"How do we fall in love harder than a bullet could hit ya?" —Bishop Briggs.

••

I must be getting mad.

Is this what happens when you feed on oily junk food, particularly the deep-fried bacon and chicken nuggets from McDonald's? Because I am not myself at all. I am convinced that my brain somehow got clogged with grease.

Mr. Todd is causing my heart to pound in ways I have never experienced before, and my cheeks seem to be on the verge of catching this room ablaze—the gasoline being the unfamiliar proximity between us. Being this close to him is playing tricks on my hormones and I think accepting his assistance was one of the worst choices I have ever made. I feel weird and it's creeping the life out of me.

His eyes are drilling into mine and though I am fearful of him seeing the vibrant color in my cheeks, I can't seem to look away. I am falling into his honey-colored abysses, drowning in the deep capacity they hold and getting lost in the foreign feelings they are evoking within me.

Yes, I am getting mad. It is official.

He puts his palms flat against the arms of my chair, upholding his steady scrutiny as he drops his voice to a low pitch.

"You didn't see half of what I just did, did you, Kelly?"

I blink my eyes, finally breaking our stare-off as I look down to regard the perfectly knotted tie around my neck.

When did that happen?

I look back up, the warmth in my cheeks now drastically overheating. "N-no, sir. Could you go again?"

I wait to hear a derogatory retort, but he surprises me by sitting upright and putting his hands on my tie. "Kelly."

"Yes, sir?"

"You know I hate repeating myself, right?" He begins to loosen the tie again while I nod to his question, my chin brushing against the smooth skin of his knuckle.

"Then why is it that you always make me have to?" He lifts his gaze to mine again, staring directly into my skittish orbs.

This man is way too confident when it comes to eye contact and I can't keep up. Stop looking into my eyes, goddamnit!

I feel the same heat crawling its way onto my face again, and I drift my eyes to a stack of books on the table behind him, counting how many they are to keep the blushes away.

Keep this up Kelly and the man will think you're crushing on him.

"I'm sorry."

"I hate apologies. Which is why I prefer you to not put yourself in the position to make them. Look at my hands and don't look away."

I do as he says, and he begins to speak while showing me the ropes.

"Now the thick end of the tie should always be on your left. And it should be two or three inches lower than your desired finishing position. Did you get that?"

Nope.

"Yes."

"Don't be dishonest," he rebukes, and I tense up. Does he read minds? "I did say earlier that I hate having to repeat myself, but I am getting paid to repeat myself, so if you don't understand something, it's best you say so. Ask me to repeat, don't say yes because your eyes are a dead giveaway."

I nod subtly. "Okay, sir... I didn't understand."

"Okay. The thing is, this side..." He lifts the thick end of the tie. "Should always be lower than where you want your tie to stop. So, say you want it right on your navel, it has to be lower than that position so that after it's knotted, it won't be too short."

Oh. I get it now.

"Understand?"

"Yes." I smile a little, and he nods curtly. "Good, now watch me."

He begins to bring the thick end across the front of the narrow end before passing it horizontally behind it. And, I have now completely zoned out from there.

Something is wrong with me. My thoughts tend to get easily distracted by the most trivial of things, and at this moment I am finding an odd fascination with the embroidery pattern on the tie, wondering who actually sat down and made all these tight knots with a thread. God, wasn't that tiring? How many have this person actually made? And how can they get the patterns so accurate all the time? Wait, do they have a machine that copies them like a photocopy machine?

After a long mental trip to the moon and an in-depth analysis of the theory that dinosaurs still exists, my mind returns to the task at hand to see Mr. Todd pulling the thick end through the horizontal loop he created before snugging it down, forming a neat, perfect knot. Adjusting the tie by holding the knot in one hand, he pulls gently on the narrow end with the other to get it firmly in place.

And once again, I didn't get that.

He pulls his hand back from me and places them on his thighs. "Caught that?"

I purse my lips, and he sighs.

"You didn't. That's alright. I will email you a few videos that you can watch when you get home. Put your email address here." He reaches for a green stick note from his desk and passes it to me with a pen.

I quickly jot it down, feeling a bit insecure about my handwriting as I pass it back to him. He looks over it but doesn't comment on my awful penmanship as he slips it between a book on his desk.

"Ensure you learn it tonight, and tomorrow I want to see your tie perfect and neat around your neck. Is that understood, Ms. Young?"

I nod my head.

"Don't nod your head at me, Kelly."

"Yes, sir." I bite my lip.

"Mr. Todd?" A voice comes from behind and I look around to see Mr. Crooks, the principal, standing at the entrance to the cubicle. He looks from me to my educator with his chunky brows knitted in curiosity. "Is this an afternoon session?"

I subtly pull my chair away from Mr. Todd's as he presents a response.

"Yeah, I am assisting her with her math assignment," he reports composedly, and Mr. Crooks nods his head respectfully as the creases in his forehead smooth out.

"Okay, that's good. I am glad you're seeking assistance, Kelly-Ann. Perhaps you will do better this year." He states, and I resist the urge to correct him for the hundredth time.

