a/n: this is for Parapluie Lire's "Adorkable" challenge, found on the GGFC forum :) check it out, guys. there are loads of challenges and competitions there.
disclaimer: Ally Carter owns all characters and the Gallagher Academy.
"…and the money has to come from somewhere! Well, that somewhere is not the United States. We have enough debt already, you know? Not only does this increase the national deficit, but it also doesn't make much of a difference in the long run and—"
"Elizabeth, Jonas, could you stay for a bit?" Mr. Moskowitz's voice reached Liz's ears, despite the rising volume of Courtney Bauer's rant.
Liz blanched slightly at, not the request, but the tone of it. Nobody—especially not Harvey Moskowitz—had ever asked her to stay after class (unless it was to commend her for her impressive skills in data encryption and analysis). Judging by his furrowed brow, Liz could tell he was either A) worried, or B) stressed. She guessed it was a mixture of both.
Courtney paused in her criticism of the American Recovery and Investment Act once she noticed her friend hanging behind.
The petite blonde just smiled nervously and shrugged. "I'll see you in the Grand Hall later."
With a nod and friendly grin, Courtney made her exit alongside the rest of the class.
"Yes, sir?" Jonas inquired politely once the door was firmly shut. He fidgeted with his tie, tugging at the collar of his pristinely ironed uniform shirt.
His voice was much closer than Liz had anticipated and she jumped slightly as she spun clumsily to face her classmate—as of two weeks ago.
"Sorry about that, Lizzie," he apologized, flashing a dimpled grin. He placed an awkward hand on her shoulder as a sign of comfort (albeit, an uneasy one).
Before she could contain it, she squeaked out, "Lizzie?"
Jonas tilted his head in shy amusement. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take such liberties with a nickname and all."
Pink colored her skin up to her hairline until she was blushing hard enough for the rest of the population. "I- I mean, it's totally cool if you call me that, but I just…um…wasn't expecting it?"
Her stuttered words came out sounding like a question and she frowned slightly, despite her less-than-suave statement. The black-haired boy slid his glasses further up his nose and squirmed under her gaze.
Mr. Moskowitz broke the silence almost as soon as it had fallen. "I have a favor to ask of you, Miss Sutton."
He walked around his desk to stand in front of the pair, who focused their attention on the uncharacteristically serious teacher. Liz glanced between the two males, trying—and failing—to observe their countenance. Up close, Jonas looked much taller, especially when compared to the vertically-challenged Gallagher Girl and teacher. She snapped out of her musings, slightly disappointed in herself for losing focus so easily, and gazed up at Mr. Moskowitz.
"What is it?" she questioned.
Jonas adjusted his tie again as their teacher began. "Mr. Caravello has not been performing to the standards set by the school. I'm afraid he'll need a tutor of some sort."
Liz chewed anxiously on her lip. "Wait. Who's Mr. Caravello?"
Clearing his throat quietly, Jonas shrugged one shoulder. "I am."
For several moments, Liz stared slack-jawed at her classmate. He flushed in embarrassment, cheeks tinting a slight pink. Seeing his reaction to her blatant astonishment, Liz tried to compose herself.
"I could have sworn on Gilly's sword that you're some sort of super genius," she blurted, slapping her hands over her mouth once the words caught up with her brain.
Eyes as wide as saucers, Liz proceeded to apologize, looking close to tears. "I am so sorry! I didn't mean that! I mean, of course I meant it, because it obviously came out of my mouth, but I didn't mean to say it like that and I just—"
"It's fine, Lizzie," Jonas reassured, his grin stubbornly remaining on his face. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I just haven't been concentrating properly or something…"
"I'm sorry," she apologized a final time, horrified at her unfiltered thoughts. "I just didn't think you'd need a tutor…at all."
Mr. Moskowitz rubbed his hairless upper lip, as though he had a mustache. His seriousness was quickly disappearing, replaced by his usual quirky self. "I believe a few tutoring sessions will allow him to catch up. Are you up for it?"
Liz nodded, taking a peek at the boy from the corner of her eye. "I'll do it."
"Great!" He clapped his hands and ushered the pair out of his classroom. "Now shoo, children. I must prepare for the next test."
Liz nearly bounced with excitement at the sound of it. She loved tests, and it would surely be an interesting experience preparing one of the few Research and Development students from Blackthorne for it. Her fading humiliation died into giddiness at the thought.
Jonas shifted his books into one hand and turned to Liz. "I guess we better plan out our studying sessions?"
She nodded, looking for free time in her schedule. "I'm afraid I'm only available during dinner," she said apologetically. Most of her hours were dedicated to reading ahead and preparing for the few classes she didn't excel in.
He thought for a moment, a concentrated look in his eyes. "I suppose that should do. I'll meet up with you and we'll talk more later."
Afraid of being late for her next class, Liz nodded quickly and skipped off to Countries of the World. Because her back was turned away, she failed to see the flush rising against Jonas's neck as he watched her walk away.
"Macey!"
Liz squeaked out a well-needed "oopsie-daisy!" when she nearly knocked a bread roll from an eighth grader's hand. Stumbling over the feet that got in her way, the petite blonde careened toward her friends.
"What's wrong?" Bex asked as she looked around for signs of trouble. She barely caught her clumsy friend before she face-planted into a plate of mashed potatoes.
The red-faced Liz righted herself quickly, staring wildly at her friends. "I'm having boy problems!"
Cammie burst into a coughing fit, clearly choking on the extra crème brûléeshe snuck from the kitchen. Macey slapped a delicate hand roughly into her back so she could breathe.
"Boy problems?" she asked, as though this was the kind of thing she dealt with every day. And ever since the Blackthorne boys arrived two weeks ago, it kind of was.
