Richie was sitting in class next to Eddie waiting for his teacher to give their math tests back from the week before. Richie was a very gifted student, he even helped the other losers with some of their classes. Richie looked over towards the window only to find Patrick Hockstetter looking back at him. That made him uneasy, the last thing he needed was the Bowers' gang on his case. They caused enough trouble throughout the summer and the last thing Richie wanted was any more trouble.

Ms. Sims walked over and handed him his test and told him that he did a great job. Richie smiled from ear to ear. He was happy that he did well. Eddie showed him his test and he had also passed.

"Thanks for the help Rich." Eddie smiled, "I would have never gotten an A on this without you."

"Sure thing, Eds."

Across the room Ms. Sims was talking to Patrick shaking her head. She did not seem very happy. Patrick looked down at his test and sighed. He grabbed it and crumbled it up. The bell rang and Patrick walked to the trash and threw it out.

"Come on Rich, let's get to lunch."

"I'll be there in a minute." Richie smiled packing his stuff up. He walked to the trash and picked out Patrick's test. He saw the red F on the top of the page and sighed. No wonder Patrick hung out with the Bowers' gang. Richie felt like someone was watching him as he left the room. He didn't realize that Patrick was there.

"Hey loser..." Patrick pushed him.

"Fuck off, dumb ass." Richie spat.

Patrick looked down like he had been hurt by what Richie had said, but Richie was sure that Patrick didn't care what he thought about him. He didn't care what anyone thought, that was just who Patrick was, but still he paused and then looked at Richie with hatred.

"What the fuck did you say?" Patrick said pushing Richie against the locker.

"Look, I have to go to lunch. Can you just leave me alone?" Richie asked.

Before anything further happened, Ms. Sims walked out of her room.

"Put him down."

"I was just playing. I wasn't going to hurt him." Patrick swore.

Richie rolled his eyes and walked off. He was sure that Ms. Sims already escorted Patrick to the principal's office. He sat with the losers and they started talking about their weekend plans when Ms. Sims walked up to Richie.

"Come with me please, Richie."

He followed in silence unsure of what she wanted from him. He walked into her classroom only to find Patrick sitting near her desk.

"Richie, I need your help. I need you to help Mr. Hockstetter with some work for class."

"I don't think that is a good idea. I will tutor anyone else. Hell, I'd tutor everyone in this class except him." Richie ranted.

"Look, I know you two don't get along that is clear, but you will need to learn that people can surprise you sometimes. You just need to give them a chance." Ms. Sims smiled, "I will give you extra credit if you can help him get an A on his midterm. You have plenty of time, a few months in fact so it shouldn't be too difficult."

Richie wanted to scream. It didn't seem like Sims was giving him much of a choice in the matter. Patrick looked at him and sighed.

"Fuck..." Richie said.

"And, Mr. Hockstetter if I see you trying to hurt this boy, I will have Principal Snyder suspend you. We wouldn't want a repeat of last year, now would we?"

"No." Patrick sighed.

Richie laughed remembering the year before. Patrick had been suspended nearly half the year for tormenting Eddie. He had given Eddie a broken nose and he was also spying on girls in the bathroom. The principal just decided it was easier to suspend him because he tried detention but Patrick got into a fight every day.

"You are in good hands Mr. Hockstetter. All you have to do is learn to accept the help." Ms. Sims stated before walking out the door.

"Meet me in the library after school." Richie sighed before walking back to the cafeteria.

The day went by in a blur, leaving Richie feeling exhausted. He didn't really want to help Patrick but he figured if he didn't Ms. Sims would give him a hard time. Richie walked to Bill's locker and told the other losers that he would see him later, and he made his way to the library. He didn't see Patrick when he walked in so he just sat at one of the tables near the back of the library by the window. He figured he could just sit behind the stacks but then Patrick would probably tell Sims that he didn't show on purpose.

