A/N: People are actually reading this! Yay! Thanx for the reviews! :-)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 2

"This is... surreal" Mac said quietly to herself as she stood outside the front door of the Casablancas house, a huge building that dominated the area in which it sat. It wasn't as if there weren't plenty of large houses in the 09er zip with enough gardens, out buildings, pools, and the like to stretch for miles, but then Mac hadn't been invited to all those places, only this one. Of all the people who she might have ended up socialising with, Dick was the last one she'd ever had suspected. Not only did the social divide separate them, but so did their varying degrees of intelligence, entirely difference senses of fashion, and opinions on just about anything as far as Mac could tell. Still, this wasn't about becoming friends or anything, she had enough of those already, including the latest addition to her small but perfectly formed social circle in the form of Veronica Mars. No, Dick Casablancas was a customer, in a sense, and a student in another. They were hardly destined to be best buds, Mac thought to herself, as she rang the doorbell, uncertain whether she was expecting Dick himself, a parent of some kind, or just a servant type - the latter appeared to be true.

"Er, hi" she grinned at the severe looking man in a suit, "I'm here to see Dick, well, not see Dick in that way, he's paying me... to teach him, tutor him, in Math and English and... yeah" Mac stopped when she realised she was rambling like a crazy person at someone who couldn't care less what she was saying anyway.

"Mr Casablancas is expecting you" she was told snottily as she was ushered inside.

Mac was led through to what appeared to be one of many hybrid rooms, this particular one being part living room, part breakfast room or similar as far as she could tell, since it had an over-sized couch and TV on one side, and a table with chairs on the other. Since she was not instructed where to sit or even if she should, Mac hovered awkwardly in the middle of the room as the butler wandered off, presumably to tell Dick she had arrived.

'Out of place doesn't even begin to describe' the brunette thought to herself as she caught sight of herself in a large gilt-framed mirror that hung on the wall. The girl in the Dandy Warhols T-shirt with blue streaks in her hair was not the obvious choice for hanging out at the Casablancas residence, but in fairness this had not been Mac's idea.

"Hey, you showed up" Dick startled her as he came in from the opposite door, loud as ever with a grin on his face that was a little surprising to Mac since she was here to educate him, not for happy fun time!

"You didn't think I'd show up?" she said with a slight frown, wondering what had given him that idea, though he apparently didn't want to give her an explanation.

"Whatever" he waved the comment away as if it were nothing, leading the baffled Mac over to the table. Since he sat down and stared over at her without making any moves to find books or even paper and a pen, Mac realised that she'd been right in her presumption that studying was not something Dick Casbalancas was overly familiar with.

"Okay" she said, taking a seat beside him out of pure necessity, "So I guess we should start with trying to figure out exactly what you know and what you're not so clear on" she suggested as she arranged her books and papers on the table, putting a notepad in front of Dick and handing him something to write with.

"Whatever you say, teach" he mock-saluted her with the pencil she'd just given him as he made a big deal of sitting properly in his chair like a good and attentive student.

Mac honestly wasn't sure if he was being a sarcastic ass or if he really did want to learn. Either way, he was paying her (or at least he would be) and it was therefore worth her while not to make a big deal about his behaviour right now and try to get him to learn something.

"Um, let's start with math" she decided, since it was her personal strong point after computers, "Anything specific you're having problems with?" she asked, leafing through pages of the text book.

"Uh, yeah" Dick nodded until she looked over at him, "Pretty much the math" he admitted, unashamedly and seriously, which brought on a sigh from his tutor.

"Okay..." she stretched out, opening the text book at a key page and pushing it in between the two of them on the table, "Let's start from here" she said, leaning over to point at the page in the text book, "How would you solve this problem?"

"With a calculator?" Dick suggested, the look on his face suggesting it was no joke, he really had no clue where to begin.

"No" Mac said simply, as she realised this was going to be even harder than she'd anticipated, not that it was a bad thing necessarily since this taking longer and requiring more effort would at least result in more cash for her, "You don't know anything about quadratic equations, do you?" she said, already knowing the answer before Dick gave a response.

"Do I look like a guy who knows quadratic equations?" he asked her, and she had to agree that he really didn't.

"I guess not" she said, "So Foil. F-O-I-L. That's all it is" she explained, tapping her hand on his notepad to indicate he ought to be writing this important information down, "First, Outside, Inside, Last" she dictated, watching with slight amusement as Dick concentrated hard on writing it all down in the best handwriting he could muster apparently, "Now listen up, because this is the basis upon which all algebra is based..."

* * * * *

"So, this problem" Mac said, hoping against hope that something had sunk in as she pointed to the next question on the page of the text book, "What's the first thing we do?" she asked Dick, who read the algebraic equation aloud as he wrote it on his paper.

"5x(7x+4)(7x-4). Okay, ignore the 5x... then F for first?" he asked tentatively, at which Mac smiled.

"Right" she told him with a nod, and was amused by the grin that appeared on the blond's face as he started to figure out his problem.

"So, 7x times 7x is 49x"

"Squared" Mac interjected when she realised he'd forgotten that part again, just as he had on every other problem they'd done - she tried not to get mad about it though, after all some people just had a block with these kind of things and he really had come on a lot today.

"Right, 49x squared" Dick repeated as he wrote it down, "O for Outer... 7x times -4 is -28x, I for Inner... 7x times 4 is 28x, and L for Last... 4 times -4 is -16?" he finished off, looking to Mac for approval who smiled and nodded accordingly.

