“How was tutoring?” Lux’s father asked once she walked in the door that evening.
“Ugh,” Lux groaned, rolling her eyes as she threw her backpack onto the couch.
“That bad?” He chuckled, quirking his eyebrow at her in question.
“Dad, this kid… he’s weird. And he’s a jerk,” Lux told him as she slumped down on the couch.
“Lux… that’s not very nice to say,” he warned, giving her a stern look. Lux rolled her eyes again, trying to dispel all of the annoyance that filled her just being in Louis’ presence.
“He’s the soccer kid, isn’t he?” Her father asked.
Of course he would point that out. Why was being the captain of a sports team such a selling point? What happened to morals and standards? Just because he was a good field fairy, didn’t mean he was a good person.
“Yes,” she said, trying not to make it sound so much like a growl.
“I hear he’s got quite the set of legs on him,” her father said of his ability to maneuver a soccer ball down a field.
“I didn’t actually know you enjoyed boy’s legs so much, Dad. I guess you learn something new every day,” Lux said sarcastically, quirking her eyebrow at him.
“Ha-ha,” he said dryly, narrowing his eyes at her.
“Yeah. Well, soccer sucks and so does Louis Tomlinson,” Lux said, getting up from the couch to head to her bedroom.
“Lux, I think you need to give this kid a chance,” her father said, being more optimistic than she could stand.
“Ha! Yeah right. This is the kid who pointed out, to everyone, the fact that my polka dot underwear were showing through my white pants one day during sophomore year,” Lux said incredulously.
“Baby, that was nearly two years ago,” he said, trying to look on the bright side.
“Yeah, and how about last year when he kicked my health book down the school hallway after I dropped it. Nice guy,” Lux growled and proceeded to roll her eyes to get her sarcastic point across.
“Maybe he’s changed since then,” he suggested, shrugging his shoulders casually. Her father always tried to find the good in everyone, which was a nice trait to have, but annoying because she was trying to make a point.
“Just today, he was flicking my ponytail in class, annoying the crap out of me,” Lux told him with a scoff.
“Well then, maybe you can be the bigger person and treat him with a little bit of respect. It goes a long way, you know. He’ll eventually catch on,” her father suggested, smiled at her, making sure the annoyance she was feeling was left stewing inside of her.
“You have a bigger heart than me, Dad,” Lux sighed as she grabbed her backpack and headed toward her bedroom.
“Give him a chance,” he called after her, and Lux rolled her eyes at the thought.

