Chapter Twelve - Part Three

 "Well, I'm going," I said again, heading for the door.
"I'm leaving too, I have -" Ace stopped mid sentence. "Anyway, I have to go."
"No need to keep your dates a secret! C'mon what's her name?" Hunter teased.
"It's not like that, you moron!" Ace exclaimed, punching his friend in the arm.
"Okay, that's enough of your love life ladies," I said.
"I'm heading home as well," Jenny said quietly, following me to the door.

Now that she mentioned it, I didn't actually know where she lived. Was it even within walking distance? The distance from my house to Hunter's house was about the same as the distance from Ace's house to Hunter's house.

"Where to first?" Hunter asked.
"Let's take Jenny home first. I won't let her walk with you two animals," I answered.

"Whose house is closest?" I asked.
"Well, it's mine or yours, but you said you didn't want to leave you friend with the /animals/ so," Ace replied.
"Okay, so Ace's house first," Hunter decided.

We turned right from Hunter's house and continued down the path. When we reached the T-junction we made a left and continued straight from there. Despite walking to and from Ace's house to school once, I couldn't remember where it was.

"I take a different route," Ace said to Hunter.
"Oh really?" He replied.
"It's a little shorter."

So that was why didn't remember. That day, he'd taken me on a different route. When we got to Ace's house, I immediately recognised it. Funny, in proper sunlight rather than at night or in the early morning, it was pretty neat.

We waved and yelled our 'goodbyes' as Ace walked into his house. We shouldn't have left him there alone. Last time I went, I got scared, even though I wasn't alone. Was his family environment always like that?

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked.
"Nothing," I replied.
"By the way, did you /seriously/ think I would do something to your friend? Did you have to walk two times the distance to watch over her?" Hunter laughed. I nodded.
"Haven't you heard the rumours?"
"Half of the rumours are lies," he grinned. "C'mon, tell me the rumours and I'll tell you which ones are true."
"You lure girls into going out with you and when you're done toying with them, you dump them," I said.
"False. Well, partially anyway. Only Dean and Dylan do that."
"Ugh, that's kind of gross," I shuddered. "You do drugs and smoke."

"False," Hunter replied nonchalantly.
"Lies!" I retorted. "On the day I first met you guys, you had a pack of cigarettes on you!"
"I found them. Besides, have you seen me actually smoke since then?"
Now that I thought about it, I hadn't actually ever seen any of them smoke or do drugs, but then again, I wasn't exactly around them all the time.
"I guess," I mumbled.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I answered it. "Hey," Archer said.
"Oh hi," I replied.
"Are you busy on Saturday?" I thought about his question. Was I busy on Saturday?
"Nope," I replied, despite having mountains of study to go through.
"Want to go see a movie?"
"Oh sure."
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" he laughed.
"Yeah," I replied, finding myself stupidly grinning to myself while Jenny and Hunter stared at me as though I were crazy.

We decided to meet on Saturday at two thirty to see a movie. Also, on Wednesday afternoon, we were studying together for physics. Plainly speaking, I was absolutely giddy.

"You have a phone?" Hunter gasped.
"Uh yes. Most people nowadays have one," I said, waving my around.
"Give me your number."
"No. Why?"
"Fine. Be that way," he sulked.
"Hey Jenny, where do you live?" I asked her, realising she had been awfully silent.
"Oh, it's actually quite far from here. It's okay if I walk by myself," she replied.
"If it's far, it's all the more reason to walk you home. There are all sorts of weirdos around these days!" I exclaimed, looking especially at Hunter.
"Well, alright. We have to go back to the roundabout and circle back past the school, then past two streets and right onto Appleby Street," she explained.

She wasn't kidding when she said her house was far.

My legs ached from walking that far, and we were only at the school. "Are you that tired?" Hunter asked. "This is unsightly for a cross country team member," he laughed.
"It's precisely because of the training that I'm tired!" I exclaimed.
"You ran one kilometre for training."
"Yeah, but I sprinted because some idiot decided to pretend to have an asthma attack!" I countered.
"You guys seem like good friends," Jenny commented.
"Good friends my ass,"Hunter and I replied simultaneously.
"Uh...okay," Jenny said, slightly freaked out.

