A/N: Slow burn romances are quite tricky. I think not a lot of people like it but I think it's more realistic. Sometimes though I just want to read some fluff without any complicated story in between. Ever feel like that?


The whole month passed by without any interesting school events. For a whole month, Alice's schedule was not as crazy as she thought it would be. It was a big sigh of relief.

Of course, it only lasted a month. Dreadful things were coming her way and despite Ben Gross' effort on keeping her grades up and her pocket full, she was slowly struggling. Stress started to creep up on her.

On her desk at home, she would sit and ruminate over a pile of books and stack of papers. When she finally forced herself to bed, she would toss and turn and it would feel like she closed her eyes, but the next minute, it was time to wake up and prepare for school.

The reason?

The midterm exams were coming up, and she had been conditioned not to pay attention in class because, hell, Ben Gross was doing her homework. Why did she have to listen?

It was only a month later when she realized during one of the pop quizzes, she didn't learn jack the past few weeks and let Ben freaking Gross carry her grade. Now she was in trouble.

Something snapped in her head.

She was trying to figure out a math equation, trying to mentally make sense of it in her head. Using smaller numbers to substitute the x and y of the problem.

Again, something snapped in her head.

Ahhh, right, so if h(t) = 24 + 4t – 5t then t would equal to—

SNAP. SNAP. SNAP.

Alice took a sharp breath of fresh air. Someone was snapping their fingers in front of her face.

"Alice, what is wrong with you?" She then realized it was Ben Gross slightly glaring at her dumbfounded face. "Our school team just won the Science Week Regionals. Did. you. take. a. photo?" His words dripped with venom.

Alice cursed under her breath and started flashing away for some photos. Thankfully she still caught some group hugs and bright smiles from their school team.

Ben Gross shook his head and watched as the girl continued taking photos. She was increasingly distracted, Ben noted, and he wasn't sure why and again, he didn't care for much about it, except that her picture quality could be deteriorating too.

When the event was over they'd ended up back at the Yearbook Club Room. Her doing the usual: extracting the memory card from the camera and handing it over so that he could sort through the photos and pick the right ones.

"Thanks," he muttered and pocketed the memory card.

Alice started to pack up quietly, starting to go back to the math equation in her head. She had been trying to figure it out since yesterday. This was probably the simplest equation and she still couldn't get a grasp on it.

"I'm not paying you today,"

Her head turned so fast that her hair whiplashed on her face, "What?" She replied him with the same venom that he had earlier.

"I'm not paying you today," Ben said. It being the most normal thing in the world.

Alice stared him down. Funny enough he didn't break her gaze.

"I took the photos. I got the job done." She was trying to be calm but the stress of the past few weeks was starting to creep up on her. "And truth be told that was the most boring school event I've been to so far and a total waste of my time, so I actually think I should be paid double," she finished.

Ben scoffed and looked at her incredulously. "You wouldn't have taken any pictures if I didn't literally snap you out of it," he countered.

Alice let out an exasperated sigh and was about to give him all the attitude she had when he cut her off, "I'll pay you after, you tell me what's going on," with a light shrug, he made it seem like it was no big deal.

And for the second time that day, Alice was compelled to ask "...What?"

"Well, you've been out of it," Ben zipped up his bag. "Ever since the swim meet."

The swim meet was a totally different thing, but ok. She thought.

"And I need your head," he pointed at her, "in the game, Alice Lee. And your head is NOT in the game," He finished his statement and looked at her pointedly, obviously waiting for some kind of explanation.

Alice stood there, stuck in a hard place. What'd be the use of telling him? Perhaps she should just push through the next few months and just try to get her head in the game. But in the end, she sighed and her shoulders slumped in defeat.

"The midterms are coming," she offered up as a start, hoping that smartass Ben would piece things together.

"Exciting isn't it?" Instead smartass Ben beamed at her and started on a whole new conversation about which subject he thought he would do best, but then he would probably do good in all of them, so then he started talking about which exam he would enjoy the most but—

"I'm going to flunk it," Alice cut him off mid explanation of his love for studying. Ben Gross paused and finally pieced together two and two.

"See, that's the problem when someone's doing your homework for you. You don't pay attention in Algebra II," Ben smirked and swung his backpack over his shoulder. Alice groaned in annoyance at his childish I-told-you-so games.

"Well, come on," Ben cocked his head towards the door and Alice looked at him in confusion.

"Where? The event's done. Day's over," she said but still swung her backpack on and followed him.

"You know I'm starting to think you've got nothing going for you except your photography skills," She was actually starting to get used to his insults, but let him continue "The deal was, you take photos, I pay you, do your homework and explain everything you don't understand in school."