My name is not Kelly-Ann, but Mr. Crooks likes to believe it is—regardless of the fact that he has a copy of my birth certificate attached to my file in his office. Can't tell whether it's old age or he's just suffering from some form of amnesia. Kelly is so much shorter, why would he want to put himself through the hassle of adding an 'ann'. Come on, sir.

Mr. Crooks is a man with weight and looks to be in his early fifties. He has round, gray eyes and his hair is even grayer, a few of the strands missing in the center of his head; perhaps that is the area his brain had left through.

I try not to laugh at my mental joke, smiling faintly instead as he returns a bright one, gesturing with his wrinkled hand. "Well, I won't interrupt further. Carry on then." And he turns away and walks off—leaving the staff room.

I look back to Mr. Todd who reaches for the math assignment from the desk with a soft sigh. "I've had a long day and need to head home soon, so let's get this dealt with."

I nod my head. "Yes, sir."

••

I regret it.

I regret taking the help of the demon.

I should have known that you can never make a deal with the devil. It never ends well.

Mr. Todd has reached his ultimate peak of asshole-ness. He's being mean, he's being rough, and he keeps yelling at me. I am on the verge of crying like a two-year-old; I don't handle embarrassment well.

"Kelly, we just went through a similar question at the top and you're telling me that you don't know how to solve this one? Listen, don't anger me. Use the damn rules I gave you."

I swallow the burn in my throat, fiddling with the end of my tie as I try to find the next step in solving this god-forsaken equation. Who was it that had made the subject Mathematics? I am convinced that the individual was just plain miserable and unhappy with his life and wanted to ruin everyone else's.

Well wherever you are, congratulations, you have successfully made me irritable.

By now all the teachers have left, and I can see the sun as it slowly sets, presenting a sky of beautiful technicolor as the earth radiates with an orange hue. The yellow rays pour through the cream curtains that are slightly swaying in the afternoon wind, forming slim beads of light from the window to the desk that we are sitting at.

However, half of the sky is portraying a contrast in weather as nimbus clouds cluster in one spot, giving the message that we can expect rain tonight. I need to get this over with so I can catch a bus and head home before it begins.

"Are you going to take all evening? Do you plan on sleeping here tonight? Because you're not leaving until you get it. Solve the equation, Kelly. We went through so much together and you're at the last one and you're spending over an hour to solve it. What's worst is that it is the easiest one."

"It's not," I mutter, my voice cracking as tears threaten to spew over. Oh God, please don't cry in front of him, Kelly. Don't give him the satisfaction.

"What?" He narrows his eyes lividly, and I rub my arm, feeling the sharp grazes of the goosebumps on my skin. I can't tell if it's the air-conditions, the chilly evening air, or the stern glare coming from this man that's making me this frigid.

"It-it's not the easiest..."

He sighs and presses a hand to his forehead before looking back to the paper. "The question is quite simple. Use number four as your reference, if you can't get this one then I must have been wasting my time here all evening."

My teeth are almost clamping together from anxiety and my eyes feel like there are needles in them as I stare down at the sheet, my thoughts, and mind completely blank.

I hear a sigh from him as he shakes his head in disbelief. "You have got to be kidding me..." he mutters under his breath, and that's where I officially break.

A bulb of tear escapes and slaps the paper, forming a wet, circular blotch in the center of it, and I reach up to wipe my eyes with the back of my trembling hand. Mr. Todd leans back in his chair silently, crossing his arms as he watches me.

"What's wrong with you?"

I bite my quivering lip hoping it'll stop the leakage, but it becomes a failed attempt when I feel new paths of warm streaks sliding along my face.

"Kelly."

"You're being too rough," I whisper, my shoulders quaking unrestrainedly.

"Rough?" Shock is laced in his tone and I nod my head.

"Yes. You're making me nervous..."

"Kelly, you haven't seen me when I am rough yet. So get some thick-skin because if you don't pass my end of year exams then you'll know what's rough."

I press a palm to my face, feeling as it becomes wet with salty fluid. "I just can't do it. It's difficult."

"It's not. I wrote down the rules at the top of the sheet; use the rules."

"I am trying."

"Listen. I can't just flat-out give you the answer, you need to work for it. How else will you learn?"

I remove my hand, using the side of it to dry my eyes as he blows his cheeks out.

"Say I am X and you're Y," he starts. "And Y hates X to the highest degree. What is she going to do whenever she's around him?"

"Um..."

"If you don't like someone then what are you going to do the minute you see them?"

"Avoid them?" I ask, and he nods.

"Exactly. So you're going to subtract yourself from the situation. So then what is Y going to do?"

"Subtract herself from X?"

"Yes. So it'll then be, X subtract Y. Put that down."

I grip my pencil and write the equation down, and he nods to the page.

"Solve the rest."

I start to scan the question, trying to find the solution as he rests his elbow on the table, placing a hand to his cheek as he inspects me.

"Use real-life situations to help you. See if that works."

I blink away the liquids blurring my vision and start to work out the rest. Luckily, he gave me a huge lead just now, so the remnant parts of the equation aren't as difficult. I come up with a solution before sliding my book across to him.