Richie took out his math book and set it down on the table. He looked up towards the door expecting to see Patrick, but it was just some kid from his second period class. He looked down at his watch, they only had an hour before the library closed. Richie sighed, maybe he would get lucky and he wouldn't show up at all.

Before he knew it, he heard someone else enter the library and when he looked up, he saw the entire Bowers' gang. Richie knew that all of them being here was not a coincidence and he knew that he was in trouble.

"Relax specs, they are just dropping me off and then leaving." Patrick said sensing his uneasiness.

"I just want to hurt him a little." Bowers' frowned.

"Not here." Patrick said, "I cannot get suspended again. My mom will flip shit."

"Fine, another time then. See ya trashy." Henry smiled moving towards the door.

Richie relaxed a little, but not much because he was still in the presence of Hockstetter. Patrick slid into the seat next to him and pulled out his math book. Richie grabbed his notebook and opened it to the lesson they had covered today.

"So, where should we start?" Richie asked.

"No clue. Figure it out." Patrick sighed.

"Listen asshole, how am I supposed to figure out what you don't know?" Richie said grumpily.

"I don't know any of it." Patrick said tight lipped.

"Like anything? Nothing that we have been covering? How did you even get into this grade?"

"Fuck you Tozier." Patrick said grabbing a fist full of Richie's shirt.

"Ok, shit...relax." Richie said grabbing his wrist, "We will start from the first class we had with Ms. Sims. Does that sound good?"

Patrick looked down at him. He didn't want to be here and the fact that he had to ask a loser for help was really weighing on him. Patrick wasn't stupid, but he never put enough effort into anything to care. School was not his strong point, the only one of his friends who was good at any of it was Vic. He even offered to help Patrick at one point, but he declined because he was around the other guys. He figured he should just take Richie's help since he was being forced into it anyway.

"Fine." Patrick said falling back into his seat.

Richie sighed and started flipping through his notebook to the beginning of the class. He knew that he would need to start Patrick off with the basics, but he wasn't sure exactly what Patrick knew and what he didn't.

"What's two plus two?" Richie asked.

"Really? You think I'm that much of an idiot?" Patrick asked defensively, but after seeing Richie's face he knew that he must have thought he was pretty dumb, "It's four. You wanna ask me what ten times five is too?"

"Well..."

"Asshole I know basic math if that is what you're getting at. I just don't get it when it comes to equations and stuff. Is that really my fault?" Patrick asked.

"Well if you stopped picking on me and my friends then maybe you could concentrate on your studies." Richie snarked.

Patrick sighed unsure of what to say next. He waited for Richie to give any indication if he was going to continue or if they should just start. Richie groaned.

"Fine. Let's start with a few of the exercises that Ms. Sims put on the board a few classes into this year. Just try them and I will help you at the end if you're not sure." Richie stated.

"Ok..." Patrick stated.

He watched as Richie wrote down three problems. Patrick wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do them but he figured he could try. The first one wasn't too difficult but the other two were harder and he didn't know if he was going to be able to do them. He looked over at Richie who had taken out some homework to work on while he did the problems. Patrick watched him chewing on his pencil and began to wonder what Richie really thought of him. Usually he didn't care what people thought but he began to realize that he did not like the idea of Richie thinking that he was a complete moron.

"Ya know I'm not dumb. I know things, school is just not my thing. Well...math isn't really my thing, but I am really good at history." Patrick finished lamely.

"Um...okay." Richie stated looking up from his homework, "Why..."

"You think I'm dumb..."

Richie looked at him, really looked at him. He didn't know why Patrick cared if he thought he was dumb or not. Patrick didn't care what anyone thought or at least that is what Richie always assumed. Richie knew that he probably shouldn't have said anything, but he couldn't stop himself.

"I don't think...I know you're dumb."

Patrick looked at him like he was going to scream or punch him, but instead he threw the pencil down and walked out of the library. Richie sighed, he knew he had a bad mouth but he couldn't always control it like people thought. He kind of felt bad for Patrick. He was also confused as to why Patrick cared what he thought.