Next week came and it was finally time for Melody’s tutoring session. She hasn't really spoken much about it with the teacher, except for a few words here and there before the class started, updating her on the exact dates that she would have to be there and what room she would be in. she was going in completely clueless on who and what exactly she was going to be tutoring for. But there, she was, sitting by a small table in one of the side rooms attached to the library. Room 4, that was the room Mr. Frian mentioned. Tuesdays and Thursdays. She looked at the open door in front of her for a moment, waiting for her tutee to come, but eventually, she figured she could keep busy by doing homework she was going to do at home anyway. She got started on whatever she thought she could drop right away in case they had come late. Spanish homework was nothing but memorization of words anyway. She could work on that until someone would come. Melody kept track of time on her phone as she worked, each round of vocabulary words she would check the time. 2:45 to 2:50. 2:50 to 3:00. They were at least thirty minutes late. She checked the time again. She made sure she had the right day of the week. She wondered if they were ever coming. Why was she still there?

In the midst of Melody occupying herself with homework, a figure moved from the corner of her eye. Most of the time it was other students, the book club members mostly going in and out of the library so she thought no mind to it. Except someone was knocking on the already opened door. She looked up to see a strange boy by the front of the door, propping his hand and leaning against the door frame. Melody couldn't recognize it was someone she vaguely knew years ago. It was Mateo.

“Hey,” Mateo said, slowly stepping inside the room. It was like he was being dragged in by some unknown force. Melody stared at him with her eyebrows raised in confusion. He didn’t have to come in there if he didn't want to. But then something clicked, Melody remembered him somewhat while in high school, he would always get in trouble for the stupidest of reasons. She had remembered that he was the one responsible for setting off the fire alarm five times in a span of a week. Her eyes locked in on his face when she saw him in the hallway, the same day he came back to school for being suspended.

“Um… hey,” Melody hesitantly responded. She had hoped that he didn't want to start anything weird with her. Let it be some joke or prank he and his friends made up. She never really liked him or the people he hung out with. They were bullies, and didn't care who they had to hurt to have fun.

“Are you waiting for someone?” he asked, stepping forward a bit, “Or are you just studying alone?”

“I’m waiting for someone,” Melody sighed, going back to her work. “I’m supposed to tutor them, but they haven't shown up.”

“Damn,” Mateo said, half smiling. “Do you know their name at least? Or what do they look like?”

“Nope, I know nothing about them,” she said, not even looking up from her work to look at him. At first, she thought that she would hate talking to him, but it turned out, she didn't really mind talking to him at all.

“Dang,” Mateo said, smiling while clinging to the door. “That sucks.” There was a moment of silence, Melody continued to work while Mateo looked at her awkwardly. Eventually he spoke up again. “Do you like tutoring?”

“Hmm?” Melody said, noticing that he was still there. Usually most people would get bored and leave her alone by now. But he was still there, asking her questions. “I don't know yet, it's my first time being a tutor,” Melody pauses, thinking her words carefully. “I’m actually trying to save my grade,” Melody stops working and contemplates her actions. Why did she say that out loud, especially to a stranger like him? Because he talked to her, asked a bunch of questions about what she’s doing there. It was completely out of character for her. Melody quickly snaps out of her cringe moment, and goes back to working, trying to ignore Mateo. Unfortunately, that made him seem even more interested in her troubles.

“Really? I never expected someone like you to struggle in a class?” Mateo said, pushing himself away from the door and towards her. Melody doesn't even make eye contact. “What class are you struggling with?” Mateo asks but with no response, as Melody looks away from the door, completely shutting herself off from the outside world. Mateo could only look on at Melody working away at her work. After another minute or two, Mateo quietly leaves the library, leaving Melody alone in the library to do her work, waiting for someone who played her like a fool. Each moment goes by, the angrier she gets, even though her tutee just left her not too long ago.

The next tutoring session, whilst Melody was digging around in her bag for some work to do, she heard a loud slam on the table. She jumps, looking up to see a math packet in front of her. She looked further, finding the same boy she met the other day, resting his hands on the table. Her eyebrows raised in confusion.

“Yeah, um… Can you help me with that?” Mateo said, slumping down into a chair at the table.

“Help you with what-” Melody pauses. Something clicks as she smacks her head in her own embarrassment. She didn't know that he was supposed to be the one she had to tutor. “I. AM. SO. DUMB!”

“I don’t really think so,” Mateo said, pulling out his phone. “You can help me out with that packet there,” he said, beginning to type.

“Help you with what? I’m not gonna help someone who’s going to be on their phone,” Melody said, with a bit of sharpness in her voice, controlling her anger. But Mateo didn't seem to mind her frustrations. 

“C’mon!” Mateo said slumping farther into his seat, inching his phone closer to his face. “You know, help me finish that packet. I need it done before class tomorrow.”

“Why are you here?” Melody said, frustrated at the insinuation that she was going to do his work for him. He didn't look like he even cared to be there, so why waste both of their time.

“Ms. Librarian ratted me out to Dr. Ballard as soon as I left the last time, so now I have to stay,” Mateo said, in a mocking way “for realsies.”

“Well,” Melody said, just tired of the situation. “I’m not going to ‘help’ anyone who can’t even bother to look at their own work at least once,” she said, going back into her work.

