Amelia High School
Cincinnati, OH.

There were 93 days left until graduation, and Cara Hemingway found herself outside of the counselor's office again. It wasn't that she was a troublemaker or a "problem-student", she was quite the opposite. However, she was certain that the Mrs. English was secretly tired of seeing her despite all of the support she had given her over the past four years.

You see, if you want to get into the school of your dreams, you have to appear to be damn near perfect, and for the past four years Cara had stayed out of trouble, kept her grades high, and still managed to maintain a relatively strong social life as well as a good attendance record when it came to school functions. However, despite all this, there was always more, and volunteer hours would put Cara right where she needed to be. So earlier in the week, she emailed Mrs. English about what to do and a meeting at 7:30 a.m. was put into place.

"So what are you in for?" Cara jumped slightly and turned her head towards the voice coming from her right, and a pair of blue eyes belonging to the infamous Jon Good met hers. He smiled and chew his gum loudly. "Smoking? Skipping? Bad grades? Hand job in the bathroom," he pestered. Cara had heard of Jon, but their entire academic career hadn't touched. No classes, no interactions. She'd only seen him occasionally and heard head-spinning rumors. At this moment, she'd been very grateful for that. She could already feel her sanity slipping away. At her silence, Jon pestered further, "You aren't pregnant are you?" At the same time, a student office assistant looked at the both of them with a disturbed expression.

Cara rolled her eyes, "No, I actually requested this. You see, I'm trying to get into a good college so that I can have a fruitful life."

Jon grimaced at her words, "Oh, so you're one of those."

She looked at him inquisitively, "Whatever do you mean?" Her voice was playful, but there were equal parts of anger and challenge hidden inside it. She knew she was about to get called a "teacher's pet" or something similar, but that didn't mean she had to take it.

Jon threw up both of his hands as if he had said nothing to warrant her sudden abrasiveness. "All I wanna know is, if you stick coal up your ass, how long do you think it'll take before a diamond comes out?"

"You're disgusting," was all Cara managed to say. She definitely had not prepared for such an obscene comment, and had nothing to counter it. Fortunately for Cara, Mrs. English had opened up the door to her office only moments after his comment. Her auburn but graying hair with eyes hidden behind rimless glasses had served as Cara's savior from dealing with the buffoon that was only a chair away in that moment. Cara stood up, quickly throwing her bag over her shoulder.

"Great, you're both on time," her counselor said cheerily. "Come in, both of you."

Cara stopped in her tracks. Both of you. Cara repeated the phrase in her mind a couple of times. Jon walk past her, grinning like he'd gotten away with something. "You comin'," he asked her as he crossed into the office. Cara reluctantly followed him, and sank into the chair next to Jon and across from Mrs. English who was separated by what was sure to be an overpriced desk from Ikea.

"I know you're wondering why the both of you are coming in at the same time," Mrs. English began, giving Cara a look that said especially you. Mrs. English began pulling things up on her computer, and scanned the information in front of her before returning to the Cara and Jon. "Cara, after I read your email," she started to say until she was interrupted. Jon looked at Cara, "You send her emails, really?"

"Shut up," Cara retorted.

Mrs. English cleared her throat to get their attention back and preventing the bickering from going further. "I was searching solutions for your problem, Cara, I found a solution in Jon."

Please, God no. Cara looked at Jon who just looked around the room. For a split second, he caught her looking at him, but she looked away before he could find something to do or say to her. How could he be the solution to her problem? She returned her focus to Mrs. English to listen to whatever seemingly insane plan she'd come up with.

"Jon," Mrs. English said causing Jon to respond with a disinterested 'yeah'. "You're struggling in a lot of your classes, but you can still graduate in the Spring if you work hard enough. Cara here is currently top of the class. Therefore Cara, the easiest way to get your volunteer hours up quickly is by tutoring Jon. For only an hour a day, Monday through Friday."

You've got to be kidding me, Cara thought. Her displeasure must have been obvious enough to make the counselor continue talking. "It'll only be an hour a day during your study hall period, and once Jon's grades are up, you're free to quit or continue as both of you see fit."

"I don't need it," Jon protested. Cara looked over at him. His hair was shaggy and in the way, but she could still make out his unamused expression. Mrs. English went to say something in protest, but Jon cut her off before she even got started. "But I know you're going to make do it anyway, so sure bring it on." He turned his gaze over to Cara, "How you doing, teach?"

She gave him her best go to hell look, but he only grinned in response which pissed her off more. Her brain kept saying to strangle him, but she stopped herself. Think about college, her internal monologue mused. She turned back to her counselor and delivered her fakest smile and her cheeriest voice, "Sure, thing. It'll be no problem." A lie, but there was no need to be ungrateful. She looked back at Jon and smiled at him too, "Library, 1:30."

"Yeah," he said passively, crossing his arms.

Mrs. English let out a relieved sigh, "Well, this is great. Thank you both for being so cooperative."

