“Right.” There was the Eva that Lily knew so well. “Still.”
Eva gave a curt nod, and Lily turned away when her laptop pinged with an e-mail notification, her good mood falling away as she read the subject line.
Great. Another complaint about the GSA.
“I thought only I brought that expression out of you.”
Lily jumped at the sound of Eva’s voice. She hadn’t realized Eva was still there.
“You and asshole parents.”
“What’ve you done? Had the audacity to give one of their little darlings a detention? Taught them Earth isn’t flat and evolution is, in fact, real?” Eva arched an eyebrow, leaning against Lily’s doorframe and looking like she belonged there.
“No. Dared to start a GSA.” Lily pressed her fingers to her temples. “They’ve been coming in all week. People aren’t happy.”
“Fuck what other people think,” Eva said. “You’re doing something important for the kids. And they can’t stop you from meeting.”
“I know, but it doesn’t make reading their e-mails any easier.” Lily deleted most of them as soon as they came in, but she’d still seen enough things to make her wince.
“Forward the e-mails to me if you like—eviscerating some homophobes would be a lovely stress reliever.”
“Offering to help me out twice in one day?” Lily leaned back in her chair, smile playing around the edges of her lips. “Wow. Are you feeling okay?”
Eva glared, but it didn’t wipe away Lily’s smile.
“I’m growing on you, aren’t I?”
“You are doing no such thing.” Eva drew herself up to her full height, her voice haughty as she retreated down the hall without another word.
Lily’s grin widened. “I so am.”
Chapter 10
Carly frowned at the problemin front of her, and Lily held her breath.
After almost two weeks of after-school tutoring, Lily was hoping she’d finally managed to drill the complexities of bonding and intramolecular forces into Carly’s head.
It wasn’t an easy concept to grasp, and Lily tried not to lean too far over Carly’s shoulder as she lifted pen to paper to finish the diagram showing the electron structure in a molecule of ozone.
“Is this right?” Carly hesitantly pushed the paper over toward Lily. Lily had learned over the past few days that though Carly exuded an air of confidence, it was merely for show. Beneath her tough exterior she was fragile—quick to blame herself when things went wrong, and Lily had been trying her best to build her up wherever possible.
“Yes, Carly, that’s perfect. Well done.”
Carly’s beaming smile made all of Lily’s efforts feel worth it.
“I’m going to give you some more problems to take home,” Lily said, producing a booklet she’d put together last night. “It covers the things we’ve just gone over as well as some other topics from our last few classes. It’ll help me figure out what we need to focus on, and what you’re doing well on.”
“Okay.” Carly tucked the booklet into her backpack. “I’ll do it tonight.”
“There’s no rush.” The last thing Lily wanted was for Carly to neglect her other classes in favor of chemistry. “By next Monday will be fine.”
“Thanks, Miss Cross.”
“You don’t need to keep thanking me, Carly.”
Carly ducked her head. “Sorry.”
“Or apologizing.” Lily had noticed her doing that a lot. “Now get yourself out of here, you’ve done enough work for today.”
