I ride to my house with Caleb instead of Seth today. I didn’t want to go to his house, I felt more comfortable staying in my territory, so here we are. Actually, I was rather hesitant letting him come to my house, especially since Seth is the only person from school (apart from Jean) who's been in here and I wanted to keep it that way.

But I knew we had to go somewhere, and staying in school wasn't an option and neither did I want to ask Seth to come and chaperone the whole thing. So here I am, grabbing onto Caleb for dear life as the guy doesn't seem to understand the concept of going at a reasonable, humane speed.

I may or may not be a bit pale when we finally stop. Thank god my parents are home until late. First I brought Jean, and my mum went all crazy about him. Then I bring home Seth, and both my parents go crazy about him. If they saw Caleb they'd start assuming things, and that's the last thing I want.

"Woah." I say as I get off his bike. "You do know maximum speed around here is thirty miles per hour?"

"What's the fun if you're always following limits?" He says, taking his helmet off and storing it in the compartment. If this keeps happening, I really should get myself a helmet.

"None, I guess." I pull out my keys and open the front door.

"You've got a really nice house." He says as we go in. "The posh area, too." He pulls a fake British accent and what he thinks is a snobby face. I laugh.

"Not really. As if there is a posh area here." I start thinking of London, then pull myself back. Now is not the time to get caught up in fantasies and memories.

"Well, it's a nice house." He defends, but he smiles too.

"Did you bring everything with you?"

"I think so." He shrugs. "I don't know why I chose Latin, but I can't back out now."

I raise an eyebrow. You don't do Latin unless you really want to and you have a minimum amount of skill in it.

"Okay, my parents wanted me to do it. I just don't go around saying that, you know?" He goes red as he tells me this.

"So your parents forced you to do it." I say, grabbing some crisps and tossing them into my bag. He doesn’t reply but I know he’s blushing even harder. "We can go to the library." I add. I've been thinking about it. I don't want to go to my room for a few reasons.

First of all, it's just plain awkward. Second, I don't want him to try anything. Third, if my parents get home and find us there there is going to be a lot of explaining to do.

And I’m not in the mood to be explaining things to them, to be honest.

So, basically, the library is our best bet. Also, I've got a lot of my Latin work and books in there, so I can use those. "What do you want to drink?"

He shrugs. "I don't mind."

"Fine." I huff, grabbing a bottle of water and a bottle of Coke.

"Shall I take that?" He asks me and I hand him the bottles.

"Go straight through there and into the big room with all the books." I say to him, almost as if he's stupid. He nods. "I'll be right down."

I go up to my room, taking my contact lenses out and pushing my glasses up my nose once more, before grabbing a jumper and all the Latin stuff I have up here. Finally, I pull my hair loose and drag my hairbrush through it a couple of times, then go back down.

"Hey." I say to him. He's standing in the doorway of the library, mouth agape. Okay, I'll give it to him, it is a grand room when you first see it, and Seth had the same reaction to it, pretty much. "You look like a fish."

"Is this like... Nerd heaven?" He asks in awe.

"Yeah." I say, grabbing the bottles off him. "Pretty much." He follows me between the bookcases. I shift the bottles into one arm and trail my fingers along the spines of the books lovingly as we walk along. I can sense his eyes on me but I don’t say anything, or turn.

"This is like bigger than the library!" He finally exclaims. It sounds as if the comment was pent up in him for a while, and he was keeping it quiet to give me my moment.

"It surprises me you've ever even been in there.” I say dryly for a moment.

“We went on the trip, last year.” He says.

“I most likely called in sick. School trips were almost the worst.” I comment.

There’s a long silence from him, before he meekly and quietly murmurs Sorry. I sigh.

“Like that’s going to fix anything.” I say. “It doesn’t matter, in theory nothing’s going to happen anymore, unless this is all a huge joke and you’re about to beat me unconscious.”

“It’s not-”

“Well, that’s nice to know.” I cut him off dryly, again. “What exactly do you need help with?” We sit down at the big oak table and my eyes wander off to the piano relatively near us.

“Woah.” He says, his eyes following mine. “Steinway and Sons. Of course you would.” He adds a moment later. I raise an eyebrow.

“Do you play?”

“I used to.” He admits. “I kind of drifted out of it…” He drifts off, but we both know perfectly well why he stopped. He became popular, and known as one of the hottest boys in school, and dropped it because one simply can’t be hot and popular and play piano. “I had a wall piano, but this… This is something else.” He says.

I shrug. “Do you want to play?”

“No- uh, it’s okay.” He says hesitantly. “I haven’t played for a while and I doubt I remember much more than scales.” He adds, smiling. “How long have you played for?”