Liz nodded, embarrassed. "I have to tutor Jonas and he's supposed to come by during dinner for our first session."
"Dinner, as in, now?" Cammie asked. She shrugged, head down to hide the flames that licked at her entire face.
"Wait. Jonas?" Bex repeated, a bewildered look covering her features. "Isn't he supposed to be, I don't know, a genius?"
"That's what I thought!" Liz exclaimed. She swung her arm out in exasperation, successfully smacking a glass of water out of Tina's grasp. It clattered to the ground with a very loud, very noticeable crash. Meanwhile, Tina's hand was still poised to drink, though her eyes were as wide as saucers.
"Oops—" Liz began, but was interrupted by the sound of an unwelcome voice behind her.
"Here, let me help with that."
Jonas bent down beside Cammie, helping her sweep the shards of glass into a cloth napkin. Once he was assured all the pieces were picked up, he stood and brushed himself off.
"Hey, Lizzie." He grinned.
Oh. My. Gosh. The voice in her head screamed, though her mouth remained closed. What did I just do?
Rather than voicing her mortified complaints, she forced her lips to part and greeted him. "H-hey, Jonas. What brings you here?"
The boy looked around himself, as if to wondering the exact same thing. He turned back to her with a quiet laugh. "It's dinner, Liz. Where else should I be?"
She shrugged, prepared to answer despite the fact that she knew it was a rhetorical question. "Well, you could be studying at the library, or getting a few extra hours of sleep in your room, or you can be like Cammie and go sneaking around the building in search of secret—"
A hand slapped over her unstoppable mouth. Beside the nervously babbling girl, Macey smirked at the both of them. "What she means is, why don't you two go find a quiet, private place to study?"
"I think that's a great idea," Jonas replied, subtly scratching the back of his neck. "Shall we?"
As he led her away, Liz sent her malicious-faced friends a sharp glare. The gesture was ruined by her panicked face.
"…after you do that, just enter the data and make sure it saves your work. There's nothing worse than having to restart a program you made from scratch," Liz finished.
She was much more comfortable now that she was in her area of expertise. It seemed like once she started teaching, her fears had somehow disappeared for the time being. She only wished they would stay gone for the remainder of their 'study date.'
"Okay," Jonas mumbled as he effortlessly went through all the steps she had relayed to him. His tutor watched in astonishment as he finished the data encryption only slightly slower than she had.
"What was that?" she asked, mouth gaping.
He chuckled slightly with a noncommittal shrug. "I guess I'm just a quick learner."
"Then why did it take so long for you to understand this section?" she inquired, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
He took her by surprise when he suddenly leaned forward, eyes glinting and black hair hanging over his eyes. Their faces were far too close for comfort and Liz tried to back away, only to be stopped by his hand on her shoulder.
"Maybe I find you interesting enough to pay close attention to," he suggested, mouth quirking in a way that made her wonder what the Blackthorne boys were drinking to make them so undeniably similar.
She had to find out what was in their water and do some serious experimenting on it.
"B-but I—" she stumbled over her words, unable to form coherent sentences with him invading her personal space. When she began to hyperventilate, he finally eased back in worry.
"Are you okay, Lizzie?" he wondered, shaking her shoulder with the hand that never removed itself from her bubble.
She nodded vigorously, paused to think about it, and then proceeded to shake her head almost violently. Her breaths came in short gasps, but gradually slowed down to a safe speed.
When her panic attack ended, Jonas cautiously removed his fingers from their resting place on the skinny girl's shoulder. He ran a hand through his thick hair, breathing out slowly. "You had me scared for a moment," he admitted.
"Sorry," she whispered, watching the movement of his hand. She had the sudden desire to test different combinations of shampoo and conditioner to find out what made his hair look so soft.
"Redken and Suave," she blurted.
Jonas looked at her strangely. "What?"
"Nothing!" Her hands swiftly moved of their own accord to cover her mouth before she could unintentionally say anything else. Suddenly, she was on her feet and packing up all the books she had brought along with her to the library for their study session.
"You're leaving?" he asked, eyes wide.
She didn't respond right away, but continued to shove thick textbooks and loose pages unceremoniously into her backpack. While she struggled to zip it up, she sent him an apologetic smile. "This is for your own good, Jonas. And for the sake of my diminishing dignity."
He let out a surprised laugh, but rose from his seat to help her get the bag over her shoulders. When he was right behind her, she swung the bag around, accidentally hitting him in the abdomen.
"I am so sorry!" she apologized. Out of habit, her hand reached out to touch the injured part of him. Once she realized that her fingers were shamelessly prodding his stomach, she tried to jerk her hand away.
His own digits wrapped around her wrist in an effort to keep her from running or hurting anyone else in the process. He smoothed her fingers out from their clenched position and flashed a disarming smile.
"It's perfectly fine, Lizzie."
She couldn't say anything without further embarrassing herself. This was turning out to be one of her worst days. When he finally released her from his grip, she took a tiny step away from his body.
Before she got very far, he leaned forward and pecked her cheek.
As he pulled away, they stared at each other, both with huge eyes and tomato faces. Jonas tugged on his tie with a shaking hand and Liz chewed nervously on her bottom lip.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Jonas asked, shuffling awkwardly.
She nodded. "Yeah."
"Alright," he replied slowly.
"Um…" Liz cleared her throat a couple times. "Right then. Bye."
His dimple appeared for a second and she almost tripped over herself as she turned to walk out of the library with minimum accidents along the way.
See? She asked herself, a winning smile on her suddenly confident face. That wasn't so bad.
A loud clang made her look back, only to see Jonas apologizing profusely to the freshman whose pile of books her had somehow knocked over.
Not bad at all.
a/n: unedited and not very good at all. but it's overdue and finally finished. so there. ")
forever and always,
me