Chapter 5: Studying for Finals
The next month didn't go by as smoothly as I had anticipated. There was gossip about my fake love letter that was supposedly rejected by Irie-kun, thanks to Kin-chan. I've never seen that much anger towards a person. Of course Irie-kun never gets riled up so that only added fuel to the fire. Anyhow, I was now the laughing stock at school. Irie-kun, who never spoke to me at school or showed emotion in general, flashed me eyes of courage and sympathy every time we passed. The jeers from the girls in his class had me simmering in class and venting on the way home.
Finals were coming up. The other classes were buckling down, memorizing and studying, while class F...
"Kotoko, why are you always studying?" Kin-chan whines. He's sitting across from me, his hands in front of him, pleading me to stop.
I glare at him from the corner of my eye, my pencil never leaving the page as I furiously scribble notes. "I am going to prove to the school that I'm not a flake by finishing top ten on the final exam. Hopefully I'll move up a class next year." I growl. Sitting behind me and Kin-chan, I note that Satomi and Jinko are exchange looks. I look back and forth between them, "what's wrong with that?" I ask.
Satomi looks at me. "We get that you have a crush on Irie Naoki, but you're trying to get into class A? Do you realize how many classes there are between him and us? He's a completely different league. You couldn't even make it into his class even if you manage to surpass him on the test." Ouch, that was a low blow in faith.
"You don't think I can beat him? Watch me."
Every day since then, I've been studying in school, in the library, and I've also had my door close as to not be bothered by anyone while I study, except for Mrs. Irie who knocks on my door to bring me a snack. Eventually, I ran into some problems.
"Irie-kun," I ask as we walk home from school, "Can you help me study for finals?"
He looks at me and rolls his eyes, "I was wondering when you were going to ask me. The gossip and rumours are finally getting to you. Are you going to let the administration post your marks this time?" He asks. I nod my head in answer. He nods his head in return, "Alright, we'll start tonight. You remember my tutoring style don't you? It won't be easy." He warns.
I wave my hand at him, "yeah, yeah, you put me through it once, and while I'm eternally grateful, I don't think it can get much worst then it was two years ago." I retort. He just smirks and we continue our way home in silence.
That evening, during dinner, Mrs. Irie asks what kind of snack I want. When I mention a cup of coffee and some sandwiches, Irie-kun speaks up. "Mom, can you make enough snacks for two people? Please bring them both to Aihara-san's room." He continues to eat as his entire family stares at him.
Yuki-kun is the first to speak up. "You're helping her study? You never help me study." He glares at me.
Irie-kun looks down at him. "You're doing fine in school. You're top of your class aren't you?" Yuki-kun nods, "well there you go." He says standing up. "Thanks for dinner mom, Aihara-san, let's go." I nod, stuffing the last bite into my mouth. I mumble my thanks for the meal and take off after Irie-kun, the entire Irie family boring holes into my back with their stares.
In my room, Irie-kun sits down at the chair by my desk as I close the door behind us. "So what subject do you want to cover first?" He asks,
"I had some problems with the math concept for the last few chapters, I can do the questions if I have the formula, but it's figuring out the formula based on the word problem that I have issues with." I reply grabbing my math book from the top of my pile and flipping it open to one of the pages I had tabbed the night before. "Here, I marked them all last night."
He flips through the book, looking up at me with mild disbelief. "Why are you in that class again? The teacher obviously hasn't taught you anything."
I open my mouth when a sound outside the door reaches my ears. Silently, I point to the door, mimicking walking. He nods and mouths the word mom at me. Great, she's eavesdropping.
"Mon professeur est assez bien, merci beaucoup, mais je voulais rester avec mes amis et c'est la class en entier qui fait que c'est difficile d'étudier." I answer in French to throw Mrs. Irie off our discussion.
"Pas mal, votre Français a beaucoup amélioré. Ça va, je sais tes raisons, mais retournant à les mathématiques. Here are the equations for the deriving an equation. You always label the derivative as prime of the function…" He begins to explain.
Over the next two weeks, Irie-kun spent hours helping to explain concepts I didn't understand, correcting my work and creating problems and questions for me to solve. The morning of the first day of tests, I wake up at my desk. I must have fallen asleep doing the practice test Irie-kun wrote for me. Sitting up, I smile at the sight in front of me. Irie-kun must have fallen asleep too; his arm is under his head, lying partially on the desk. I grab the blanket from my bed, covering him, before making my way downstairs. The house is slightly cold this morning and I shiver as I cross the tiled kitchen floor. It's still early in the morning, but nothing like a good cup of coffee to get the day started. I add hot water to the coffee grounds and let it filter as I searched for some breakfast. I pull out some potatoes, cheese, onions and bacon crumble as well as tortilla wraps. Setting them on the counter, next to the fridge, I turn and jump in fright. There, sitting at the counter of the kitchen, Irie-kun is casually leaning his head on one hand.
"Don't stop on my account, I just woke up and smelled coffee." He says.
"Right, I'll get you a cup." I say turning to grab a cup from the cupboards. Pouring the coffee, I add a little milk and present it in front of him. As he takes the cup, sipping at the hot liquid, I return to my ingredients. I fry up diced onions, potatoes and the bacon before covering it all in cheese, allowing it to melt, combining everything together. Warming up two tortillas, I scoop some of the mixture into the tortilla before wrapping the tortilla around it. I plate both dishes and place one in front of Irie-kun. "I feel like we need something with substance and carbohydrates before the first day of tests." He nods his head in agreement, and takes a bite.
We eat in silence since we're both still tired from last night. "Thanks, again, for helping me study." I break the silence. He nods his head, continuing to eat quietly. As we finish breakfast, I begin the hear movement upstairs. "I guess that's my cue to get the others' breakfast ready." I sigh, standing up. I peck a quick kiss onto his cheek and turn to warm a few more tortillas. As the rest of the household files down the stairs, I lay out the plates with the burritos onto the table with the coffee pot and cups. After passing out breakfast, I quickly clean the pans, and run back upstairs to change into my uniform. I pull my hair back into a ponytail, tying it off with a pink ribbon.
"Bye," I call out into the house, as I put on my shoes near the front door. I yank the door open, just as Mrs. Irie hands me an envelope. "Here, I have a present for you. Don't open it." She states sharply and I place my finger under the sticker holding it close. "You can open it only if you place in the top fifty." Thanks, Mrs. Irie, I hope she realizes soon that I'm aiming for top ten. "Thank you, I'll see you later." I call back, walking off down the driveway. Behind me, I can hear her scolding Irie-kun to hurry up and catch up to me. Turning around the corner, out of sight from the house, I stop. Leaning against the wall, I wait patiently for Irie-kun. Together we set off for our exam.
So I was writing this and stopped for dinner. When I came back I realized that it was over 1.5 hundred words and that I should probably wrap up the chapter soon. Anyhow, this chapter came faster than I thought it would, little bit of a filler, not much Irie-kun and Kotoko action but hopefully, if I write the next chapter right, we should start seeing a little bit of jealousy emitting from our beloved Naoki. So my dear readers, keep up the reviews, loving how many I'm getting for my first story, and I'll write to you guys in the next chapter. Ciao