Impetuous (Victory Lap Book 1)

by Mercedes Jade

  “Come up to the board and solve this problem for me,” Mr. Wilson said, writing down something that was more complex than anything else so far. It was a giant leap from the earlier problems.

  At least she didn’t have to talk. Feeling like everyone’s eyes were on her short kilt instead of the chalkboard, she nonetheless scratched out the answer in chicken scrawl across the board.

  Somebody laughed. She pivoted and saw it was Keir. He stood up and clapped.

  She crossed her arms over her chest and met his dark gaze.

  “That will be all, Tess,” Mr. Wilson said. She handed him the chalk back and headed to her seat beside Keir. By the time she got there, the blush she was fighting was winning the battle.

  “Kade is going to love this,” Keir said. He sat down as she took her chair again as well.

  She ignored him. Was he making fun of her, or not?

  “Homework will be problems one through ten in your textbook as well as eighteen for bonus points in the chapter,” Mr. Wilson said. “You have twenty minutes left. I suggest you use them wisely and don’t forget the unit test is next Thursday.”

  “Tess?”

  She took a deep breath and turned to face Keir. “What?” she said, not able to keep the annoyance out of her tone. At least it didn’t sound hurt.

  “You solved Mr. Wilson’s year-end bonus problem,” Keir said. He smiled at her. “He gives it out at the beginning of the year and lets everyone submit an answer as many times as they want over the semester to get an extra ten points on the final exam.”

  “Really?” she said, voice losing its frost.

  He reached over and snapped her elastic.

  “Hey,” she exclaimed. It got her a reprimand from Mr. Wilson. More quietly she asked, “What was that for?”

  “You thought I was making fun of you?” Keir said.

  She tried to avoid his eyes, looking at her wrist. There wasn’t a mark, but he had gotten her attention. “Maybe? You did laugh,” she pointed out.

  “I laughed because there’s only one other person that solved one of the year-end bonuses this semester, my brother. Mr. Wilson changes the problem each time somebody gets the right answer. Now you both have a ten point lead on the exam and that means the rest of us are going be playing catch up, but...”

  Tess met Keir’s eyes as he kept her in suspense. He had that twinkle in his gaze again.

  “You’re both a lap behind the rest of us. It’s kind of ironic. Kade will find it funny.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “You could have said so when I sat down instead of making me the center of attention when I’ve already had enough of that in chemistry,” she complained.

  “Are you really shy, Pumpkin?”

  “A bit. I’ve had better days,” she said.

  He shook his head at her, softly chuckling. “You aren’t anything like Kade described. I thought you told off the Watsons and faced off against an insane criminal the first time you two met?”

  Uh. What the heck had Kade told them?

  “Your brother may have exaggerated,” she said, holding up her hand with a tiny pinch of air between her thumb and forefinger. “A teensy-weensy bit.”

  “Kade never exaggerates,” Keir said.

  She dropped her hand. “In my defence, I didn't have any coffee that day.”

  “Excuses,” Keir said. “Let’s get the homework done before Mr. Wilson figures out we're not talking through math problems.”

  “They would be easier,” she quipped without thinking it through.

  Keir’s face got more serious again. “Yeah,” he agreed.

  They both didn't say another word, solemnly working out the rest of the problems. Tess wasn't really focused, although the first five questions were easy enough with the bare minimum of her attention needed to follow the routine steps to solve them. She put her pencil down on the sixth problem, recognizing a twist but she wasn't ready to think it through.

  Kade was a mystery. The more she found out about him, ended up leading to more questions. Did Keir know his brother liked her?

  The bell rang.

  For a moment, Tess was back in the psychiatry hospital. She was staring at the window in the double doors as the bell alarm clanged and clanged, barely louder than her mother’s fist pounding the door on the other side until an orderly that looked like Mrs. Watson came up behind her mother and grabbed her fists handcuffing-

  “Tess?”

  She blinked away the daydream. “Sorry, I was thinking about coffee.”

