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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟓
" 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐮𝐩 "
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One cannot simply ignore Chipp Rivera. As much as I wanted to get into my element and focus on classes, his arms just got in the way. I got through Trigonometry and History, but I'm beginning to falter. I can't look at the board without seeing him in my periphery. And those arms. God, they look like they're about to burst out of his sleeves.

I wonder if he takes protein shakes. Man, I don't even work out.

"Turn to page 8 of your modules," our chemistry teacher, Mrs. Crumps, declares. "Pair up with your seatmates and balance equations 1 to 10."

Inwardly, I groan. I'm doing okay with pretending to ignore Hot Mess all day, while secretly gawking at him. Now, I can't even do that.

The rest of the class pair up and turn their chairs to face each other. Chipp does the same with a giddy, little grin on his face. "My lucky day," he says, scooting closer.

I try to return the smile, even though I feel the awkwardness choking the air out of me. Okay. I need to be proactive about this. "Listen, Chipp," I say, overly aware that it is the first time I've called him by his name. "Can we just agree to forget what happened before class started?"

He purses his lips. "What happened before class started?" he says, feigning innocence.

I chuckle. "Great. I didn't mean anything by it, so let's just move on."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He keeps up the façade, which I appreciate. Less awkward than addressing it. "Now," he says, dramatically opening his module to page 8.

I do the same. I've actually answered this one already. Eager beaver. Chipp scrunches his eyebrows while he examines the page.

"How do we fix this?" he wonders to himself.

"We balance out the chemicals on both sides of the equation," I say. I like teaching people. There's a sense of satisfaction in letting people understand concepts that I've already learned. "They have to be equal in the number of atoms. Right now, the equations are a mess, and we have to fix that."

Chipp smiles. "They are a mess, aren't they?" There's something teasing in his tone. "One might even say... a hot mess."

I groan. "I knew you weren't gonna let that slide."

He shakes his head. "Nope."

"Come on," I say, "Let's just finish the activity."

Chipp relents and we dive into the equations.

Unsurprisingly, he's a little slow. Guiding him through the activity takes more patience than it did teaching the A-Class. Even Quentin Jacoby understands stuff faster than him.

What takes me as a surprise is that I actually enjoy teaching him. And he actually wants to learn. Seeing his face light up when we solved the first equation was cute. Now, we're on the last number, and it's a hard one.

"We still need to have 10 oxygen atoms in the reactant side," I clue him in.

He nods, thinking for a full minute before breaking through. "So... we should put a coefficient of 5?"

"That's it!"

"Awesome!" Chipp does a little fist pump after penciling in our answer. Cute.

Not soon after, the bell rings, and Mrs. Crumps calls for us to submit our modules one by one.

It's the last class of the day, and the D-Class are all eager to get out of the room. Kitty and Lin rush by us, and I try to stop them, asking, "Hey, you wanna have a study group later?"

I can't give up on the plan yet.

Kitty stops and blinks. "What's that?"

Good Lord! How has she not had a study group ever?

"Doing homework and stuff with other people, babe," Lin informs her, but then quickly turns to me. "We have softball practice."

"Oh." Right. Varsity athletes. "Maybe some other time then?"

Lin shrugs and leaves, taking the adorable pink-haired idiot with her.

Defeated, I gather my things, and make my way out of my seat.

"I'm up for study group," Chipp says, getting in step with me as we go out of the room. "Need a little help with, like, all of my classes."

"A little help?" I tease.

"Okay, I need big, big help."

"Well, there's not much of a group to study with here," I say, watching all the others run out to the field. I'm never gonna raise this D-Class high enough to beat Anya.

Chipp shrugs. "I'm okay with studying in pairs. Especially if it's with you." There's that smirk again!

I guess he really likes my teaching style.

"Okay," I say. "On one condition."

"Name it."

"If I teach you, you have to convince the others to study with us as well."

He scoffs and laughs. "They don't study."

I shrug. "Those are my terms." I'm being a hard ass, I know, but I need this. Chipp might be the break I need to get the D-Class' trust.

"Fine," he gives in. "I'll try to get some of them to join us, but today's not gonna work for them. Practice."

"How about this," I propose. "We do the pair study today, then next time, you invite them to join us."

"Deal," he finally says, shaking my hand.

The touch sends me back to the first time we met, in that rancid bathroom that fateful day that led me here. His palm's still as soft as when we bandaged my knuckles back then.

"Meet me at La Boca Feliz later. 5:30?" he says. "Add me on Insta."

Chipp goes off after we exchange contacts. I rush off to meet Mack at the gates.

"You are not gonna believe this!" I practically yell at my best friend's face. "I got one of them to study with me!"

"What?!" he exclaims, matching my energy. "That's great!"

"Chipp asked me to help him with school work today!"

"What?!" Okay. Same word, different energy now.

"What?" I asked back.

"The big guy?"

I nod. "Yeah, the one you met earlier."

"He studies?"

"Yes! Now, come on!" I tug him so hard to exit the campus, he probably got whiplash. "We gotta get home."

"What's the rush?"

"I need to find his tie."

a/n: First of all, hi! I didn't expect I'd still have readers after two years of going MIA. Thank you, I appreciate all of you! Life's still keeping me pretty busy, but I got random bursts of inspiration after binge-watching Heartstopper and RWRB. Hopefully, that'll keep me writing.