16 years earlier

Lucy fidgeted nervously with the request sheet that had summoned her to the guidance counselors' offices as she made her way do one of the many hallways of Palo Alto Senior High. What could I have done? She thought. I'm not the kind of person who gets summoned to the counselors office. Was it about her acceptance to Stanford? Had there been a mistake? Every possible worst case scenario played in her head as she approached the office and slowly opened the door.

"Miss Preston, come on in," the counselor (goodness what was her name?) called. Lucy closed the door and walked to an open chair next to a guy she didn't seem to recognize. "Miss Preston, may I introduce you to Wyatt Logan? He's a new student from Lubbock, Texas." The guy, Wyatt, gave her a curt nod and simply said with a faint southern drawl "Nice to meet you, ma'am." Ma'am? No teenage guys called girls their own age ma'am in Stanford, California. She wasn't so sure how she felt about it. All she could do you was offer a polite smile his direction before the counselor continued. "I called you into today, Miss Preston, because it seems Mr. Logan here," she gave him a pointed look over the top of her half-moon glasses," needs an American History credit to graduate in the spring otherwise he'll have to stay another year." Wyatt slightly turned his head away from her, like he was embarrassed or something.

"Okay," Lucy said inquisitively. "So what does that have to do with me?"

"Well it seems that Mr. Logan's schedule is already filled standard senior courses that are necessary for him to graduate, and so when I asked Mr. Mansfield if there were a way to give this young man credit, he pointed me your direction."

"Mine?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, Miss Preston," she continued. "As you were his top student and received the highest score on your AP US HIstory exam, we came up with a plan that could get Mr. Logan credit for the course outside of actually taking the class. If you were to tutor him for an hour after school three times a week, and every month he would be tested by Mr. Mansfield to monitor his progress, he could receive the credit. But only if you think you could manage it with the rest of your schedule of course." Lucy was a little flattered at the request, but she had to take a second to think about how she would respond. She was already going to be swamped with her other classes, running track, preparing for college, and half-parenting her younger sister while their mother worked hours upon hours at the History department at Stanford. Could she really manage to basically teach a class on top of all that? She took a second to glance over at the guy whose future was probably going to change depending on what her answer was. He was sitting there almost completely still, staring directly forward but not at anything in particular. She had been aware of his existence for about 2 minutes, and she already had so many questions about him. How did he end up in Stanford from West Texas? Why didn't he already have an American History credit? Why did the counselor give him a dirty look earlier? How could he sit so still? What the heck, she thought. What difference could three hours a week make?

"Um, sure," she finally answered. "I think I can do that."

"Wonderful," the counselor answered in a tone that bordered apathy. "You're both free to return to class." Lucy still felt like there was more information she needed before she could begin with this whole ordeal, but as the counselor already had her nose buried in another file, she guessed she would just have to figure it out as she went.

She stood up and turned to leave, but as Wyatt had apparently had the same delayed reaction that she had experienced, they ended up nearly running full on into each other.

"Oh I'm so sorry," she fumbled, trying not to appear as awkward as she felt, but he just calmly took a step back.

"No worries, ma'am." There it was again. She finally met his eyes for the first time and the piercing blue irises nearly gave her shivers. Quickly making her way towards the door, somehow Wyatt managed to get in front of her only to pull the door open and hold it. Who was this guy? She smiled shyly and made her way out, wishing she could just hurry back to her class, but also realizing they should probably figure out a thing or two before she bolted.

"So?" she tried to prompt a conversation.

"So," he sighed. "How do you want to do this? Meet in the library maybe or…?" She smiled a bit when he seemed to be almost as awkward about all this as she was.

"I have to pick up my little sister from school every day. Our mom tends to work pretty late on weeknights. Would you be okay with doing it at my house? It's just a couple minutes up the road. I have two dogs and can probably whip up a snack or two." She got a laugh out of him with that.

"Well, ma'am, I've never been one to turn down free snacks," he smiled. He had a nice smile. Whoa, Lucy.

"Okay," she smiled in return. "Awesome. So maybe just meet back here after school? I figured we'd just do Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but if that doesn't work for you-"

"Right here after school," he confirmed. "Sounds good." He was about to turn and walk the other way, but Lucy jumped in one more time.

"Oh and we're pretty much the same age, so maybe cool it on the whole 'ma'am' thing?" She didn't mean for it to sound so sharp, but he just nodded and smiled again before walking away with a different kind of gait than she was used to seeing among the guys in California.

What had she gotten herself into?

A/N: So I'd been waiting for a Lyatt tutoring fic for the longest time, and came up empty handed, so here's my sorry attempt at one! I'm still pretty new to writing stuff like this, so thank you for reading and please review with what you like and didn't like!