[A/N: Another 3k words. This time featuring shit tones of Horikita.]
——————
Heylel was almost asleep in his bed when his phone started ringing, putting his hand over he pulled from the table next to his bed.
[Horikita: It seems Ayanokoji has convinced the trio to join.]
"Ah," That reminded Heylel—he had to work on that too, instead felt tired after the study group and exercising and had decided to just crash.
[Heylel: How?]
[Horikita: He enlisted the help of one girl from our class.]
[Heylel: It was Kushida wasn't it?]
[Horikita: How did you guess?]
[Heylel: I was going to do the same thing, well good night then.]
[Horikita: Hold on. Since Ayanokoji did the work doesn't that mean your blackmail carries forward?]
[Heylel: Fuck off.]
[Horikita: Crude, well as expected really. Then do this and I will not waste more of your time.]
"Ugh," Heylel groaned, and reached for the light switches, turning them on he sat up on his bed.
[Heylel: What?]
[Horikita: I am sending you pictures of the material I have prepared, you will review them and tell me your opinion.]
Then several pictures appeared in their chat—bitch did not even ask for permission.
Still, he looked through them and…"Fuck, fine."
He pulled up his contacts and called her.
"Hello, Heylel. It is good that you responded so soon." Her speech was clear and concise as if she wasn't even tired yet.
"Horikita, do me a favour and pull out the short test's question paper," He asked her.
"Why?" She asked even as the sound of paper shuffling was heard in the background and Heylel ignored her till it stopped.
"Have them yet?"
"...Yes," She hissed, "I have them in my hand."
"Now, look at the level of questions," He instructed and a voice came back, "Yes and? I suppose most of these questions are quite easy. Do tell me if you think I should lower my material's level to—"
"They failed at this level, Horikita."
For a second there was silence in the call then a sigh came from her.
"I see. It is safer to assume that they did not leave anything in the last two years of Junior high then."
"Yes," to whatever that meant.
"I can not prepare this much in so little time…what is your room number?"
Heylel didn't like where this was going, "Calm down woman, calm down. You are coming over to a boy—"
"Shut up, help me with this and I will not extort you over your grades."
"403," He was going to need a caffeine injection for this. And he doesn't have any at home, maybe Horikita did, "Do you have coffee?"
"Yes, why?"
"Please bring it, I don't have any in my room."
After the end of the call, it took fifteen minutes before the bell on his door started ringing.
Walking over he opened the door, and there she stood in casual clothes with a bag in her hands.
Stepping in, she took off her shoes and placed them to the side, before giving him a small bow, "Thank you for having me." Her mannerisms felt alien to him, still, it was not as if he disliked them.
"Come on in," He beckoned her inside and then pulled the table from the side and placed it in the middle of the room. It was a weird thing to him how short it was, people were supposed to sit on the floor for this but preferred the Western style—ones that used chairs.
Sitting down at the table the first thing she did was place a thermos on the table. Seeing it Heylel asked, "Did you bring your water?" Which earned him a confused stare, "Your coffee."
"Oh," Leaked out of his mouth as he turned to his kitchen, "Thanks, let me grab two cups."
Bringing them he set them down on the table as Horikita spread her material on the desk. Seeing it all, he took a seat in front of her and it was only then that he noticed a small blush on her cheeks—she was embarrassed entering his room, it was something he found deeply amusing but kept to himself, lest he be stabbed.
"So, let's begin shall we?" He said as he opened the bottle cap and poured himself her coffee.
With a nod, she pulled open her list with all the topics for midterms.
First up, she opened the mathematics discussion, "Multivariable equations…"
It took time but one by one they moved down the topics, pretty much starting from scratch. Heylel even wrote down the basics of solving an equation to how the quadratic formula was derived, etc, etc. It was an hour-long process and halfway through the coffee was depleted.
Which caused Horikita to pull out two small pouches of instant coffee she had bought with her.
Then came Sciences and Heylel wanted to kill himself halfway through—given that he had to write down explanations of distance and displacement it was understandable. Worse, he had to assume that their 'students' were the type to stick a hand up their ass and call the resulting shape a circle.
And last but not least, English was cancer, he had no idea how to explain anything, yes he could write and speak it better than Horikita but he ultimately had to defer to her judgement on them.
By the time they were done, it was past eleven o'clock. And so Heylel was nearly knocked out when he wrote the last word.
Seeing his condition Horikita asked him, "You seem very tired today, what did you do after school?"
He didn't know why she was asking, but he saw her gathering her newly minted material and that was good enough, "Basketball, study group and a workout for a couple of hours."
