bro, why would you be a tutor {xander}

[STELLA HINES]

Chemistry tutoring. What kind of bullshit was that? She didn’t need tutoring! If she really wanted good grades, she could get them on her own. No way did she need help from somebody. She DEFINITELY didn’t need help from a student. God, why would you even want to tutor for Chemistry? Much less teach it. What a useless subject. When was she ever going to use this stuff in life? Especially since no way would she end up in a career that required her knowing science.

Who the hell was this Xander Sykes kid anyway? What kind of name was that? Then again, maybe he preferred Xander over something ridiculous. When she thought of it like that, Xander wasn’t too bad. Still, he was tutoring her in Chemistry so she already didn’t really like him. Yuck, what if he was some kind of huge nerd that would just berate her the entire time for being a slacker? Oh, fuck that noise on so many levels. Probably best to turn around right now and ditch the whole thing.

And Stella would have if her parents hadn’t already paid for it. Fan-fucking-tastic. She pulled the classroom door open with so much force it almost yanked her back with it. Being tiny sucked so hard sometimes. Why did they even have to meet in some empty classroom? What was wrong with the library or the lab they usually used? This was totally sketchy. Dropping her backpack from her shoulder to her hand, she cringed only a little at the sound of her bag being dragged across the floor.

Stella found the kid sitting smack dab in the middle of the room. It was like most science classrooms she’d been in; three rows of so many tables in each. Except they were more like counters and definitely more suited for labs and explosions. Could classrooms be made to handle explosions? Probably. If not… well, they needed to get on that right away. Stella let her bag fall at her feet once she reached the table. She pushed the chair away, having never sat when she could stand.

“Alright ‘Xander,’” she said his name as if she wanted an explanation. Seriously, you couldn’t go around calling yourself Xander without people questioning it (could you?). “Let’s get this over with.” Because no way was she going to be a nice little child who wanted to be tutored. Unless he could somehow prove to her that he wasn’t the type to have fun reading. He didn’t exactly look like a nerd, though. Well, that was promising. … Ish.

[XANDER SYKES]

So, Xander didn't have a job. There was no way in hell that he would even try, man. Jobs required work ethic and certain people skills he lacked. If a customer or an employer bitched at him, he would be fired for bitching right back. Still, he needed extra money, and if he had to risk his whold chemistry thing coming out for a few bucks, so be it. But he wasn't going to do it conventionally, or how the school wanted it. While they had provided the chem lab, they hadn't provided supervision, and that was their mistake.

Coughing, he waited for this 'Stella' chick, book on the desk in front of him and cigarette in hand. Yeah, so maybe smoking in a classroom while waiting for a freshman tutee or whatever the fuck you would call it to get here wasn't the best idea, but Xander wasn't known for his common sense. Letting the smoke curl out of his lips, he sighed, getting inpatient. Well, he was always sort of impatient. He was starting to change his mind about this as he tended to do with most things.

When he heard footsteps outside the silent classroon and the doorknob turn, realization hit and he put the cigarette out on his shoe and tossed it into the trash can, not worrying if there was a fire because of the extinguisher the lab kept on hand. He put his hands through the smoke, making it less visible though not unscented before the kid charged in, dragging her backpack across the floor. Oh god, this wasn't Stella, right? Because it looked like he would be tutoring an eight-year-old. Well, she hoped she wasn't stupid. He hated trying to explain things to dumbasses because it was difficult to do that without looking like a total nerd. But she seemed like she just had a lot of attitude. Small Persons Disorder, probably. Compensating for their size by being a total control freak. Fuck that. He'd have to bitch right back.

"Xander's short for Alexander, if you must know." He coughed and rolled his eyes. His tone was full of condenscendence and all that shit. Xander didn't appreciate the attitude. "You're really gonna stand there?" Who the hell would stand when they could sit? "Well, what the fuck ever. Chapter?" No, he wasn't going to ask a grammatically correct question because fuck you.

[/justify]

[STELLA HINES]

Stella noticed two things.

One, there was a textbook on the desk. That was good. She’d forgotten hers. How had she even managed that? Stella cleared her throat, feeling only a little bit awkward for having completely spaced on that. It’s not like it even mattered that much. There was a book here which meant she had no reason to worry.

Second, it smelled of smoke. She hadn’t noticed at first because it wasn’t very strong and there was no physical evidence that anybody had been smoking. Looking at him with raised brows, Stella wondered if he was the sort. It wouldn’t have surprised her. They were in high school, after all. Whatever. It wasn’t any of her business.

Xander was short for Alexander. She’d been right. Stella couldn’t have kept the triumphant grin off of her face even if she wanted to. She didn’t care if it was stupid to be proud of something like that – she would take any and all victories. “Yeah, I had to know.” She said, tugging a notebook from her backpack.

Stella laughed. It didn’t matter how many times she was asked, she would always find it amusing. She didn’t understand why so many people questioned her standing instead of sitting. Bouncing on her feet, Stella nodded. “Absolutely. Sitting is so boring.” Kind of like this tutoring would probably be.

