"Pizza sound good to everyone?" Spike asked as he stood from the table. When he received three nods he went into the kitchen. He came out with the phone by his ear. "Callie. Pepperoni or veggie good for you?" When she nodded again, he disappeared back into the kitchen.
"Ok. How about getting some homework done before the pizza gets here?" Jules raised her eyebrows.
Callie made her "ugh" face. "Come on. Can't we play cards some more?" She begged.
"No. Sorry. Gotta get your homework done. Besides, you have three people here to help if you need it." Jules smiled.
Callie made a face and grabbed her school bag from next to the couch. She pulled out her books and notebooks and put them on the table.
Jules read the covers of the books: AP [advanced placement] History and English, Algebra, Spanish, Chemistry and a few others. "Wow. Callie these are tough classes."
"Tell me about it." Callie scoffed. "Chem and English are the worst. Spanish is easy. I like History and Modern Art." She shrugged. "I used to think Math was easy until Algebra."
"Well, let's start with the Algebra." Spike walked back to his seat at the table and sat down. Jules and Sam went to the living room to let them work.
A few minutes later they could hear Callie and Spike arguing.
"Why would you do that? It makes no sense!"
"That's how you find x."
"Why wouldn't you just do this." There was silence except for a pencil scratching.
"Uh huh." Spike said. "Oh. Ok yeah you could totally do it that way. You get the same answer."
"That makes more sense to me then the way Mrs. Grammarly taught us."
"Ok, let's try it that way though."
Callie groaned. "Ok." There was more pencil scratching and gentle prodding from Spike.
"There. See? You got it."
"Ooh. Ok. Now I get it." Callie smiled. She thought, man Spike was smart! And it didn't hurt that he smelled good too. She went on to the next problem and solved it easily. She finished the remaining problems without an issue. Spike checked each one and they were correct.
"You're good at this. You can't let yourself get frustrated. You found your own way to solve these which is amazing." Spike said, smiling encouragingly.
"Thanks Spike." She smiled warmly. "How are you at Chem?" She picked up her chem book.
Spike put up his hand and twisted it back and forth. "What do you have to do?"
"We're having a quiz on the periodic table." She opened her book to the page and pointed to a large section in the middle. "We have to know all of these by tomorrow." She whined.
"No problem." Spike smiled. So just start by looking at them. Try to memorize them. I found sometimes that if I said them out loud that helped."
Callie picked up the book and started reciting them out loud.
The doorbell rang and Jules ran to the door with her wallet. Sam watched her with trepidation. He knew it was old fashioned, (Jules had pointed it out) but he thought the guy was always supposed to pay. They'd debated it while Callie and Spike were working on homework and in the end had played rock, paper, scissors for it.
"Break time!" Jules put the pizzas on the table and smiled.
Sam walked in and sat in his chair from earlier. Callie and Spike cleared the homework from the table and went to the kitchen to get paper plates and silverware. Spike foraged in the fridge and brought back a can of pop and three beers.
Callie handed out the paper plates, napkins and silverware. When Spike put the beverages on the table, she didn't miss a beat and grabbed one of the beers. Three shocked adult faces looked at her. "What?"
"Uh," Jules was the first to break her shock.
"Oh you want this one?" Callie handed the beer to her and looked at the labels of the other two with interest.
"I don't think so." Spike handed one beer to Sam, put the pop in her hand and took the other beer to his seat.
"Killjoy." Callie pouted. Then she smiled at them.
"Nice try kid." Sam smiled at her as he pulled a slice from one of the boxes.
"It was worth a shot." Callie shrugged and pulled a slice of veggie onto her plate.
Spike looked at Sam and Jules who both shrugged. "I will bet you a 100 point deficit on our next Uno game that you will not like beer."
Callie looked at him and frowned. "That won't help you, but you're on. If I do like it then I get the deficit."
"Yep." Spike nodded and handed her the beer.
Callie wasn't sure about this. She sniffed it before she put it to her mouth. Eww. It smells nasty. She took a sip and nearly vomited. "Ugh! That is disgusting! How do you drink that?" She wiped her mouth with a napkin and then took a big swig of her pop.
"Yes! 100 point deficit! And now, when one of your classmates thinks they're being cool and offering you beer, you can tell them you don't like it." Spike tipped his beer at her and took a drink.
Callie laughed at him.
They ate in silence until every last bit of pizza was gone.
Callie burped. "Uh. Excuse me." She didn't know if that was the beer or the pop, but it was gross.
"I second that." Spike sat back and rubbed his stomach.
