Chapter 23 Helping Out

After school let out, Roy and Celia made their way toward Celia's house. The girl in question kept stealing glances at Roy's face, noticing some… interesting tells. Out of all the emotions he could have been feeling right at that moment, the one that showed through on his face was embarrassment. Why? This puzzled Celia, made her wonder even more what her boyfriend wanted help with. Whatever it was, she hoped that she could provide acceptable assistance. Because man, seeing the normal confident Roy have such an ashamed look on his face really threw Celia for a loop.

When they finally got back to Celia's house, the whole place was silent. Celia reasoned that her parents were out. Whether that was because they were working on something or because they wanted to have a date night, she didn't know. And honestly, she didn't really mind, as right now all her thoughts were focused on aiding Roy. She turned toward him as she set her backpack down in front of the door to her bedroom.

"What do you need help with, big guy?"

Roy cringed, even going so far to suck some air through his teeth. "Uh… um…" he scratched the back of his head, clearly trying to avoid admitting what was plaguing him with all this embarrassment. "I uh…. Uh, I…."

Celia felt bad, especially seeing how unusual it was for him to be this hesitant and stumble over his words so much. She went up to him, putting her hand on his shoulder and smiling at him. She thankfully noticed some of the humiliation in his face melt away, which was a great sign for her.

"It's okay. If you need help, you need help. And if it's within my power, I will do anything in my power to help you."

Roy smiled, putting his hand on top of Celia's while he had this sort of dreamy look in his eyes. It was the kind of dreaminess that Celia only saw in very specific circumstances, and seeing it now practically sent her over the moon. She would savor this expression, put it on a pedestal in her mind so that she could remember it for years to come.

"Okay," Roy said, now sounding just a little more comfortable. "I need… I need help with my school stuff."

"Oh." Celia beamed. "Well, that sounds easy enough."

"Yeeeeaaaahhhh…" Roy pulled his hand away from her. "It's… it's not. Should be, but it's not. If anything, it's so far away from easy that not even the word 'difficult' can describe it completely."

Celia frowned. "Not really making me very confident that I'll be able to help you."

Roy cringed. "Sorry! Sorry, I just… it's difficult for me. None of the stuff that the teacher has been covering has been making any sort of sense to me." He actually looked a little worried now. "And I have a test tomorrow! I need to learn this stuff, and if I don't, I'm going to flunk! I'm going to flunk so hard that I'll be put into the hall of shame!" He looked back into her eyes, now with a pleading look in his own. "So please! If you can help me, help me. I want to kick butt on that test, prove my classmates wrong when they say I'm just a big dumb brute." He snorted. "I mean, they are right, but I don't want them to know that!"

Celia smiled. "Well… I'll try my best." She went over to her bed, gesturing for Roy to take a seat as she sat down herself. "So, what subject are you struggling in?"

Roy took his seat. "Well… technically, I'm not exactly getting A's in any of the classes I'm in. But the course that I'm specifically struggling in right now is history." He reached into his hammerspace, pulling out what looked to be a collection of crinkled and rumpled up notebook paper sheets. "We're currently studying the Koopa Mushroom War, and we need to remember what happened during the different battles and who were the different generals and all the nonsense." He shook his head. "It's a headache and a half. I'm kinda convinced the teacher covered this subject in particular just to fuck with me."

Celia frowned. "I highly doubt that." She picked up his notes. "However, I do think it's possible for you to learn." She looked down at the notes. "I mean, if you took good notes, then…"

She paused, doing a double take. Her jaw dropped at the notes that Roy had written. They differed from the notes that she had written in a very very VERY extreme way. While her notes weren't exactly the most clean or the most legible, they still made sense to her and still conveyed the information that she needed to know. Roy's? Forget it. There was no semblance of sense, no structure or any sort of coherence. The only things on the paper that actually made sense were the doodles, which Celia was pretty certain had absolutely nothing to do with the subject being taught whatsoever.

She looked back at Roy. "Dude! What is up with these notes?"