"Is this the answer?" I timidly ask. He looks over it briefly before nodding his head, relieved.

"Yes. Very good."

I compress my lips with a soft sniff, and he sighs as he presses his back against his chair, gazing at me quietly for a while. His perusal makes me writhe in my chair, not liking the attention.

"You'll need to speak with your parents about an after-school class. You need extra assistance. You're logging behind at basic elements and if you want to do better this year, you have to work harder."

"I know," I whisper.

"You didn't do bad though. But you need a lot more improvement. Ms. Carter went fairly lenient by giving you guys such basic algebraic expressions, and for you to still struggle with these simple fundamentals, it calls for great attention."

I have no idea what to say, so I begin to pack my resources up instead, happy that I can finally head home to cry in my shower. I am embarrassed. I am not dumb, it's just that I tend to grasp things a little slower than normal people. But I really am trying.

Without meeting his gaze, I get up from my seat. "Can I borrow the females' bathroom?"

"Yes. It's right next to the one you hid in today."

I turn away and make my way there. The feminine lavatory is just as compact as the male's, with just a sanitary bin in the corner being the only difference. The staff room really does need renovation.

I stand in front of the stained mirror and stare at myself for a while, feeling nothing short of disappointment. Why is it that I always struggle in every section of my schoolwork? I am starting to believe that I really am slow.

I turn the pipe on and wash my face before drying it with a hand towel and throwing it away. I leave the bathroom to find Mr. Todd standing and closing his leather duffel, a chocolate diet bar perched between his lips.

I reach for my knapsack off the chair, fixing it onto my back and adjusting the straps. "Thanks for assisting me. I'll be leaving now."

He just nods his head without looking up, and I roll my eyes subtly. The least you could say is 'have a good night' after making me cry my eyes out. Bastard!

I bob my head awkwardly as I turn away and make my way out of the staff room.

Camber High looks extremely spooky at nights. Without kids busying in the hallway, the aisle looks ghostly and longer than normal. Half of the ceiling bulbs aren't working properly and the few that are, are quite dim and don't offer much lighting. I am terrified.

Truthfully, I am not a coward, it's just that Derrick had told me this tale about a dead girl walking the school at nights, and a few kids have reported that they did, in fact, see her for themselves. I don't know if the myth is true or not, but I prefer not to find out.

I begin my journey down the quiet corridor, clutching the straps of my bag as my feet clunk against the slippery floors. Don't think about ghosts, don't think about ghosts. Think about happy things, happy places, happ—

A tapping sound interrupts my mental mantra, and I stop in my tracks as my body become rigid from fear. The noise had resonated from the end of the hall, but I see nothing insight that could be the source of it. As I am about to shake the apprehension off and continue walking, the sound comes again followed by a loud bang. I quickly turn away to take the opposite direction when I bump headway into a sturdy chest.

I grimace and look up, meeting the vacant eyes of Mr. Todd.

He stares down at me with a blank face, his duffel bag perched onto his shoulder, and I try to hide how elated I feel to see him right now. Normally, his presence would annoy the living being out of me but tonight, he feels like a saving grace. Hell, maybe even an angel.

"What's wrong with you?" He asks flatly.

I shuffle on my feet. "Um...I thought I heard something—" I jerk a finger behind me as the tapping noise resonates from the direction again, causing us both to turn our attention to the location.

Pean exits one of the classrooms on the right with his cleaning resources, his earphones tucked into his ears as he bobs his head to the music that he's listening to, going about his business unmindfully.

Oh. Okay.

Slugging down my embarrassment, I look back to my educator who's gazing at me with a dead expression.

I gulp. "Uh, well..."

He carelessly passes by me, and I chew on the skin of my lip as I follow after him. I glance around with unease while scuttling close to his back, and he looks over his shoulders before focusing ahead with a subtle shake of his head.

I don't care what he thinks of me. After I make it out safe then I will think about all the humiliation I faced today.

He suddenly slows his strides down and I almost trip on his heels, leading me to quickly grab his waists to support my balance, my facing pressing hard against his back. He gazes down at me from over his shoulders, and my cheeks heat up as I hastily remove my hands and pull away from him.

"Sorry..." I sputter.

He doesn't offer any form of a response as he proceeds to walk. I stay close to him but not as close as the first time, not wanting what happened just now to repeat itself.

Granted, his back did feel strong and sturdy, and how on earth can someone smell that immaculate after spending a long day at work? I am convinced that he took a quick shower before leaving or perhaps he's an alien. I'll settle with the latter.

He opens the large doors to the outside and we step out into the cold night air. To my misfortune the rain has begun, hitting the pavements with thick heavy droplets. I frown in disappointment, glancing beside me to see Mr. Todd making his way around the corner of the threshold to the parking lot.

Fucker! The least he could have done was ask me if I wanted a ride! He doesn't know how to treat a lady; he will never get a girlfriend if he keeps this up.

I sigh. I guess I will just have to make a run for it. I position my palm above my head and quickly sprint out into the rain, my short legs moving speedily as I cross the pavement to head to the school gate.