Alice stopped in her tracks, her head cocking sideways in surprise. "Huh," she huffed out. She DID say that, it just hadn't jogged up memory lane.

AND more surprisingly, Ben Gross was honouring their deal. "But I'm still not paying you, in return for tutoring you with Algebra II," Ben said with finality.

Alice stood in place for a moment, struck at the idea that Ben Gross was actually a decent person. She fast-walked in order to catch up with him, about to ask where they were going when he suddenly turned around. "Meet you at the school entrance in 10, we're going to my place."

Holy crap.

Ten minutes and a I'm-gunna-be-home-late-because-study-group phone call to her mom later, she was suddenly en route to Ben Gross' house. In his car, with his chauffeur looking at her weird. She avoided the driver's gaze and instead looked out the window.

"So," Ben started, looking at her with that high and mighty smirk on his face. "What part of Algebra II does your brain not comprehend?"

This time, Alice actually rolled her eyes and placed her gaze on him. She flipped her algebra book open and pointed at a formula, a slight shake of the car causing her to grip the book tighter. Ben sweeped the page over with his eyes.

"...You know that's page 5 of the book? It's literally the first formula we learned." Ben looked up at her with a questioning leer.

Alice groaned and leaned her head back on the car seat, whining. "I knowwwww! Oh my God I messed up big time. On top of that I still have other things to study for and the newspaper club is gunna be on my heels for next week's issue." She smacked a hand on her forehead and continued grumbling under her breath.

Ben raised his eyebrows. Looks like someone wasn't good at stress management.

"Well it's gunna be tough but I think it's workable. I've seen dumber people in my life." Ben offered with a shrug.

She ended up picking her head up and glaring at him, "Would you cut it out? You're the reason I'm doing so bad in school at the moment."

Ben tsked at her and shook his head, "Let's not forget I'm the only reason that your assignments are stellar."

"You're also the reason I'm juggling so much crap at the same time!" She rage whispered at him.

"Oh please, it's just ONE thing added on your plate. We had three events this month and that's it. You were paid too," Ben countered, recognizing the turn the car was making and unbuckling his seat belt.

"Ugh," Alice said, defeated. Yes, maybe, it was her fault that she slacked off on listening during lessons. She got lazy, thinking she didn't need any of that knowledge because Ben Gross would be doing her homework anyway.

How wrong she was. How stupid, even, to forget that there was something called exams and quizzes. Couldn't borrow Ben's brain for that.

Alice was brought out of her trance when her side of the door suddenly opened. She nearly jumped. She didn't realize they'd arrived and when she stepped out of the car with a small thank you to the driver, she was stunned at the view.

It was not a house. It was a mansion.

"Holy mother of Cheetos..." She whispered, admiring the very modern take on the house. It was very clean looking and elegant. Simple but expensive looking at the same time. Polished.

She strayed outside of the house for a while, thinking that her presence would somehow taint the floor—which was marble by the way—of Ben Gross' estate.

"What are you doing?" Ben chided her, looking at her weirdly as he was opening the door for her.

Alice blinked and laughed nervously, pointing at her shoes, "Oh, you know, just, wondering if I should leave my shoes outside?"

Ben looked even more confused.

"Yeah, nevermind, Asian thing," She muttered under her breath and mentally smacked herself on the face before going inside.

The inside was seamless and clean. Just as polished as the outside but now you could see that the furniture was truly something that only someone rich could afford. The hanging modern chandeliers, the open kitchen on the side. Most of it was a marble white and Alice always thought that white was such an easy colour to mess up or dirty, but it was really clean in Ben Gross' house.

"Umm, your parents in?" Alice asked, it was common courtesy to say hello to the owners of the house she just stepped foot in. After all, she was just an invader in here.

"No, they won't be back tonight," he simply said, shrugging his bag off and it landing on the floor. He picked it up again and lugged it over on the living room area, where there was a black coffee table and matching white sofas.

"So, let's start. No time to waste." Ben said as he sat on the sofa. Alice hesitated, inching forward while looking around the place, suddenly feeling self-conscious of the fact that she was actually here.

"Oh! Mr. Ben, good to see you back from school. How was it today?" A rather aged looking woman scurried up to the living room area. She had an energetic bounce to her step and stopped short when she realized that Ben had a visitor. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't notice you had a friend over," Although she was saying sorry, it sounded as if she was more excited than sorry. Alice was a tad bit confused.

"Hey Patty," Ben smiled at the woman. "This is Alice... from school." Alice noted the hesitation in Ben's voice but smiled nonetheless, not wanting to be rude and said a quick hey to the nice lady.

"Oh good, good. Anything to drink?" Patty asked both Ben and Alice, looking back and forth between them.

Ben piped up, "An orange juice would be great, thanks Patty."

