that? I’m highly offended that you think that of me.” Cami gasped.
I looked up from my spot on the table and frowned. “Right. And the water bottles in your mini fridge with the different colored caps are just so you know what day of the week to drink them.”
“Drinking will not make Organic Chem any better. Don’t you have your first tutoring session today?” Cami said, brushing off my snarkiness.
“Yeah, he’s supposed to text me and let me know what room he set aside for us at four.” I looked down at my watch. “I have two hours.”
“Perfect. We can go get lunch, and I can try and get you out of this strange funk you’re in,” Cami said, grabbing my backpack and walking away. I quickly grabbed the rest of my things and headed after her.
Cami had me laughing halfway through lunch, forgetting how upset I was about my test. I looked down when my phone buzzed on the table and saw that my new tutor had texted me.
I realized that I hadn’t gotten the name of the guy I was going to be spending time with this evening.
He gave me the study room number and confirmed that he would be there at four.
“Looks like I should head that way,” I said to Cami.
“Lala, you have thirty minutes before you have to meet up. What’s the rush?”
“You trust me to go to the library and find the study room in less time?”
“You’ve been doing so good lately, I figured this wouldn’t be that bad.” Cami shrugged.
“I’m not going to take any chances. With the test that I got back, there is no way I can mess this up. I’ll text you when we finish,” I said, picking up my tray and putting it on the belt that took it back to the kitchen.
I took a deep breath and headed over to the library. I had learned to navigate my normal routine just fine, but I didn’t want to chance that I might get lost and miss the whole thing. Once I made it into the library, I walked up to the information desk.
“Hello, I’m looking for study room fifteen,” I said, smiling at the woman behind the computer.
She peered over her screen, giving me a disapproving look. “Head up to the second floor, turn left, then head down the hall. It will be the room at the very end.”
“Thanks.”
For some reason, I felt like the lady was judging me, and I couldn’t figure out why.
I looked down at my shirt to make sure I didn’t have anything spilled on it, then I realized what it said.
I groaned. In big, bold letters, it said, And then Satan said “Put the alphabet in math!” I got this shirt from my older brother when I had a meltdown after failing my first math test. I guess it was fitting since this was the first time I was close to failing a class.
Once up the stairs, I made my way down the hall as instructed.
When I came to the last door, I didn’t bother to knock, I just walked in.
I looked up, hearing someone already in there.
“Sorry, I must have the wrong—” I halted when I saw Hudson, the TA from my chem class.
We both looked at each other for a moment, then he cleared his throat, standing up and reaching out his hand to me. “Lailah, right? Jay gave you my number for help with Organic Chem.”
I felt my jaw drop at the realization of what was happening.
Jay had given me the number of his friend who apparently was Hudson, which meant he was the last of the five who lived in The Manor.
I then felt a blush creeping up my skin because I was going to be working with the one person, besides my teacher, who knew how badly I was doing in class.
When I didn’t take his hand, he pulled it back and used it to push his glasses back up his nose awkwardly.
“Sorry,” I blurted, walking the rest of the way into the room. “Jay didn’t actually tell me it was you whose number he gave me. I’m Lailah. It’s nice to officially meet you.” I held out my hand to him.
He grasped my hand in his firm, confident grasp, and gave it a solid shake.
I felt a static shock between us, and I snatched my hand back from him.
He gave me an apologetic smile and mumbled something sounding like sorry as he sat back down at the table between us.
I took my seat and pulled out my books, notebook, and pen.
“The good part about this is that I already know what we’ve covered in class and what you’re struggling with, so we can get right down to business,” Hudson said, pulling out his own notes and textbook.
“Is there any hope for me? I never had trouble with science classes before, and I’m not sure why this one is causing me such a problem,” I said with a huff.
“Organic Chem has a lot of formulas and structures to remember. Not many people do well in this class the first time around,” Hudson pointed out.
“The first time?” I cried. “How many times do people take this class? I can’t just give up and try again. I need to pass this class, Hudson,” I said, slamming my hand on the table in frustration.
Hudson looked at me, a little surprised at my outburst, then tried to school his face.
I could see the corner of his mouth twitching like he was going to smile at my pain.
“I’ll see what I can do. If you’re that determined, we might be able to pull this off.
I would just recommend not getting lost and missing another class. ”
“He told you about that?” I said, hiding my face in my hands. Lord, Hudson must think I’m a disaster, not only am I bombing this class, he knows I can’t find my way out of a paper bag.
“Jay is a man of few words, so I only got the basics of the situation. He thought I might be able to help you find a way to do some extra credit work based on the situation.”
My head popped up, and I looked at him with hope. “Could you do something like that?”