The embarrassment returned to Roy's face. "I… yeah. They are pretty messy. But… in my defense, the class is a total snooze-a-thon. I only did the notes the way I did them so that I could maintain my sanity and prevent myself from slipping into a fifty year coma."

Celia shook her head as she cast the notes to the side. "Well, I'm glad that helped you with that, but there's no way in heck they'll be able to help you get that A you want." She took some time to think about where to go from there before looking back at him. "Do you have a textbook? A history textbook, to be more specific?"

Roy breathed a noticeable sigh of relief. "I actually do." He reached back into his hammerspace, this time with both hands. Once the book was situated on he bed, he smiled. "Man. You don't know exactly how heavy something is until you take it out of your hammerspace!" He chuckled. "I feel like I just went down a weight class!"

Celia chuckled. "I wouldn't know what that's like." She picked up the textbook. "You don't remember which chapters talk about the Koopa Mushroom War, do you?"

Roy hesitated. "I… no. I'm afraid I don't."

Celia frowned again. "Okay then." She flipped to the back of the book. "I guess it's a good thing such a thing as a chapter index exists." She looked through the index. When she found the chapters, she flipped to them and started to read. As she did, she couldn't help but feel very grateful that she got the opportunity to be in Ms. Tish's class. Thanks to that woman, her reading ability had improved significantly. There was not a single word in the textbook that confused her, not one instance where she stopped and scratched her head over what a certain word was and how exactly she was supposed to pronounce it. Sure, she was still relatively slow, a fact that could have been a detriment to the two of them if the chapters were too long. Thankfully, they weren't. Celia managed to read through all of them in about half an hour. Once she did, and had gotten the information she was supposed to know locked and loaded in her mind, she looked back at Roy.

"Okay. I think this stuff is simple enough."

Roy snorted. "Easy for you to say; you have a functioning brain." He shook his head. "Damn, I wish I knew what that was like."

"Hey! Negativity won't benefit you right now. In fact…" she smiled. "I think now is a good time for you to acquire a growth mindset."

Roy blinked. "What's a…" he gasped. "Oh! I remember; this was discussed in class a few weeks ago!" He smiled. "A fixed mindset means that you think your skills are set, so you don't think you can improve. A growth mindset means you think you can grow and improve!"

"That's right!" Celia patted him on the arm. "That's exactly right buddy!" She smiled. "And I think it would be good for you to have a growth mindset. Would make the challenges you face in life a lot less overwhelming."

The smile on Roy's face fell. "Well… yeah but, I'm not smart. I know this for a fact; I took an IQ test that told me I have an IQ of only 93." He shook his head. "I highly doubt that's gonna change anytime soon."

"Hmm. Maybe." She closed the textbook, snapping it shut. "But that doesn't mean you should give up! All that IQ means is that learning is more difficult for you. It doesn't mean it's impossible." She leaned in closer to him. "You can do this, Roy. I know you can. You can do all sorts of amazing things, and just because you don't believe in yourself doesn't mean that learning about the Koopa Mushroom War is off that list."

Roy wore a pensive look. "I… guess you're right." He grinned. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right!"

"There you go!" Celia opened the textbook back up and looked at the things Roy needed to learn. "Now, trying to memorize the textbook word for word doesn't seem to be the way that you'll be able to learn about the material. So, I have a proposal." She smiled, actually feeling a little excited about doing this task. "Ms. Tish taught me all sorts of study skills in her class. And one of the methods she taught me…" Her grin grew bigger. "Is flashcards!"

"Flashcards?" Roy took the time to consider this. "Hmm. That may help me out."

"Good!" Celia went over to her backpack, unzipped it, and pulled out a stack of blank index cards. "Why don't we give that a try?"

…

About an hour later, the two of them had a whole stack of flashcards. On the blank side, they had written down the names of battles and generals and other things of note. On the lined side, they had jotted down how exactly those things had significance. Celia was fairly confident about these cards, and she had a feeling they were going to provide Roy with a lot of help. He had, after all, made them alongside her.

"Okay." Celia cleared her throat. "Let's give these babies a try." She picked up one of the cards, one that said "The Battle of Cremini." "Can you tell me why this was significant?"