  “I thought you said a cup can last you a few hours?” Keir said, helping her pack up her stuff.

  “But my tank has been on empty all weekend. I probably should have kickstarted my engine with some espresso first.”

  She swung her backpack on, not letting Keir take it this time.

  “Bastion’s going to rub it in,” Keir muttered as he followed her out of the classroom.

  “Rub what in?” she absently asked, still trying to shake off the disturbing feeling she had gotten from her distracted daydream. She had them all the time but this one bothered her. Things had been so unsettled still when she left her mother on Sunday.

  “He bet one hour,” Keir said. “All of us bet more, so he’s the closest.”

  “On coffee?” she guessed.

  “On coffee,” he confirmed. “Are you going to get the shakes from withdrawal?”

  She snorted a laugh. “Uh, I don’t even drink it on weekends normally. It’s a crutch, not a dependency.”

  “Well, that’s healthier.”

  “Don’t knock it. You self-harm to stay awake. At least I stick to refreshment with dubious nutritional value. Mine is healthier,” she insisted. “Do you know which way to physics?”

  “Keep going straight. There is nothing healthy about coffee.”

  “Debatable. Remember, its 99% water, and all those antioxidants stop the effects of ageing on your brain,” she said. “It's never too young to think about prevention.”

  “Prevention of dying brain cells?”

  “Alzheimer’s is more common in men.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “Forgetting facts is a sign of Alzheimer's,” she retorted.

  “Confabulation is a sign of a vitamin deficiency,” he drily replied. She knew that meant lying, making things up, only because she had heard some psych medical students discussing it once. Keir had to be well-read to know the term.

  “Or quick wit,” she retorted, not letting Keir know she was impressed at his knowledge.

  “Or criminality,” he snapped back.

  “Or boredom,” she replied, coming full circle to her real problem.

  “Turn here,” he said, pointing out the physics classroom. “So, you’re a bored criminal with a quick wit going through withdrawals?”

  “You have me all figured out,” she said as they walked into the classroom.

  It was nice not having to explain her quirky sense of humour. Keir tickled her funny bone and left her feeling like her faults weren’t all that serious.

  Tess spotted War waiting at the back of the class, big muscled body looking like it was testing the engineering of the plastic chair he was sitting on, tipped to balance on just one leg. There was a pretty blonde talking to him, leaning over his desk with one of her hands on top of it, fingers spread out to display her pretty pink nails. Somehow, despite her only slightly longer kilt, the blonde didn’t look awkward at all as she leaned even further over and laughed at something War said.

  “Cheerleader,” Keir said in her ear.

  It took her a second to realize he meant it literally. No wonder the girl was so comfortable in her skirt.

  “Where’s Bastion?” Tess said, remembering that he was the other potential student for physics tutoring.

  “Morning class,” Keir said. “Come on, War looks like he needs a rescue.”

  The cheerleader was getting awfully close to War, and he was leaning away.

  “Want to go out to Darcy’s
after the game?” the cheerleader asked as they got close enough to overhear.

  “Too many carbs. My mum’s got me eating a high protein diet right now. She insists I eat at home when I can,” War said, smiling to take the edge off of his rejection. “Hey, Tess, welcome to the best class of your day,” he called over to her.

  “Hiya, Luce,” she greeted. The cheerleader turned around and gave Tess an annoyed glance. Tess stuck her hand out at her. “I’m Tess. I’m new here.”

  “Are you the low carb diet?” the cheerleader said, giving her a once over and coming up with the wrong conclusion.

  “Jessica, still trying to break the rules?” Keir said, grabbing Tess’s outstretched hand and bringing it back to her side while giving it a reassuring squeeze.

  “There’s no rule against dates,” Jessica said. “Bastion took Stacey to Brian’s party last week.”

  “He also took Lena and Christina, so unless you are implying polygamy, I don't think your example really counts,” Keir said.

  Tess caught the look that War gave her at the mention of polygamy.