Jon and Cara both said it was no problem. Cara said thank you, although she didn't particularly mean it, and Jon simply walked out without any acknowledgment. Cara knew the following weeks to come weren't going to be particularly enjoyable, but she knew there was no backing out now. She just hoped that Jon would be compliant and not so obnoxiously brash.

At lunch, Cara's best friend placed a plastic tray down on the table across from her, "Caroline Elizabeth Hemingway, why is the rumor that you're pregnant going around?" Lyndsey was a gossip fanatic. It was all harmless, but she had a desperate need to know everything about everything. If you needed to know anything about someone at Amelia High School, Lyndsey could be considered the Library of Alexandria. Rumors, birthdays, old flames, new flames, Canadian flames, pregnancy scares - anything.

"Please don't tell me you believe that,"Cara whined. She watched her friend sit down, Lyndsey's rusty-brown eyes seemed as if they trying to pry the information out Cara's brain.

Lyndsey laughed, "Of course not, you're like the biggest virgin I know besides Mary, especially if you're pregnant. Oooh, maybe you're carrying the messiah." To that, Cara laughed a little, but Lyndsey got the conversation back quickly. "But no, seriously, what's going on?"

Cara sighed as she placed her forehead into her propped up hand. "Do you want my answer or the real one? Both are true."

"I'll take both," replied her friend. Cara lifted her head up to find her friend looking at her with hungry eyes.

"I firmly believe that God hates me and has assigned his own personal devil to torture me in the form of Jon Good, who I have to tutor every day now." Cara paused as she recalled their meeting this morning. "Jon asked me if I was at the counselor's office because I was pregnant, and the office aid who heard must of said something. Now everyone thinks I'm having a baby."

Her prying friend looked at her in disbelief, "Jon Good? You have to tutor him? This is amazing."

"We have very different ideas of amazing," Cara answered.

"Bad things can be amazing," Lyndsey noted. "They're full of amazement. This doesn't disappoint. Seriously, I've heard so many things about him - so I'm going to give you what I know."

"Lyndsey, no. I don't like when you do that. I don't want to know everything about someone before I actually know them."

Lyndsey looked at her suspiciously, "you sure? It could be very helpful to know your enemy."

Cara nodded.

The rest of their lunch went as usual. They complained about how crappy the food was, shared the woes from their classes, and made plans for the weekend. Every now and then, Lyndsey would make a joke about Jon to which she would either scowl or laugh at, and eventually lunch ended. As they went their separate ways, Lyndsey yelled out a good luck to which Cara replied, "I'm going to need it!"

So let the games begin, she thought as she opened the door the the library.

Cara continuously checked the outdated clock hanging high on the library wall. Jon was already running 8 minutes late. Two more minutes and if he doesn't show up, I'm leaving. I'll figure out something else, she thought. She watched the red seconds hand make it's way around the clock the first time, and then every second afterward only made her more upset with him and the entire situation. When the clock struck 1:40, Cara gripped the strap of her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

"You're not going to bail on me are you?" Her head shot up at the sound of Jon's voice who was approaching her with a smirk on his face. She rolled her eyes as she sat her own stuff back down. "You're late."

"Just so we're clear, I'm only doing this because they're making me," he said as he slid down in the chair across from her. She stared him right in the eyes and flashed a pseudo-polite smile. "I can assure that the feeling is mutual, and that I would rather be doing anything else."

"Don't get your pom-poms in bunch," he teased.

"Not a cheerleader," she stated. She was hating this more and more by the second.

"It's a metaphorical set, " he explained as he watched her pull books out of her bag.

"Just like yours then," she countered as she was trying find a place to start teaching this clown.

He made an "oh" shape with his mouth, "Barbie's got bite. Man, you're second husband is gonna love that. Just you wait," he pressed further, successfully getting a rise out her.

Cara slammed the book in front of her closed and gave him gave him a go to hell look. "Look, you can act like a sack of shit all you want." Jon attempted to cut her off after she swore, but she held her finger up at him. "But if you think that I'm gonna make myself look bad because I can't teach some asshole what he needs to know to pass, you're sorely mistaken."

Jon began first by clearing his throat. "That's fine sweetheart," he said as he sat up straight in his chair. He reached over to her finger and held on to it. "But let's make one thing clear, you are never going to put this finger in my face again." He moved her finger to the side and gave her bearish grin.

She didn't back down, "As long as we can agree that you won't touch me ever again."

"Deal," he conceded. "Now, while all this bonding time has been really fun. I have to go." He picked up his bag, that Cara was certain had nothing in it, and started to walk off.

"You're kidding, right? You literally just got here." Cara was in disbelief. The nerve he had to make her wait only to leave in no less than fifteen minutes. She didn't know if she wanted to cry out of frustration or fight him.

"I gotta go. Got stuff to do, super important. You understand, right?"

"Jon, we have to do this," she tried to tell him as he started walking out the door. He was really leaving. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said as the door closed behind him.

Great, she thought as she ran her fingers out of her hair. Not only was he a pain in the ass, he couldn't even stick to a simple schedule. She slid back down into her chair, and covered her face with her hands. Just great.