The grin fell and she pursed her lips. What chapter? Why would she even know that? “Uh…” Stella managed, flipping through the notebook to see if there was anything in it that could help her. She hadn’t been paying attention in Chemistry so why on earth would she know what chapter they were on?

Shutting the notebook with a resigned sigh, she dragged the textbook towards her. “Chapter one, I guess. I don’t even…” She stopped, grimacing at the table of contents. Why did she take Chemistry again? “Can you, like… tell me what’s so great about Chemistry? I mean, why did you decide to tutor for this class?”

Stella was honestly curious and kind of hopeful. Maybe if Xander could explain to her why he liked it so much, she might find some reason to like it herself. There was no better way to get into something than to have a pro explain what made it so great in the first place.

[XANDER SYKES]

It was only a few seconds in, it felt like, and Xander wished he had just gave up and used his parent's money to buy weed amongst other things. It's not like he was afraid he would get caught, because he really didn't give a fuck either way, but it was sort of a pride thing. He couldn't explain it, but he knew he would feel like a total douche buying illegal things with their money, even if it would get their attention. But that was another thing, he had stopped trying to get their attention a while ago, but the habits and attitude still remained.

Well, whatever, this bitch was annoying.

When she raised her brows at him, he retorted with a look of 'yeees, what?' She probably smelled the smoke, but he really didn't care all that much. Already, she was getting on his nerves. But he could put up with it. For pride and money, he could put up with it. But that victory smirk made him roll his eyes. Whoa, watch out, we got a badass over here. Because, you know, Xander could have been short for tons of other names. Whatever.

"Sitting isn't boring. Standing for no fuc- fricking reason is." Normally he wouldn't censor himself, but he didn't exactly want to corrupt a young child. No, really, she couldn't be more than ten, tops. How her ass ended up in high school, he didn't know, nor did he care.

Xander sighed at her not even knowing what chapter she was on. Fuck, this was going to be a long session. He flipped the book open to chapter one and looked at her, not knowing how the fuck to answer that question. Well, you know what? Whatever, who cared what the ten-year-old knew? He didn't, that was for certain. "I dunno, I guess it's just cool to know how stuff is made up and why it changes in general. Reactions and shit, too. I mean, I guess you could look at it like, 'fuck you and the world, I know how shit gets done.' Or something. You know what? Whatever. Can you even tell me what an atom is?"

[/justify]

[STELLA HINES]

She must have been annoying him. It was written all over his face. Or maybe it wasn’t and Stella was making things up. She had a tendency to do that. Maybe she should tone it down a bit. Her mom would be super pissed if Stella went and irritated the fuck out of her tutor, so much so that he just quit on her and left. Yeah, she’d be grounded forEVER. Being grounded was the worst. Okay, yeah, maybe she’d tone it down a bit. Not that she was going to sit down or lower her voice. It just meant she’d pretend she knew what she was doing. Yeah, she knew about Chemistry and stuff. She got it. Sort of. Kinda. Not at all.

Stella couldn’t help it. She really couldn’t. She laughed, so very amused at the thought of somebody not swearing at her. For one, people did it a lot, mostly because calling her ‘fucking annoying’ was a lot more satisfying than just ‘annoying.’ Yeah, she’d heard it plenty. “I’m fifteen, guy. You don’t have to censor yourself around me.” She’d heard it all. She was in high school, for God’s sake. He didn’t get why sitting was boring and she happily would have explained it to him, but she managed to remember she was toning it down. That was definitely going to need repeating.

Oh yes, he was very annoyed. Just listen to that sigh! Stella shifted on her feet, feeling almost guilty for not knowing anything. Then again, it wasn’t her fault he’d gotten into the tutoring business. Shouldn’t he have been used to students like her by now? Surely she wasn’t the first tutoree who didn’t want to be there? How stuff is made up… What did she care how stuff was made up for? As long as it was available to her, that was all that mattered. Right? Oh, wait. Maybe not. She really did like knowing how shit got done. Really, she liked knowing stuff other people didn’t.

With that in mind, she suddenly thought maybe Chemistry wasn’t that bad. If she could go around, knowing about reactions and shit when other people didn’t, stupid people who didn’t take Chemistry (and suddenly she’d taken Chemistry because she’d wanted to, not because she’d been forced. Stella’s mind worked strangely that way), she’d have a fucking field day. “Oh. Okay. Neat.” Best to just leave it at that. Some things really didn’t need saying, and she sounded positively crazy right now.

An atom. What the fuck was an atom? Was she supposed to know that? Was that basic Chemistry? … Shit. “Well… uh. It must be something really simple, yeah?” She asked, peeking at the book to see if it’d give her any answers. “’Cause it’s in chapter one. Really simple things are answered in chapter one.” Stella glanced at him, hoping she was right. Not wanting to wait for an answer, no matter how quickly he’d respond to her, she pulled the book her way and skimmed the paragraphs on the page it was open to. Ugh, reading sucked.