Physics was quite frustrating for Serena. She is regularly reminded of it whenever she cracks open her textbook and understands absolutely nothing, but it hits especially hard when she receives back an assignment bloodied in red.
The blond girl was smart. She fancied herself to be quite good with most of her classes. She would never claim to be honour list material or a role model for her peers, but she thought she had good marks. Decent enough to get a good start on life! Well, except one class she had been struggling with since middle school and now, during her last year of high school, the class had only gotten harder.
"Honestly, I hate physics!" The girl laments with her heavy accent. "Why is it always this hard for me?"
Trevor watched his exasperated classmate vent about the final exam that is coming up soon and would represent a third of their grade, and how she had no damn idea how she would pull it off. The finishing exams came and went, and it was very clear she would have her choice of colleges and schools of art and language, but if her Science requirement is not met, she will have to face Summer School and academic probation, and that is at least traumatic.
Of course, the redhead boy does not think that Physics would elicit that much of a dread on a heart. He found the subject easy enough, but knew there were just some areas others excelled and struggled with. To be fair, he is not sure how he would get through his Art requirement without Serena's patient help.
"Have you considered getting some tutoring for the subject?" The thin boy offered, nonchalant. "Perhaps, if someone explained it directly to you, it would become clearer and more understandable."
"Oh, would you do this for me, Trevor? It would be great help." Serena's eyes sparkled with a new sort of hope. How had the idea never crossed her mind?
Trevor had the marks to do so, sure, but his time was mostly occupied with his internship with Professor Sycamore, and his last endeavours in tutoring had the usually peaceful Tierno almost hitting him with the textbook. It was fair to conclude that he had no talent for teaching.
Besides, he has in good authority that one of their classmates would only be only too happy to do it, and provided he was any good at it, he is highly proficient on the subject. Honestly, Serena would profit much more under his tutelage than Trevor's. It was hardly meddling in someone's life, and everything he was going to say would not strictly be a lie, per say.
"You know, Physics isn't my best class either..." The redhead points out. "What about Clemont? There's no one better at Physics in all of Kalos, they say."
The girl's eyes flickered towards him. She had no troubles with him, she even found the blond endearing, though he might feel the opposite. Honesty, Serena just did not think he fancied her that much given the small amount of time he had ever seemed comfortable enough to spend with her.
"You think he would?" She asks. "I don't mind it, but I'm sure he must be busy. Besides, I'm pretty stupid when it comes to Physics, and he might feel frustrated trying to teach me."
"Oh, I'm sure he would! You know he's just a bit shy, if you asked him, I know he'd do it." Trevor smiled, hoping she was truly helping and not going to shame the boy into clamming up awkwardly.
"If you're sure…" The girl responded, not putting too much stock on her friend's idea.
"I am. In fact, why don't I walk you to the lab? Clemont is probably there, and if he can't make the time, then I'll help you instead." He offered.
Serena acquiesced and they made their way over to the school's mechanics and engineering lab, where, as predicted, Clemont was working on some machine or another with a few other boys. They were huddled on a semi-circle around a table, with a blackboard filled with equations and schematics closing the perimeter.
She had to admit she felt a bit nervous when she entered the place alone and the eyes of the whole group were on her. Their judging stares and unyielding expressions, framed by thick glasses shining with the reflection of the noon sunlight, was nerve-wracking.
If she was nothing short of desperate, she would turn around and flee, but this is not an option for her anymore. So, she fixed an inviting smile on her face and greeted her colleagues.
"Hey, guys!" Her voice almost broke on the cheerful note she forced herself to adopt. "Sorry to bother you, but if I may talk with Clemont, I just had a quick question for you."
"Sure." He managed to squeak out, without, hopefully, sounding too pathetic.
"Well, my class of Physics 201 has a test coming up next week and, well, it's no secret I'm completely awful at the subject." She preambles. "I'm in dire need of a tutor, and Trevor thought I should ask you. So, would you please help me study?"
Serena represses the need to sigh in despair. She made sure to throw out Trevor's name, the pair of them were close, having collaborated in projects in the past, and, hopefully, if nothing else, he would do it as a favour to their friend in common.
Clemont muttered out some more sure's and nods of agreement.
"Oh, that's great! Thank you so much!" She smiled broadly. "May I ask Trevor for your Holocast address? I'll call you later so we can set up a time and place. I won't keep you any longer. Thanks again!"
The girl happily skipped off, feeling the weight of the dread leaving her back as if it never was there in the first place. Alas, the horror now laid with Clemont.
Later that day, and Clemont still felt like his hands were puddles, sweaty as they are.
He wondered whether he should be feeling thankful or angry with Trevor, who, with full knowledge of the situation, had landed him in a predicament where he would have to be completely alone for long stretches of time with the one person he had harboured quite a crush on since she moved here from abroad, over four years ago.
Now, for better or for worse, he has to do it. Clemont was scheduled to meet her at the laboratory on Prism Tower after the last bell so he could help her understand the basic concepts and formulas of Intermediate Physics. Yet, he could probably count on two hands the times he had talked to her in all of their years at school.
The hours passed him by on a flash, and after he cleaned up his working table and had Bonnie distracted enough to make herself scarce, he still could not decide whether he was feeling dread or excitement. Maybe a little of both.
Much too soon, his attendant announced her arrival and led her downstairs to the basement laboratory.