"That's good, great" she told him, proud of her teaching skills as well as Dick's ability to learn, after all she'd started out here with very little hope of achieving anything major and yet she had him completing problems he knew nothing about a while ago with very little help, "So, you have 28x and -28x, so...?" she prompted.

"So one cancels out the other" he said recalling what he'd been taught, "and that leaves... 5x(49x squared - 16)?"

"Right" she said, "So now multiply the 5x by each of the values in the parenthesis" she told him, waiting patiently as he looked thoughtfully down at the paper and finally came up with an answer.

Mac wasn't sure if it was fear he was wrong that made him hand her the paper instead of stating the answer aloud or whatever but she took the offered sheet and smiled approvingly at the answer of '245 cubed - 80x'. Flipping to the back of the text book without a word, she showed him the calculations that should have been made and the correct answer, all of which matched Dick's paper perfectly.

"Dude, that rocks!" Dick triumphtanly punched the air, simultaneously throwing his pencil across the table, feeling he was happy to be done with this now because he totally understood it, "How come it makes sense when you tell it?" he asked Mac curiously, since his teachers had been trying to teach him this for so long and yet it never meant anything to him at all.

"I don't know" she shrugged, glad to see him so pleased with himself, if only because it would encourage him to try just as hard next time they had a lesson, "It's not hard, maybe you just needed to be motivated" she suggested, tidying up some of the papers and books they'd been using, just because she wanted something else to so.

It was weird just sitting there with Dick staring at her. Mac was usually so comfortable with guys, probably because most of her friends were good with computers and the majority of computer geeks tended to be male. Other girls didn't really get her, expect maybe Veronica. Mac was so not the princess type, she had neither the money or the taste in fashion for it, and she wouldn't ever want to either. She was different and she liked to be so. It would seem that Dick liked her too if his next comment was to be taken seriously.

"You're so cool" he declared like he'd just realised it, which in truth he had.

09ers and non-09ers rarely had an excuse to hang out and usually didn't get along at all. The fact that she and Dick had just spent... oh my God, three hours, Mac suddenly realised as she glanced at the clock on the wall, in good company, being pleasant to each other was a little weird, but it had been okay, til he started staring at her in that disconcerting way.

"I should really get going" she said, stuffing her books into her bag without looking back at him, "My Mom will be wondering where I got too" she lied, since she doubted her mother would

"Wow, we've been studying that long?" Dick said, somewhat in awe as he checked his watch.

"Uh-huh, didn't know you had it in you, huh?" Mac smiled as she glanced his way just briefly and swung her bag up on her shoulder.

"Nope" he shook his head definitely as he got to his feet beside her, making Mac just a little self-conscious again as he towered over her, "Beav got the brains, I got the looks" he smirked as he pointed at the family photograph on the wall as they headed towards the front door.

"So, why doesn't he tutor you for free?" Mac asked curiously, knowing that she would certainly be expected to be there to help her brother out when he needed it in later years.

"When the parentals split he went to Europe with my Mom" Dick explained, looking just a little sad Mac thought, though he was obviously trying to hide it, "He was always a Momma's boy" he rolled his eyes, making it all seem like no big deal.

Dick obviously wasn't Momma's boy, or Daddy's boy for that matter, Mac realised, in fact, she wondered if he was the way he was because his home life kind of sucked. She complained about her own family and felt she had every right to do so, but at least they cared about her and wanted to spend time with her. This whole time, Mac had seen nothing of Mr Casablancas, and with Mrs Casablancas and her other son apparently on the other side of the world, Dick had to get lonely.

"So, you wanna stay to eat?" he asked suddenly, as if he'd read Mac's mind and wanted to prove the theory in her brain to be right, "I was gonna order a pizza..."

"Thanks, but no" she said quickly, deciding it was best not to complicate what ought to be a tutor-tutee relationship, besides conversation was bound to dry up in a matter of minutes between a surfer dude and a computer geek, "Like I said, my Mom's expecting me home" she said, attempting a smile as she went towards the front door and he leant over her to unlock and open it.

"That's cool" he said, as he let her out of the house, "So, er, what do I like owe you or whatever?" he asked, making Mac feel even worse.

Not only had she said no to his invitation, she now had to take his cash for the time she had spent in his company.

"We'll figure it out later" she waved away the question, "You can pay me at the end of the week or something? I was thinking we could do this same time, same place, whichever days work for you? Of course we can put in extra time if you're having problems with anything specific..." she started rambling and hated that she was doing so, which was probably why he was grateful when Dick actually interrupted her.

"Here" he said, tossing a cell phone to her which she only just managed to catch before it hit the concrete driveway, "Slam your number in there, and I'll call you" Dick instructed as Mac looked wide eyed at the cell she could only ever dream of owning -she'd have to get her parents to re-mortgage to even have close to enough cash!

"All done" she said eventually, passing the phone back to Dick who pushed it into his back pocket and leaned in the doorway looking down at her.

"Thanks, Mac. You're an awesome teacher" he said with a grin, as the poor girl fought the urge to blush.

"You're not a bad student either" she said bravely, before hurrying away to her car.

The whole experience this evening had left Mac feeling quite weird. Away from his friends and actually trying to listen and learn, Dick had proved himself to be quite a decent human being, and not entirely stupid. Climbing into her car and dumping her bag on the passenger seat, Mac stared at herself in the rear view mirror and frowned.

"I just gave my number to an 09er surfer dude" she said to herself, "What is up with the universe?"

To Be Continued...