“Well, that’s the last thing I’d ever want to do. Maybe I can make it up to you soon?” I offer. The suggestive tone of my voice making it very clear how I planned on making her feel better.
“What about now?” She asks tugging me off the sidewalk.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I have to be on the other side of campus in an hour?—”
“An hour is more than enough time. Or are you that out of practice?” she teases.
Taking a quick glance at my watch I do the math in my head. I’d be out in 30 minutes. 40 tops. More than enough time to make it to the library, and get settled. “Oh Mandy, you have no idea what you’ve just unleashed.” I follow her inside the Sigma Kappa house.
Chapter 5
Eliana
Iloved getting new tutoring clients. Learning their background, helping them tailor their study techniques, watching them grow from our first meeting to the last. As I sit in the library prepping for Jake, some of the tension in my shoulders starts to fade as I think back to all my previous tutoring experiences. Even my more demanding clients, who had to bring several of their grades up, always ended up making my day as I watched their confidence and knowledge grow. I imagined tutoring was a lot like co-captaining a ship— in the beginning you’re battling unruly waters, but with experience and a confident crew, things become smooth sailing.
I anxiously glance at my colorful calendar. It took some shuffling around to squeeze my new tutoring client in, but his late arrival is making my tight squeeze look a little questionable. I know life happens — see the already accounted for 10-minute buffers in my calendar for people showing up late to meetings — but Jake was now 30 minutes late and I was starting to get antsy.
He had responded to my email yesterday confirming hecould make it so he definitely knew our appointment was coming up. Maybe I should just leave and reschedule? I don’t want to be late for my study session with Nicole…Ugh, I can’t. This was a favor I was doing for Violet, someone I really cared about and respected. And after putting off nannying, I really needed the money that came with a steady tutoring client. So here I sat, anxiously checking the analog clock hung up on the library wall as all this precious time went by. Wasted.Maybe I should start working on my own homework while I wait…
“Hey are you Eliana?”
My attention shifts from the clock to the sound of a deep male voice. I have to crane my neck to take in the 6’4 blonde rocking a Westchester U Men’s Ice Hockey hoodie.
“You’re late.” The words come out much harsher than my normal greeting, but Violet had warned me that he had an attitude and a bad habit of being disrespectful. Which wasn’t in the least bit surprising. Westchester’s hockey team all viewed themselves like God’s gift to Earth, or at least God’s gift to hockey.
As an avid hockey fan myself, I couldn’t say I blamed them for their massive egos. Being born and raised in New England, rooting for the Boston Bruins was expected of me from birth. And given the Bruins had a solid track record of signing players from local universities, I often found myself keeping tabs on the star players in the Hockey East conference. Lack of punctuality and poor grades aside, Jake Keeley was incredible on the ice. And if rumors were true, in a few years he’d be rocking a spoked B and playing for the Bruins. Unfortunately for Jake, it appeared he had forgotten his future in hockey was tied to maintaining his GPA. I won’t deny that there’s a part of me that’s geeking out over the fact that I’m tutoring one of the NHL’s biggest prospects, but I’d already told myself I wouldn’t treat him differently than any of my previousclients.
Despite my current snippiness, I had no issues with hockey or student athletes. If anything, the previous athletes I had tutored had shown me how many of them got a bad rap for not caring enough about school. My best friend Nicole fell into this category. In addition to being the current captain of Westchester's D1 softball team, she was also premed.
“In the future could let me know if you’re running late? Just so I’m in the loop.” I try not to sound super annoyed. Just because I lived my life maximizing every second of every day didn’t mean he had to.
“Sorry I thought I gave myself enough time to get here but...let’s just say I didn’t account for the traffic.” Jake shrugs, taking a seat in the chair across from mine. “I came over as fast as I could.”
“I understand. Life happens. Let’s get started. I put together a study guide?—”
DING! His phone goes off in his pocket and pause. He waves me on to continue.
“That outlines the main concepts of the chapters. It looks like your midterm covered observational psych to?—”
DING! Jake sighs heavily, pulling his phone out. His eyebrows knit in concern as he rapidly texts.
My concern for whatever is happening is mixed with the slight irritation I feel bubbling up in my chest. “Everything alright?”
Jake’s eyebrows pinch together as he shakes his head. “No. Defusing a big disaster.”
“Sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to hel?—”
“Ollie is freaking out right now. He forgot to let the Tri Delts and most of the Sigma Kappa’s know about the party we’re throwing this Saturday so now we’re stuck trying to coordinate something with the Gamma Phi’s instead.”
I blink once. Then twice. “Excuse me?”
He glances up at me and likely catches my annoyed expression. “Shit sorry, where are my manners? You’re totally welcome to come and bring any friends. Preferably girls since our guy-to-girl ratio is kinda off already. Feel free to drop by Hockey House after 10 p.m.”
Despite being a hockey fan, you wouldn’t catch me dead in the cesspool that was Hockey House. I am almost certain if the CDC did a full swipe of that place, they’d probably discover three new STDs among other atrocities. “Do you think we could get back to the reason why we’re both here?” I shove the study guide back into his view.
“Shit sorry, yes.” He finally places his phone back into his pocket. “Go ahead.”
“Since you need to diffuse a…crisis…maybe it’s best that for our session today I show you the general schedule I came up with for our tutoring sessions and then next session we can dive into content. I’ve added some practice worksheets you should try to complete before we meet.” I pull out the color-coded document detailing the remaining weeks of the semester and slide it over to him, while annotating my own copy. “I already have all your games, home and away, accounted for but if there are other events or conflicts I missed?—”
