“Anything, you name it coach.”
“First of all, you need to stop partying.I’msick and tired of you being hungover every Monday at practice andI’malso sick and tired of hearingallthe drama about you andthese girls.Yourmain focusshould be football. Andin order todo that, you need to be usingallyour free time to study.”
“Yes sir, you’re right,” Tristan replied, even though he was dying inside at the notion of no longer being able to party and meet girls.
“And since Ican’tafford to lose you from the team, I need you to pass your English class, so I’m setting you up with a tutor.”
Tristan’ face scrunched up and he let out a long sigh.
“A tutor?”
“Is there a problem?” Coach Adams asked, crossing his large arms overhis evenlargerchest.“Becausewe’reon track to be heading to the playoffs this year, but if you reallydon’twant to play...”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll do anything.”
“Great, that’s what I like to hear. So then come with me.”
Coach Adams led Tristan down the hall of the sports complex to walk him over to the library that was only two buildings down. Coach Adams took this time with Tristan to have as meaningful of a conversation as you can have with a20-year-oldcollege student, but he knew how much star potential Tristan had, and absolutely hated to see him wasting it on bad decisions.
“I really appreciate you helping me,” Tristan said astheywalked into the library, following his coach towards one of the back study rooms.
“And I really appreciate you making the effort to do whatever it takes to stay on the team. Trust me, your future self will thank you.”
Tristan gave him a small smile as they walked into the study room, where he stopped in his tracks at the girl in front of him.
“Uh, I thought you said we were going to meet my tutor?” Tristan asked in confusion, not being able to take his eyesoffthe tall blonde that stood in front of him.
“Exactly,” replied coach Adams, “Tristan, this is Tessa, Tessa this is Tristan.”
The coach stepped back and chuckled as he watched the twotimidlyshake hands and stand in an awkward silence.
“Alright well, you two talk and figure out your schedules.Don’tlet me down, Kelly.” With a strong slap on Tristan’ shoulder coach Adams left the room, leaving the twovery nervous20-year-oldsalone together.
Tristan cleared his throat and gave Tessa ashysmile. He had expected his tutor to be some old lady, not this beautiful tall blonde who looked to be his same age.
Her eyes werestunninglyblue,and her lips were full and colored with a soft pink shade of lipgloss. Her hair was elegantly pinned into a bun with a few golden curls framing her plump cheeks. Her slim figure made her appear even taller than sheprobably was, and her long legs were covered in black tights that peaked out from a flowy black skirt. She had her long arms wrapped around her body protectively, giving herself away as to how nervous she was.
“It’s nice to meet you Tessa,” Tristan said, his voice cracking through the silence.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Do you wanna uh...sit and...talk?”
“Sure,” she said with a subtle shrug, and they both took their seats at the table.
“Thanks for doing this,” he said, watching as she reached into her bag and pulled out what looked likea very largeplanner and flipped tothe month of August.
“No worries, I get credits,” she said, avoiding eye contact.
“So, I’m a charity case,” he said with a laugh.
“Not exactly,” she replied, finally being brave enough to look up into his eyes. “So,what’syour schedule like and when can you meet? We should try for at least once a week.”
He took a moment to run over his football schedule in his head and looked over her planner that was completely fullofglitter gel pen writing.
“Damn girl, do you have any free time at all?”
“I like to stay busy,” she said with a casual shrug, “I have a double major and double minor so-”
