forehead with her fingertips, trying to massage away the tension. She wondered if Landon would offer to help her with her homework again. After what happened at lunch she wasn’t so sure she wanted to even talk to him again, but somehow he magically knew exactly what to say for everything to make sense in her head. Instead of a mass of random numbers and signs, she was able to see patterns and rhythms she never knew existed. This new understanding was a whole new world that was unlocked to her when he was there. Obviously her algebra teacher, Mr. Giles, didn’t have the right key to unlock the door to that world. She took a deep breath, hoping that somehow she would find another way to unlock the door herself. When she looked up from her wonderings, Robert was standing in the doorway watching her. His arms were full of papers and books, and he had a pencil tucked behind his right ear.
“Is it really that bad for you? Algebra, I mean.”
“Yep,” she said picking up her crutches.
“If you need a tutor I have an opening on Wednesday afternoons. I probably already tutor half the school, so what’s one more?”
“Really? Yeah, that would be great. Thanks.”
“Just go to the cafeteria after school on Wednesday and I’ll meet you there,” he said turning to go.
“Thanks again. See you then.” Now she could easily say no if Landon offered to help her again. Problem solved.
Chapter 11
“Most of this is trash,” Lily declared rummaging through what was once her temporary locker.
“Why didn’t you just go through and clean it out when you did yours? You know everything I would have wanted to keep.”
“You never know,” Malaya said smoothing her hair out as she looked around the nearly empty hallway. Lily fished though a pile of papers for anything she wanted to keep, and then handed the rest of the stack to Malaya for her to throw away in a nearby trash can.
“Hey I didn’t know you got your cast off,” Landon said appearing seemingly out of nowhere.
“Last Monday,” Lily answered shortly.
“Congrats.”
“Thanks.”
“So how’s your first day back at school been?” He leaned casually against the beige lockers with his arms folded across his chest.
“Pretty good mostly,” Lily responded nonchalantly, not even looking at him.
“So why wasn’t it all good?”
“I was disappointed at what happened in the cafeteria at lunch.”
“Yeah, Dean’s a real idiot sometimes,” Landon said looking at the floor.
“He’s not the one I was disappointed with,” Lily remarked, finally looking him straight in the eye, so her message was clear.
“Who, me? Why are you disappointed in me? I didn’t do anything!”
“Lily, he wasn’t even at the table when it happened,” Malaya said jumping in the conversation.
“But you were there at the table afterwards, and didn’t even say or do anything to persuade Dean that he was wrong to trip him.”
“How do you know?”
“Never mind, just forget it,” Lily said collecting her things so she could leave. She was tired from wobbling around on her crutches all day, and she didn’t want to fight someone who she knew wasn’t really going to change, no matter what she said.
“Wait,” Landon said quickly trying to stop her. “I probably should have said something to him, but it never came up. I mean what was I supposed to say to him anyway?”
“That he shouldn’t trip innocent people who haven’t ever done a thing to him in all his life. That he shouldn’t torment people who are weaker than he is. Anything to try and convince him that he was wrong and shouldn’t do it again,” Lily spat out exasperated.
“Nothing I say will do any good. At the very beginning I tried to do that. I tried, but they don’t listen. They just tease me for it, so why should I bother?”
“Just forget it.”
“No, I won’t forget it,” Landon said firmly. He rubbed his forehead with his fingertips and glanced at Malaya and Lily standing together in the now deserted hallway.
“If it’s that big a deal to you, I’ll try again,” he said relenting. Lily wasn’t sure what to think. She wanted to believe him, but she just wasn’t sure that he would follow through when the time came to stand up to those creeps.
“I need to get home. Let’s go,” she said to Malaya as she began to hobble toward the exit.
“See ya later,” Malaya said smiling brightly at Landon.
“See you later,” Landon replied, watching Lily limp down the hall on her crutches.