  “Group date?” Jessica said, sounding personally offended by Bastion accompanying more than one girl to some party. It wasn’t like he took all three girls into a room and had an orgy, right? Jessica was asking War out, not Bastion, anyway.

  “Uh, Jessica, do you think you could move over so I can sit down and get organized for class? It’s my first day and all, plus, I hear the teacher loves handing out crazy hard work. I could use Luce’s help getting caught up.”

  Making herself sound dependent upon the boys hadn’t been a good choice. Jessica’s eyes narrowed and she got that mean-girl look on her face that all other girls learned to recognize sometime after fifth grade when boys became more than just friends to play tag with in the schoolyard.

  “Luce? His name is Warrick. This is the advance class. Why would they let some idiot in here that can’t get War’s name right and is asking for help from the first day?” Jessica said, raking her with cool blue eyes.

  “Take a seat, Tess,” War firmly said. “I’ll come over to talk with you after class, Jessica. We still have second intermission cheer at Thursday’s game to organize if you want some of the players to join in.”

  “You will talk to the coach for me? He said you guys need some downtime, but really, it will only take a few minutes and you have twenty minutes,” Jessica said.

  “After class,” War repeated. “And you don’t call Tess an idiot again.”

  Jessica finally left, after another huff, heading towards a couple of girls that sat at the front of the class and looked a lot more serious about physics. They had their texts out and already open, one of them scribbling in her notebook, probably homework from the last class. Jessica didn't seem to have any books on her.

  “Bye-bye,” Jessica said with a little bunny-wave at the girls. All three of them looked back at Tess as she sat down beside War. The one with glasses wriggled her nose a little, like she had smelled something bad, then turned back around to the front.

  “Doesn’t Jessica have class with us?” Tess asked, confused.

  “Jessica?” Keir said with a derisive laugh. “Definitely not. She was here for War.” He turned to the boy in question. “You gotta turn her down harder before she gets it in her head to fight over you with our Pumpkin.”

  “I will take care of it,” War said.

  “Seriously?” Tess said. “Just treat me like one of the guys and she'll forget about it. I’m sure she was surprised to see all of you hanging out with me on my first day. I’ve been the new girl enough times that the welcome wears off quick. I’m your tutor, not your newest date. There's nothing to be envious of, and as soon as she figures that out, the faster we can get back to physics,” Tess declared, pulling her big textbook out of her backpack and letting it thump onto her desk to make her point.

  “So, do you really want me to help you catch up?” War asked.

  “Nope, I lied.”

  Keir sat down in front of them and turned around. “Yeah, and you’re a terrible liar. Even Jessica could figure it out and she barely has two brain cells to rub together.”

  “You’re so judgemental,” War commented. “Cheerleading doesn’t equate to stupidity.”

  He sounded a bit sore about it.

  “Whatever, I didn’t mean it like that. Everyone knows Jessica is after one thing, and it’s not your brain, genius,” Keir said.

  “Well, I want your brain,” Tess injected. “Where are we in the textbook and why isn’t the teacher here yet?” she added.

  “Unit three, and the teacher gives us the first ten minutes to finish up homework,” War answered. “And you know who Jessica wants. I’m just the runner up, anyway,” he added to Keir.

  “Hot jock problems,” Keir replied. “Second only to princely problems. Bastion said Jessica was clingy.”

  Tess wondered if they were going to talk about girls the whole class. “Uh, you guys weren’t kidding about the girl thing?”

  “What girl thing?” Keir said, giving her his attention. She felt a bit nervous facing those eyes, unable to get the memory of Kade’s sweet look when he told her he liked her.

  “You know,” she said, getting embarrassed. “The group dating.”

  Now War seemed confused. “What group date? Who’s going on a group date?”

  “Nobody, there is no dating happening, not me, at least. I’m saying you guys only go out on dates in a group, right?”

  Keir laughed. “Uh, that will be a no from me.”

