"…so, anyway, we're apparently going to have some stupid new long-term sub for math, because Mr. Wentz couldn't handle our class and Mrs. Pope is still on maternity leave," Gabe explained, shutting his locker. I nodded, not really paying attention to my step-brothers ramblings. I couldn't give a flying eff about math, really, and I cared even less about who taught the freaking subject. And yet, Gabe was still rambling on about the new sub or whatever. "…and it's apparently some good-looking guy, but I'm really not sure, because Alex told me and he's not a very good judge on looks, even though"-
"Gabe?" I interrupted, "shut up." He gave me the evil eye, but zipped his pie-hole none the less. I reveled in the silence for about a minute before his mouth started going again.
"You know, you're kind of mean to me sometimes," he joked, punching me lightly on the shoulder. I rolled my eyes, but grinned anyway, returning his punch.
"I'm your sister, I'm supposed to be mean," I countered, turning away from him and starting to walk towards the math room. Gabe ran after me, falling into stride beside me.
"Step-sister, Kat, don't forget that," he reminded me. Gabe's dad had married my mom when Gabe and I were around three, and though we treated each other like blood siblings, it was obvious we weren't- Gabe was extremely Uruguayan and was fluent in both Spanish and English, and I was a little white girl with weird colored eyes and copper-penny hair. I still called Gabe's dad "Dad", though, and as far as I was concerned, Gabe was my brother.
When we reached the math room, I noticed that Mr. Wentz was, indeed, gone. I didn't blame him; our class was made up of a mix of grade-A morons, bullies who wouldn't let anything go, people who thought they were insanely funny (like Gabe), and people who either didn't care or just had ADD or something. In his place, there was a guy who looked about 24 writing notes down on the white board. And from what I could see, Gabe was right- he was quite good looking.
When the bell rang to signal the start of the period, the man turned around, capping the Expo marker he'd been using. "My name is Mr. O'Callaghan, and I'll be covering for Mrs. Pope until she returns, whenever that may be," he said, placing his hands in his trouser pockets. "I know Mr. O'Callaghan's a mouthful, so you may call me Mr. Ohh."
"Do mean 'ohh' like, 'ohhhh'," Gabe said suddenly, drawing the vowel out and making it high pitched, almost like a sex noise. I groaned, eyeballing Gabe from across the room. Mr. Ohh sighed, running a hand through his short-cropped blondish-brown hair.
"No," he said shortly, locking eyes with Gabe. "I meant 'Ohh' like the vowel. Now, if you wouldn't mind, please shut up while I attempt to teach. Now, I know you've had two different teachers so far this year, so I would like to have you all take a test so I can gauge roughly where everyone is. I expect complete silence during it. Understood?" he asked, handing out test booklets to everyone. I chewed my lip, a little unsure of this whole thing. I wasn't good at math at all, and sure enough, once I got the booklet, I just stared blankly at it. Instead of seeing understandable formulas, all I could see was letters and symbols that made no sense whatsoever to me and I kind of panicked a little.
For forty minutes, I did nothing but tap my pencil against the desk, trying to make sense of anything- anything- on the paper, but to no avail. By the time Mr. Ohh had collected the papers, I had written nothing but my name, the date and the beginning of a maybe-right answer.
"Easiest test I've taken in a while," Gabe said at the end of the period, grinning. "I think this is going to be a good term for me." I rolled my eyes; Gabe only attempted to well in math in the first place because he thought it would impress his man crush, William.
"Speak for yourself, dude, I bombed it," I told him, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. "I didn't recognize one single formula on the thing."
"Katherine Stone?" Mr. Ohh said suddenly, looking around. I raised my fingers a little, walking towards him.
"It's just Kat, by the way. What's up?" I asked him, noticing that he was even better-looking up close.
"I was just wondering why you left your whole test blank, save for the little 'x+y=…' at the bottom," he held up the test in question, pointing to the half-finished formula at the bottom.
"Um, well, you see, I don't really like nor understand math," I started, playing with a lock of my hair, "and I didn't really recognize anything on there at all…"I trailed off, wondering why I felt like a complete moron around this guy.
"Alright, well, we need to fix that. A tutor would work, how does that sound? I'm free pretty much every day after school, we can meet at the library or something," Mr. Ohh started jotting something down on a sticky note, still talking. "If we do this once or twice a week, I can add in some more participation and effort grades for you, which would bolster your marks up."
"Yeah, that sounds good," I smiled, glad this guy was actually willing to help me. He smiled back, handing me the sticky note.
"Perfect. Don't forget, meet me in the library at three," he said. I nodded, feeling a little more excited for the end of the day- and to do math, of all things.
"What did Mr. Orgasm want?" Gabe asked when I reached him; I was a little surprised he had stayed and waited for me.
"Nothing, just offered to tutor me," I said, trying to brush it off.
"OOOOH," Gabe started loudly, but I elbowed him in the gut, which effectively shut him up.