We finally arrived at Jenny's house fifteen minutes later. Did she seriously walk this far to and from school every single day? We said our goodbyes and waved to our hearts' contents before leaving.

"Looks like it's just you and me," Hunter smirked.

Was it weird that the badboys always managed to give me goosebumps?

"Why do you always have to say the weirdest things that make me want to puke?" I asked.
"Are you reading too deeply into this?" He grinned.
"What else could 'just you and me' mean if you're not inferring something weird!?"
"Hey, you're the one with the weird mind, assuming things. I just meant that it's me and you walking home," he said. "Were you hoping for something else?" He smirked.
"Douche." I kicked him in the shin and walked ahead.

The walk to my house didn't even feel half as long as the walk to Jenny's house had, especially with Hunter's continuous pestering. At what point did walking with guys become so normal? For a girl who didn't even interact with guys, I sure did come a long way.

"Bye," I said, waving as I walked up the driveway.
"Bye!" Hunter exclaimed in reply, grinning.

The week had fairly silent, allowing me to get on with my study. Cross country training was on Mondays and Thursdays, which meant that the second training day would fall right on my literature exam. How convenient.

I had one day left until the literature exam, so I went through essay format; I could never write essays to save my life, so I was relying on my other subjects to carry me to university.

I glanced over at the incomplete chemistry revision sheet to my right. There it sat, on top of the stack of textbooks I still needed to go through. Everything I was studying was going straight over my head to the point where I was getting incredibly anxious.

"Arrgh!" I growled, slumping against the desk. It was eleven thirty at night and everyone was in bed, yet here I was, miserable and dying at my desk.

I decided to wag training and instead focus on doing well in my exam. It began at nine o'clock in the morning and went until twelve. The exam took three hours; how on earth could teachers find enough junk for us to do that would last three hours!?

I had a very special personal distaste for English. It wasn't the subject as much, but more the essay writing aspect. It made me go weak in the knees. What made it worse was that the exam was all essays. Literally. Three of them.

I hadn't heard from any of the punks this week either. After that little session of studying, had they all given up? I was assuming Ace wagged training as well because when I got to school, he was nowhere to be seen; usually he'd still be there after training.

The whole exam felt like a blur. Basically, after reading the questions available, I was left thinking 'So what the hell do they want me to do?' I dragged my feet on the way out of the exam, the only positive of the day being that I'd lived through the exam.

I headed home straight away, not keen on spending what was left of the day in the school library. I didn't mind walking to and from school in winter because it was usually cold; walking would warm me up. Whereas, in summer, walking was the bane of my existence.

After what felt like a short walk, I was home. I unlocked the door and went inside, going straight to my room down the hall. Had I covered most of the content for the upcoming exams? No. Was I ready for my exams? No. Could I spare time to sleep? No.

Well, it looked like it was safe to sleep, so I did.

/The clock on the wall ticked away, the ticks echoing in the silence of the room. I looked around. Heads were looking down and people were scribbling away at their exam papers. The sound of pens and pencils scratching on paper resounded in my ears.

How come I didn't know any of this? Why were there human bio questions in the exam? My exam paper was blank aside from my name and year. The teacher counted down to the end. "Five, four, three two, -"/

I sat upright in my bed, my heartbeat still slowing down after the dream. I sighed a sigh of relief. The sound of the doorbell tolling could still be heard and I rushed down the hallway. Was my mum home so early? It was only three thirty.

I pulled the door open.

"Hey there," Hunter grinned.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. I didn't recall inviting him over or telling him to come over whenever he pleased. In fact, I didn't ever mention it being 'okay' to ever set foot onto my house.
"Study," he replied, holding up his textbooks.

He invited himself and walked by past me into the living room. "Hey! When did I invite you in!?" I exclaimed. "You know, my mum's coming home soon and if she sees you, she'll freak out."
"I'll be gone by then. No need to worry," he replied nonchalantly, putting his books down on the table in the living room before taking a seat on the couch.