  “Pumpkin, you’re the only girl for us,” War said, catching on to what she was saying but not in the way she intended. “Keir doesn’t have to tag along if you’re asking for some alone time during our ‘tutoring sessions’ for physics.”

  “Hey, I’m not the math nerd, here. I need physics tutoring. You don’t,” Keir protested.

  “If you want physics then I’m going to tutor you both, together. It’s more efficient,” Tess said. “No hanky-panky means no dates, no dinners and no getting into girl-fights over the devil, okay.”

  “Can’t blame the devil for trying,” War said, opening his own textbook, finally.

  “Kade said you would prefer biology help,” Tess said.

  War smiled and the genuine warmth from it reminded her of her first impression of him. Yeah, he definitely got that from his mother. She liked how it transformed his intimidating appearance, revealed more of the nice boy inside of him that his mother had raised. Of course, there was also that devilish side that lurked behind his eyes with impish delight. Something about the biology had tickled his humour.

  “Kade is right, I would definitely like to be tutored in biology. All those big words are hard for a meathead like me to get straight. You could come to my house and we can practice ora-”

  “No,” she said, interrupting before he could say oral. She couldn’t believe he would use such a lame pick-up line on her. Oral? Really, that was disappointing.

  War looked taken aback, almost flinching like she had struck him.

  Keir gazed at them both with amusement. “You have a bad habit of interrupting, Pumpkin.”

  “Attention problem,” she excused. “But you can’t go around saying raunchy stuff like that, even if you’re joking. Somebody is going to misunderstand, and then, I’m not going to get paid. Remember, I’m the hired help, not your girlfriend substitute.”

  War now looked confused.

  “Practice oral,” she whispered, so quiet, it was pretty much mouthing it.

  Of course, their teacher chose that very moment to walk into the room and Keir decided to repeat what she had said a little louder. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like anyone else was paying attention to them.

  “Organic energy cycles,” War clarified, fighting his accent. “Kreb, photosynthesis, oxidation and electron transfers?”

  “Uh, sorry,” Tess said.

  Keir rolled his eyes and turned to the front of the class, getting out his own textbook an
d notes. She could see the colourful highlights from her seat.

  “S’fine, but you owe me one,” War said, leaning over to whisper it.

  Tess wondered if she had been set up for that one. It seemed too coincidental, and she could have sworn War had been saying oral. He was a teasing devil for sure, playing up on his accent to get away with it.

  The teacher had gone right to the front of the class and started taking up the homework, picking on random students to give their solutions. He hadn’t even acknowledged that Tess was a new addition to his class.

  She quickly started making notes, ignoring War. So damn embarrassing. He could be innocent and she was reading too much into everything. Maybe she was the only one feeling the attraction. These four guys were so dangerously hot that she could catch her libido on fire standing next to them. The same couldn’t really be said of her, dressed in her donated uniform and frazzled by the chaos of moving home and trying to sort out the mess her mother had left behind.

  Play it cool.

  “Okay, you get an IOU,” she whispered to War. It was quiet, but the teacher must have seen her lips moving. He picked on War instead, sparing her a repeat of calculus class.

  War rattled off the solution with precision and speed. Math was definitely one of his strengths.

  “Theresa, welcome to the class. Give me an alternative solution to the one Warrick presented.”

  She didn’t correct the teacher about calling her Tess, not with him using’s War’s full name or the sudden pressure to find another solution when she hadn’t even taken the time during the ten minute homework period to review the problems the other students had worked on.

  Thankfully, it mostly came down to math. “You can rearrange the equation in the second problem to solve for the final velocity after using the first equation to solve for time so you can use it as a calculated variable.”

  The teacher moved onto the next problem and another student.

  “You weren’t exaggerating,” War said.

  Keir turned around while their teacher was writing on the board. “She’s going to give Kade a run for valedictorian in their year.”

  Usually, the valedictorian was picked on the top graduating students. The compliment felt better than any comment on her looks would have made her feel. It was sincere.