Serena smiled up to him as she occupies the rather uncomfortable seat by the table he set aside for. "Hey Clemont! I hope you know what you're getting yourself into. I might be a lost cause."
He chuckled at her joke and attempt to lighten the mood. "Don't worry. According to the transcripts you've sent me, you're studying electricity, and that happens to be my specialty. Why don't we begin with Joule's Law and work our way up?"
The blonde girl just smiled and nodded; all she though is that she really hoped that he did not ask her to recite the stupid law. She really should have looked at the textbook a little more this afternoon, if only so she did not make a complete fool of herself. She had not the foggiest idea what a Joule was.
"Joule's Law..." Serena mutters. "Is that the one about electromagnetic fields and resistors?"
"No, it is the relation between the movement of an electric current and the heat it produces." Clemont corrected as gently as he could, cleaning up the blackboard, which contained his lesson plan for the evening.
If Serena reached Physics 201, she passed through Physics 101 and 102. While it was certainly basic compared to what he took at the Polytechnique, she had to be at least somewhat proficient with the concepts. Clemont did wonder how she could have passed all these years with such spots on her knowlege.
She nodded defeated, feeling self-conscious about the whole thing.
"Do you remember the formula?" He asked, encouragingly.
"Can you just assume I know nothing? It might make this a bit less embarrassing." Serena chuckled; her face slightly flushed by the mix-up.
Clemont did not want her to be embarrassed, but he definitely knew the feeling of uselessness. He was a boy-genius, yes. His father sent him away to study on the mountains at a very young age and he did not disappoint the faith and investment his family and his professors deposited on him. He became one of the youngest graduates in the continent, he even managed to reach a marquisate and the leadership at the largest city in Kalos. Nothing of that was in any way dismissible.
However, he was still a teen. Just a sixteen-year-old, with quite a deal of responsibilities to deal with and very little time to just be his age and live out a normal life. He had a lot of trouble making friends, he struggled with social anxiety and everything that had to do with self-expression and interpersonal relationships outside a purely professional framework. This is the exact reason why, despite finding Serena to be a beautiful girl, despite knowing she is kind and patient even with the awkward nerds like Trevor, despite being presented with plenty of opportunities, he never really approached her in all these years.
So, while he was not strictly happy to see her in such a state, he did find it made her a bit more approachable.
"Very well, then." He consented, while drawing a scheme on the blackboard. "This is an electric current. It is the ordained flow of electric-charged particles within a conductor. What that means is that it is like a line, a single file of electrons moving on a wire, carrying energy from one end to the other."
Serena nodded. "Okay, I can understand that."
"Good. This line has rules on how the electrons move, where and what happens with what they are carrying." He continued his explanation.
The class went on with that didactic tone, and, by the end of their first study session, Clemont found himself capable of answering her questions without stumbling over his words.
All in all, the night was an absolute success.
As they finished going through the theoretical part of the material, Serena began working on a list of problems Clemont had complied from past years' tests. Progress was slow and incremental, but at least she did not feel like crying whenever she was shown an omega letter. Their study sessions had shortened a bit after their first forays into the list, but still, she would ask him a few questions and even got the blond boy to show her a few of his works in progress.
Alas, by their fifth session, they reached the advanced problems, and while the amount of hand-holding through the solutions diminished, Serena still often asked whether she was on the right path.
"Clemont? I have to use the First Law, and then the Second, right?" She held her mechanic pencil against the paper and waited for her tutor's instruction.
"I think it's easier if you do it with the Second Law and then with Ohmic heating, and the result you put on the Thomson's formula..." He explains, and she jolts the formulas on her notebook. "No, that's resistance, not the coefficient. Here, let me help."
Cautiously, he grabbed hold of her mechanic pencil, softly brushing his hand against hers, and quite gently corrected the Greek letters on the formula. He tried not to focus on how her skin felt against his and played off the smile on his face as mirrored enjoyment of her success at procuring the solution for a complex problem.
As she finishes her work and checks the answer key, her smile grows so large her face seems to almost crack. "Oh, my goodness! We did it! It's actually finished!"
"Since you managed to solve even the hardest problems on this list, I think you should do well on exam." Clemont mirrored the smile she wore, though it was a great deal smaller.
Truthfully, he was a bit bummed out by the fact she no longer would require his attention in the afternoons.
She jumped out of the chair. "Oh! I'm just so happy! I could kiss you!"
Her fussing over the pitifully worn piece of paper would have probably been considered quite overdone to most anyone, but Clemont was much more focused on her words. Kiss him?
Without thinking about it the blond physicist simply spoke, "You're very welcome to do so if you'd like."
Serena looked over at his reddened face and grinned. Physics may have been her weakness, but she was not completely stupid, and she had quickly started to piece together Trevor's choice in tutoring was a little more than Clemont's aptitude for the subject. She did not mind, though. He was quite sweet, now that he warmed up to her, that they spent a little time together, and he was handsome to boot.
The girl turned around and stood on her toes to grab hold of his face. She pulled his lips flush against hers.
Clemont did not speak when she pulled away and loosened her grip on him. He was far too busy being utterly shocked at what had transpired.
"I hope you'll let me buy you a coffee or something? You know, as a thank you very much? There's a great place on the South Boulevard I frequent, and I think you'd like it, too." Serena giggled when he nodded his head. "Once this exam is over then maybe I can take you out properly."
"I-I'd be very obliged…" He managed to say.
From then on, Serena had a permanently designated tutor.