Harper's form tutor was very serious this morning. "I'm sure you have all been considering what you would like to do once you finish this year, of course you have the option of staying at this school's sixth form and doing your A levels, or going to one of the local colleges and doing a more specialised BTEC" he explained to the group. "Today we will be going over applying to do the A levels you may be interested in, or which colleges are best for any specialisations" He started handing out some sheets for people to write what they were interested in doing. "I want you to get into groups of 3 - 4 so you can discuss amongst yourselves your ambitions". Harper got into a group with Niamh and Sarah, with Kunal in a group with his friends sitting behind them.

"How are we supposed to decide our whole future right now?" Sarah complained, flopping back into her chair.

"I know what I'm gonna do" Kunal shouted proudly, "I'll do construction and marry Harper!" All 3 of them simultaneously rolled their eyes and faced back towards the front.

"Maybe we should just do something we're interested in and the rest will come to us in time?" Harper started scribbling down some subjects she enjoyed such as biology and English and spent the rest of the day thinking about what she might consider for her future. On the way out of the school gate she ran into Oliver, she called out to him as she ran to catch up. "You going home?" she questioned, he nodded and continued walking, "have you decided if you're doing A levels here or going to a college?"

"What's that to do with you?" he asked, already bored by this conversation.

"I just thought you might want to go to a more prestigious college maybe, since you have the grades and all" she queried.

He shook his head, "I have no reason to go to a different college" he responded.

"So you'll stay here?"

"Why does this concern you?!" he yelled, getting slightly worked up by the interrogation. "Regardless of where I go, you will never be able to catch up to me" he stormed off ahead of her, knowing that due to her short legs she wouldn't be able to keep pace with him unless she ran. Truth be told, Oliver was already feeling pressure from more than one front to decide on what he wants to do with his future. His Dad wants him to take business studies and get ready to take over the family business and his tutor and career guidance counsellors push him towards more academic ventures. But he had no idea what he wanted to do and didn't feel like rushing himself into something he may ultimately end up hating.

A couple of weeks later, Harper came down the stairs looking a little worse for wear. "Harper what happened? You look so tired?" Eleanor queried as she entered the living room.

"I've been studying for my upcoming exams" she responded "I have to do well in these to bump up my grades"

"Or she won't be able to go to college" Oliver chimed in from the sofa. "Unfortunately, when you don't try hard enough you end up having put all this effort in before your exams. Why are you pushing yourself so hard anyway, it's not like you need to go to college?" Harper felt deflated as she watched Oliver get up and head out of the room, these next couple of weeks will determine her entire future and he thinks of it as some kind of joke.

"Eleanor, would it be okay if I invite Niamh and Sarah to come over today to do some studying?"

"Of course it is! I'll get you guys some snacks together!" she chirped in response.

A couple of hours later the door rang and her best friends stood in the doorway and thanked Eleanor for letting them come by. She set them up on the table in the conservatory and brought them out some juice. "Just let me know if you need anything girls" she cheered before heading back into the kitchen.

Oliver came down the stairs to grab a drink and noticed the girls sitting around the table getting ready to do some of their work. Somewhat intrigued by this, he lay down on the couch to listen in.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT" Niamh shouted, planting her face onto the table. "Why can't we just use a calculator, this long division nonsense is ridiculous!"

"I mean, I think we just need to…" Harper stopped herself before she said something dumb. "No that's not it, agh this is frustrating".

"Do you think he would know?" Niamh whispered, leaning across the table and gesturing towards Oliver.

"Yeah I guess, but he's not gonna help us" Harper replied, with no form of blackmail he wasn't about to waste his time tutoring them.

"Okay, let's start from the beginning" Sarah suggested, "so we do this and then" Sarah mumbled some stuff until she came to the conclusion that 682 divided by 31 must be 36.

"How did you possibly come to that conclusion?" Oliver shouted from the living room bringing himself to his feet. He came over and looked at her workings out on the page before rubbing his head looking completely baffled. "Right, I will explain this to you all. ONCE!" He went over in detail how the girls could easily do long division and show their workings out, which was needed for the exam. After that he went back to his seat and carried on reading a book and the girls started utilising his teachings to finish their long division worksheets.

Next up Physics, the girls stared at the work looking slightly disgusted, "why is physics just maths with extra steps" Sarah commented.

"I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing here" Niamh noted, once again back in the same position they were about an hour ago. "Why don't you go and ask him, he's clearly not dead set against helping us?"

