I love Paily! Just as much as I love McHastings. As a matter of fact, I love any combination of Paige, Emily and Spencer. Anyway, I wanted to see if I could do it. Please enjoy and review!
"Read the question aloud," Spencer says, her arms folded across her chest. She stands at the side of the desk, eyes downcast on the girl huddled over her math worksheet. She cleared her schedule for this. The least the girl could show is obedience.
She's drunk from the power. She could already feel it in the way the hairs on the back of her neck stood; the slight grin on her face a testimony to how much she's enjoying this. And it's all the more better when the girl sighs loudly and her shoulders slump in defeat as she readies to talk.
"A 20 foot ladder rests against a wall. The base of the ladder is 7 feet from the wall. What angle does the ladder make with the ground?" Paige recites, her annoyed tone all too apparent. She's hunched protectively over her worksheet, clutching her pencil with enough force to break it. She tries calming herself, her leg shaking with pent up anxiety. She just wants this to be over with. She spares a sideways glance to Spencer, who's staring absently out of the window opposite of the desk. If she didn't need to polish her grades in this class, she would never be here, in Spencer's room at Spencer's desk, well, at least, not for scholastic reasons.
Spencer nods, mentally working the problem out in her head. She turns back to her companion. She can't really wipe the satisfying smirk off of her face as she thinks of what to say.
"What's first?" Spencer asks, looking down at the girl. She takes in Paige's tensed shoulders and rigid posture. She could only guess that Paige had just come from soccer practice, if her dirtied shirt and wrinkled shorts are anything to go by. Paige left her shoes outside of the door before she walked inside of the house, and for that much, Spencer is grateful. But she knew that the sneakers would adorn smears of green and brown. All of it just makes Spencer mournful for not having witnessed practice.
Paige stares down at her paper, the eraser of the pencil in her hand working a tap right by the staple in the corner of the page. She's not even sure where to begin with this question. She should have just taken woodshop, but she wanted to get into U Penn. No, she needed to get into U Penn.
"What's first?" Spencer asks again, breaking her thoughts. She almost wants to shrug, but the sigh from Spencer tells her that she doesn't have to. Spencer was already expecting disappointment.
"I don't know…," she shrugs anyway.
"What did I tell you to do, always?" she asks, her voice rising with insistence and frustration and part of Paige wants to just give up. But she really needs an A on her next test. She remembers, however, what Spencer's always told her to do. Draw a picture.
"Say it out loud," Spencer demands. That causes the wrinkle in her forehead to deepen, part of it in defiance and the other part in excitement at finally getting it.
"Draw a picture," she grits out through lined teeth. She doesn't want to give Spencer the satisfaction. She draws the picture. A fucked up ladder bracing against a squiggly wall and she just knows that it'll rattle Spencer's nerves.
"Neatly!" Spencer yells out from over her shoulder, causing her to pause in her ministrations. "Erase it and draw it neatly," Spencer demands. Paige sighs and her eyes narrow into slits.
"What does it matter if it's nea-," she begins, but quiets at Spencer's outburst.
"Do you want to pass or not?!" she yells. "Erase it; do it over!" Paige already suspected the reason, but now she knows for sure why her friends never ask Spencer for help with their homework. Spencer's a fucking warden. She does as she's told, frustratingly erasing the drawing, trying to calm herself. She tells herself that Spencer just likes winning. At everything. She likes things fast and efficient and never once prided herself on patience.
She recreates the scene. Her wall is neater and her ladder doesn't look like a ladder at all. Just a straight line, which – if she's honest – is probably the way a ladder looks when it's seen from its side.
"What next, Paige?" Spencer asks and Paige tries hard to remember. There was a rule, she remembers, but can't for the life of her, remember what that rule was. "What is it?"
"I don't know!" she yells back, because honestly, she has no clue. She's no good at trigonometry.
"Well then I guess you don't know about the next soccer game, do you?" Spencer asks, baiting her. "What, McCullers, you like sitting on the bench?" And like a good girlfriend, Paige takes it.
"No," she forces out, willing her mouth shut. She's angry. Spencer's exploiting this weakness, for what, Paige isn't sure. She wishes she would have just gone to a tutor, but Spencer would be offended if she dared to sign up for one; and that would be weeks of non-communication and the infamous Hastings Cold Shoulder. She's already been through enough rounds of that to last her months. Although, she didn't expect bullying. She should have, if she thinks about it. Bullying was always Spencer's style. Attack head on, hard, fast and persistent.
"So then tell me what's next," Spencer commands.
"I don't…," she starts, but stops because they're in for another screaming match if she finishes that sentence, "SOH…" she trails off, sighing loudly when Spencer finishes for her.
