Chapter #10: A Big Review and A Tumble of Anger

When Friday came, Drake was totally miserable, now the test was due in less than 3 days and he knew that if he wanted to go out with Charlotte, he had to study a lot, if it meant to sacrifice his Friday night and even his weekend. To make things even worse for poor Drake, every single member of his family had something to do during those days, Megan had oboe practice, Walter had a special weather report and Audrey had to attend an important PTA meeting.

By the time Charlotte arrived for the last lesson before the test, Drake was at the dinner table and he had fallen asleep over the book he was reading. In that instant Megan came through the front door and Charlotte looked at her expressing her annoyance.

"Don't worry." said Megan smiling that mischievous smile once again. "I'll handle this."

"DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Megan screamed as loud as she could, making Drake jump in his chair.

"To be or not to be!" squealed Drake as he woke up.

"That is the question… Hello my little garden flower." said Charlotte smiling and imitating Mrs. Concord's way of referring to her students during her sudden mood swings.

"Oh…Hello my lovely tutor." Drake responded running his fingers through his brown hair.

"Drake you do know this is our last lesson before the test, right?" Charlotte replied getting a bit more serious now.

"Really? I thought you were coming over for the weekend." He said although he knew Charlotte wouldn't agree on coming during the weekend.

"You know I don't teach on weekends."

"That reminds me, what exactly a girl like you likes to do on weekends?" Drake said trying to make her forget for a second about tutoring.

"Why are you asking me that? Leave that for when you get an A." she said outsmarting him. "Because if you ask questions about my personal life, you delay the tutoring and if you delay the tutoring, we won't have time to study before the test, and if we don't have time to study, you will fail, and if you fail, you won't go out with me, and if you don't go out with me, you won't be able to know what I do on weekends." She said these words so quickly and yet so utterly calmed that when she finished Drake was absurdly baffled.

"What did you say again?"

"Drake, we must review the lessons, please I beg you, and lets start the tutoring, please…"

And so Drake resigned himself and The Big Review began. It contained absolutely everything from The Odyssey to Hamlet, verses, novels, and even syllables that somehow managed to become stressed. From Robert Frost to an author whose name Drake was never able to pronounce, this lesson was the most nerve-racking of all. This review lasted for almost two hours and when they finished Charlotte graded him and he almost surprisingly obtained 63 out of 70 questions correct. She congratulated Drake on his effort and said goodbye advising him to study more the questions he had gotten wrong. Drake was so tired that as soon as Charlotte closed the door behind her, he lazily headed for the living room couch and limply let himself plunge onto it ad in a matter of seconds he was snoring louder than a pack of dogs.

As an expert procrastinator that Drake was, when he woke up, like at 11:30am the next day, he thought that Saturday was no day for studying too much.

"I only got 5 questions wrong." Drake said when Josh asked him why he wasn't studying.

"Actually it was 7, to be exact." Josh corrected him.

"Oh, come on! Like 3 questions matter!" said Drake a bit angered.

"You mean 2 questions." said Josh correcting him once more.

"Would you stop correcting me? You're starting to sound like Charlie!" replied Drake deeply irritated.

"It's Charlotte." said Josh and in a lapse of annoyance, Drake threw a kiwi he was eating, aiming at Josh's shirt and accidentally hitting his face.

"Oh I'm sorry… no, what I meant to say was that I am sorry." laughed Drake sitting on the sofa next to Josh.

"You know Drake?" said Josh wiping kiwi from his face. "Contractions are permissible in the English language."

"What are contractions?" said Drake totally puzzled.

"You know what else Drake?"

"What?"

"Forget it…"