Page 24 of Kicking It with the Point Guard

I’m looking forward to tomorrow, and I hope those stupid cheerleaders see me with Cameron.

Bring it on, bitches.

Violet

I wake up feeling pumped. Algebra class flies by, and I make it to tutoring with a spring in my step.

Cameron is already there. No matter when I show up, he always seems to be there before me. It must be a quirk he has.

I burst into the room, a smile on my face.

“Let’s kick math’s ass today!”

He looks up, startled. I suppose he’s never gotten to see any side of me but angry. But he better get used to this. I’m done moping about it. I was ready to destroy math when Dr. Harrington set this arrangement up, and after a few setbacks, I’ve come out ready to fight.

“I’m sorry about last time. I had a rough morning, and I know that’s no excuse.” I grimace. “But I really am ready to learn.”

His chocolaty brown eyes blink at me and rest on my still-bruised cheek for only a moment. A frown mars his face, but he schools his features.

“All right then, let’s get to it.” He pats the chair next to him, and I sit, pulling my stuff out.

He spends the few minutes going over the lesson we just went over in class, and I can’t help but get frustrated.

He’s being patient and answering my questions, but I still don’t understand.

I scrub my hands over my face in frustration. I was so sure that he would magically make all of this make sense. It was wishful thinking, I know, when I’ve struggled with the subject my whole life. It’s not practical to think that one person would change that.

He lets me have a minute, leaning back, his gaze on me calculating.

“Okay, let’s try something different.” He leans forward again and flips through the book until he’s several lessons behind where we are. “I’m going to work through this problem and explain what I’m doing. If anything I do doesn’t make sense, stop me. I’ll try to explain it before I move on.”

I nod, and he gets started. It’s not long before I’m stopping him, and he explains his process. Slowly but surely, he works through the whole problem, and by the time he’s finished, I think I might actually understand what he just went over.

He writes down a similar problem and asks me to solve it. I don’t rush, and when I get stuck, I think back to the problem he solved. I finally find the answer and set my pencil down, nervous for the first time this session.

He gently slides the paper out from under my hand and looks at it. His eyes shine, and his face lights up with a brilliant smile.

I get the feeling that this is a rare moment, and my heart does a little flip in my chest.

“You did it.”

What? I did it? Really?

I look at him, and his smile only grows brighter.

If he keeps looking at me like that, my eyes might melt out of my head. My heart warms, and I smile back at him.

The rest of the session flies by, with him going over past problems slowly and patiently, and me asking questions. By the end of the hour, I’ve successfully solved a problem from each of the past four lessons and I redid the problem from today’s lesson, coming up with the right answer.

“Heck yes!” I fist pump. “Thank you, Cameron. Truly. I’ve never felt this happy while doing math before.”

“You’re welcome,” he says, gathering his things. “Feel free to text me later when you’re finishing your homework if you have any questions.”

His smile is smaller than the first two, but it’s no less brilliant.

I watch him leave, and Lindsay steps out from behind a bookshelf, glaring at me through the window.

I give her a little wave and make up my mind then and there. I’m going to make it my mission to make Cameron smile at least once every time we get together for tutoring.

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