Jake nodded to the shirt. “Where do you get those? They’re funny.”
“I made them,” Ezra replied, shutting his textbook and capping his pen.
“Really?” Jake was kind of impressed. “How?”
Ezra looked at Jake like he should know. “I make the design on my computer, print it on transfer paper, and iron it onto a plain shirt.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
Ezra didn’t seem to think so. He grabbed Jake’s Stats book, flipped it open, turned it to face Jake, and pointed to a paragraph. “Tell me what you know about base rate fallacy.”
Jake blinked. “Uh… what?”
But by the end of the hour, Jake was able to tell what he knew and then some. And even understand joint probability distribution better. Ezra was a good teacher. A hell of a lot better at explaining things than Jake’s Stats professor. At seven o’clock on the dot, Ezra closed the Stats text and began putting away his books.
Jake felt like the hour flew by. “Thanks, man. I think I’m starting to get it already.”
“You will.” Ezra zipped up his bookbag and adjusted his Sally Jessy glasses. “So, I was thinking after I tutor you, you could teach me something?”
“Okay.” Jake gathered up his books. “Like what?”
“Like… I don’t know. How to talk to people, maybe?”
“We’re talking and we’re people.”
“I meant people as in Sean.”
Jake lifted his bookbag onto his shoulders. “Just go up to him at rehearsal tomorrow and say hey. Ask him how he’s doing. Make small talk. Stuff like that.”
“Yeah, see… I kinda have a problem with the whole small talk thing.”
“What do you mean?”
Ezra looked down at his Converse shoes. “It’s like my brain goes all haywire, and I don’t know what to say.”
Jake shrugged off his bookbag and set it next to his chair. “Okay, then pretend I’m Sean and talk to me.”
Ezra took a quick look around. The main floor of the university library was usually pretty busy, but where they were sitting didn’t have many students around. Ezra looked at Jake. “What do I say?”
“Just say hi and ask him how he’s doing.”
Ezra sat up straighter. “Hey, Sean. How are you doing?”
“Pretty good, Ezra. How about you?”
“Good.”
Ezra sat there. Jake waited. Ezra kept sitting there. Jake turned up his hands. “Well?”
“Well what?” Ezra frowned.
“Is that it?”
“I don’t know what else to say.” Ezra tugged at a strand of his frizzy hair. “See? I get nervous.”
“Okay, well, say something interesting. Something that will get his attention.”
Ezra was still for a second, like he was absorbing the information, then he nodded. “Got it.” Then he started the whole thing again. “Hi, Sean. How are you?”