"You seem to have a busy day," She said as she also leaned back, she too was tired now.
"It usually is only just the workout and then it is some studying, but today I walked over half the campus so that is pretty much it," He admitted now sprawled out on the floor.
"I see," She nodded, "Tell me Heylel why do you stay around Kouenji?"
"He's a friend, I guess," Heylel just shrugged from the floor.
"Hmm, it seems so, well I have taken up a lot of your time, I will leave now," She said getting up.
Heylel nodded and pulled himself up as well, "Let me drop you off."
A smile graced her lips as she walked up to the door and out on her shoes, "Unnecessary but thank you nonetheless. It was enjoyable discussing academics with someone who understands them."
Heylel walked over as well, "Hopefully your study group goes well."
That made her glum, "I hope so too. Only if Kushida didn't try to poke her nose in it."
Hearing her he frowned, "Any animosity between you two?"
"Would you like to meet someone you hate?" She asked him as he stood up.
"I suppose not. Still, see you tomorrow Hoirkita."
She nodded and then she was gone.
Seeing her go, he locked the gate, turned the light off and crashed straight into his bed.
Next, when he opened his eyes, the alarm clock was going berserk. Putting it to sleep with a press of a button he stood up, went on with his morning routine and before he knew it, he was in school again.
Walking into class in the morning he was greeted by a surprise. "Good morning Heylel," Horikita called out to him before setting back into her book.
This was the first time she had ever greeted him voluntarily, maybe last night had broken down a barrier between the two. Though truthfully he didn't care, simply reciprocating it and taking his seat. Though in terms of her, he was lucky, Ayanokoji who came after wasn't. Not only did he not get a greeting, he didn't even get a single expression, just a silent and sullen Horikita ignoring him. That all lasted till he was finally trucked off by Horikita to their study group.
Well, he wasn't involved so he was happy, until a group of three girls including the brown-haired one he had been teaching yesterday appeared in front of him.
"Hey, Heylel," The one with the hair dyed pink spoke up, pushing the girl from yesterday to the front, "Mori here still needs help with her English you know?"
"Yep, she's in big trouble you know," The other one was Hirata's girlfriend who had a wide smile as she stood behind the girl from—Mori, as she stood behind Mori.
"Ye-Yes, Heylel! Please help me," She had a dusting of red on her cheeks again, but she was cute enough to make it work. Regardless, he didn't have reason enough to refuse her, he wanted to but he had received help from his classmates as well.
"Fine," He said and turned to the other two, "You two as well?"
They shook their heads exchanging a meaningful gaze between them.
He nodded and stood up, once again, Kouenji gave him a devious stare, but ignoring him he moved to the library with Mori.
Spotting an empty seat, they occupied it, and soon Heylel pulled his textbook from his bag. The girl sat opposite him and followed suit.
"So, last time you did your editorial questions right? Well this time I think we should do a few reading comprehension questions, they are all important," He said and she nodded like a good little student.
Opening his phone, he looked through his gallery but he stopped mid-way through when his eyes landed on snaps of material they had made yesterday. It was good material that went top to bottom on everything the exam covered.
Opening the thing he turned his phone around and handed it to her, "Solve it and ask anything you don't understand, okay?"
She nodded and got into solving the material that had been provided to her as Heylel sat back and opened his Japanese Literature textbook, he was stuck here, so he might as well.
Both of the kids were neck-deep into their work when the sound of someone slamming down dragged their attention away. Heylel saw Sudou was up on his seat, his teeth bared; he was glaring at Horikita.
From across the room, in other words, not his problem.
More than content to ignore the situation, Heylel turned back to his book but the girl, Mori nudged at him. Her fingers pinched the fabric of his blazer gently drawing his attention. He looked at her and she showed a concerned look, "Look, Kushida is there and Sudo looks like…"
This girl was telling him to stop Sudou. Ah, fuck.
Ugh, he mentally groaned, this girl…if he didn't move now he would look like a jerk and then she would spread it to class. Also, what about Horikita, you know the girl he is looking like he wants to beat up?
With a sigh he picked up Mori's cloth pencil case, pulled his phone into his pocket, stood up and started walking over to the seven-person group—the bickering duo, the idiot trio, Kushida and the femboy of the class whose name he forgot.
Others were looking at them too, but no one moved.
Slowly Sudo's volume was rising and so was his anger, "...Studying is useless. Aiming to become a pro basketball player will help me a lot more."
The bull named Sudou already looked pissed off to Heylel and naturally since he was dealing with Horikita he was bound to get even more pissed off.