Harper laughed nervously as she picked up the textbook and made her way over to where he was napping on the sofa. "Erm… Oliver" she called as she reached him.

"What?" he snapped back almost immediately.

"Are you free?"

"Nope"

"Is it okay if I just ask you one question?"

"Nope" he responded without hesitation.

"Please look it's just this bit" she shoved the textbook in his face causing him to recoil suddenly. They couldn't possibly be stuck on this could they? He reached up and grabbed the textbook and rose to his feet.

"Okay, but this is the last time, don't you dare bother me again" he muttered before making his way over. He explained once again to the girls in a way he hoped they would understand before making his way back to his spot on the sofa and picking up his book. "No more, you hear me" he called out to them before focusing on his reading.

Thanks to it being Harper's favourite subject, the girls had little problem with their biology homework and quickly got through that and moved onto their French.

"Wait so to say "I want to eat fruit" it's "je peux manger le fruits" Harper didn't seem too confident. Why she decided to take French at all was now a mystery to her as she was pretty bad at it.

"I dunno, I think peux makes it a question" Sarah scratched her head and they all slowly turned their heads to look over at Oliver. This time it didn't go unnoticed by him.

"What?" he questioned. "I'm not your tutor you know!" The girls looked back at their work, clearly none of them were going to be able to work this out. "Fine, I will tutor you guys just this once" he complained, rising out of his seat and over to their table for the final time. "Just because it is literal torture having to sit there and listen to this nonsense". It was only Niamh who noted that Oliver was in no obligation to "listen to this nonsense" and they had a big enough house that he could easily escape somewhere else.

The following day when they showed up to school, the girls handed their work over to their teachers who were incredibly impressed by their workings out. "Very good girls, this should really help you with your exams!" their maths teacher cheered after handing them back their marked homework.

The other pupils in their class demanded to know where they got their newfound knowledge and actively commented on how unfair it was that they got tutored by the smartest guy in school and they didn't. Harper assured them that she can try and help them with the bits that she was a little more sure on after school. They all gathered around a table in the library and Harper actually managed to explain some of the theory behind the physics and maths work they had been given, she even surprised herself. Soon they moved onto some other work and they found themselves stuck all over again.

As if by magic, or some divine intervention, Oliver walked into the library to return the book he was reading on the weekend. The whole table started whispering to Harper furiously, demanding that she get him to come over and help them.

She stood up sheepishly and walked over to him as he retrieved his card from the librarian. As he turned he bumped into her and his face grimaced when he realised what he collided with. She couldn't bring herself to ask him to use his own time helping her classmates with their revision but he quickly deduced what she wanted from the longing stares of the students at the table. "No" he told her firmly before making his way towards the exit.

"Wait!" shouted one of her classmates who was quickly shushed by the librarian. "Please, we really need your help" he begged "our futures depend on it". His eyes flicked back to the table full of students who were clearly out of their depth and he caught sight of Harper who was still glued to her spot staring at the floor in embarrassment.

"Fine. But just this once" he agreed as he placed his bag down next to their table and sat at the head of it. "Okay, let me have a look… turn to page 74 I'll explain how you use this formula". Harper made her way back to the table and listened intently as he explained in great detail vital instructions that would help them all get through their exams. Those feelings that were so strong in her back at the beginning of the year started to resurface as she watched him try his hardest to teach in a way that would ensure their success. "Next if we look at page 78…" Maybe she did still like him after all.

"Thank you so much Oliver, we're really grateful for your help" one of the students cheered, shaking his hand furiously. He mumbled something about not mentioning it and took off down the hall. It was already late and he was exhausted from having to explain and re-explain the same stuff multiple times. Harper managed to catch up with him and walked with him towards the bus stop. "Thanks for that Oliver, you might not know it but you really changed some of their lives back there. They were all so happy and I think they will feel a lot less stress with the exams" she was blushing slightly as she tried to keep pace with him. "I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble though, I know that must have been really tiring. I really wanted to at least have the chance to go to college you know".

"What do you plan on doing at college?" Oliver queried, turning his gaze to match hers. A question that he seemed genuinely interested in.

"Well, study and make friends I guess. It's about creating life experiences and memories" she responded in an attempt to sound philosophical.

He shook his head and looked away, "I really don't understand why they want to go on to further education so badly".

"Are you suggesting that they shouldn't because they're not as smart as you are?" Harper spat accusingly.

He sighed, "I don't even want to," he responded and Harper suddenly looked at him completely shocked. "I don't need people teaching me things that I can just teach myself."

