An Unhappy Reunion (Chapter two)

/ Haley James and Nathan Scott: together again. Argh! You have no idea how frustrating it was to be with a girl, who didn't think she was smart, but actually was. Really smart, actually. As I said before, Haley and I were mortal enemies in eighth grade and now we were in three of four of the same classes. Even our teachers knew that we hated each other by the second week. I was so glad at the end of the day that I had gym because not only did I get to play basketball, I knew I'd never run into her there. Call me crazy but when I think of Haley, I don't think of gym. I thought of the library and that's usually where she was, or so I heard. I had no idea what she was actually doing on her spare time until a teacher of ours took us aside. Oh, back then, I wanted to choke Mr. Henry…/

"Everyone may go except for Nathan and Haley," Mr. Henry, their biology teacher said. Haley and Nathan looked at each other. Haley had that look she got when she thought he had gotten himself into trouble and he rolled his eyes because she always judged him. But the thing was that she never actually said that it was what she thought. "Nathan, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that you need a 50 in order to pass this course," he said. It was the third month of school and Nathan was failing biology. Nathan shook his head. "You have below 30," he informed him and Haley.

He quickly turned his head to check to see the look on Haley's face. He expected to see her smiling at him mockingly or chuckling at the knowledge that he actually indeed was stupid. To his amazement, she wasn't. She actually looked concerned. "You need to get your grades up," Mr. Henry said. He turned his attention to Haley. "Which is where you come in, Ms. James," Mr. Henry said.

Haley looked at him inquisitively. "I need you to help Nathan get his grades up. You're the best student I have and you've got the highest grade. I'm sure you wouldn't mind helping one of the school's star athletes," he said. Haley shook her head. "No problem," she said softly. As Mr. Henry continued to talk to Nathan about his upcoming assignments, Haley was scribbling something down on a paper. When they were done, Haley handed him a small scrap of paper.

He looked at it and scrawled in neat handwriting was:

Meet me in the tutoring centre in fifteen minutes…

At first Nathan nodded but then he read the words "tutoring centre" and realized he had no idea what that was. Then he saw the three periods and turned the paper over. Sure enough there was more written on that side:

Room 232

He had to smile. She did think of everything, it seemed.

Fifteen minutes later, Nathan walked into 232 and was amazed that there actually was a tutoring centre. There were a few round tables scattered around. There was a big oak desk against one of the walls with cabinets and shelves built in the wall behind it. Haley stood at one of the walls organizing some papers. He looked around and noticed a bulletin board with two columns. The first one was tutors and the second was whether the tutors were there that day or not. There were only a few names, but at the top of the list, there was Haley's names with five stars next to it.

He looked down and saw that the stars were a rating system. One star equalled a satisfactory tutor, two was an average tutor, three was a good tutor, four was an excellent tutor and five was a dedicated tutor. For some reason, it seemed appropriate to him that Haley was a dedicated tutor. He walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and nodded at him. "Just a sec," she said. A few seconds later, she turned around, picked up a binder and led him to one of the circular tables. She sat down and opened up the book. She started to explain the cell theory to him. "That doesn't make any sense," he said.

"What doesn't make any sense?" she asked. "The part where it says that all cells come from pre-existing cells," he said. Haley smirked and looked at him. "How does that not make sense?" she asked. "Well, think about it. What does it mean, that when a cell dies, a chunk of it comes off and forms a new cell?" he asked. Haley stopped to think for a second. "Well, yeah, basically. Before they die, cells go through cell division, like mitosis and binary fission which creates a new cell," Haley said. Nathan nodded.

Fifteen minutes later, Nathan was still arguing about another point of the theory. "Do you argue like this to avoid learning anything or do you do it just for the hell of it?" Haley demanded. "What's wrong with arguing about something that doesn't make sense?" he asked. "First of all, it does make sense; you just don't understand it yet. Second, you don't need to understand it yet, you just need to know the six points of the cell theory for Monday's quiz," Haley said. "I thought tutors were supposed to help you understand things," he said. "And I will, but not right now because, honestly, we both know that you're just doing this to avoid work and it's a waste of my time," she snapped.

About a half a second later, some guy from the team came up to them. Nathan was about to start talking to him, but he started talking to Haley. "Do you know that I passed the quiz today?" he asked. Haley turned to look at him and smiled widely. "That's awesome, Mark," she said. Mark turned to him and said: "I've had about ten different tutors. They either treated me like I was stupid or yelled at me because I didn't get it. But this girl actually took the time to explain things from me. She's got to be one of the most patient people I've met. And thanks to her, I'm actually passing all my courses," Mark said. Mark was known not to be very good in academics. Nathan smirked. "That's great," he said. Mark nodded and left. He turned back to Haley.

