AN: Hey, my wonderful readers! I hope you are enjoying my story so far! I've had a couple readers tell me they feel my chapters are short. Well, I've decided that since they are so short, I should update every five days. Hope you don't mind.
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own anything twilight. I do, however, own a used tissue I bought on Ebay that the seller said Robert Pattinson once blew his nose in. Best $50 I ever spent!
A Tortured Mind
Chapter 3 – The Tutoring Dilemma
EdPOV
Thursday morning, I popped a couple Ritalin and threw the bottle in my bag before making my way to the campus to talk to Professor Esme. I knew to receive a doctorate in mathematics I had to have a certain number of teaching hours, but I was hoping to find a way around it. I loved to teach, but I was awkward with new people. I reached her office and peered in the doorway. She was there.
"Good morning, Professor Esme," I greeted, nervously.
"Good morning, Edward," she greeted back, turning fully to me. "I assume your here to talk about your tutoring requirement?"
"Yes," I mumbled, having no clue how she knew that, "I don't feel..."
"Edward," she said cutting me off, "you have to do this. You know I don't make the rules, the Board of Regents do. So, I took the liberty of setting up an appointment for you."
She handed me a card, it said "Edward Knight, math tutor."
"You made business cards for me?" I asked, bewildered.
"Yes," she said smugly, "and you'll be tutoring a nice young lady named Rose. I expect you will keep this appointment?"
I stood up, and walked to the door. "Professor..."
"Don't forget to log your tutoring hours, too, Edward," she said, cutting me off again. "See you in class."
I had an English class before I made my way to the cafeteria for lunch. While I stood in line, a familiar voice came up beside me.
"Hey sexy," Alice teased, then laughed.
"What's going on with you today?" I asked, half concerned.
"Ugh, what a day, I just got back from the math lab, and they had no one to be tutored." She sighed, "If I don't finish my hours this semester, I can't graduate."
I reached in my pocket. "Here you go," I said triumphantly.
"Rose Dawn, huh?" She said, reading the name on the back. "Tomorrow morning, huh?"
"Can you make it?" I asked, fully concerned now.
"Thanks hun! I appreciate this a lot." She walked away excitedly.
"No, thank you, Alice..." I grinned, feeling happy with myself.
-xoxo-
Friday afternoon, Alice made it a point to catch me before class started.
"That was an EPIC FAIL!" She said, catching her breath from running after me.
"What happened?"
"First of all, I got there ten minutes early. Then, I waited for twenty minutes and no one showed up. As I was leaving, some jock walks in, saying he's looking for Edward Knight. I said 'you don't look like Rose.' And he said, 'yeah, I took her appointment. So, I said, 'alright, lets get started anyway.' I talked with him for half an hour and he didn't seem to be picking anything up from me, so I said 'OK, I think this session is over.' And he says 'well, can I make another appointment?'
"So, what did you say then?" I asked, interested.
"What else could I say?" She looked at me seriously, "we get in trouble if we refuse tutoring to other students." She handed me a card, it said: "Emmett Starr, Saturday, noon."
"Wait...your not giving him to me are you?" I said.
She smiled. "See ya in class."
I stared at Alice through most of the class, secretly cursing her under my breath. I really didn't want to tutor some dumb jock who was probably forced to be there anyway. I realized I was being judgmental; maybe this guy isn't so bad. Perhaps he felt the same way, being tutored by some egghead like me.
Later that afternoon, I went to the cafeteria to eat, my thoughts preoccupied by the tutoring session coming up. I casually made my way to the salad bar, observing the baskets of fruit artistically set up on the edge, giving the salad bar a fresh, vibrant feel to it. I scooped up some lettuce and plopped it onto my plate.
"Edward!" a voice called from nearby. I turned around suddenly to see who it was. When I did, my backpack swung behind me, crashing into a basket of lemons. The lemons rolled across the floor, almost going halfway across the cafeteria. My face turned bright red.
"Geez, Edward," Alice mused, "Clumsy much?" She bent down to help me pick up some of the lemons that had fallen nearby.
"Yeah," I said embarrassed. A cafeteria worker nearby went after the remaining lemons, so I stepped away, out of the view of most of the diners who had stopped eating for a moment to stare and laugh.
"You nervous about the tutoring?" Alice said smiling, as though she knew something I didn't.
"I guess so," I replied, "this is the first time I've ever tutored anyone in college."
"And I guess it doesn't help that he's hot," Alice teased.
"Alice, what makes you think I'm gay," I said, staring seriously at her.
She smiled at me, "please, Edward, if your not gay, then I'm the Queen of Egypt."
"What?" I said, half laughing.
"Edward, honey," she looked at my plate, then back at me, "it's ok. Dick is part of a well-balanced diet too."
"I'm not having this conversation, Alice," I said, smiling at her.
"Fine then, just remember, try not to get a stiffie while your tutoring him." Alice giggled a little and bounced away. I stared at her as she left.
"There is something wrong with her," I mumbled under my breath.
I turned around to go back to the salad bar, and I noticed the cafeteria worker who had helped pick up the lemons was giving me the evil eye. This was going to be an interesting lunch.
AN: Thanks for reading chapter 3! Our heroes finally meet in the next chapter , but will it be their last meeting? Will Edward be able to teach Emmett some new tricks?
