Page 5 of Lost Track

Piper eyed her like she wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not. Her brilliant blue eyes flicked to Sunshine Capone. “Shawn’s downstairs.”

“Sweet,” Sunshine replied. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something to Sabine but then he just shook his head, his lips twitching, and left the room.

Piper grumbled and pulled the chair out where she flopped. “I was hoping you wouldn’t be here.”

“Thanks.” Sabine hid her smile as she tucked her sweater into her bag, and took out her notebook and laptop. “I was looking forward to seeing you today as well.”

Piper didn’t just roll her eyes but her entire head. She straightened in the chair and wrestled her laptop out of the bag.

“We were assigned a stupid essay today.” Piper jumped into all the reasons it was unfair to ask her to write a three-page essay on her favorite travel memory and what a waste of time it was.

Sabine listened and then helped her make an outline.

She easily and gratefully transitioned into teacher mode, allowing her uncomfortable afternoon incident to fade into the background of her thoughts.

Ninety minutes flew by, and Sabine was surprised when she glanced at the window that overlooked the alley and it was dark outside.

“Am I your favorite?”

“Favorite what?”

“Favorite student.”

“You are definitely my favorite eighth grader.”

“I’m your only eighth grader, aren’t I?”

Sabine twisted her lips to keep from smiling. “You know I can’t answer that question.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “Where do I rank then? Like…among all your students. Where am I at?”

Sabine laughed because she really didn’t know how else to respond.

“It’s not a competition, Piper. I don’t rank any of you. Geez.”

Piper’s expression turned flat. “Not like that. I mean, how do I compare to the others?”

Sabine scrubbed a hand over her face, not caring that it would cloud her already cloudy makeup. If she even had any left after the sweater incident.

It was fine. This was her last student of the day; after this she was headed home anyway.

“When I ask questions like this it drops me in rank, doesn’t it?”

Sabine barked a laugh and slouched back in the chair.

If almost any other student asked these questions, she’d be worried about their self-esteem and other mental health concerns. But she’d been tutoring Piper for a few months now and she was familiar with the thirteen-year-old’s competitive streak.

She liked to know she was always improving. A common metric for knowing that, was to compare yourself to peers. Sabine knew adults who did that all the time.

It wasn’t an accurate measure of anything though.

“People learn at their own pace.”

“No, I know that. But how is my pace? Am I keeping up? Pulling ahead? Falling behind?”

“Piper.” Sabine patted the table between them. “I only compare your progress with you.”

Piper blinked at her. Clearly, she thought her tutor was an idiot.

---