Harper paused for a moment and Oliver stopped with her, curious to how she was going to respond to that. "I don't think it's just about that though. You need qualifications to do certain jobs and there are lots of fun activities you can do to expand on your interests. I don't know what I would be good at, but I really think you could use that brain of yours to help people somehow" he could see how hard she was thinking about this, why was it so important to her that she convince him to further his education. "I might be exaggerating but I think college is the time to really figure out what you wanna do and who you wanna be, you just need to take the time to search for it." With that she started to make her way towards the bus stop again.

On the bus Oliver was staring out the window, contemplating what Harper had said to him. "I envy you sometimes," he muttered.. She looked up at him and had no idea what to say, nor what he could have meant by it, he just avoided making eye contact and continued to gaze out the window, so they spent the remainder of their journey standing in silence.

As the end of the exams quickly approached, everyone in the study group that Oliver was a part of got together to make a collection to buy him a present as a thank you for all his help. Harper came to the realisation from this that she hadn't even thought to buy him a present for all the help that he had given her. Should she get him a little something extra? She did technically get a lot of extra tuition from him.

After her exams that day she went over to her Dad's restaurant to grab some food. "Do you think I could earn a bit of money doing some waitressing?" she asked her Dad while he was between customers.

"How much do you need?" he asked, pulling his wallet out from his trousers.

"I actually wanted to earn the money myself, it's to buy a thank you present for Oliver," she explained and he nodded, putting his wallet away.

"Well, get your exams out of the way first and I'll give you some evening and weekend shifts for however long you need."

"Thanks Dad!" she cheered, gulping down her drink and hopping off the bar stool. "I'm gonna head home now."

"On your own?" he queried, "I finish in a couple of hours I can drive you."

"Yeah, it's fine I'm kind of tired" she responded, gathering her things. He pulled some money out of his wallet and told her to get a taxi back and to be safe. "See you later Dad!"

A few weeks passed by, exams ended and Harper spent her spare time working at her Father's restaurant. It took some getting used to, especially considering she hadn't actually done any waitressing before and was rather clumsy. Before she knew it, she had made enough money to buy Oliver a really nice present and then some. On her way to work that evening, she passed by an electrical store that had some interesting gadgets in the window. A lightbulb moment went off in her head and she rushed into the shop to buy what she had seen. "I think he would really like this" she sang cheerfully as she she continued down the road to her father's restaurant.

When she finally returned home with her Dad, Eleanor greeted them at the door and commented on how tired she looked. She just shrugged it off and told her she was keen to earn some extra money over the summer before she starts her A levels in September. Harper pulled Eleanor aside and explained to her that some of her classmates wanted to come over on the weekend so they could give him the present that they all got to say thank you for his help. She was overjoyed to hear about how son helped people to pass their exams and promised to host a small party with refreshments for them.

The weekend came fast and Harper spent the morning setting everything up with Eleanor who had sent Oliver out to get something for her in town. All of her classmates arrived before he was due to come home and they hid in the conservatory ready to surprise him when he returned. They all jumped out screaming "surprise" when he walked into the living room, but he didn't seem at all surprised and more annoyed by the inconvenience of having multiple strangers in his house.

"Why aren't you surprised?" Harper shouted from the group.

"How can I be? There are literally 20 pairs of shoes in the foyer" he responded, shaking his head in disbelief. Everyone gathered together and Harper picked up a box that was wrapped perfectly with a bow.

"We got you this present as a token of our appreciation for your help with our exams" she explained, handing the present over to him. He looked between the crowd of people who stared at him expectantly. He sighed and quickly unwrapped the present to reveal a brand new watch. He was a bit shocked by this as it was not at all what he was expecting. "Erm.. thanks" he mumbled, passing the present to his Mum so she could put it somewhere for him.

Harper beamed, feeling that he was really happy with the present. "I also got you this" she cheered, "it's from me, I did some shifts at my Dad's restaurant so I could buy it."

Oddly, Oliver was more intrigued by this present than he was about the other present he had just received. Did she really spend her spare time working to earn money to buy him a present? This present was also wrapped very nicely with a bow, Harper evidently wasn't bad at everything, if you considered present wrapping to be a talent. He nodded and opened the present to reveal… well he wasn't sure what it was. It looked like some kind of weird spider thing from what he could see on the box.

"It's a head massager" Harper called, clearly reading the confusion on his face. "It's electric" she added.

He blinked a few times, "thanks" he mumbled before handing this present to his Mum for safe keeping. Eleanor put them away and gestured for everyone to help themselves to the food and drink.