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Duncan was the absolute worst to tutor. She'd tried before. In second grade, when he had gotten sent to the principal's office so many times that he'd missed most of the lessons on multiplication. In middle school, when he stopped writing papers for English and almost had to repeat seventh grade. Even freshman year, when he got sent to Juvie for the first time.
It wasn't that Duncan was stupid, he just didn't want to apply himself to school, which made tutoring him frustrating and pointless.
"But-" Courtney tried to reason with her teacher, but she didn't budge.
"Do you want the extra credit?" Mrs. Hanover asked.
"I do but-"
"Then it's settled." Mrs. Hanover ended the conversation abruptly and left to use the copy machine before class started.
"Looks like we're gonna get to spend more quality time together, Princess." Duncan teased and put his arm around Courtney's shoulders. She scoffed and shrugged him off. Frustrated, she stomped down the hallway in the direction of her first period class. He followed, much to her dismay.
"You better at least try to do better in this class Duncan, because if my Chemistry grade goes down because of you I'm going to murder you."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Duncan looked off down the hallway. Courtney was going to berate him for not giving this important matter his undivided attention but then understood when she saw Geoff, Bridgette, and DJ coming towards them.
"Dude! You're back!" Geoff took his arm from around Bridgette's waist so that he and Duncan could pound fists. DJ was more enthusiastic with his affection and hugged Duncan, even going as far to lift him a foot off of the ground. Bridgette and Courtney exchanged a knowing look that came with years of knowing the three boys. They were inseparable, except for the times that Duncan got himself sent to Juvie.
"I thought you weren't supposed to get out for another two weeks?" DJ asked when he put Duncan down.
"I was, but my mom made my dad pull a few strings."
"That's awesome dude, you know what this means?" Geoff hinted at, Duncan and the other teens already knew what Geoff was thinking.
"Party this weekend?" You could already see the mischief on Duncan's face at the idea.
"Yes!" As Duncan and Geoff immediately began planning, with DJ brought into it without a choice; Bridgette kissed Geoff on the cheek, then headed down another hallway with Courtney.
"So...how does it feel?" Bridgette kept her voice down incase of eavesdroppers.
"How does what feel?" Courtney kept looking straight ahead with a blank expression on her face.
"You know...Duncan being back?"
"Am I supposed to feel a particular way?" Bridgette almost rolled her eyes at Courtney's denial.
"Really Court? Are you going do this every time?" Courtney didn't respond, hoping that Bridgette would drop the subject. She didn't.
"Just tell him alread-"
"Shh!" Courtney quieted her and looked around to make sure no one had heard. Courtney's jaw clenched. Bridgette, the caring friend she was, always meant well but couldn't she just leave her be? The pair of girls stopped where their paths divided.
"I'm sure he missed you as much as you missed him." A corner of Courtney's mouth twitched for just a split second. It wasn't a lot, but they had been friends long enough that Bridgette noticed when she was fighting a smile.
"I plead the fifth." Then Courtney disappeared into her English class.
"In combination chemical reactions, two or more reactants form one product...Duncan are you even listening?"
"No." Duncan continued to doodle in his notebook as they both sat at the desk in Courtney's bedroom. She'd been trying to get Duncan back on track with the rest of his Chemistry 1 class for over an hour, but had made no progress. She tried a different approach and yanked him by his dog collar so that they were face to face.
"I'm not playing around with you Duncan, you might think this is stupid but I don't, so could you please pull yourself together and be serious!" Instead of being bothered by her physical force, Duncan grinned.
"You're lucky I'm into the kinky stuff." Courtney huffed and pushed him back into his chair. "You wanna be serious?" He continued.
If Courtney's raised eyebrows could speak they would say 'obviously'.
"Then let's get serious. Tell me why you hit yourself again." Brown eyes widened at his blunt words. She was relieved that her parents weren't home and that Cate was at a friend's house. The last thing she needed was for them to overhear.