“Since I can remember.” I say. “Years.”

“So I take it you’re really good?”

“I’m okay.” I answer. I don’t want to show off.

“Is there anything you’re not good at?”

“Probably a lot.” I say. “But they’re not things I tend to specialise in.”

“Play something.” He says defiantly.

I roll my eyes. I don’t need to prove myself to him, let alone do anything he asks me to. He’s silent again for a few moments then I sigh, and walk over to the piano.

At least I can show off a bit.

I don’t even bother adjusting the seat before lunging into the Liszt piece I’ve been working on for months and still haven’t finished. I skip the beginning, going straight to the hard part near about the ten minute mark.

“Woah.” He says as my hands fly around the keys. I don’t need the music, I’ve practised this bit enough times to know it off by heart. “That is quite something.” He concludes when I’ve finished. I stand up and give a mock bow and he laughs. “Seriously, that’s really amazing.”

“Hm.” I say. “Now, I think we’re both forgetting the real reason you’re here.”

“God.” He says in response, before grabbing his bag and opening it. He takes out a notebook and The Aeneid. “There was this translation for homework, and I’m just struggling a load with Latin in general.”

“Do you have any romance languages in your background?” I ask him. He stares at me. “Do you speak Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Occitan, Catalan, anything along those lines?” He stares even more.

“Uh, I took Spanish for a while…” And gave it up. I finish his sentence in my head immediately. I did notice, in Spanish, more and more people kept dropping out of the class until there were only about five of us left. At that point I got moved into the higher year’s class, and the rest dissolved.

“Okay.” That’s not helpful for Latin. In fact, the best to know for Latin is Italian. It doesn’t make it easy, but it makes it easier. “Right, so let’s get started.” I say.

~

“Translate that.” I point finally at a sentence. He stares at it for a very long time, as if hoping for it to suddenly magic into something intelligible, then finally utters out the sentence in English.

“God, this stuff is impossible.” He groans.

“It’s okay.” I say. “Hey, you can always come again.” I say to him.

“Thanks. It’s been really helpful.”

“Yeah, you’ve been helpful too, especially when you spilled the Coke over your copy of the Aeneid.” I say. “I’m sure it made it so much easier to read.”

He smiles. “It did. The Coke forms magic signs which translate the hard parts into English.”

“Do they then?” I say, pushing his book over the table towards him.

“But seriously, thanks so much. You have helped a lot.” He stands up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “And you’ve got some serious piano skills.”

“Thanks.” I say as we leave the library together. It’s not that long until my parents get back, but that’s not why he’s leaving.

“Uh, Zoe?” He says to me as we reach the front door. I open it, letting us both out. He steps out into the sunlight and I follow.

“Yeah?” I say, closing the door behind me as I walk down the front drive with him.

“Thanks again. Uh, Nate’s having a movie night tomorrow. A bunch of people are coming. Do you want to come?” He asks. I’m silent, mostly in shock. Me? Being invited? To anything, let alone by one of the four hottest boys in school to one of the four hottest boys in school’s house, most likely to watch a film with the most popular people in my year. Me? “Seth’s coming, but he wanted me to tell you.”

“Uh, I’ll think about it.” I say hesitantly. He smiles as we reach his motorbike and he takes his helmet out, putting it on. I swear all the hot boys have motorbikes.

“Cool, I’ll text you the details.” He says.

“Thanks - WAIT, how do you have my phone-” I call after him but he simply winks before whizzing off, leaving me coughing in the dust he leaves behind him.

I am going to murder Seth.

~

“So get to the point. How many people have you given my number to?” I ask finally, after a lot of dithering.

“Well…” He trails off again. “Maybe just-” He pauses again. “Most people?”

“I am going to kill you.” I snap. “Who exactly?”

“Well, um, Caleb and Nate and Zara and Ashley and Sophia and Carter and Eliza and Tony and Jack and Alex…” He trails off again.

“And the rest.” I say.

“Olivia, Taylor, and Madison.” He says quietly. “That’s it.” He’s silent for a minute, and I can imagine him thinking. “Did I say Ralph?”

“Consider yourself dead.” I say, but deep down I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all. I’m happy. Maybe someone will text me, one of the girls, and they’ll want to go out or something. Maybe more people want tutoring. God, I hope not. Today was painful enough.

But it was also fun, and we laughed a lot, and he seemed to learn quite a lot, considering we only had two hours and we spent about forty minutes cracking up.

“But I’ll be there tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” He says. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Bye.” I murmur before hanging up.

A/N - Hope you enjoyed this part! It's all cringey AF but I couldn't be bothered to edit it :))

This is dedicated to @BestieBosya who I really miss and who should make more fanart for me.

Thanks for reading!!