Roy stared at the name for about a minute. "Uh… it was fought on the River Cremini in the Mushroom Kingdom…" he scratched the back of his head. "And… and it was the first battle where the Mushroom Kingdom army used… ice flowers?"

"Close." Celia flipped the card over. "It was the first battle where they used super leaves."

"Super leaves…" Roy smacked himself on the head. "See, I should've known that." He shook his head. "Stupid."

"Hey, don't talk like that. You're learning, not stupid."

Roy nodded. "Right. Learning." He sat back up. "Hit me with the next card."

Celia held up a different card. "Who was General Portabo?"

Roy's face lit up. "Oh, I think I got this!" He snapped his fingers while closing his eyes. "He, uh… he was the general who lead the battle of the Fungi Pit, which was the first victory that the Mushroomers had over the Koopa army?"

Celia beamed. "Yes! That's it!" She grinned at him. "You're doing really well!"

Roy beamed too. "Me. Doing well." He puffed out his chest. "Man, that feels good to say."

Celia giggled and raised another flashcard. "What was the Power Trapper?"

Roy's face fell. "Oh. Ohhh, shoot!" He scratched his head. "I… I don't know."

"You can get this, Roy." She leaned forward. "It was made by the Mushroom Kingdom to…"

Roy struggled to figure this out. "It… it was made by the Mushroom Kingdom to… to store power ups for future use?"

"YES!" Celia surprised herself with how loudly she said this. "Yes! Yes, that is exactly it!"

Roy's face lit up. "Awesome!" He gasped. "Does… does this mean I'm actually learning something!"

"I think it does!"

"Man!" Roy laughed. "That feels good! Like… really good!" He grinned some more. "I feel like I can do this! I feel like I can actually pass this test!"

"I think you can too!" Celia giggled. "See, a growth mindset goes a long way!"

"That it does," Roy replied.

Right at that moment, Celia heard the front door opening. She turned, seeing her parents come into the house. After Ruby yawned, stretching her arms up to the sky, she came into Celia's room.

"Hey kiddos. What are you up to?"

"Celia is teaching me things with flashcards!" He grinned. "And she's really good at it too! I'm actually learning things!"

"That's awesome!" Ruby said. "I'm really happy about that." She looked over at Celia. "Are you having fun too?"

Celia thought about this before nodding. "Yeah. Yeah I am." She hadn't thought she would enjoy this activity as much as she has been. But… but there was something about this whole thing. Teaching someone something… actually imparting knowledge and wisdom to another person… it made her feel good. Much better than she ever imagined that it would make her feel. It… it was almost like…

"Well, I'm glad." Ruby grinned before turning back around. "Dinner should be ready in a minute." Celia opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Ruby turned back to her. "And don't worry; I'm not the one cooking!"

Celia put her hand to her chest. "Thank the Star Spirits." After Ruby gave her a sideways glance, she left. This just left Roy and Celia alone again. "Well. What do you say we do a little more?"

"I'm all for it!" Roy's face fell. "I just… I'm just a little worried." When Celia gave him an inquisitive look, he explained with a pained voice. "How do I know I'm gonna remember all this stuff tomorrow for the test?"

Celia took sometime to think about this before smiling. "Well, what do you say we put some of it in song form? If it's catchy enough, then it'll make remembering easier!"

Roy's eyes grew wide. "Hey, yeah! That would be cool!" He giggled. "Plus, it sounds like it could be fun! I could be a composer, just like Ludwig!" He paused after thinking that for about a minute before sinking into the mattress. "Damn, I can't believe I'm actually excited to be like any of my brothers…"

Celia laughed. "It's all good." She got up and snatched a sheet of paper out of her backpack. "Let's get right into making that song, okay?"

Roy nodded, and together, they got right to work. Celia couldn't help but noticed that she felt really warm inside as they did this. This warmth only continued as they finished and went to eat dinner. Teaching something… it came naturally. And… it made her happy. Really happy.

Yeah. Really happy.