"We have a lot of work to get done." Courtney turned away and flipped through the Chemistry textbook, closing herself off. He wouldn't get it, no one would.
"You're not changing the subject this time Princess." He swiveled around her desk chair so that their knees were touching. She stared down at them and wouldn't make eye contact.
"What's going on?" He asked less forcefully this time. Courtney knew how this worked by now, until she told him, he wouldn't leave her be.
"I got an B minus on my Chem test, if you need to know so badly." She spit out and tried to turn herself back around but he held her chair steady.
"That's it?"
"That's it? Sure for you it's nothing, you don't give a damn about school, but some people care about their grades. Getting a B minus isn't good enough."
"It's not worth hurting yourself." It wasn't often that Duncan was this openly concerned and quite frankly it was making her nervous with the way he was looking at her. Besides, Courtney didn't like to think of it as hurting herself, it was just something she did sometimes.
"Don't try to tell me what to do!" She got defensive and raised her voice.
"It's not like you'd listen. No one knows better than you Courtney." He yelled back sarcastically.
"Don't. You have no idea what it's like to be me."
"Then tell me! Oh, wait that's right! You have to be fucking perfect all the time! Can't let anyone know that you have feelings!"
"What's the point of telling you! You're just going to leave again!" She yelled across the small space between them. A moment too late Courtney realized what she'd said.
"Never mind. Forget I said anything." Duncan still kept her chair facing him but Courtney looked anywhere but at him. Duncan suddenly felt remorse for getting sent back to Juvie. To him it was more of a nuisance more than anything. A sentence that was a pain in the ass but it would pass, and then he'd go back to doing the same shit that got him sent there in the first place.
"Why can't you just stay out of trouble..." Courtney sighed. "You don't have to convince everyone that you're a bad guy."
"I am a bad guy." Duncan insisted and Courtney gazed up from their laps to look at him skeptically.
"I am!"
"Sure you are." Duncan sat up in his chair. Sometimes Courtney did this thing where she would throw it in his face that she knew who he really was. That she knew him better than anyone. In those moments Duncan always felt like he had to ruffle her feathers a little bit. Courtney sat back in her chair until there was no where else to go as Duncan caged her in.
"Want me to prove it." He threatened, and lowered his voice, making it hard for her to find her's. This wasn't the first time they'd toed the line between just friends and more. This wasn't the first time that the tension that was always there came to the forefront.
"Go ahead." Courtney countered calling his bluff. She batted her eyelashes innocently and dared him to do something. Duncan kept his eyes fixated on her face, trying to tell if she meant it. She was right where he wanted her and yet, he couldn't.
He slumped back into his chair and ran a hand threw his mohawk.
"You're such a pain." Courtney's face glowed with victory and Duncan couldn't find it in him to be mad because she was so beautiful when she smiled.
"Now, what's it's going to take for you to learn any of this." She gestured to the textbook open on her desk.
Not only did Duncan have no interest in learning any more Chemistry for the day, but it was his first day back to school and he already couldn't wait until the weekend; which gave him an idea.
"I have a proposition for you, I will be your star pupil for the rest of the week if..."
"I'm listening..." Courtney was wary of what his terms were, Duncan's good behavior never came free.
"If you go to Geoff's party."
"No."
"I thought you wanted that extra credit?" One thing that Courtney didn't count on was that Duncan knew her just as well as she knew him. He could see her weighing what was at stake.
"You have to get an A on your Chem quiz on Friday." She gave him her terms.
"C." He countered.
"A minus."
"B plus."
"Deal." Courtney solidified the wager and put her hand out. Duncan gladly shook it and smirked. She should really know by now not to underestimate him.
It was turning out to be a good day. The stress that had started on Monday, from how poorly she had done on her exam, had mostly dissipated. In addition to tutoring Duncan, Courtney had done an extensive amount of studying for her own Chemistry class, making Mrs. Hanover's usual Friday quiz an easy A. Everything was starting to feel like it was falling back into place. As she took the appropriate books out of her locker, she planned how to manage her time this weekend so that she could finish her English paper, study for the SATs and still catch that documentary on cold cases. Courtney almost had it all pre-scheduled in her head when something that was dangled in front of her face interrupted her.