Alice fumbled with her words, not used to being served in a house. "Uh, um. Same, please,"

"I'm gunna go and get some papers," Ben said, leaving Alice alone in the living area.

Patty scurried her way towards the living area with two glasses of orange juice in her hands, placing it on the coffee table. "Sit, sit!" She urged Alice, who was still stood up with her bag on and everything. She immediately sat down, being the people pleaser that she was.

"Oh it's so good that Mr. Ben has a visitor. His parents are always busy," Patty had lowered her voice down to a whisper now, "He's a very sweet boy, but, how do they say?" Alice could tell that English was not Patty's first language as she struggled to find the right word. "Just a little rough around the edgy."

Alice nervously laughed at her and just nodded, not knowing what to say. All the while thinking in her head, didn't Ben have a girlfriend? Why wasn't she mentioned?

Patty went about on her business when Ben came back with a few papers and books. He placed all of it on a stack on the coffee table, grabbing his own Algebra book and turning to page 5. "You'd better take notes cause I'm not repeating this again," he said and started explaining while Alice fumbled to grab her notebook and pen.

30 minutes later and he had given Alice a few math problems to work on. He was mumbling, reading his own thing while Alice silently scribbled solutions on her notebook. She placed her pencil down and did a once over of her work, before turning to Ben and handing him her notebook.

"Done," she said, rather proud of her achievement.

Ben took his eyes off from his own paper, placed it on the table before grabbing her notebook, silently looking over the answers. Alice's eyes roamed on the coffee table, landing on the pile of papers that Ben had just set down. They looked to be trivia questions. Random questions, some were so random that Alice wondered what kind of person would actually ask these out of the blue. She picked up the papers and started reading through them.

"Didn't think you could do it, but it's all correct," Ben said, slapping the notebook on her thigh. She was still preoccupied with the paper she was reading.

"What are these questions? It's like... Something out of a game show." Alice muttered.

"It's for the regional quiz bowl," Ben drawled in a bored tone, then pointed a finger at her. "Ask me any question. Any." He challenged.

Alice glanced up at him before flipping the papers, trying to find the most difficult question to ask. Then she realized nearly all of them were difficult that she herself couldn't understand the question. She decided to just read a random one out, "A National Historic Site named after this woman is on the former site of Val-Kill Industries, which she co-founded—"

"Eleanor Roosevelt," Ben said without even hearing the whole question. Alice dropped the paper in her lap and stared at him in shock. She chose another question, "This man wrote a story in which Captain Kidd's treasure is revealed to Tom Walker—"

"Washington Irving," Again he answered without hearing the whole question. Alice continued, pushed to look for a question that he didn't know the answer to. "This state's Stony Man Mountain is a landmark on Skyline Drive, which starts in its city of Front Royal—"

"State of Virginia," Ben crossed his arms triumphantly, eyeing her as he waited for the next question. Alice hesitated for a moment, before hiding her smirk behind the paper.

"This woman was born on the 20th of November 2005 in the modest state of Illinois." She glanced up to see Ben's face twisting into confusion. "She moved to California at the age of ten and continued her legacy there. What is this woman's name?"

Alice peered over the paper with a smug smirk, watching Ben's face go from confusion, surprise, more confusion and finally realization. He eyed Alice carefully and snatched the paper away from her, "That's a made up question," he accused her, to which Alice finally laughed out loud at, finding it funny that he was confused out of his mind.

Perhaps it was the fact that he'd never heard her laugh like that before but he couldn't hold back the snicker that bubbled up from his throat. Alice tittered at him, "Oh my God, did you actually laugh?" and just like that she was again trying to hold back her sniggers.

"Shut up," Ben chided, a goofy-trying-to-hold-back-laughter smile on his face. He took the papers and threw it on her head. She half caught it with her hand and let out a last bout of laughter before calming down.

"Stop goofing around and finish the next math questions," Ben said, nudging her notebook closer to her. She complied and gave back his study papers to work on.

"So when's the quiz bowl? You're competing?" Alice casually asked, reading the math problems he gave.

"Yeah, right after the midterms. October 5th," Ben replied, quickly adding, "You have to be there,"

Alice let the statement creep up on her slowly, a tiny shock running through her, "...What?" she asked, glancing up at him quickly.

"You have to be there," he replied yet again, "You know, to take photos, for the yearbook," he hadn't looked up at her to see the realization wash over her face.

"Oh, right," The taste of secret disappointment that Alice just swallowed was so bitter that she had completely gone unfocused from her math problems. First of all, what in the world was she expecting? Second of all, why in the world was she disappointed?

She sighed inwardly and continued with her math problems, mentally taking note that this transaction would probably be a longer roller coaster ride than she thought it would be.

Let's just hope her seatbelt was buckled on real tight.