——Aaron

I woke up Friday morning with one thought on my mind—Sam’s stupid cinnamon breath.

That should teach her a lesson, I said to myself as I simpered at the image of her, blanched and scared stiff.

I tried shaking the kiss and taste of cinnamon on her tongue off, but it didn’t leave my head until I hit the shower. Sam must be dreaming about the kiss by now. Who wouldn’t? Every girl in school had dreamed, even once in their high school life, a kiss from me. She should consider herself lucky. But, no, the kiss was supposed to eliminate every doubt she had about my sexual identity. It wasn’t meant to send her to the moon.

Wait.

I paused and pondered. Did I just do the right thing? Did I correct her incorrect notion of me? Or, did I just make another fangirl out of her? Another girl mooning over me?

Shit.

I got out of the shower and put on my personal favorite blue and white Breton stripes shirt, and jeans. Girls loved this look. After ten minutes of trying to decide whether I should wear my custom-made Converse shoes or the black boat shoes, I had successfully convinced myself that the former would be a well-suited choice.

Hurriedly, I grabbed my bag and went to my mom’s room. I swiftly drew the heavy drapes to the side and sunlight quickly washed the room. I silently walked over to mom’s side.

“Good morning, mom.” She looked beautiful than ever. Her eyes were still closed, but I knew she could hear me. I looked up to the life support system on the other side of her bed. Everything looked normal.

“Guess what? I think SAIC would be the choice for me,” I whispered while softly caressing her soft pale hand. I missed her loving hands so much. “I know, it is nerve-wracking, and I haven’t sent them anything yet, I need to pass AP Lit first. I need the extra credit. Don’t worry, mom. I will pass that class, and I will go to Chicago and study art. I promise.”

The door suddenly opened. Dad’s brows drew together when he saw me. “Aren’t you supposed to be at school already?”

“Yeah. I just wanted to say good morning to mom.” I informed him. “You’re back early.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “I took the earliest flight available. How’s your class? The one you’re failing. Has your tutor helped you?”

“Yeah. About that… I’m going to see the head of the department and ask him if he could assign a different person to tutor me.”

He made a face, which was never a good sign. “Assign you a different tutor? Ms. Banks has always been on top of her class. 95% of the students she had tutored passed and made an excellent improvement. She has managed to maintain a great GPA throughout high school and is currently at 4.1. And don’t you argue with, Aaron, I know. I checked.”

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot that my dad was fond of digging people’s personal lives. Maybe he was a spy before. And maybe that’s how he got rich—selling information.

“She’s already up here, Aaron.” He demonstrated his point by raising his hand right above his eyes. “She’s the best tutor out there. And you must learn from the best.”

To end our conversation, I just nodded and agreed with him. I kissed mom’s hand and forehead and quietly walked out of her room.

And Good morning to you, too, dad.

“Good morning, Aaron.” Mrs. Noris, my mom’s full-time nurse, greeted me outside the room.

I smiled at her, thankful for her being there for my mom. “See you later, Mrs. Norris.”

Quickly, I got into my car and drove off to school with dad’s voice inside my head. On the surface, people thought I was lucky to be his son; however, unbeknown to them, I was a son to a tyrant father. He had provided me with everything he thought I needed, except for the one that mattered to me. After mom’s unfortunate accident, he had become exceedingly overbearing. Nothing was more important to him than his money and his desire to grow his conglomerate.

My mood was still down as I walked into school that morning. I scanned the halls for Zack or Jasper, but a guy wearing a black-rimmed glasses who looked familiar to me found me first.

“Aaron, thank David Hasselhoff I found you first.”

“What? Who are you?”

“Bruce,” he answered then gave me a weird smile. “Tutor Club?”

That’s right. No wonder he looked familiar. He was the guy I spoke with when I requested for a tutor. Suddenly, Samantha and her cinnamon breath breezed into my mind again. The kiss.

“I just want to inform you that shockingly there’s been an influx of requests from students this morning, and we’re kind of short with tutors. That’s a problem, but we sorted it out already—”

“Can you just go straight to the point?” I cut in. He looked nervous for some unknown reason. “What do you want from me?”

And he smiled at me again, the same weird smile. “Sam can no longer tutor you because she needs to tutor three people, and she’s the only one capable of doing that. Her time management skill is a spot on. Mira Harkin has been assigned to tutor you.”

He couldn’t fool me. I perfectly knew that Sam had requested it. If it weren't for my dad, I would have said yes. I didn’t care who would tutor me, as long as I pass Mrs. Seymour’s class.

“No can do,” I told him flatly. I needed to see Sam and clear everything between us.

“But why?”

