David's POV
The walk to the bus stop is quite short and pleasant, I put my headphones in and listen to my playlist to try and wake me up. I kick a pebble around as I wait for the bus to pull into my stop, when the bus finally arrives, I climb to the back where my best friends: Blake and Adam are waiting for me. I pull my headphones out and slide into the seat in front of my friends and turn to face them.
"Hey guys" I say with a yawn.
"Ugh, why does practice have to be so early?" Adam complains rubbing his eyes. He's really not a morning person. Blake on the other hand is always pumped for practice, he is always full of energy and I never understand how.
"I don't know Adam but I'm ready to fall asleep" I say yawning again and resting my head in my hands. For the rest of the bus trip we talk about practice and all the homework we didn't have time to complete.
We get off the bus together and start the short walk to school. Adam and I are dragging our feet while Blake is practically skipping towards school. Once we make it to our lockers, we shove our school bags into them and quickly put our footy shoes on and run towards the oval. We do two laps of the oval to warm up and then coach has us do some passing exercises.
Once practice is over, I head back to my locker to grab my English books. I walk to homeroom and sit down with Adam. Blake is in a different homeroom, so we won't see each other for a few hours.
My eyes wonder across the classroom and I double back when I see an unfamiliar face. He's laughing at something Ally said and I notice that he has a really cute smile, wait what? His sandy brown curly hair flops into his eyes as he brushes it away.
The teacher comes into the room and begins the roll. She calls out "Joseph" to which the new kid raises his hand.
"Well looks like we have a new face around here" our teacher says and the new kid smiles.
"Hi, I'm Joe" he says in a slightly timid voice, when the teacher continues the roll, it gets to my name I look away from Joe and respond. It's only then that I realise that I was staring at Joe, but I dismiss it as curiosity because he's new. When the bell rings Adam and I part ways and I head to English walking behind Ally and Joe.
Once the bell that dismisses us to recess rings, I pick my books off the table and rush out of the classroom not wanting to be there any longer. It's not that I don't like school it's just that I'm not good at it. Don't get me wrong I do try but it's also hard to study and keep up with footy and my part-time job. It's just too much to do.
I head over to the football oval with my muslibar and a packet of chips. Blake and Adam are already sitting and bickering about something stupid, like usual. When I sit down with them, they turn to look at me.
"David, what's better KFC or Hungry Jacks?" Blake asks looking all too serious I frown at him and give him a look that reads wtf.
"Is this what you spend your time arguing about?" I ask him shaking my head and unwrapping my food.
"Yes David. Please answer the question" Adam says all too seriously and I roll my eyes at him.
"Definitely Hungry Jacks" I say and Adam groans while Blake fist pumps the air.
"Although I prefer the fries from KFC and don't even get me started on the chicken nuggets at Hungry Jacks" I add and Adam nods and then Blake and Adam are back to arguing again. I roll my eyes again, but I can't help but smile. Adam and Blake have been my best friends since we were in primary school, we've been through thick and thin together, I consider them my family.
"Blake" someone calls from behind and runs up to us, I glance up to see red curly locks flying around in the wind.
"Hey babe" Blake says as he pulls Chloe onto his lap and kisses the top of her head. Blake and Chloe have been dating for a year, she is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I watch them and I can't help but long for what they have. I've tried doing the whole relationship thing before but after a few weeks I end them because something just doesn't feel right. I look at the way Blake looks at Chloe and the way she looks back at him, I've never looked at someone like that.
Once recess is over, I make my way to my locker and groan. I close my locker a little too forcefully. I heard Blake chuckle and he turns to me "Italian?"
I just nod and head to class. who allowed me to do this subject? I thought that since I can speak some Spanish, Italian would be easy for me and it would look good for university. However, Italian is not exactly like Spanish and therefore I'm on the brink of failure.
I rush to the classroom door and sit next to Chiara. I don't really have any friends in this class, and she asked me to sit next to her, so I agreed. The only problem is that she is constantly flirting with me, don't get me wrong she's pretty, but she just doesn't do anything for me.
"Hey David" she says batting her eyelashes and twirling her golden locks around her finger. I just give her a small nod and open up my crap laptop, it's like three times as thick as everybody else's.
I notice Joe talking to the teacher and she hands him a quiz, I hate that stupid quiz. She gave it to us a few weeks ago and I only got 34%. I mentally groan at the memory of receiving the results, it was so embarrassing.
Mrs. Banci set us our task, so I start completing the exercises. I notice out of the corner of my eye that Joe has gotten up. He hands his quiz back to the teacher and she looks fairly surprised as do I. It took most of the class at least an hour to complete that quiz weeks ago, he sits back down and starts completing the exercises like it was nothing.
Once school is over Blake, Adam and I are playing footy on the oval. Blake passes me the ball and then I kick it towards Adam. He passes it back to Blake and as Blake passes it towards me, I heard my name being called. I turn towards the voice and then the ball hits me in the face and I stubble backwards.
"Oh shit!" Blake calls and Adam follows with an "Are you alright?" I nod and rub my hand over my head. Once they see that I'm ok they both break into a fit of hysterical laughter. I gave them both a glance before I turn back to the voice and I see Mrs. Banci smiling sheepishly at me.
I make my way towards her still rubbing my head and she scurries up to me. "I'm sorry David, is your head alright?" she says, her voice dripping with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine, is there something you need?" I ask and she gives me a lopsided smile.
"Look David I know you've been trying your best for Italian but your grades are still too low" This isn't news to me but it still feels like I just got hit in the gut by the football, I hang my head in shame. "So, I would like you to undertake tutoring by one or your classmates."
I lift my head back up and give her a skeptical look "Tutoring? Is anybody in the class even qualified to do that?" I ask and she nods and pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
"Yes, that new student, Joe. He is very good, and he has already agreed to tutor you." She stated and my lips part in surprise.
"Why would he do that he just got here?" I say, there's no reason for it.
"I don't know, maybe he wants to be helpful" She says shrugging and pushing a lock of her red hair behind her ear. I scoff in response nobody is that nice for no reason, he probably just wants to flaunt how smart he is to someone who isn't as good with school.
"Anyway, you start tomorrow after school" She tells me which snaps me out of my thoughts.
"I haven't actually agreed to anything yet" I inform her, and she gives me a small smile.
"Look David I'm not going to force you to do anything that you don't want to do however if you don't do something to help you improve your grades then I'm afraid you might not pass Italian. There won't be anything that I will be able to do for you." I let out a long sigh and I know that I have lost this battle.
"Ok fine I'll meet this kid tomorrow" I say kicking the dirt at my feet and not meeting her eye.
"Thank you, meet me at my office tomorrow after school" I nod and stalk back to my friends. I might have to do this stupid tutoring, but this Joe guy better not expect me to be his friend because that's defiantly not happening. He's probably just another stuck up nerd who thinks he's better than everybody just because he's smart. No thank you.
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Hey everybody.
Here's the second update for the story, the next one should be available in a few days.
Please let me know what you think :)