Not what I expected

Keisha’s POV

Like Rowan said, the math teacher announced that we were going to have a test during the next class and it would not be just a test, students with the highest marks are going to be paired with students with the lowest marks so they could tutor them after school hours and help them prepare for finals which was still months away.

I was really hoping that Rowan and I got paired together, though he wasn’t as bad in math as he claimed to be.

I rushed home after school so I could finish all my homework on time and then tutor Rowan. A socks got thrown in my face as soon as I shut the door to our house. I groaned as I yanked it away from my face.

“Ew, this stinks.” I quickly threw it on the floor and covered my nose with my hand. I looked up and saw Justin about to throw the other sock at me so Robin could catch it.

“Don’t you dare.” I warned in my elderly sister's stern voice.

“Oh, you are back.” Justin said as he threw his sock on the couch, Robin ran after it pounced on the couch.

“Mom said you should order pizza for lunch. Can you be fast about it though, I’m starving.” Joshua said as he came out of the kitchen with a piece of bread in his mouth. 

I looked around the living room, clothes and shoes littered everywhere. I groaned in frustration and marched towards my room. Justin and Joshua were the most annoying human beings ever. Don’t get me wrong, I love the twins so much but at the same time I wanna tie them up to a tree so I could have some peace.

“You two better clean up before mom comes back or you'd be dead.” I shut the door hard behind me and changed into a pair of sweats before ordering pizza.

After eating, I busied myself with my assignments, ignoring my brothers’ noises until my phone rang. It was an unsaved number, I stared at my phone for a while before picking up the call.

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Rowan.”

I immediately flew to my feet as I heard his voice. I lost my voice for a while and all I did was just smile.

“Are you there?” I heard him ask.

“Yes, yes I am. Um, hi, Rowan. What’s up?” I said with an awkward laugh. This wasn’t how it was meant to be. I thought he was going to text me. I wasn’t prepared to hear his voice on the phone.

“I was wondering if you are free right now, I mean for the tutoring I spoke to you about this morning.” 

“Right now?” I looked over at my unfinished assignment, it wouldn’t be due until next week so I had time.

“If you are not free then it is okay, we can do it some other-“

“Oh, no. It's fine, I’m free right now. I’m totally free. In fact, I’ve been sitting here doodling all day.” I shut my eyes and mentally slapped myself for saying that. I couldn’t control anything I did whenever it came to someone I liked.

“Cool, I’m coming over then.”

“There is no need for that.” My brothers would totally tease me about this for as long as they lived, they knew I liked Rowan. “I will come to your house, it’s more quiet there.”

It was just a tutorial, tell me why I wore a sundress, shiny lip gloss, and my hair was perfectly pulled into a big bun on my head. Well, you know what they say, never be caught unfresh, especially by your crush.

The door opened revealing Jake, the smile on my face dropped as soon as I saw him. He scoffed as he looked at me from head to toe.

“Aren’t you doing too much to impress that fool?” He said as he stood in front of the door, blocking me from entering.

“Excuse me?” I scoffed too. That was a very rude thing to say.

“It’s none of my business anyway. But, don’t come to me crying at the end of it all.” He said as he stared at me intensely.

“What does that even mean?” I asked him, my brows furrowed in confusion.

“You’ll see.”

“Keisha, you are here.” I heard Rowan say.

Jake immediately walked back into the house, giving me space to walk through the door.

“You look great.” Rowan complimented as he shut the door behind me.

“Thank you.” I smiled at him, “um, I brought some of my textbooks. I figured it you’d need more than the one we use in school if we want to get things done faster.” I explained to him as I handed the three big textbooks to him.

“No wonder you are at the top of the class.” He muttered as he opened the textbooks to see some highlighted texts and sticky notes with calculations on them. “Cool, I can’t wait to study with you.”

To my disappointment, Rowan insisted that I should tutor him in the living room where Jake sat all through. He sat there doing nothing but pressing his phone which shouldn’t be distracting, but I was so distracted.

I had told him to excuse us but he insisted that was his house and he had the right to sit wherever he wanted to.

That jerk! 

I thought Rowan would ask us to go to his room but it seemed to me like he enjoyed being watched by Jake.

After an hour of another episode of ‘not what I expected’ at Rowan’s house, I left after giving him another excuse saying I forgot that I had assignments that were due tomorrow.

***

The test was as easy as eating a pie, I cross checked all my workings for the second time to be sure I hadn’t left any question unanswered. It was only ten minutes since we were given the questions and I was through with it.

I looked around the class, everyone busied themselves with their work. I saw Jake at the back seat looking like he didn’t care about the test, he played with his pen and eventually placed his head on the desk.

I shifted my gaze from him and caught Rowan staring at me from the corner of the class. He smiled at me and while I blushed and gave him a little wave before quickly looking away. I stopped myself from smiling too hard as I picked my test paper and headed to the front to submit.

Phoebe 'I-frown-at-everything' Smith hurried from her seat and rushed to the teacher’s desk to submit before I did. She gave me a frown before walking out of the class.

She had always considered me her academic rival, always competing with me but I didn’t care about that. I studied because I loved to, not because I wanted to beat someone in a test or exam.

I placed my paper on Mrs Baldwin’s desk, she glanced through it then looked up at me and smiled.

“Way better than I expected.” She said as placed it on top of Phoebe’s own. I smiled back at her before walking out of the class.

Not long after, Rowan went to submit his paper. I had deliberately waited outside for him.

“How was it?” I asked him as soon as he came out of the class.

“Cool.” He replied as he slung his bag over his shoulder. “I have P.E after this so I will be heading to the gym now.”

“Alright, see you later.” I said as I watched his back while he walked away. Were we making any progress? I honestly didn’t know. Apart from the fact that he came to my house out of the blue and asked me to dinner when we had not spoken any real words to each other since we met at camp last summer.

Rowan volunteered at a sleepover camp for boys and girls aged 7-12. I had been going there since I turned 15 and I never expected someone like Rowan to be there. We never actually really talked, he only talked to me when necessary. Girls were always drooling over him while I watched from afar.

And now, everything had changed. He was talking to me like we had been friends for a while. Not that I didn’t like it, I just wanted to know if he liked me too, even if it was just a little bit.