He probably wasn't going to leave anytime soon, so I shut the door and went over to the couch. "Let's study," he said.
"Well, if you're here to study, then do it properly. Open up to chapter four."

The hour was a heated discussion with me mainly yelling at him. "How could you not get that!?" I shrieked. I was no set out to tutor anyone, nor was I set out to become a teacher. I was hot headed and I definitely had no patience.
"I just don't! Why do you add that random carbon dioxide there!?"
"Because on the other side there's a carbonate!"

The bell rang, disrupting our argument. It was four thirty, and I'd forgotten to chase him out of the house. "My mum's home," I said, with a sinking feeling.
"Do you have a window?" He asked, looking around.
"Yeah, but they're not like Ace's house where you can just pull 'em up and climb out."

It was time to face the music. I walked over to the door and pulled it open.

"Hi Mum," I said. She looked at me weirdly because well, I never said that. Ever. "Um," I began, prepared to explain the whole situation to my mum in the hopes that she wouldn't attempt to execute me.

Unexpectedly, Hunter revealed himself before I had a chance to explain. He politely greeted my mum and introduced himself.
"Well then, it was good to meet you," my mum said with a smile. "Feel free to stay until you understand everything. It's important that you do for the exam."

I forced a smile, despite feeling very, very confused. She didn't look surprised in the slightest. However, I had a dreadful feeling that I'd be receiving a very long lecture about this.

Hunter gave me a creepy wink as my mum went inside and I shut the door. I shuddered. "Don't do that," I said.
"Okay," he said, winking.

Hunter stuck around for an extra half hour until five before deciding it was time to go home. "Come over to my place again at around three. I'll get the guys to all come," he said.
"Yeah, whatever," I replied.

I shut the door and cautiously approached the kitchen, where my mum was just about finished with cooking dinner. "You're tutoring people?" She asked.
"Yes?" I answered slowly.
"Do you get paid?"
"No..."
"Why are you spending all your study break tutoring? How on earth are you going to study? You do know that ever single test, every single exam is important, don't you?"
"Yes, but -"
"Stop tutoring before the start of next week. Your big exams are coming up."
"Yes."

The punks were only sitting the chemistry exam anyway, so I wouldn't be tutoring them for anything else. My dad got home at six and we had dinner until seven before I headed back to my room to study.

This year was the year; the year when everything I did mattered; the year that would determine the outcome of my future. I could feel the weight on my shoulders; the tonnes that would eventually break my back and squash me to the ground. Looking through my textbooks, there was so much that I didn't know, and so much that I could possibly be tested on.

I was getting stressed, and badly. I couldn't afford to stay awake until eleven thirty each night; I'd never be able to open my eyes for class. With all this hurling at me, I decided to do the one thing that would solve absolute nothing: cry.

After an hour of crying out all the tightness in my chest, the ache in my head and the numbing sensation of hopelessness, I decided I needed to be determined. I needed the top university entrance score. I needed to do well. To do that, I really needed to get studying.

My body was tense as I opened my eyes. Oh no. My eyelids were heavy and opening them were quite a task. Upon touching them, I realised my initial suspicion was correct; they were terribly swollen. Why did I decide to cry? Now my eyes were the size of golf balls. Thank you world. Just keeping them open was a task.

I had to tutor the guys in the afternoon too at Hunter's house. Marvellous. Just wonderful. Why on earth did I care what I looked like anyway? Oh whatever. It was going to be lonely without anyone else there, so I texted Jenny to let her know. Hopefully, she could go.

All I needed to do was to get through this upcoming week of exams, then freedom would be back. The annual show was coming up as well so that was something to look forward too. I laughed to myself at the thought of Hunter's deal regarding the chemistry exam. It was time for me to see what this punk could really do.

The stress would hit me sometimes and render me completely paralysed for about half an hour, too busy worrying to do any work, but then I would return to my senses and get studying. My nights were chaotic, nightmares filling my mind when I shut my eyes. It was destroying me and slowly pulling me apart, bit by bit.

Surprisingly, the tutoring sessions were the only interaction I had with the outside world; they were the only thing keeping me sane. Before I knew it, afternoon had come and I packed my books and headed to Hunter's house.

