Chapter 6

 

        The first half of the following day went by a little slowly for Alex. All of his classes were pretty boring except for study hall since that was really the only class he had with a friend. It was also one of the couple classes he had that didn't involve being lectured to by a teacher.

        It was now time for lunch. Alex sat at the same table he sat at for the past two days. The other boys soon joined him at the table with their lunch trays. Alex spoke to them a little, but he ended up zoning out every so often for the most part.

        After a little while, Alex finished eating and he looked around the noisy cafeteria. He spotted Sean sitting at the usual table not too far away. The Junior sat there and thought a little, wondering why the other boy always seemed to sit by himself during lunch and math class. Alex then got the idea that maybe he could go over and sit with him.

        After throwing away his trash, he made his way over to the table Sean was sitting at. Before he could get there though, the bell rang, signifying the end of the first lunch period. Sean got up from his table and walked off. Alex just stood where he was and watched the boy for a couple moments before leaving the cafeteria himself.

        When Alex got to his fifth period class, he looked to see if Sean was there yet, but he wasn't. He just gave a small shrug before walking over to the desk he had been sitting at for the past couple days. Sean came in right before the bell rang and the teacher followed him in shortly afterwards.

        “I have all of your pre-tests graded and I'll hand them back to you soon,” said the teacher as she walked to the front of the room. “Most of them were pretty good, but a few of you have a little touching up to do on your algebraic skills. Before I hand the pre-tests back though, I'm going to assign seats.”

        Everyone got up and moved to their new seats as they were assigned to them. Alex didn't have to move because his assigned seat was where he was already sitting. The teacher then assigned Sean his seat, which was right next to Alex's. Sean let out a sigh, wishing that he didn't have to sit next to someone. He walked over to the desk and sat down.

        “Hey,” Alex greeted, giving a small smile.

        “Hi,” Sean said without making any eye contact with the other boy.

        Nothing else was said between the two. The teacher finished assigning seats shortly afterwards and she handed back the pre-tests. Sean looked at his when it was given to him and he didn't get a single answer wrong. Alex saw this and smiled a little.

        “Good job,” said Alex.

        “Thanks,” Sean said.

        When Alex's pre-test came, he looked at it to see that the majority of the answers were wrong. A sigh escaped his mouth, but he couldn't say that he was surprised. He expected to get a lot of the problems wrong.

        The teacher spent a little time going over the pre-test before moving onto the day's lesson. All of it was a review from Algebra I and it basically repeated some of the concepts that were on the pre-test. Alex understood it a little more, but he was still a little shaky on it.

        “Your homework for tonight is a worksheet,” the teacher said when the lesson was over. “You can go ahead and get started on it now and whatever you don't finish you'll have to do tonight.”

        The teacher passed out the worksheet. When it reached Sean and Alex, both of them got started on it right away so they could maybe finish it. Sean did the problems pretty quickly while Alex struggled on them a little. It didn't take long for Sean to finish it and by the time he was done, Alex had only finished a few of the problems. The brown-haired boy looked over at Sean as he started to put his things into his backpack.

        “You're pretty good at math, aren't you?” Alex said.

Sean nodded.

        “Wish I was that good. It would make this class a lot easier.”

        Sean didn't say anything or even look at Alex. His head was tilted downwards as his fingers fidgeted a little. Alex looked at the Sophomore boy for a moment before looking back down at his worksheet. He sighed before looking back at Sean.

        “Could you maybe help me a little?” he asked. “I don't really understand this too well.”

        “...Alright,” Sean said a few seconds later.

        Alex gave a small smile when he heard the answer. Sean started to help Alex with the worksheet. As Alex completed the problems, he felt himself understanding it a little more. He wasn't able to complete the worksheet before class ended though.

        “Thanks for the help,” said Alex.

        Sean gave a nod of his head before walking away. Alex watched him for a moment before putting his things away and leaving the classroom himself, feeling as though this year's math class wouldn't be too bad after all.

Reviews

[Amund Schofield]

oh noes.. a cliche... ah hell I use them all the time. They're funny and useful, if you use them right. So far this one was pretty good. Though I would have liked to hear a little more about Sean's thoughts about Alex, if he has any at all.

[Amy]

I like this chapter a lot. Very good!! Please update soon!!