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Mr. Halifax turned to me. “Not your best performance, Miss Hunter.” He sounded insincerely disappointed. Like he was excited to see what my next move was. He placed my test face down on my desk, like he didn’t want anyone to see.

I immediately flipped it over and pretended to be shocked by the B- staring back at me. I’d really nailed the calculation for that grade.

Mr. Halifax shook his head and walked back to his desk.

He hadn’t asked me to see him after class or anything, but I could tell he wanted to. He had nothing to worry about there. I was already planning on talking to him.

The bell rang and I didn’t move to stand up.

“I can’t wait to see how this goes down,” Scarlett said and didn’t move either.

“What? No. You have to leave.”

“But...”

“Shoo...” I moved my hands toward the door.

She laughed. “Fine. But you have to tell me everything.” She got up and eventually the room was empty.

Except for me and Mr. Halifax.

I hurried up to his desk before students from his next class started filtering in. “Hey,” I said.

Mr. Halifax slowly lifted his gaze from his planner and just stared at me.

“After that poor performance, I was hoping I could get some tutoring after school today.” I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear and he followed the path with his eyes.

“Miss Hunter, you’re my best student. I don’t know anyone off the top of my head that would be helpful tutoring you. But if you need some help with those specific questions that you got wrong, I’ll have Jerry meet you in the library after school.”

Who the hell was Jerry? And why were they on a first name basis? “I don’t want Jerry’s help. I want your help.”

Mr. Halifax started to shake his head.

“It’s just a few questions. Please. It will barely take any time. And then you can get to whatever your plans are for the weekend.” I really hoped his plans were about to be me.

Mr. Halifax’s Adam’s apple rose and then fell. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Miss Hunter.”

“Why not?”

He stared at me. And I swear he looked pained. Like he was doing everything in his power not to reach out and touch me.

He cleared his throat. “I can probably plan some kind of group study session for after school next week...”

“I don’t work well in groups.”

I finally got a smile out of him.

“I’ll see you today right after school,” I said. “You can add it to your calendar.” I reached across his desk and opened his planner back up to today. There was no NC this time. There was nothing at all. Mr. Halifax didn’t have any plans for Friday night.

He didn’t move to add it.

So I grabbed the pen from his hand, brushing my fingers against his.

God. A spark ran from my pinky all the way through my arm. He had to have felt that too. Mr. Halifax and I rarely touched skin to skin. But when we did, it was always electric. I’d felt the same thing when he grabbed my wrist when I’d shown up to the Sadie Hawkins dance with fake drugs.

He didn’t move an inch. He just stared at me.

I wrote my name in his planner. Just my name. Like I was something he had to do in order to cross it off. I held his pen back out for him.