Sam and Jules stood at the same time. They cleared everything off the table and Callie brought her homework back out.
"Did you get through all of them?" Spike asked. When she nodded her head he took the book and started reading off the abbreviations. "BH."
"Bohrium." She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to picture the table.
"How do you spell it?"
"Spelling too?" Callie rolled her eyes.
"I'm assuming this is going to be a written test so I would imagine spelling would count."
"Damn." Callie said without thinking.
Spike's eyebrows went up. "Potty mouth."
That made Callie laugh and she apologized. "Ok, bohrium. B-o-h-r-i-u-m?"
"Yes. Good. HF?"
"Halfinium."
"Close."
"Haf, hafni- hafnium?"
"Good! Spelling?"
They went back and forth like that for a good hour until Callie could name and spell all 38 elements correctly. Spike relinquished the homework help to Sam when it came to History. He sucked at it. Sam and Callie went over the battles of the American Civil War for awhile until Callie couldn't take any more and begged him for a break.
The four of them sat in the living room. Callie, Sam and Jules sat on the couch and Spike in the lazy boy next to Callie. They let Callie pick the show which was a mistake because she picked a cheesy tween show.
Sam, Spike and Jules all rolled their eyes at the over dramatic acting in the show but didn't say anything. Once the show was over, all three of them lunged for the remote, which made Callie laugh. Apparently they hadn't liked her show. After a half hour sports show, Callie went back to the table.
Homework would be better than the boring crap they were watching. She opened her History book and started studying for her test.
Spike looked over at Sam and Jules and cocked an eyebrow. "Wow." He whispered. "Homework is better than watching this?"
Sam and Jules both laughed.
"A root canal would be more fun than watching that." Callie said from the table. That caused even louder laughter. She smirked and went back to studying.
After a while, Jules looked at her watch, 1900. She stood and walked into the dining room. "It's getting late. We should probably get you home." She found Callie with her head down writing furiously.
"One more minute. I'm almost done conjugating these verbs."
"Muy Bueno." Jules smiled.
"De nada." Callie answered without even thinking.
Damn, Jules thought, this girl is so smart. She waited until Callie finished and then packed up her stuff. She handed Callie a piece of paper. "Keep this on you at all times. This is my home, work and cell numbers. Call me ANY time." She looked Callie in the eyes with sincerity. "I mean it."
"Thanks." Callie smiled. She does care, she thought. They moved towards the living room and Sam and Spike stood.
"Bye Callie." Spike smiled and waved at her. "It was nice to meet you." He pointed at her and said seriously, "we WILL have an Uno rematch. Don't forget my points deficit."
Callie gave him a full toothy smile. "Bye Spike. You too." She pointed back at him. "Count on it."
Sam came to stand next to Jules. He put a hand on Callie's shoulder. "Nice to meet you Callie. See you soon I hope."
"Bye Sam." She smiled at them and nodded. "Me too. Thank you both for your homework help." She looked from one to the other.
"No problem." Spike answered. "Good luck on your tests tomorrow. Remember to relax. You know this stuff."
"You're welcome." Sam smiled.
"Ok. You guys make yourselves at home, I'll be right back." Jules gave Sam a kiss on the cheek and smiled at Spike.
"Will do." Sam smiled and went back to the couch.
Jules and Callie chatted the whole way to her house. Most of it was about Sam and Spike.
"Sam is so dreamy." Callie sighed. "You're so lucky."
Jules laughed. "Thanks. I think so too."
"Spike is too." Callie ventured a look at Jules.
Jules shrugged. "He's a nice guy, but he's my age you know. A little too old for a thirteen year old." She didn't want to burst her bubble, but she also didn't want her small crush to get bigger and Callie get hurt.
"Can't a girl dream?" Callie laughed. Duh. I knows he's like twice my age, she thought. So is the lead singer of Nickelback, that doesn't keep me from having a poster of him in my room.
"You're so funny." Jules put a hand on her shoulder, then put it back on the steering wheel. They were less than a block from Callie's house. "Jeez!" Jules saw the girl dart into the street at the last second and swerved. The top heavy jeep rocked on its wheels while Jules tried to correct it, but it was too late.
The jeep tipped over on it's side and slid into the curb on the other side of the street, bounced off and slid to a stop in the middle of the road.
"Whoa." Candace's heart was jack hammering in her chest. She knew it had been risky to step off the curb at the last second, but the result was perfect. Now that bitch would know better to hide and sneak off like she had at school today. "Serves you right." She looked around to make sure no one was around and then ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Mitzy is going to LOVE this, she thought.