“It’s just not happening, Bruce. I know that there’s no influx.” I lied. I hadn’t had a clue what was going on with their club. “You’re just making it up. Keep making up stories, and Principal Greene will hear about it.”

Bruce’s flushed. I ended the conversation before he could say anything else to convince me that he was telling the truth.

While in pursuit to confront Sam about a few number of things, it had seemed that she was also on a mission to avoid me under any circumstance. She walked into Mr. Jacob’s class, the only class we had together, a couple of seconds after the bell rang. And she was quiet the entire time. She didn’t even respond to Nicole’s sneers. When I picked up my backpack when the class had ended, the seat where she had seated was already empty. I looked around while walking with Nicole and her friends, with Zack and Jasper, but her presence was nowhere in the halls.

When I walked in Mrs. Seymour’s class, I was already on a different quest—tell her I’m not gay and explain why my homework told her otherwise. While she was busy trying to keep the class interested in another book written by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, my mind was also busy coming up with a good explanation about my homework.

The bell rang, and I still hadn’t come up with an explanation. Sam had successfully put me in a very difficult situation. As soon as the last student exited the room, I walked over to her desk.

“What do you want, Mr. Lanter?” Her eyes still glued to the test papers from her other class. She was back in her usual sullen attitude.

“I wanted to talk to you about my homework.” I started. She looked up at me, waited for me to continue. And so, I decided to just to tell her the truth. “You see, Mrs. Seymour, I didn’t write it. Samantha Banks did.”

She gave me a once-over. “Is that so?”

“Yes. She’s my tutor. We had an argument about the story. She was really upset that I couldn’t get it. Anyway, she offered to write it for me. And there you go. She wrote that lie,” I said softly.

“Why did she? And why did she think you’re gay?”

“I don’t think she does, Mrs. Seymour. She knows I’m not gay. She only did it for revenge, I guess. You know how the two of us are. We’re not really best buddies. We get on each other’s nerves.”

Mrs. Seymour frowned. “Well, that’s unfitting. She’s the tutor. She’s not supposed to write your homework in the first place. I will talk to her about it. And you…” she pointed the tip of her pen to me, “you should stop with your stupidity, Mr. Lanter. Sam is one of brightest senior students here. You should learn from her.” I couldn’t believe how she sounded just like my father.

That wasn’t harder than I thought. I was already grinning as soon I left Mrs. Seymour’s class, pleased even when she said she would talk to Sam about it.

And just like that, with luck finally, on my side, I saw Sam with Powerpuff Girl standing next to the fire exit, laughing and occasionally rolling her eyes.

Her friend noticed me as soon as I approached them. They stopped talking at once and stared at me.

“Leave us,” I ordered, my angry eyes landed directly at Sam.

“Don’t go, Chloe,” Sam said firmly. So Powerpuff Girl did have a name, Chloe.

I turned to Chloe, she blushed in an instant. I smiled to myself. The effect I had on women was almost unbelievable. All women. Except maybe for Sam. Well, I doubt that she’s human, so she didn’t count. I strongly believed that she was an alien or something. “Chloe, please leave us. I just need to speak to your friend here.”

“Sure, Aaron.” Chloe gasped. “See you later, Sam.”

“Traitor.” I heard Sam whispered. I felt a spark satisfaction that her friend had chosen to follow me instead of her. She looked upset. “What do you want?”

I smirked. “Don’t worry, Banks. I’m not here to kiss you again. By the looks of it, your lips are still pretty swollen.”

Her brows knitted. “You’re disgusting.” She hissed.

“Admit it. You liked it,” I said, winking at her. Flirting with her would be the last thing I’d do, but I knew how it pissed her off.

“What do you want?” she asked sternly. Her eyes were a deeper shade of brown that day, and her face was a little paler.

“I know you asked that guy, Bruce, to assign me with another tutor.” I could feel my anger building up inside me. “You will continue to tutor me, Banks. Or else—”

“Or else what? Oh, you’re scaring me now, Lanter,” she said with such sarcasm to match the expression on her face. Still feisty even when she looked sick.

“I will tell everyone what you did to me. How you wrongfully wrote my homework for me. You’re a smart person. You should know what a bad review can do. You know how my popularity can destroy you, Banks. If you don’t believe me, then you will after Mrs. Seymour’s talks to you.”

“You’re an asshole.” Her jaw tightened.

“And you’re a royal pain in the ass.”

“Bite me, Lanter.”

“I think I just did.”

She froze in an instant, her cheeks burned in a deeper shade of pink.

“See you later, Banks.” I gave her a lopsided smile, which many found irresistible, to piss her more before going to my next class.

“Jerk!” I heard her called out to me once more, but I let it go. That’s all she could at the moment. I won.