A Hockey Tutor

by Smith, Mary

  What had just happened?

  **

  I was sitting in an uncomfortable chair in Dean Davidson’s lobby. It was a few minutes before eight, and I was trying to keep my eyes open.

  When I got home from the party, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned all night. As much sleep as I got, I might as well have stayed at the party. With Mr. Blue Eyes. Dancing. And maybe kissing and—

  “You can go in now,” the dean’s secretary said, interrupting my daydream.

  I gave her a small smile, stood up, and smoothed out my black dress pants. I had never been to the dean’s office before, and even though I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I was extremely nervous.

  I turned the brass handle and pushed the door open. The first thing I saw was a large oak desk. Behind the desk was a wall of books almost as high as the ceiling. To my left was a large picture window overlooking the center of campus. To my right was a round table with six chairs.

  “Ms. Miller, come in,” Dean Davidson said as he approached me and extended his hand. He was in his late fifties, with balding gray hair, but still very fit.

  I mustered all the courage I could, and pushed away all the nervousness. “Dean Davidson, nice to meet you.” I firmly shook his hand.

  He led me over to the table, where Professor Williams was sitting with another gentleman.

  “Ms. Miller, you know Professor Williams,” the dean said, pointing to her photography professor. I nodded at him. “And this is Brian Moore.”

  Mr. Moore stood, and stuck his hand out. “Nice to meet you.” He looked to be as old as my father. He had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. I smiled and shook his hand.

  “Why don’t we all have a seat?” Dean Davidson pulled my chair out for me, and I sat at the table with them.

  “Ms. Miller, why don’t we get down to business and tell you the reason you’re here,” Dean started off. “The purpose of this meeting is to offer you a job that will help you and, potentially, the school.”

  “Okay,” I said, confused. How could tutoring help me and the school?

  “Katie--may I call you Katie?” Mr. Moore asked. I nodded. “My son has transferred to North Maple to play hockey. He was at another school, but it wasn’t working out. When he received an offer to play here, we both jumped at the chance. My son Andrew’s dream is to play professionally. The problem is, Andrew isn’t a very good student. He needs guidance and someone to help him.”

  “Why me?” I asked curiously.

  “You have a high GPA, and your schedules are almost identical this semester. Mr. Williams believes you’d be perfect for the job because you’re smart, you have a good work ethic, and you would be able to handle my son.”

  “Handle?” I questioned.

  “My son can be a bit stubborn at times, and let’s just say he needs someone who can keep him on task.” He gave me a small grin.

  “So I’m assuming the role of tutor and babysitter?”

  He paused for a moment. “In a sense . . . yes, you would be.”

  “How is being his babysitter going to be beneficial to me or the school?” I felt like this was a waste of my time. I didn’t want to be anyone’s keeper.

  “Hockey brings in a lot of money to the school. Andrew’s talent is going to help us win a championship, which in turn helps the students and the school,” Dean Davidson explained. Before I could, as politely as possible, say thanks but no thanks, I was interrupted by the dean’s secretary.

  Buzz. “Andrew Moore is here.”

  “Send him in,” Dean Davidson commanded.

  I heard the door open, and my heart stopped when I saw who appeared. It was Mr. Blue Eyes from last night.

  “This meeting is completely unnecessary,” he bellowed as he stormed into the office. His father stood up, and they were eye to eye.

  “Sit down, Andrew.” His voice was low, and demanding.

  A tense few seconds followed, but Andrew finally relented and sat down. When he looked over and saw me, his eyes widened in recognition. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then quickly snapped it shut.

  “Now, this is the proposal, Katie.” Mr. Moore sat back down, and looked at me. “You will tutor Andrew, make sure he gets to his classes, and that he’s passing all his classes. We need to make sure that he has a passing grade by the midterm and no later than the midterm.”

  I looked at Andrew. His jaw was clenched, his lips were tight, and his face was becoming redder by the second.

  “Um, Mr. Moore, I’m grateful that you thought of me, but I have a job and a full course load myself. I don’t think I would be able to devote the time you need.”

  He looked at me intently before pleading his case. “Your schedules are the same, except for one class. Therefore, you’ll be working on the same material. In addition, you won’t need your job at the diner, because I’m willing to pay you a more than adequate salary for babysitting my son.”

  “I don’t need a babysitter,” Andrew hissed.

  Mr. Moore ignored his son, and he reached for a file from the bag next to him.

  “Here is his schedule and a check for twenty thousand dollars. That’s about two thousand a week for your trouble. This is only for this semester. I’m hoping my son will learn from this lesson, before he’s drafted to the NHL. Along with that,” he said, reaching in his pocket and pulled out a key ring, “here are the keys to a company car, to ensure you both make it to classes on time.”

  “Great. She’s going to be a tutor, a babysitter, and a chauffeur.” Andrew rolled his eyes. Mr. Moore continued to ignore his son.

