Being top of the class isn't all it's cracked up to be. I mean, I'm vain, so I sort of needed to be. Plus the fact that I need scholarships. Anyways, with my intelligence level, being so high, it is often difficult to find someone of equal, or at least almost equal, intelligence. As the saying goes, geniuses live a solitary life. Or something like that.
Also, people are intimidated by my smarts, and so they tend to excerpt their powers on me. Often resulting in the classic battle of brains against brawn. This is real life, not the movies. Brain loses. Long story short, I've ended up with a lot of bruises and doing a lot of homework that wasn't mine. And between their homework and mine, work, and housework, I don't get much sleep.
Also, teachers, no matter the subject, want me to help students who...aren't quite there. So this detracts from my class work time, meaning I have more homework. And ends ups often giving me extreme headaches. But I am polite and answer the halfwits questions and explain molecular physics the best I can to their limited intelligence.
One such halfwit is Talulah Carter. She is the head, or captain I mean, of the Girls Basketball team and the volleyball team, which are both the best in the state, six years running, and her sister was captain before her, and her brother was the equivalent on the football and basketball team. In short, she is the main 'jock' of the females. She is rude, arrogant, and impulsive. She just barely is holding her head above the C- watermark in Calculus, the only class I share with her. She is rich; her father owns the Carter Leather and Shoe Company, meaning she is practically famous in the town, and a total snot most of the time. But I had to admit, she is gorgeous. Her mixed African and Mexican heritage gave her smooth skin the color of coffee and cream and rich, voluminous black hair with enough wave and shine to turn heads everywhere. She has thick, soft (or at least they looked that way) lips surrounding perfect white teeth she flashed at any boy who looked her way. Or teacher; she is a horrible kiss-up. She has the build of a Greek goddess, I swear. She is a perfectly sculpted nineteen year old with a firm, flat stomach, thick, muscled legs and arms, a great rack, and a wonderfully large, firm ass. I'll admit, she is the subject of many of my midnight fantasies.
But I knew that's all they will ever be. She would never want a pale, pudgy nerd with glasses and crooked teeth, muddy hazel-green eyes, short frizzy brown hair who was socially awkward and weird. Plus when you compare my economic status to hers, there was totally no way. I made most of my own clothes, worked a shit job to pay for rent, the phone bill and food. I had ditched my parental units the over the summer as soon as i was "legal," so I was on my own.
But one day, while working on a particularly complex equation, Mr. Galthrup, my calculus teacher, came up to me, tapping me on the shoulder and breaking my train of thought. I tried to pull the fragments together and solve the equitation, but the answer was lost to me now. I sighed and turned to the aging man.
"Yes?" He scratched the back of his neck nervously and I inwardly grimaced as dandruff fell onto the shoulder of his sweater.
"Ms. Teppers, may I talk to you at lunch today?" I nodded and returned to my math problem, and he, understanding he was dismissed, creeped back over to his desk. Seeing as lunch was after fourth hour, I simply lingered after class as the other students rushed off to the hell of the lunch lines, or to their lockers to grab their sack lunches. Well, most students. Talulah remained as well. I had a bad feeling about this. A short while later a tall dark man walked into the room, and my bad feeling deepened. Somehow offending the biggest, and most wealthy, name for several counties in any direction, was not a good thing.
"So," the big black said, turning to me. I self-consciously tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and pulled my books a little tighter to my chest. "You're Ms. Teppers." He looked my up and down, and I blushed under his scrutiny. "You're awfully short for a senior." I frowned and reined in my temper.
"Excuse me, but I am a junior. And my height is irrelevant to my capability." I managed so say tersely, my hand twitching at my side. His eyebrows shot up and I let a small smirk slip between my lips, before pulling it back in. "So may I inquire as to what you wish to talk to me about? I have places to be." I said flatly. Talulah snorted beside her father.
"You? What, got a chess club meeting? Or gotta go meet up with Terence?" She sneered. Terence was the local dweeb. No social skills, always sick, thick, gummy glasses, horrible fashion sense, the whole ten nerd yards.
"If you must know," I griped back, "I have some homework I have to finish up, something you apparently don't know much about."
"I finish all my homework at home!" She snapped, stepping foreword and crossing her arms.
"Yeah, but you still don't understand the material, so what good does it do you?" I quipped. It was at this point that her father stepped forward. I had forgotten about him.
"Which is why I am here to talk to you. What is your opinion of Talulah?" the way he said her name, it sounded like a rebuke, and Talulah seemed to take it as such, stepping back and looking down. I hesitated as I debated my reply.
"I believe..." I started slowly, weighing my words. "That she is determined, and...reasonably intelligent. However, it is probable that her brain is...heavily right oriented. Meaning her understanding in subjects such as English and history are likely higher then it is in, say, math, languages, and sciences. She also lacks the focus needed to fully comprehend subjects, such as calculus, that she does not find relevant or interesting. It is quite likely that she barely passed in previous years, and, math and science being classes that build on each other, now she finds it difficult to understand the present material." I only spoke of her academic qualities really, seeing as my opinion of her...other habits and behavior seemed irrelevant in this case. He seemed to debate my response, but seemed satisfied by it. Talulah looked at me somewhere between confused and relieved, probably that I didn't insult her, or that I didn't rat her out.
"As you mentioned, she needs help with her grades, calculus especially. Her grade is falling below the requirement, but she needs to get it up if she wishes to stay on the team, and pass this class. I would like you to tutor her." My jaw dropped a little before I caught it.
"Me?" I asked. Mr. Carter raised an eyebrow before Mr. Galthrup cut in.
