Shelly goes to Alex's classroom after school hours. He stays in his class for hours studying after school. School allows students to stay and study until 6pm but very few students do this. Especially since it is rainy nowadays. Alex studies and does his homework in school and goes directly to the restaurant where he works part time. He does not have any time to study after working till 10pm and he reaches his apartment at 10:30 PM.
"Alex, I heard that you are ranked at the top for two years and that you are working part time. My parents are looking for a tutor for me. Can you take the job?" Shelly says all this in one breadth without giving time for him to think.
It took him a few seconds to understand what she meant. Alex was barely making ends meet and saves a meagre amount every month for emergencies. He plans to get into the Imperial College which has the strictest standards for enrolment. He can get the qualifications for the college but cannot pay the fees so his goal is to take take to first rank in the nationwide examination or else he will have to look for other colleges which would give him full scholarship.
But he is troubled by the fact that even if he manages to get scholarship of Imperial college, he would need a lot of money for expenses such as dorm fees, books and other essentials which would require about 40k credits per year. He needs to spend extra money on food as well.
He earns about 15k per month from part time jobs. 12k from delivering newspapers and handing out pamphlets. 3k from working as a waiter at night. It takes about 9k for food, rent and essentials such as toiletries, school projects etc. 2k goes in electricity and water plus maintenance. Some more money goes for transportation. He takes a bus at night.Alex wants to walk home but walking alone at night near his apartment is asking to be robbed.
He had to pay some fees in first year before he got the scholarship and he got a fever last year which consumed most of his savings. Right now he had about 6k. He has 20 months left which means he can save up to 48k before leaving the school.
It would leave him with 8k after he spends 40k on the various fees. But he should be buying a luggage bag to carry all the things he has now. He carried only a plastic bag with few clothes when he moved out of orphanage. He bought a shoulder bag for school books but it wouldn't be enough for all other things. He needs to buy few clothes as well, he couldn't wear the school uniforms in the college. Plus there is the fact that people would spend more then they thought they would when in foreign places.
This means that he would not have any savings after he gets into the college. He could also encounter unpredictable things like getting sick, robbed etc. This made him feel uneasy. He was thinking of risking it by taking another part time job right after school and sleep 2 hours less to study at home. He sleeps 6 hours everyday which is acceptable but reducing it to 4 hours may cause problems. It is a very big risk as not may damage his health and worse, lose his ranking which will shatter his dreams of getting into college and the school may even cancel scholarship.
Tutoring others is a very good solution as he can revise and study while tutoring but who would hire a school student, so Alex didn't get the thought of tutoring.
"Will your parents agree?" Alex questions her. He is fairly confident in his studies but not in teaching.
"Yes they already agreed." Shelly answers.
"Really?" Alex was surprised by her answer. But soon thought that this was an elaborate joke. He plays along as there is nothing he can do. He could scold her for making fun but 'what if she is saying the truth?' he thought.
"How much are you willing to offer?" Alex asks.
"3k per month" Shelly states. It is lower than market price but it was higher than what Alex had expected because most tutors are college students while he is still in school.
"Alright then. I will tutor you after school everyday till 5:30pm. I will also be present every weekend and holiday." Alex plans to give it his all.
"Okay then let's go." Shelly says and walks towards her home with Alex following her.
They reach an apartment, this apartment is quite good. It was targeted for middle-class people. They reach Shelly's home which is in 6th floor. Shelly knocks the door.
"Mom it's me."
A middle aged lady opens the door. She is Lina, Shelly's mother. She is a bit chubby but you can see that she was beautiful when she was young. She smiles at Alex.
"Are you the one who is going to tutor Shelly."
"Yes ma'am." Alex answers.
"No need to call me ma'am. You can call me as auntie." Lina says. Lina has a good first impression about Alex. It was due to the fact that he was respectful and has good manners.
Lina asks him to call her auntie to close the distance between them. She sees Alex as a potential son-in-law so making him call them sir or ma'am will make it harder to change in the future once it becomes a habit.
"Mom, we will be in my room." Shelly says and takes Alex to her room. Shelly's home has three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and 2 bathrooms. One of the bedrooms is being used as a store rooms.
Alex and Shelly start studying in her room. Alex was a bit nervous in the beginning as this was his first time in anyone's house. He doesn't know if there are any elaborate manners one has to follow when in other's house. He wants to use the washroom but is afraid that it would be considered rude and so he just sits where he is told to sit. He starts teaching her the lesson that have been taught in the class.
Lina watches them from the door and nods in appreciation.
'At least he is teaching. He is polite and well behaved too. Good. This is the first time I have seen Shelly this focused on studies.'
Alex has passed the first test without having any knowledge about it.
Author: I do realise that 1000 words per chapter is a bit short so I am slowly increasing the word count.