"Okay Bodhi, it's Japanese lit, you can do this!" Bodhi said to himself, trying to sike himself up in order to pass the mock exam he was about to take. He was even wearing a headband that his mother had made for him that said "Do your Best!" in hiragana. Something Bodhi could only read after studying for a week.
He might truly well be fucked.
"The characters are…46 basic ones? Dia-whats? Diacritics? 71!?"
It was at this point Bodhi knew he had to get help. Standing up from his desk, Bodhi made his way to his bed and promptly fell back, letting the frustration mounting dissipate into his mattress. Due to his parent's firm stance on him having to be a student-athlete, Bodhi had always had good grades and found that school while not coming easy, was always manageable if you just did the work. It was really that simple, and more often than not sometimes the knowledge would overlap with itself making it easier to study.
This Hiragana shit was something that didn't come easy.
And Bodhi hadn't even begun Katakana and Kanji yet.
Safe to say he might not make it on time. Unless he could get help from someone, so with his mind made up, he would go to the peer tutoring on Monday and try to find someone who could help with his dilemma, there was no practice so Bodhi could attend this one.
"Okay! Let's try again!" Bodhi said with renewed vigour that lasted all of five seconds before he gave up and went to bed. It was a school night, after all, it being Sunday.
~Break~
*RIINGGGG*
The school bell rang signalling the end of the day, so Bodhi began to make his way to the library to find somebody to help him with his Japanese literature. It was a do-or-die situation after all!
"Hey, Hamada! Wanna grab a bite with us?" one of his classmates asked him. Bodhi believed his name was Wakabayashi.
"Nah, can't mate. I need to go and study with one of the peer tutors," Bodhi said scratching the back of his head, a little bit embarrassed. "Japanese lit is killing me."
"Oh, bummer Hamada. Good luck studying though, I think one girl in our class is a peer tutor? She might be able to help you," Wakabayashi mentioned off-handed as he and a few other of the boys in the class made their way out.
"I wonder who it could be?" Bodhi muttered to himself as he walked out of the classroom, but not before smacking Kunimi on the back of the head to wake the useless lump up. "Bell rang sleeping beauty, head home mate."
All Bodhi got a response was an angry glare and a wave of the hand shooing him away before he put his head back on the desk.
…
Bodhi decided then that he would come back to the classroom before he left to make sure Kunimi actually left.
The library was situated on the first floor towards the back of the school, being a little bit of a trek, Bodhi didn't know if he would make it on time and be able to get a table. Surely there would be lots of people coming to get help and wouldn't be just him and whoever the peer tutor was right?
Right?
Safe to say Bodhi would end up jinxing himself as he found himself to be the only one in the library besides the elderly librarian lady he saw as he walked in.
"Hello, ma'am. I'm looking for the peer tutoring. It is happening today, right?" Bodhi asked, hoping she could hear him, she did look like she might not be able to.
"Don't be thinking rude things about me sonny!" she snapped back, "And yes peer tutoring is happening today, it'll be the last day too! Absolute shame nobody makes use of the club. She's the only member left since the third years are graduating and no second years are members. She'll have to find a new club due to the school's rules" The librarian finished.
"…Okay? So, they're at a table in the back then?" Bodhi asked, not really needing to know anything she had just said.
"…Past the first two rows and near the window at the back. And it's Mrs. Fuji to you sonny!" the now-named Mrs. Fuji said through narrowed eyes. Young men are so disrespectful these days, they should enjoy the rambles of an old lady!
"…Thank you, Mrs. Fuji," Bodhi told her, bowing quickly and making his way to the table that housed the lone peer tutor. It would suck to have to find a new club, wouldn't it? I mean most people would have started to make good friends with the people in the clubs, seeing as school had been going on for a few months now. Bodhi wished them all the best he guessed. As long as they could teach him that is.
If they were a useless tutor, they shouldn't have joined the club in the first place.
"Uh, Hello? I was hoping you'd be able to help with my Japanese lit?" Bodhi asked the person as they came into view. "Oh, it's you!"
The tutor raised her head to the voice calling out to her, this would be great! Her first peer that she would help! She had been the last member of the peer tutor club since the third years all left to focus on their futures and there were no second years in it. Maybe she would be able to keep the club going if she could prove herself capable.