The next day at school, Lux avoided Louis like the plague. When she saw him, she immediately made a beeline for the opposite direction. She didn’t know why – she figured it was her fight or flight instinct. And well, her instinct with Louis was always flight. Unfortunately, she couldn’t totally avoid him. She had two classes with him after all.
She took her time getting to English class – making it just in time for the bell to ring. She didn’t even want to look up, but of course when she did, her eyes locked straight with Louis’ blue ones for a split second before she looked away again, taking her seat right in front of him. She felt awkward and displaced, to say the least. And it really made it that much harder to pay attention.
Mrs. Mackey droned on and on about The Great Gatsby, but Lux couldn’t pay attention. She was too busy thinking about the boy sitting behind her.
“Lux…” She heard Louis whisper and she silently cringed.
“Psst, Lux,” she heard him again when she didn’t acknowledge him the first time.
Lux leaned back a little and whispered, “what?” Quickly, Louis leaned his face up close to hers, which made her automatically hold her breath. It was a little too intimate for her liking.
“Do you have a pencil I could borrow?” He asked with a small smile forming on his lips.
“Uh… yeah,” she whispered back.
“Mr. Tomlinson, Miss Carver. Do you have something you would like to share with the class?” Mrs. Mackey asked the two of them.
“Uhh…” Lux stammered.
“I was just asking Lux to borrow a pencil, Mrs. Mackey. I’m sorry if I disrupted class,” Louis said, giving the teacher one of his charming shit-eating-grins that was so fake even the dumbest of dumbasses would know it. But Mrs. Mackey ate it up.
“It’s quite alright, Mr. Tomlinson. Please come prepared next time,” she said, giving him a small smile before she went back to boring the class.
“Pencil?” Lux heard Louis ask in her ear again.
Lux rolled her eyes and dug in her backpack for the writing utensil that he so desperately needed. When class was over, she caught a glimpse of what he used her pencil lead for – a full page drawing of some robot looking thing. Really? What the fuck? If this kid focused more on his schoolwork instead of drawing stupid doodles, then maybe he wouldn’t need a friggen’ tutor.
She got up out of her desk, pulling her backpack onto her back before heading toward the door.
“Lux. Hey, Lux,” she heard Louis say as he trailed behind her. This fucking kid, she thought. Seriously.
“What?” She snapped as she turned to face him.
“Jeez. I just wanted to give you your pencil back,” he told her as he held it out to her.
“Keep it. You’ll need it for when you’re not paying attention in Trig class,” she shot at him. He gave her an odd look, but just shrugged his shoulders as he tucked the pencil behind his ear and gathered up his books.
Lux turned and walked away, heading to her locker, trying to get as far away from Louis Tomlinson as possible for the next ten minutes – until she was forced to sit two feet from him in the next class.
“What’s up with that Tomlinson guy? Is he bothering you again?” Lux’s best friend Tyler asked as he walked up to her locker.
“He’s annoying the hell out of me,” she growled as she put her tattered copy of The Great Gatsby into her locker and retrieved her Trig textbook.
“What is he doing this time?” Tyler asked with a look of displeasure on his face.
“Get this. You’re looking at his new trigonometry tutor,” Lux said with a scoff.
“Shut the front door!” Tyler said, dropping his jaw open, looking completely shocked.
“I’m serious. It’s a nightmare. I don’t want anything to do with him. He’s such an ass,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“He’s cute. Really cute. Look at that butt,” Tyler said, looking down the hallway at Louis. Lux let out a scoff of disgust.
“Maybe you two can hook up during one of your tutoring sessions,” he continued.
“Tyler! I swear to God. Being gay does not give you the excuse to be vulgar,” she scoffed at him.
“Being gay does give me the excuse to check out that ass though,” Tyler laughed as he over-eagerly gawked at Louis’ backside.
“Gross!” Lux exclaimed.
“Tell me you don’t think he’s attractive,” Tyler snapped playfully, giving her a skeptical look.
“Physically, yes. Okay. But his personality just cancels that out. I can’t even. Ugh,” Lux explained, trying to shake off any desirable feeling she felt when looking at Louis’ pretty face. He had a pretty face she would love to punch.
The warning bell blared through the hallway – signaling everyone to head to class.
“I’ve got to go. I’ll see you after class,” Lux told Tyler.
“Bye, honey. Say ‘hi’ to Louis for me,” he giggled before he went his way and Lux went her way.
After the painstaking agony of Trig class, Mr. Dixon held Lux and Louis back after class once again.
“So, how’s the tutoring going?” Their teacher enquired, looking between the two of her.
“Fine,” they both said in bored unison.
“Fine?” He asked. His tone implying he wanted a few more details.
“She’s thorough,” Louis stated, sounding like he wasn’t appreciating the work she was doing for him. Her narrowed stare met his, wondering what the hell he meant by his statement. But of course, he just smirked at her.
“Great. Will you be getting together again tonight?” Mr. Dixon asked.
“Yup. Her place this time,” Louis said, catching Lux completely off guard.
“Wait, what?” She asked, her head snapping at Louis. Once again, there were the shanghaied feelings she felt before.
“Wonderful,” Mr. Dixon exclaimed and clapped his hands together.
Lux was left stunned. Her place? She really didn’t want Louis at her place.
“I’ll see both of you in class tomorrow. Have a good evening. Remember, questions one through twenty-four of chapter sixteen need to be done for tomorrow,” Mr. Dixon reminded them.
“Uh-huh,” Louis grumbled as he got up from his seat.
Lux stood up too, grabbing her backpack. She followed behind Louis out of the classroom, unable to keep her vision from staring straight at his behind, thinking only of what Tyler said to her before class. She supposed he did have an okay butt. It was quite fit.
“I’ll be to your house at six. And I’ll actually be on time,” Louis told Lux as he turned around quickly, nearly catching her looking at his ass.
“You said 6ish!” Lux argued immediately, feeling annoyed that he was holding it against her. He just gave a little laugh as he walked away from her toward his locker.
“See you later,” he said as he continued down the hallway.
“Ass,” Lux mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat up thinking about the double meaning of the word when it came to Louis.

“So… how’d you get so smart?” Louis asked when the two of them were sitting at Lux’s kitchen table that night doing their homework. Lux looked up from her work, with a glare in her eyes. What kind of question was that?
“I didn’t piss away my potential to be smart. I don’t spend my time getting drunk and getting laid. I know what a library is and I use it. I know what studying is and I do it,” she shot at him. He cocked an eyebrow at her as a smirk formed at the corner of his lips.
“You’re snarky,” he chuckled to himself.
“And you’re weird. Just do your homework,” she told him as she went back to hers.
She could feel Louis’ eyes staring at her as she tried to concentrate on the mathematical problems in the text.
“Do you have ADD or something?” Lux shot at him.
“I don’t know, maybe,” he said with a shrug.
“Why are you staring at me?” She asked, looking up at him through her eyelashes.
“I don’t know. I’m not,” he said awkwardly as he let his gaze fall back to his own textbook.
Lux dropped the subject and went back to her homework, hoping it would solve the issue, but moments later she could feel his gaze on her again.
“Seriously,” Lux snapped, looking up at him.
“What?” He asked, pretending he wasn’t just caught staring at her – again.
“Maybe you need to get on some Adderall or something so you can focus. It seems like a serious issue,” she snipped at him. He scoffed and went back to his homework, ignoring her harsh words.
She watched him as he skimmed over the text and wondered if this tutoring was really helping or just giving him another distraction in life.
“Who’s staring now?” He snapped back without even looking up at her.
“Whatever,” Lux grumbled under her breath and let her vision fall back to her book.
“I’m gonna just go home,” he grumbled as he closed his book with a loud thud, causing Lux to jump slightly.
“You don’t even have half of the problems done,” she reminded him, looking at his half written on notebook sheet.
“I’ll be fine,” Louis said, shoving his book into his backpack.
“But, Mr. Dixon wants—” Lux started.
“I’ll be fine,” he snapped, cutting her off.
“Fine,” she scoffed, dropping her protest. If he wanted to fail, she wasn’t going to stand in his way.
After completely packing up all of his belongings, Louis got up from his chair and left Lux’s house without another word. And of course, Lux couldn’t get the little brat off her mind. Not even if she tried. His abrupt exit didn’t sit right with her, but she was just certain it was just a little part of his polarized character that she’d never understand.

Notes

Review, please???