Colin's pov
I never saw Poppy after the incident in class, because she left as soon as the bell rang. But not before she took the study guide out of the trash
Later at the library, Dan and I split up to search for books for our French project. I was moving through the aisles when I found Poppy seated down in one of the tables. A lollipop stick was hanging at the corner of her mouth, and I tried not to fixate on it. The last thing I want is for her to think that I was staring at her lips.
As if she could read my thoughts, she looked at my direction and reached up to take the lollipop out.
"What are you doing here?"
"To bowl like everybody does," I said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes. I raised one eyebrow. "Aren't we supposed to have a study session today?"
She blinked at me. "You are here to study? That's strange seeing as you tossed my study guide, I worked so hard preparing, into the trashcan."
Now, she was just trying to gaslight me. I was definitely not going to allow her win our little tug-of-war. "You still haven't given me a reason why you were a no show yesterday and before you give an excuse, we have each other's number. You could have at least texted. I waited an hour for nothing."
She actually had the decency to blush. "I was caught up making the study guide and I- I forgot. If you waited that long, you could have texted me."
We both knew that that was a flimsy excuse. "So, you were just in the mood to punish me? Got it."
"Ok, I am sorry. It was my fault. You know what? Why don't we start over and consider this our first lesson?" she said.
A moment passed before I approached her table slowly and sat right across from her, sprawling on the chair.
"You didn't tell Miss Anthony I bailed yesterday. Why?" she looked at me surprised.
Why didn't I? I wasn't even sure of that myself. "I just have no interest in getting you into trouble," I said after a few seconds. Poppy hummed and puts the lollipop back inside her mouth.
"Colin, have you seen the--" Dan said while approaching our table and stopped talking almost immediately when he saw both of us. "Oh, hi Poppy," he said and Poppy waved to him before she went back to studying. He gave me a questioning look and I shrugged, because I honestly wasn't sure of what was happening.
Dan gave me a wide-eyed look. "Are you guys studying? I am sorry to interrupt."
"Yes, we are," I said before I could stop myself.
"If he was actually here to study, one would think that he'd show a little more effort than man spreading in a chair," she said and Dan started laughing but covered it up with a fake cough.
Sarah came around the corner then, carrying a mountain of textbooks. "I think I have found everything regarding--" She stopped short when she saw us. Dan reaches out and steadied the tower of books before they could fall over and Sarah dropped them on the table. "What is going on here?"
Poppy grimaced and if Sarah were anything like Dan, I guessed that they were both going to have a field day.
Poppy turned towards me. I caught her irritation before she smoothened out her expression. "Are you sure you really want to study?" she asked.
"Are you hoping that I say no?" I met her gaze evenly. "Why else would I be here?"
Sarah grinned brightly. "You know what? I just remembered that my dad has some very important guests visiting today. You know, mayor's daughter. Comes with a lot of responsibilities."
"I just remembered that my mom wants me home early to help her with dinner," Dan said. "Also, I need to help her clean the basement."
Sarah stifled a giggle. "That means we should definitely head out then." She wiggled her fingers as a goodbye and both of them takes a step back.
Poppy gaped at them and muttered, "Unbelievable." She calls out to them just as they were heading out. "Wait, what about--"
"No, it is fine poppy," Sarah said cheerfully. "We would be terrible distractions. Besides, we'll see each other at that thing this evening. Talk to you later. Bye."
Poppy sighed and said in a loud whisper, "My friends are the worst."
That will make two of us.
Just at that moment, I received a message notification which was from Dan.
Dan: ☺ ☺ ☺
I painstakingly looked back at Poppy watching me with arched eyebrows. There was no going back now. I said I wanted to study, so that was what we were going to do. I was still pissed at her for not showing up the previous day, but it was what it was. At least, she was here now.
She took out the rumpled study guide and smoothened it out. I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty, because I could tell she worked hard on that.
She sighed and said, "I thought we could start by doing a recap of what we have learned in class. Is that okay with you?"
I shrugged. "Whatever you think works best." I reached for the study guide and flipped through it idly. To my surprise, I could see that there were little doodles in the margins. They were quite funny. I tried not to laugh and did my best to control my expression, but I guessed she could see right through me.
"Ignore those," she said as she reached over to take it back and I allowed her without protest.
"I thought I needed that," I said.
She blushed. "Since I made it in a hurry, I didn't really proofread it. I will make the corrections and give it back to you. Just make sure it doesn't end up in the trash again." Before I could say something in reply, she continued. "Okay, do you want to start with Lord of the flies or To kill a Mockingbird?"
I felt like pulling her leg, so I said, "Never heard of those."
"You have got to be kidding me right now," she said exasperatedly. I'll choose then. Lord of the flies it is."
She took out her tablet from her bag. "I thought we could begin with the analyses of the chapters. Since we already read this book in the previous grade, I am sure it would be easy to recognize the themes and underlying messages. Which means we can afford to give the book a more detailed analysis. So, what are your thoughts?"
I furrowed my brow because I had only watched the movie and I told her so.
"You have only watched the movie? Just how did you pass to this grade?" She closed her eyes and breathed out slowly and I felt like she was counting in her head to calm herself down. "Okay, so I'll give you a quick recap. At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of school goys. At first with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. Then as they try to build their own society, order collapses and the hope of being rescued seems far--"
"Yeah, I got that from the movie," I said interrupting her and she looked like she was about to explode and took deeper, calming breaths.
"Ok then," she continued. "Let's move on to the book analysis. The major conflict in lord of the flies is the struggle between Jack and Ralph. The fight for who…" As she was speaking, I could see that she was very animated and passionate about what she was saying. I saw it the other time too when we had a discussion about Half of a yellow sun. I leaned forward and before I could stop myself, I said, "You must really like English."
She stopped talking and looked at me furiously. "If I didn't, I wouldn't be here tutoring you, would I? How is that relevant to this conversation we are having? And stop interrupting me."
"Well, it can't be a conversation when you are the only one talking."
That made her throw her hands up in exasperation. "Well, I am the only one talking because it seems like you never have anything worthwhile to contribute."
I placed a hand on my chest. "Ouch, that really hurt my feelings."
"What makes you think that I care?"
This was fun. "Do you have any hobbies?"
She set her shoulders and said, "Look Colin, if you feel this is a waste of time, you can always meet Miss Anthony. I am sure she can make other arrangements."
"I never said this was a bad idea. I am just curious about what my amazing tutor likes. Would it hurt you to get to know me at least?"
"We'll never know," she said under her breath, but it was loud enough for me to hear." I can assure you that the book is far more interesting than me. Just read the first few chapters. It'll be fun."
I acted like I was considering it. "Ok. I'll try," I said after a few seconds.
"Great. I am sending you a link right now where you can get an online copy." I heard my phone get a notification. Who knew her first text to me would be a book link?
I bought the book and I started to read, but I couldn't help but feel sleepy. I took my eyes off my phone and I saw that Poppy was writing down something in her journal. As if she could sense my gaze, she looked up at me.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"This is so boring." I replied.
"This is actually one of the better books in our curriculum. Maybe if you weren't so stubborn--" The bell rang at that moment, which meant our time was up.
"That's my cue," I said as I picked up my bag. "Why don't we start of from where we left off tomorrow?"
She looked like she was about to say something, but then decided against it. "Fine then. Tomorrow."