"So, do you want to name the six parts of the theory?" she asked. He looked down. He couldn't name them yet. Haley nodded. "Take a few minutes and go over it again. Try the memory thing. I'll be back in about five minutes. I have to call my brother," she said, getting up. Nathan smirked in amazement. He half expected her to jump down his throat for not working before, but like Mark said, she just gave him more time.

/First of all, I don't care about sports or athletes. I'm not the type of person to give them special treatment because they can win the 'big game'. They could win the Nobel Peace Prize and I wouldn't treat them any differently. So, why did I agree to help Nathan? Well it's simple, really. I'm a tutor and it's what I do. When someone is having trouble in school, I don't consider it funny or those to be pathetic just because they don't learn at the same pace I do. And I can't just sit by while others mock them to their face or worse, behind their backs. I have to take action. I've seen the way people in class look at Nathan when a paper or test is handed back. They see the failing mark and snicker and nod and point at him. It doesn't sit right with me. I know that Nathan is a smart guy. I think his attitude could use a little adjustment, but I know he's not stupid. It's time that he knew it too/

Two weeks later…

Nathan walked into the cafeteria and sat down with his friends Jake Jagielski, Tim Smith, Brooke Davis and his brother Lucas. "So, I saw you and that tutor in the learning lab. You two seemed pretty cozy," Tim said and laughed. Nathan rolled his eyes. "First of all, it's called the tutoring centre and second, I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "Oh, Nathan, you know very well what he meant. He thinks you and prude girl are into each other," Brooke said. Nathan burst out laughing. "I'd have to be a few kinds of desperate to look at her like that," Nathan said, "she is Haley James."

"So, you're not into her?" Lucas asked. Nathan shook his head. "Of course not. I don't even like her. She's just someone who's doing their part to make me shine," he said. Brooke looked at him in confusion. "So, she's no one to you?" she asked, smirking mischievously. "She's no one to me. She's not anything to anyone. She's just one of the little people that need some attention or she'll probably off herself," he said. Brooke laughed and looked behind him. Nathan turned around and sighed when he was confronted with the very hurt, very angry brown eyes of Haley James.

/Like I said before, I can take a certain amount of ridicule. Most of the things people say about me I don't even know about because I don't care. Someone could be talking about me on the bus or something and I wouldn't even know it unless someone else told me. But there are those few moments when I hear someone say something nasty about me and it is akin to someone taking a knife and plunging it deep into my back and for some reason, what Nathan said was one of those times./

Haley smirked and walked away. Nathan shook his head in frustration and got up, running after her. "Haley, wait," he said. She stopped and turned around. He could see that she was hurt and there were tears threatening to come out of her eyes. "You know, you're one hell of a guy. I bend over backwards to keep you from failing out of biology in ninth grade and how do you repay me? You slam me behind my back. I appreciate the gratitude," she said. "You were told to tutor me. It wasn't my idea," he said. Haley laughed.

"First of all, I agreed to tutor you. Even if Mr. Henry had ordered me to tutor you, I would not be tutoring you if I didn't want to. I'm not the type of person people can wrap around their fingers and I don't take orders from anyone least of all on your behalf," Haley said. "Okay, fine," he said. Haley narrowed her eyes at him. "Look, what I said was just a way of explaining to Tim that you're just a tutor to me. He was…" he said. Haley scoffed. "Give me a break. You were making it clear that you couldn't be interested in me because that's like the most insulting thing in the world. Congratulations, you just proved that we have no relationship, not even tutoring," she said. He looked at her in shock. "Oh, and don't worry. I'm not interested in you. You're not my type. I don't like jerks," she said, stalking away.

/There are few times in my life where I've actually felt like an idiot (not academically but socially and on a basic human level), but that was definitely one of them. Not only had I messed up my academic future, but I had managed to alienate the one person who actually cared about me. Haley was the one person who gave without ever expecting anything in return. She didn't tutor me because she wanted some acknowledgement or a favour, she helped me because she cared that I did well in school for me, not for her. She had absolutely nothing to gain. I had everything to gain and in one fell swoop, I managed to destroy that and our old routine came into place once again. I am such an idiot sometimes. It amazes me that I can actually outdo myself/