Age 10

Duncans POV

"It's just 5th grade ma!" I shout exasperated. My Mothers been pressuring me into getting a tutor since I've been doing bad in math, but when am I gonna use the pythagorean theory anyways? "Don't you use that tone with me me mister! You might think math is useless but it's not. it is a valuable skill that is necessary for more than just school." I roll my eyes. She can be so over dramatic.

ding dong

"well I wonder who that could be?" My mother said innocently. As she got up to answer the door I got this sinking feeling that something horrible was on the other side of the door something...Sinister.

"Hello ."

"Hello Courtney come in! Thank you for offering to tutor Duncan, that was so sweet of you."

huh I was right. Courtney is horrible and sinister... shes probably here to make me fail math, I mean she's hated me ever since I pulled her pigtail 2 years ago. Give me a break I was eight! "Ma why is Princess my tutor? And Why do I have a tutor?!" I ask "Well dear, Courtney here is top of the class and offered to help you out with your studies." Ma said putting emphasis on Courtney.

"Thank you for having me over you have a lovely home." chimed in Princess. Ugh shes such a kiss up and it makes me sick. "You can't be serious Ma! She hates me!"I yell, "Duncan!" my Ma shouts in disappointment, "Be nice. Courtney offered to help you without pay the least you could do is be polite." "Fine." I sigh not really wanting to argue anymore.

"I'll be down the hall if you kids need me. Study hard!" My mom said making her way out the door. Turning my attention to the girl next to me I think of all the reasons why she would want to help me, because like I said before, this girl hates me. As if reading my mind she says,"My mother made me offer to tutor you, just so you know. I wouldn't be here otherwise." Well that explains it. Unlike Courtney's dad, Courtney's mom actually liked me. She thought i was "charming"...Whatever that means.

"Well I don't need a tutor so you can just walk your spoiled self home." I say. I mean it's not like I'm gonna actually let her teach me anything. "I am not spoiled, and i know you need help. I've seen your math grade Duncan your getting a D+, and you need at least a C to pass, and move on to 6th grade. Face it Duncan, you need me." She says with a triumphant smirk.

"Stupid snot nose brat" I mumbled to myself. As much as I hate to admit it I do need Princess to help me out because I will not be stuck retaking 5th grade. "Alright Princess you can stay." I tell her as if shes a bother to me. "Excuse me? I can stay? Last I check you're the one who needs me! And my name is Courtney! C-O-U-R-T-N-E-Y, Courtney!" Came her shrill voice. "Blah Blah blah, lets just get to the math stuff." I said casually since i knew it would make her mad.

i knew I had riled her up when she grit her teeth and wrinkled her nose. She was soooo fun to mess with how could I not do it? "Okay, show me your worksheet and I'll see how many problems you got right, and we'll work from there." She says trying to keep her voice calm. "Alright whatever you say." I tell her as i grab my worksheet from my backpack.

As I watch Courtney get farther through the worksheet she looks less and less happy, and I start to feel self conscious. When a teacher looks at my work, i don't care because they are used to seeing kids fail but with Courtney... With Courtney, I don't want her to see how much I don't know. She's so smart and I'm so...Not.

Courtney looks up from the sheet and I brace myself for the ridicule I'm obviously about to get. "Duncan...You have a lot of the spaces blank, and most of the ones you did fill in look as if you just wrote in something random. Do you just not get the material?" She asked me. All I could do was stand there. Where was the ridicule i was sure she was going to give me? Heck, I deserved it! All those times I made fun of her and called her Princess why didn't she rip me?

"Duncan?" She asked again, "Talk to me? What don't you understand? I promise I'll help you." "Exponents and Variables" I answered slowly afraid that if I spoke to fast she would bite me like a snake. "Ok lets take the problem 3x(4+5x2), what would you do?" She asks me "uuum, you...uhhh...umm" I mumble afraid to be wrong. "Thats okay." She smiles "I don't expect you to know everything right off the bat. What you would do is multiply the 3x by the 4, which equals..." She trails off wanting me to finish "eeerm...12x...right?" I ask timidly

"right!" Okay then you would multiply the 3x by the 5x2and that would equal?" "15x2?" "Not quite. Say I multiply x by x that would equal x 2 because there's 2 of the x's. So if we are multiplying x by x2 that would be?" "x3!" I shout excited that I get what she's saying. "So that means that it would be 15x3, right?" I ask Courtney "right! So together that would be 12x x 15x3. Do you know why don't add them?" She asks me. "Because they're not like terms?"

1 hour later:

"Good job Duncan I think you're getting this!" She shouts throwing her arms around me. I blush profoundly as she hugs me I'd never really been this close to a girl, and it felt weird to have one hug me especially Princess. When she realized what she was doing she immediately let go flustered. "I-uhh... Good study session I'll see you tomorrow for,umm..yeah." She says barley able to get any words out.

"Yeah. Oh and Courtney? Thanks." I say smiling. for some reason she started blushing, which in turn made me blush. "what?" I ask shyly, "It's just... You called me Courtney." She said wearing a smile of her own. "Well yeah," I say rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly, "I mean... Thats your name."

"Don't think this means that I don't hate you anymore because I do!"She suddenly shouts surprising me. Why does she sound angry all of a sudden we were finally getting along. "What crawled up your but?" I ask annoyed. "hmmp! Whatever I'm leaving!" She says storming out of the house. If I had a dollar every time a girl confused me I'd be a billionaire by now.

Still I learned that Courtney's not so bad and she helped me in my time of need, even if I'll never admit it.

Okay so i suck at writing things from kids point of view so this chapter was probably seemed more 12-13ish than a 10 year old. The next chapter WILL be better though because it'll be more towards what I'm used to writing (young teens) and from a girls POV (which I am). Was doing a chapter from Duncans POV ok?I kinda liked writing from his perspective. Let me know what you think.

-Scribble