It went without saying that Eren received the cold shoulder all the way home on Saturday. Armin's cold behaviour continued into the following week and wasn't about to stop anytime soon. Annie was clearly dealing with problems on a scale that he couldn't even imagine, and Eren had probably made her feel ten times worse. Armin simply couldn't bring himself to speak to his best friend.
He sat with his head in a book on Monday morning during homeroom. He was trying to block out everything and everyone. He wanted to do something for Annie, but he was so useless and helpless; he had considered talking to his grandpa about it but he doubted he would be of any help with this type of thing. He didn't even know what was going on exactly, but he knew that he had to find out. He had to fix this.
Running late, Annie quickly made her way to homeroom. She knew she was in deep shit. She'd missed a week's worth of school and was for sure far behind in everything. The reason she had missed school in the first place was primarily due to her black eye, she didn't want everyone staring at her. She knew it would have drawn unnecessary attention towards her and she couldn't stand to have people poking and prodding at her for information. Thankfully, it had stopped looking so obnoxious and she just had to remember to hide it behind her bangs and not make the mistake of putting them behind her ear again. That wasn't the only reason she had decided stay at home, though. She had been exhausted from working all weekend and then going to school all week. Even though she was strong there was only so much she could take.
"Annie Leonhardt, can I have a quick word" she turned around to see her homeroom teacher Mr Hannes walking briskly towards her. It looked like he was running late too, as usual. She stopped and waited for whatever he had to say. It most likely wasn't good news, probably about her attendance. Once he had caught up to her, he looked down with a serious expression, "The principal wants to see you about your attendance and grades. We're all a bit concerned about you…"
I knew it. Annie wasn't stupid. She could easily come out with top grades in everything. However, she lacked the motivation for anything. That included her homework that she failed to do most nights, or even turning up to class for the past week.
"Okay." she was as blunt as ever and walked off quickly, Hannes was once again taken back by her attitude. Annie just didn't care what else he had to say to her. It probably would have been pointless and useless questions that she didn't feel like answering, especially not that early on a Monday morning. Even if she had managed to escape from Hannes, she knew that the principal, Erwin Smith, was about to interrogate her. When she got to his office she knocked once and opened the door, wanting to get it over and done with as soon as possible.
The principal looked up from his desk as he heard the door open, "Ah, Miss Leonhardt please take a seat." The blonde slumped into the seat opposite of him, not saying a word. "Now, it has come to my attention that your attendance record is poor. I know you have only been here a month but missing a week of school without providing a doctor's note is unacceptable. Not only that, I've been informed that you have not attended gym class once, and teachers from several of your classes have stated that you fail to produce homework when asked."
Annie didn't say anything. She folded her arms across her chest and turned her body ever so slightly to the side in her seat so that she wasn't directly facing Principal Smith. This was all a part of her defence mechanism kicking in, not that she even realised it. "Do you have any explanation for this, Miss Leonhardt?" Annie looked down and shook her head once. She wanted to get out of there, and fast. How long is he going to keep me in here for? She wondered. "Well in that case, we'll have to contact your father. Now, I know your mother passed away recently—"
Annie suddenly looked up and shot a glare at the principal, why the fuck did he have to bring that up. "No. There is no need for that…I'll get a tutor" Annie was desperate, and she knew just the person who could help her out of the predicament.
"Oh. Who do you have in mind?" he quizzed her sceptically.
"Armin Arlert."
"Ah yes, I am aware of Armin. He is an exceptional student here, I'm sure he wouldn't mind giving you help, either."
Annie knew that Armin was practically a genius. In the short time that she had been at the school, she had witnessed him excel in every single class. He held all the answers, and whenever he raised his hand he was always correct. He never submitted his homework late and when he got his grades back he would always get top marks above everyone else in the class. She had even just so happened to see that annoying asshole Eren Jaeger ask him to do his homework for him a couple of times and Armin had rejected him saying that he should be doing it himself. Annie respected that, it proved that Armin had a bit of backbone after all.
"Right well okay then, I am willing to accept your proposal to get a tutor. If you say Armin Arlert will help you get back on track then I am happy to see how it goes. However, if I do not see any improvement from you within the next few weeks I will be forced to contact your father in order to resolve this problem. Understand, Miss Leonhardt?"
"Yes." was all Annie said. Is he done now?
"You'll have to work on attendance yourself, though. Anyway, first class is about to start. You are dismissed."
Finally. Annie didn't utter a word as she stood up and left. She really didn't like asking for anyone's help. In her opinion she didn't need it. People had proven themselves to be untrustworthy and had let her down so many times in her life that she had given up relying on anyone. She could only truly rely on herself at the end of the day. Approaching Armin about the tutoring was going to be embarrassing, but it had to be done otherwise she'd have the principal on her back.
Annie decided that she would wait until break before talking to Armin about the tutoring. Her first two classes of the day were French with Monsieur Levi, a short, expressionless man who scared the crap out of the majority of the class, and then English with a teacher whose name had slipped her mind. Apparently she was supposed to have read some book for English and got quizzed on it in class. Another fail, she supposed.
The blonde girl was dreading break, what would she do if Armin refused to help her? I doubt he will say no, it seems like that loser has only ever wanted to help me. It beats me why, though. Maybe it's because he really does have feelings for me after all. Am I being too harsh by calling him a loser? I guess he isn't really...he's not even all that bad... Annie didn't even know where her thoughts were heading as she sat in class waiting for it to end.
After the bell rang, Armin seemed to disappear from class before she had the chance to catch up with him. She figured he'd be outside by the benches, despite the weather getting colder by the day. The blonde had noticed he usually hung out there with Eren, Mikasa and some others. However, when she got outside, there was no sign of Armin. Eren and Mikasa were sitting together alone. Annie was surprised but relieved, she didn't want to spend anymore time out in the cold than necessary. She soon concluded that there was only one other place where he could have been. The library.
Lo and behold, Armin was sitting at a table by himself, reading a book. She walked over and sat down across from him, Armin immediately looked up and his large puppy-like eyes widened in shock, "A-Annie!" he was speechless for a few seconds, "I'm so sorry for what happened on Saturday—"
"Forget it. I have a favour to ask." she interrupted him, becoming impatient and not wanting to endure whatever he was going to spout. It wasn't like her feelings were hurt anyway…well, not significantly.
Armin stopped speaking in mid-sentence and his mouth formed into an 'o' shape, "O-oh…what is it?"
Annie's eyes diverted their gaze away from Armin's, "I need a tutor. All the teachers are on my back about my studies, I wouldn't be asking the likes of you if I wasn't desperate. Could you help me out?" Well I could have worded that a little better… "Please." She decided to add, feeling somewhat guilty for being rude to him.
Armin took a few moments to process what she had just said, she's really asking for my help? I can't believe it. "I'd be happy to help you" he smiled. The boy couldn't help but feel excited over the prospects of tutoring Annie, it meant that he would get to spend more time with her. Not only that, this was a huge step towards helping her and fixing her problems. He wouldn't feel so useless now that he could help her with her studies.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
Armin continued to smile, and despite everything, Annie didn't even feel that embarrassed anymore. The smile on his face wasn't smug, it was genuine and kind. It made her feel comfortable. Although she wasn't exactly looking forward to him tutoring her, she wasn't completely dreading it either.