She wasn't really much good at anything else after all. No real athletic bone in her body and none of the other clubs had interested her and since Aoba Johsai had a mandatory club participation rule for first and second years, she had to choose something and that's when she came across the peer tutoring club. The older girls welcomed her with open arms, saying it would be good to have a fresh face.
But sadly, it didn't turn out quite like she thought it would. See Hana Nakano has two things she's really good at, studying and organizing. She thought she would have the best of both worlds by joining this club, but it turned out that it was just a façade. The upperclassmen just wanted a hangout spot for them to all get together, since none of them really wanted to join other clubs they made up their own in the peer tutor club. Something that till now had zero people come for tutoring since the older girls never posted anything about it and coincidently got the laziest supervisor teacher in the school to monitor it. Hell, all the paperwork to show people were actually using the club was forged!
And now, since the club was below the allowed member limit with the clubs needing at least 5 members to be officially recognized, meant her club was destined for disbandment.
So, she would give her all to the first and last student she would teach! But her hopes were immediately dashed as she recognized the tall boy in front of her. After all, he was the cause of so much trauma for her, the girls were relentless in teasing poor Hana!
"…Peer tutoring is closed…" she shamelessly said.
"But it's only 3:06?" Bodhi replied, checking his watch. "The announcement said you guys are here until 5:00 pm?"
"Curses!" Hana muttered. "Fine, as the last peer I will ever tutor in this club what can I help you with Hamada."
"Awesome Nakano! See! I remembered this time!" Bodhi said, sitting across from Hana at the table pulling out his notebook and pencil case. "I need help with Japanese literature. It's my literal kryptonite!"
"…At least you remembered. And is it only Japanese lit you need help with? No other subjects?" Hana asked curiously.
"Nope! That's all I need help with, the other subjects are easy," Bohdi confidently said. Those subjects he was prepared for after all.
"Okay then, to start taking this test so I know where you're at," Hana told him, passing Bodhi a sheet of paper over the table.
"Where'd you pull that out of?" Bodhi asked, seriously, she just pulled it out of thin air!
"…Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to," she replied quickly.
Bodhi knew he wouldn't get an answer out of her so he turned his attention to the paper in front of him and promptly paled at the sight of it.
This wasn't going to be good.
~Break~
6
Hamada only got 6 questions right.
6 out of 50
Hana didn't know if she should help Hamada.
He might be a lost cause. Even the basic hiragana questions he was struggling with. Hell, the only questions he got right came from the multiple-choice section.
"…Look…I know it's bad, but I need to pass! We have a training camp after exams, and I need to be there. So please, Na- no Sensei Nakano! Teach me please!" Bodhi said, prostrating himself before her.
Hana just looked on hopelessly at the boy in front of her. She knew she could probably do it, but with exams in a week, it'll be close, too close. She would no doubt have to help him outside of this one session. Seeing as how this was the last day of the club.
"Do you Bodhi Hamada promise to do everything I say, and I mean everything," she started, stressing the last word.
"I do sensei!" Bodhi replied in earnest.
"Alright, first off you will do this!" she proudly exclaimed, rapidly writing something down on a sheet of paper. "Since no clubs will be running this week and mine is disbanding, the time you would have off for your club is now mine…Be prepared Hamada, you'll wish you never asked for my help…" Hana told him.
Bodhi who was getting progressively more scared started to think to himself.
Is the training camp worth what she'll put me through?
Bodhi could only come up with one response to that line of thinking.
HELL YES!
"Yes, Sensei!"
"OI BRAT KEEP IT DOWN! OR THIS LOAFER HAS YOUR NAME ON IT!!!"
Author Note:
Sup people! Couple of things I want to say. This chapter as a whole is a bit of a inbetweener and set up sort of. I'll probably have one more of these and potentially some more interactions with Kiyoko, uncertain of that.
Also, if you can't already tell what I'm planning to do with Hana, you should by now.
Scheduling wise I'm going to try and have chapters out every 3-4 days, depends on if I like what I write or don't. Like this chapter, I rewrote it Four times. I just couldn't get things right to how liked them but this is the finished product that I liked the most so…Enjoy!
One more thing, when I can I'll probably throw in AI art when I can, just some tidbits here and there.
Daedalus19 checking out!