“I might be able to ask that you assist me in my own research; I need a lab assistant. We could call it an even trade; I’ll help you with classwork if you take the time to help me out around the lab.”
I wanted to jump across the table and hug him for the gift he was giving me, but I held myself back knowing that he probably wouldn’t appreciate it. He didn’t strike me as the type who liked unwanted physical contact.
“Thank you so much, Hudson, truly, you don’t know what this means to me,” I said, trying to make sure he heard my sincerity.
“My pleasure. Jay doesn’t ever ask for favors, and you seem ready and willing to put in the hard work to catch up,” Hudson said, shrugging his shoulders. “Let’s start with the hydrocarbons; you keep mixing up the different types, which is part of your problem.”
Over the next hour, Hudson and I worked slowly through what he felt were the biggest things I was missing.
He was easy to understand and never seemed bothered when I didn’t get it right away.
He broke down every composition and made sure I knew all the elements and understood how they worked together.
I was amazed at how effortless this was for him and how he could make it seem so simple.
He even helped me draw out compositions so I could have a reference when I was working on my homework.
When our hour was up, his phone started to beep, letting us know we needed to pack it up for the day.
“What days work best for you to meet up?” Hudson asked.
“Tuesdays and Thursdays are my light days.”
“Why don’t we do Tuesdays working on classwork and Thursdays you can help me in the lab? That way, we can do practical application from what you’re learning, it will make more sense to you if you can see it in action.”
“Sounds good to me. My last class on those days is at two, so I can do anything after that.”
“Why don’t we stick to four, that works best with my schedule, and I can block out this room for the rest of the semester. Not many people come at this time, since it’s so close to dinner time.” He held the door open for me.
“Awesome, I really can’t thank you enough for all of this,” I said, biting my bottom lip, still feeling embarrassed.
“Really, it’s no problem. I have to admit that I was very intrigued to meet a person who got Jay to carry on a conversation long enough to even have him offer my help.” He smiled as we headed down the hall.
I laughed, remembering how he didn’t speak to me for the first half of our interaction. “I did notice he is a man of few words. I wasn’t sure if he was going to take me back to school or chop me up into little bits in the field.”
As we made it back to the first floor, a girl walked by but apparently didn’t see me and knocked into me, causing me to spill all my books.
“Oops, sorry,” she said, then flashed a smile to my left. “Hi, Hudson, what brings you into the main library?”
I rolled my eyes as I bent down to gather my books and was surprised when another set of hands was also doing the same thing.
I glanced over and saw Hudson ignoring the girl talking to him while he helped me.
I took the books from him and stood up, unsure of what to do since the girl was still waiting for an answer.
“I was tutoring, Mallory,” Hudson stated.
Mallory’s eyebrows went up, and the shocked look on her face was priceless. Then it quickly turned into an angry scowl. “You never offered to help me study.”
“Why would I have done that? You were Parker’s girlfriend, but that doesn’t mean anything to me,” Hudson said flatly.
Now it was my turn to be shocked, I looked at the girl with new eyes.
She was tall, slender, legs for days, and a face that could have made her a model.
She was not at all like someone I would have pictured Parker dating.
Not that I cared, really. We were just friends.
I had no right to feel this flare of jealousy at the fact that I was the opposite of everything she was.
“No need to be a prick, Hudson. I know you never liked us dating,” Mallory snapped.
“That’s where you’re wrong. I had no problem with you two dating. What I had a problem with was you making moves on me while dating him.”
Holy shit! She tried to cheat on Parker with Hudson? I truly had no idea how close the guys were to each other, but from the looks of it, it was enough to piss Hudson off.
“Come on, Lailah. If we don’t head to the cafeteria soon, there won’t be anything good left,” Hudson said, gently grabbing my elbow and leading me out of the library.
Confused, I let him lead me away without saying anything. I don’t remember agreeing to eat dinner with him. I looked up at Hudson and saw the anger in his eyes as we walked in silence out into the quad.
“Hudson, are you okay?” I asked, turning to him as I felt him drop his hand from my arm.
He pushed his glasses up on his head and rubbed his eyes as if trying to scrub them clean. “Sorry about that, I hope I didn’t make you feel uncomfortable.”
“No, you’re fine. I’m glad I could be an excuse to get you away from her,” I said, knowing what it felt like to be cornered by someone you didn’t want to talk to.
Hudson looked at me with an appreciative smile. “Since I dragged you all the way over here, would you like to eat with me? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, I wouldn’t want to put you in an awkward position.”
“Sure, I’ll join you, wouldn’t want to leave you alone in case she comes back,” I said, grinning at him, trying to lighten the mood.