"Incorrect. Once you learn to solve these kinds of problems, your entire life will change. In other words, studying increases the possibility that you'll solve the problems you face. It's the same principle as basketball. I wonder if, so far, you've been playing basketball by your own set of rules. When you struggle in basketball, do you run away from it like you do from studying? I doubt you take basketball practice seriously. You're a natural troublemaker, someone who always causes a disruption. If I were your adviser, I wouldn't let you on the team."
"Tch!" Hearing her his anger rose a notch higher and leaned down to grab at Horikita—"Sudou!" A familiar voice dragged his attention away, "Catch!" An object was hurled at him, at his head. In a hurry, he moved away from Horikita, his arms pushed out to deflect the object.
And due to his sudden movement his leg snagged in the legs of the table sending him tumbling backwards onto the floor.
He did have to object in his hand though, even though he was on the floor with legs stuck between the table and his seat like a monkey doing tricks, he had it.
This turned all the eyes to Heylel, who not caring one bit walked over to Sudou who looked up at him from the ground and grabbed back the pencil case. "Are you an idiot?" Heylel asked, hitting someone or grabbing their collar in the open might get him expelled.
Then he looked at Horikita, who had a small blush on her cheeks, "You too. Can you not try to agitate them?"
She looked befuddled, wronged almost, as she pointed at the idiot trio, though her voice remained steady "They can't even do linear equations. I thought we were overdoing it so I didn't bring 1st year junior high material, I bought second year and onwards. They failed at that. I am sorry I was frustrated too, okay?"
Heylel was stunned too, they were not idiots, they were down right retarted. Still, with a sight he offered Sudou, who was looking at him stunned, a hand and he took it. Pulling the red head up he helped the fuck get into this seat.
"So," He said, taking a seat beside Horikita and in between her and Sudou, "Look, she didn't bring the first year material today. How about you all come here tomorrow? She will come with it and she will come with a different mindset. Is that fine with you three…" He looked the trio and then the fanboy "…eh four?
"Sorry dude," Sudou was the first to object, "She is horrible. Just insult after insult—" Heylel turned to her. "I just said the truth," She crossed her arms. Another sigh left him then he turned back to Sudou, "Give her another chance okay? She will be fine next time. It's like a new player in basketball, they suck at the start and then get better. It's her first time teaching—"
Hoirkita cut in, "Excuse me it is…" Only to instantly receive a glare from Heylel that made her stop, he looked ready to rip her head off if she didn't. After which he turned back to the idiots, "As I was saying, Sudou you gotta give this a chance okay?"
He bit his lips, "Fine. Only because you, Ayanokoji and Kushida want me to." Heylel smiled at that. But for now Sudou and the other two stood up and left.
Now that five people were left at the table he turned back to Horikita who was giving him the evil eye. She was sullen, angry and pissed off. Her breathing was strong, her eyes narrowed into slits and her lips were a straight line. Without a word she pulled up all the marital on the desk.
Seeing her ready to leave Heylel took the case and handed it to Kushida, "Can you return this to Mori," He pointed to the girl, "There she is."
"What are you going to do?" She asked as Horikita walked away from them.
"Chase her," Heylel followed.
Ayanokoji leaned back as he watched them, 'Definitely not a pawn.'
He was ready to wrestle down Soudo if he was ready to raise a first, grabbing collar was tolerable to him to develop, maybe that way Horikita would see if something was wrong with her 'absolute way' of doing things. But this might also not be bad, Heylel had suppressed her, somethings she would despise, hate even.
Well, he would see where this would go and what was that about 'we' when it came to making material?
Unfortunately, he was not the only one who saw—students from class A, B and C were all here and D was already showing cracks. And while students from A mocked, B pitied, students from C drooled.
By the time Heylel caught up to her she was half way down the stairs to the first floor. She had essentially ran down here.
Still, he had managed to pull ahead and block her advance with his hands.
"Calmed down yet?" He asked.
"Get out of the way," She hissed, her eyes glaring daggers at him. At least she was talking.
"And what has you so riled up, princess?" Heylel instead pulled closer, keeping his hands up to bar her descent.
"As if you don't know," She snapped.
"Please calm down, you already knew we were dealing with retards who scream 'tits and ass' everyday." He tried to reason, reason is what she liked right?
"That doesn't give them the right to be retarded okay? To not understand the most basic of things! And you protected them! You said I was bad!?" She stomped the stairs she was in.
Her outburst drew the eyes of the few students still moving about.
Tentatively placing a hand on her shoulder, and while she didn't reject it, he felt she was a hair from it. "Let's go find a quiet spot."