The punks' faces when they saw mine could only be described as shocked. Hunter even had the audacity to point and laugh. "Thank you," I said sarcastically. I looked around the room. Ace was missing. "Where's Ace?" I asked.
"He's busy or something," Dean replied.
"Well, I finished the chemistry sheets and stuff...so uh I'll find some way to get it to Ace." I walked over to where all of them had gathered on the ground and handed a sheet to each of them.

"So many questions," Dylan said, his eyes widening.
"Why are there so many questions!?" Dean exclaimed.
"Alright, let's get started." I looked over at Hunter once he'd said that. Man, he was weird. Even I wasn't enthusiastic about work.

Five minutes into the session, the bell rang and Hunter opened the door. I craned my neck back to see who it was. "Jenny!" I grinned.

"Sorry, I had to do something before getting here," she said, coming in.
"We just got started," I replied.

While she took out her physics, we continued avidly discussing and studying chemistry. The three punks sat there, staring blank faced at my revision sheet before looking over at me. "What is this?" Dean gasped, turning the page over and back continuously.
"Questions?" I answered, slightly confused.
"Have we even learnt this?"
"It's on the syllabus...which means it's going to get assessed."
"Regardless of how strange this looks, I'm going to do this," Hunter said, determined. He scanned the page and pulled out a pen, scribbling in answers to about every seventh question. There were only twenty questions.

After he finished scribbling in the answers, he stopped. "You don't know what to do, do you?" I asked. He shook his head.

I explained everything that they didn't get, and from the looks of things, Hunter wasn't getting that seventy five percent. "Oh yeah, the whole tutoring thing ends after this weekend," I informed them. "So next term, even though we have chem, I can't help you unless it's during school hours."
"Why?" Hunter asked.
"I'm trying harder to focus on my studies. It's stressing me out and I don't have enough time for anything."
"But you're smart! You'll be fine!"

That was what they all said.

"Well, I should head home," I said.
"I'll walk you," Hunter offered.
"Nah, walk Jenny home. You told me to trust you, right? I trust you. Now walk her home," I replied as I left the door. "By the way, if anything happens, I won't let you live," I threatened.

"It's nice to know you trust me so much," Hunter said sarcastically.

I left first, allowing the cool winter breeze to blow my hair around. The more I thought, the worse I got. 'But you're smart' was what they all said. What they didn't know was that I died at home. Alone. To me, it was like a constant feeling of drowning.

Ace hadn't rocked up to any of the latest tutoring sessions and he hadn't even gotten the revision sheet yet. I made a decision. I would go to the arcade near the cinema to give it to him. He was going to be my excuse to leave the house; my excuse to escape reality for a while.

I got home after what felt like an eternity. The walk had cleared my head; I still had five exams to go which meant I had five chances to redeem myself after the tragic failure of my literature.

"Where were you?" My mum asked me as I entered, obviously quite angry.
"I was tutoring," I replied. She opened her mouth so I quickly added, "I know, today's the last time I'm going."

As usual, I studied until the early hours of the morning. Time passed like a dream and when I woke up, it was Saturday morning.

I changed into my cream coloured coat, jeans and a shirt and went to the kitchen where my parents were eating breakfast. "I'm going shopping for a bit, then I'll come home and study," I said.
"Not having breakfast?" My dad asked.
"I'll eat there," I replied.

"Make sure you leave time to study; it's not good to sleep so late every single day," my mum reminded. I nodded and left the house. I walked to the bus stop at the end of the street and got onto the bus when it arrived.

I watched the scenery as it passed by. The bus screeched to a halt at the entrance of the shopping centre and I got off. Conveniently, it was the entrance that led straight to the arcade.

I walked to the counter where the same guy from last time was standing. "Um..excuse me, but is Ace here?" I asked. He looked at me weirdly before yelling into the back room behind the counter,"Oi Ace there's someone here to see you!"

Ace soon came out, looking rather surprised that I was there. "Hi," I smiled.
"Hi," he replied.

"I have the revision sheet since you didn't rock up for any of the tutoring sessions," I said, reaching into my bag and pulling the sheet out.
"Thanks," he answered