“Fair enough,” Mateo said, completely indulging himself in the videos on his phone. And so it was, Melody focused on getting her work done, occasionally looking at her phone to check the time all the while Mateo played around on his phone, watching videos loudly in order to get a reaction from Melody, and texting his friends how shit it is to be stuck after school in the library. It was like that until their time to be there was up, Mateo would quickly leave the room, proud that he wouldn't get told off the next school day. And Melody would quietly pack her stuff up and leave for the bus stop, trying to forget the blatant disrespect that just happened not too long ago.

Melody thought that by then, Mr. Frain would find another student for her to tutor, because to her that boy that came the first two times didn't even want to be there. She didn't want someone that acted like that again. But sure enough Melody saw Mateo approach the room as soon as she sat down. She sighed, she knew it was going to be like the day before.

“Okay,” Mateo said, smacking a packet on the table and sitting down across from Melody. “I’m actually supposed to do work,” he took out a notebook and pen from his backpack. From Melody’s view it seemed like the only thing he had in there. That backpack was really thin.

“Are you being serious right now?” Melody said, hesitant on working with him on the chance that he would make her do his work.

“Yeah, can you please explain the first problem for me?” Mateo said, flipping a page over to reveal a series of questions broken up with a gap of empty space.

“Okay,” Melody sighed, scooting in her chair close enough for her to see the page while still keeping her distance. She explains how to do the first question, going in detail and even writing down the steps on how to do it on a spare sheet of paper. After making sure that he had listened to it all, she handed him the paper she wrote on as a makeshift cheat sheet. “You can try to do the next one by yourself,” she said, scooting back over to her spot and started pulling out some work to do. “Tell me if you need any help.”

“Sure thing,” Mateo said, eyes lingering at her before looking at the paper to put pencil to paper. Melody could only listen on as the gaps of silence would be filled with scratches of the pencil onto the paper, from either Mateo or himself. She would sometimes peek up at Mateo, focused on the work in front of him, and formed a slight smile. She couldn't believe that he was actually working away. After several minutes, the packet slid in front of her, she flipped through to realize that he did the next five other problems by himself. “Can you look at that to see if I did anything wrong?”

“Yeah,” Melody said, working through the problems herself to see if any of his steps were amiss. All the while Mateo would look on, peering over to see if he spotted any errors in his process. Time passes, and after Melody checks all the problems, she quickly slides the packet back to Mateo. “It looks good, good job!” she said, smiling at him. Mateo is taken back at the change of emotion, but returns a smile back.

“Thank you for your help teaching,” Mateo said, flipping between looking at her and the packet. He is fidgeting with his pencil.

“Oh,” Melody gasped. “My name is Melody by the way. I don’t know if I even said that,” Melody said, almost sounding sorry for not introducing herself sooner. But for Mateo, his face sunk down a little bit. He didn’t want to let her know that at one point they knew each other. Or in fact, he knew her.

“Thank you Melody, and no we didn't properly introduce ourselves. I’m Mateo.” he said, scooting in, still fidgeting. Melody quickly gives Mateo a smile before going back to her work, Mateo doing the same. 

After a while, Mateo scooted over to Melody, pointing at a problem that he had some trouble with. Melody freaked out looking at Mateo being just inches away from her. To her he was breaking her personal space. But she acts as though it doesn't bother her, and addresses the math problem.

“Okay,” Melody said, looking over to a large whiteboard laid by the wall next to her and grabbed it, bringing it over and covering the table. She then removes any random sheets of paper from underneath before grabbing a marker from her bag and pulling the packet closer. “Let's go through this carefully,”she worked through the problem, explaining her process throughout. One step that Melody made made Mateo move back, questioning how it was supposed to be done.

“Don’t you think it should be this,” Mateo said, extending his arm at a step that Melody did. He saw Melody shrink a little, then noticed how close he was to her. Practically breathing in her ear, he scooted back. “Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“You're okay,” Melody said, straightening out before looking at what she’s written. “Do you mean this? That’s how you’re supposed to do that.”

“But doesn't that need to be done like this,” Mateo said, pulling out his packet to show Melody a previous problem. Melody looked and observed the problem Mateo selected, looking carefully at each step taken for each problem. Eventually, Melody slouched back, finally realizing her mistake. 

“You're right…” Melody said, looking at Mateo. He put on a bright, cheery smile.

“Hey,” Mateo said, completely beaming in joy. “I should be tutoring you, that’s how good I am.”

“Yeah,” Melody said, half chuckling. “Are you sure you even need tutoring? It seems like you can get the problems done yourself,”

“Nah,” Mateo said, glad seeing some emotion from her, “How could I get to the answer and you couldn’t?”

“I didn’t really have the best sleep last night,” Melody said, her smile disappearing. Mateo could only watch on as the mood slowly shifted. “I couldn’t think clearly.”

“That’s fine,” Mateo said with a sympathetic smile. “Shit happens sometimes, I get it.”

“Hey,” Melody said, looking at Mateo. Mateo stared at her, waiting for the words to flow out of her usually silent mouth. “Why do you play around? I mean you obviously know how to do stuff, why not just do the work so they wouldn’t give you a silly packet to do.”

“Why bother?” Mateo said with a half smile, glaring at Melody while tapping his foot, “School’s meaningless anyway, you don’t learn anything useful.” There was a pause, both remained in thought until finally Melody spoke up.

“If that was true,” Melody said, looking at the whiteboard with scribbled down notes of them working out the problem then back at him. “Then why are you still here?” Mateo looked at her with sorrow in his face. They both sat there, in complete silence for a minute until it was time to go. They both know exactly why they were both there, but neither knew exactly what else to say to the other person.