"Take a good look, Princess." She grabbed the paper out of Duncan's hand, confused for a moment at what she was looking at, then saw the big numbers written on top of the page in red ink.
"No..." She said with dread. Eighty-eight percent. Shit.
"How?" Courtney looked over the quiz in disbelief and doubled checked that there wasn't a mistake.
"Guess I have a pretty good tutor." Duncan leaned his shoulder against the lockers and watched Courtney soak it up.
"Now you have to hold up your end of the bargain."
"But, but-"
"But what?" Duncan taunted her, a giant smile on his face.
"You weren't supposed to be able to do it!"
"Wow, I'm hurt Courtney, have you no faith in me at all." Courtney ignored his act and finished acquiring the books she needed and shoved them into her backpack. She slammed the door hard, the metal shaking with its force.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Bridgette and Geoff, like the matched set they were, stopped in front of Duncan and Courtney. Duncan was the one to answer Bridgette.
"Princess and I made a bet and now she doesn't want to pay up."
"What was the bet?" Geoff asked, amused to what Duncan had gotten Courtney to agree to. Courtney's jaw was clenched so hard that she couldn't speak.
"If I did good on my Chem quiz-"
"Done well!" Courtney corrected, Duncan gave her the side eye and continued.
"Then she had to go to your party."
"Court, you're coming to the party?" Geoff was thrilled, Courtney hadn't gone to one of his parties since eighth grade and now they were into the spring of their junior year of High School.
"It's not fair! I was tricked!"
"C'mon Court it will be fun!" Bridgette interjected and put a hand on Courtney's shoulder to calm her down.
"She's just afraid she'll like it and it will ruin her good-girl image."
"No, I'm not! I just don't want to. It's immature."
"Sure." Bridgette knew exactly what Duncan was doing. If he challenged Courtney that she wouldn't do something, then she would be hell bent on proving she could. It had been this way since they were in daycare.
"Please, like it's hard to go get drunk and act like Neanderthals."
"Hard for you." Courtney couldn't back down from the challenge.
"Ugh! Fine! I'll be there, but I'm only staying for an hour!" Geoff held up his fist and Duncan bumped it.
"Where are you going?" Cate asked a she approached the juniors. Usually Courtney would be waiting for her by the car by now and when she wasn't there she wondered if she had some club meeting Cate had forgotten about.
"She's going to Geoff's party." Duncan answered smugly. Cate's face lit up.
"You are? Now I have a ride!"
"You're not going." Courtney hissed at her.
"What? Yes, I am! Geoff invited me!"
"Yeah, of course little sis is allowed to come." Geoff assured.
"Last time I checked she's MY little sister, and she's only fourteen."
"I'll be fifteen in like a month!" Cate argued.
"I don't care. You're not going. End of story." Courtney was used to discipling Cate, with how much their parents worked, she often took on the job of being a third parent.
"Are you kidding me?" Cate all but stomped her feet.
"Maybe I should run it by Mom and Dad that you want to go to a party where there will be drugs and alcohol."
"And I'll tell them that you're going!" Cate had her there and she knew it.
"Please Coco?" Cate pouted and used the nickname she made for her when she was a baby and couldn't say Courtney. A few moments passed where Courtney weighed the pros and cons.
"We'll talk about it in the car." Courtney ended the conversation, but Cate knew that meant that she'd get her way. Courtney pulled her younger sister down the hall, knowing that her perfect plans for weekend were ruined.
"I'll call you later Court!" Bridgette yelled down the hall then turned to Duncan.
"You're the worst." She joked, grateful that for once her best friend would act her own age.
"I know." Duncan replied triumphantly. Suddenly, tomorrow couldn't come fast enough.