"SOH-CAH-TOA! Write it down!"
She does so, trying her best to ignore Spencer's tone. She's never taken anything lying down, it's a fact that everyone knows, so she could imagine her girlfriend loving every bit of this opportunity.
"What's the question asking?" Spencer asks. Her girlfriend has never been so submissive and it's having quite the effect on her body.
"It wants to know the angle the ladder makes with the ground," Paige relays. Spencer nods, tapping her foot impatiently.
"And what do we already know?"
"The ladder is 20 feet and 7 feet away from the wall." She writes the dimensions along its respected scales. "Okay, so that's the hypotenuse which is 20 feet and the adjacent side that's 7 feet," she says. She's not completely mathematically arrested.
"So which part of SOH-CAH-TOA are we using?" Spencer asks.
It takes her a moment but she has it, "CAH, because we know H and A. So we use cosign," Paige says and Spencer nods, like she's done the best job teaching. Paige is off calculating and writing and she's satisfied. She thinks that maybe this worksheet won't be so hard until she sees the next question.
"What's the next question?" Spencer asks.
Paige was sure that she wouldn't know where to begin with this one. She was beginning to feel embarrassed. She'd probably feel much better if she went online and found tutorials there. That way, her girlfriend wouldn't have to know and therefore, wouldn't get offended. It was turning out to be a win-win situation. But only if she could find a way to get out of there.
"Maybe… maybe we could take a break," Paige suggests, looking up at her girlfriend's face to gauge her reaction. Spencer was very expressive, especially when she didn't get her way.
"A break?" Spencer asked, her voice cracking at the rise in her tone. "You've only done one question!"
"I'm not having that much trouble anymore," Paige lied, "I've got the rules down, I think I'm okay with it now." Paige hopes she's convincing, enough. She packs up her things anyway, stuffing them into her backpack. Spencer shakes her head in defiance. Paige knew she wouldn't let it go so easily.
"You've asked for my help, I'm giving it to you!" She says angrily. "I've cleared my schedule for this," she adds, watching Paige get up. There were only a few times she's felt things get out of control. These were one of those times. She knows just by the way she pushes Paige down back onto the chair. Her girlfriend looks alarmed, her dark eyes boring up into hers.
"Whoa, Spence, calm down," Paige says, slowly making her way up into a stand. She didn't expect Spencer to get physical but she understands how frustrated her girlfriend is. She had no idea she had plans to begin with and she feels a bit apologetic that Spencer canceled on whoever she was going to hang out with. She's almost to a full stand before she's being pushed back down into the chair again.
"No, sit down, take out that worksheet," Spencer demands, refolding her arms across her chest. Paige feels a little tested for having been told what to do. She herself had called it quits. Spencer shouldn't be forcing her to do anything. She lets her backpack fall to the floor before standing her full height.
And here she sees that her girlfriend is gorgeous. Not that she hasn't noticed before, but here - arched brows furrowed and flaring nostrils – is where she sees her girlfriend is truly gorgeous. She's only slightly taller than Spencer, but that's something she's openly counted as a physical one-uppance. And it rides Spencer's nerves like there's no tomorrow.
Sometimes, Spencer can't help herself. She's totally lost control. She was angry that Paige was trying to leave but now she angrier at the fact that she's lost. She scared her girlfriend; even going so far to pushing her. It only angers her more that Paige is standing in front of her, possibly matching her rage, except Paige has those sorrowful, inquisitive eyes that Spencer, herself, has not yet mastered. She can feel tears at her eyes, threatening to fall at the slightest blink and she can't expect Paige to understand… not when she doesn't.
"Hey, hey," Paige says suddenly, wrapping her arms around Spencer's waist.
"I'm sorry," Spencer says, looking down at the floor and leaning into Paige's body. "I lost control," she adds, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Paige soothes, "It's okay, I promise." Spencer shakes her head in Paige's neck.
"I pushed you," she sobs, "That's not okay." Paige shushes her and rocks her slightly to get her to calm down. It vaguely reminds her of what her mother used to do with her when she was upset as a child. She doesn't make it a habit to cry in front of Paige and nor does she make it a habit to have a complete meltdown.
"I hate trig too," Paige whispers, and Spencer can't help but laugh. It was amazing how Paige could take such a serious situation such as this and turn it around. "Look at me," Paige tells her and Spencer does as she's asked, "Gimmie kiss." Spencer does so. "Love you."
"Love me enough to get out that worksheet?" Spencer asks.
"Hey, don't push it," Paige replies, kissing her lips before Spencer swats her arm.
"Too soon!"