Harper's Dad Ian and Aaron were off to an old school reunion, they wouldn't have normally gone to such a thing but Eleanor insisted that they go enjoy it and spend the night in a hotel nearby so as not to wake anyone up when they came back. After they left, the phone in the kitchen went off and Eleanor rushed to grab it.
"Oh no really?!" If there was something to be said about Eleanor, she was pretty good at acting. "That's terrible news, I'll come over right away," she cried. "Harper, my mother is feeling unwell suddenly, I'm going to go over there to check on her. Oh and I'll take Finley with me as well, no reason you should have to watch him too!" Oliver, who was now standing in the doorway, saw right through this little ploy of hers, but out of pure amusement he decided to go along with it."I'll leave the house to you and Oliver, come on Finley go and grab an overnight bag". It took a second but it finally dawned on her that she would be spending the night in the house alone with Oliver. It didn't matter though, she thought. She had plenty to keep her occupied, especially since she hadn't started any of her homework that she was given for the half term. She turned to Oliver who was waving goodbye to his Mum and smiled at him coyly. He approached her slowly, scanning her face for signs of unease. "Did you wanna make dinner and I'll wash up?"
She nodded slowly as she watched him retreat upstairs to his bedroom. What was she supposed to cook? With no help from her Dad she felt like a fish out of water. Harper pulled one of Eleanor's cookbooks down from the shelf and flicked through the page. The instructions were pretty simple, how hard could it be? The sound of the fire alarm 30 minutes later answered that question for her though.
Oliver came running through the kitchen and quickly opened all of the windows. "Are you trying to burn my house down now too?" he shouted over the fire alarm as he wafted the smoke away from it. Harper stood there in the middle of the kitchen surrounded by an assortment of pans and what could only be described as a congealed mess on the plates. "What is this? What were you trying to cook?" he questioned, picking up the cookbook which was on a page for a beef curry. He shook his head slightly and laughed "this doesn't look too hard, help me clean this up and we can start again".
Harper watched in awe as he followed the recipe exactly, chopping all the vegetables perfectly, tossing them in the pan and searing the beef just right. When he plated it up it looked just like it did in the cookbook.
"That was incredible, it looks delicious!" she said as she inhaled the intoxicating scent of her dinner. She had to admit, it was quite nice sitting down to a meal together with just the two of them, even if the silence between them was a bit deafening. Harper looked up at him and back down at her food, trying to think of some topic of conversation to make this a little less awkward. "Have you finished your homework?" she questioned as she took another bite of her curry.
"I finished mine as soon as I got home from school last week" he replied, taking a sip of some of his water. Harper froze, how had he already done all of his homework and she hadn't even started. "Don't tell me you haven't done any of your homework" he sighed, shaking his head.
"I was just gonna do it tonight" she giggled sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. "I mean, they can't be that hard right?"
"Well for you it probably will be". He got up and grabbed his and Harper's plates to take and wash up, "you go ahead, I'll do the washing up, besides you have more pressing matters to attend to".
Slightly red faced and embarrassed, Harper made her way up to her bedroom and spread her different homework sheets out across her desk. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned into hours but she still hadn't even scratched the surface of her homework. She looked up at the time, eleven PM. Oliver would be asleep right now so she couldn't ask him for help. Maybe she didn't need to ask Oliver for help, maybe she could just take a peek at his homework answers and use them instead! All she had to do was sneak into his room and pinch a couple of his textbooks and then replace them later on in the night.
Oliver's bedroom door seemed huge in comparison to how it normally looked, her task was daunting but she knew her academic life hung in the balance and this was her only option. She slowly pulled down the handle and opened the door, she could just make out the shape of Oliver's body asleep in his bed. She nodded slightly at this confirmation and slowly tiptoed across the carpet and over to his desk where his books were stacked neatly in a pile. She picked up some of the subjects that they shared including English and Maths and started to slowly make her way out of his room when all of a sudden she was grabbed by the arm and turned to see Oliver wide eyed looking up at her. "What are you doing?" he questioned, cocking his head to the side.
"Oh it's n-nothing" she stammered, dropping his books on the floor. "I was just leaving!"
He smirked and pulled her down onto his bed, "I know why you're here, you came in here to sleep with me, didn't you?" Harper's eyes widened into saucers.
"That is absolutely not why I am in here" she screamed sitting up in his bed, he made no attempts to restrain her in any way.
"Well why else would a girl sneak into a boys room in the middle of the night?" he queried, raising an eyebrow at her. "It's just like your loud friend said, even a genius can turn into a beast at any moment" he must have gotten his acting skills from his Mum as Harper legitimately could not tell if he was joking.
She picked up his textbooks from the floor as she jumped off the bed and held them up hoping that would make her point for her. "I'm going to tell the whole school that you attacked me!" she cried folding her arms over her chest angrily.
"I mean sure, I'm sure that rumour's already gone around the school at least once already" he responded, shrugging his shoulders. "They can imagine whatever they like"
Harper looked a bit dejected by his response, "whatever, why would you do that after everything that happened recently?" Her question was rhetorical, mainly to herself as a way of confirming that Oliver was in fact, not a very nice guy.
"You need help with your homework" Oliver called out to her as she left the room. He stood up and grabbed his dressing gown, "come on, I'll help you finish it". Whether he wanted to admit it or not, the girl made a valid point, his attempt at teasing her was a bit tactless considering recent circumstances.
Despite the fact that it took almost twice as long, Oliver wanted to ensure she figured out the answers to the questions herself instead of him just giving her the answers, so he took the time to explain everything to her first. They stayed up through the night, only getting a couple of hours of shut eye once she was done.
The next morning, Oliver came down the stairs to the scent of coffee wafting from the kitchen. Harper had gotten up a little earlier and brewed them both a cup. He never considered anything Harper made to be something to look forward to, but he sat down with her all the same and he was pleasantly surprised when the coffee turned out to be quite good. Not many words were exchanged that morning, just a bit of gratitude and a warm coffee.