  I opened the file, and there, on top, was a check with my name on it, for twenty thousand dollars. I’d never seen so many zeroes in my life. I don’t think I’d made that much money in all the years that I’d worked.

  Could I do this?

  It was only one semester, and that was a lot of money. It could cover my expenses for the rest of the school year. I’d be able to devote more time my school work. Sure, I’d have to babysit, but we had the same classes. This could be a good deal for both of us.

  “Katie, what’s your answer?” Professor Williams’ voice brought me back to the present. I had almost forgotten he was there.

  “I—um—I—yes, I’ll do it,” I stammered. “When do I start?”

  “Right now. My number is in the file, and I would like to have weekly progress reports on Andrew.” Mr. Moore stood up and reached for my hand. “I would like a moment with my son, and then he’s all yours. If he does cause you any problems, please call me.”

  I shook his hand and looked over at Andrew. His face was unreadable. He was probably embarrassed by the whole situation.

  Who wouldn’t be?

  I walked out of the room, with Dean Davidson and Professor Williams, trying to figure out if I had done the right thing. It was a lot of money, and I knew deep down I could handle Mr. Blue Eyes—Andrew, that is.

  Chapter 2 – Andrew

  “You didn’t even give me a chance this time.” I stood up quickly, and glared at me father.

  “Andrew, I’ve given you many chances in the past two years. It’s only three weeks into the semester, and you’re ineligible. You told me that it was going to be different at this school, but it’s not. If you don’t want to continue going to college, or pursue the NHL, then tell me.” My father’s voice was stern.

  “I do want to go into the NHL, Dad.”

  “Then act like it. This is the last time, Andrew. No more bailouts. I gave this school a lot of money so the teachers wouldn’t report your grades until midterms. The NCAA will be all over us if word gets out. If this girl can’t help you, then you’re on your own.”

  I stared at him. I was beyond pissed off right now, but I knew he was right.

  “I’ll pay for this tutor and I'll pay your tuition, but no more extra help. If you fail, it’s on you.” My father spun on his heels, and left.

  I stood in the middle of the dean’s office, counted to ten, and too
k a couple of deep breaths. I was still hungover from last night’s party, and there was a game tonight. I couldn’t deal with this right now. Right now, I was going home and going to bed.

  On the drive back to my house, I thought about my tutor. When she bumped into me last night at the party, I thought she was attractive. When I started talking to her, I liked her more. When I saw her at the party, all I could think about was her in my bed.

  I pulled into the driveway and walked into the house. It was an absolute mess from the party last night, but I didn't care. I strolled past it all and went up to my room. I heard Franks in his room, moving around, but I ignored it. I slammed my door shut and fell right into bed. I didn’t want to think about anything else, but sleep.

  **

  “AAAAAGGGGHHH!” I jumped out of bed, drowning wet. The water was freezing cold, and I couldn’t figure out where it had come from.

  “Oh, look, you’re up.”

  I pushed my hair back and wiped the water from my eyes. There was Katie, standing there with one hand on her hip, and the other holding an empty pitcher.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I stood up and took off my shirt, my heart pounding.

  “You have class in thirty minutes, so you need to get your ass in gear.” Katie snapped her fingers, walked out of my bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.

  Who did she think she was? No one had ever treated me that way before. As I sat down on the edge of my bed, and pulled my jeans on, I heard banging on my door.

  “Twenty-eight minutes!” Katie’s voice boomed from the other side.

  I had the urge to scream “go away,” but I stopped myself, my father’s words replaying in my head: If you fail, it’s on you. I pulled a long sleeve shirt out of my closet and put it on.

  Katie banged on the door again. “Twenty-six minutes!”

  I waited two minutes, until I knew she was going to pound on my door and yell another update. Just as she started to say “twenty-four,” I flung my door open. She was so surprised, eyes wide and lips parted, she stumbled back.

  “You scared me to death!”

  “Yeah, well, now,” pointing to my still wet head, “we’re even.”

  She quickly regained her composure, and patted my shoulder as she walked back into my room. “You know you could clean your room up a bit.”

  I watched as she went to my desk and started shuffling papers and books around.

  “What are you looking for?” I asked irritated.

  “Found it.” She pulled a book from the bottom stack. “You haven’t even taken off the plastic yet?”

  I shrugged. “I haven’t been to class yet.”

  “What do you mean? Classes have been in session for three weeks.”

  “I just haven’t gotten around to going.”

  “You haven’t gotten around to going?” She asked incredulous.

  “I’ve been busy,” I clarified.

  She rolled her eyes and slapped the book into my chest. “Come on, Slick. Time for class.”

  Katie walked out of the room, and I heard her go down the stairs. I counted to ten, to calm myself, and then followed her. I couldn't believe the last thirty minutes had really happened.

  Where was the sweet and sexy girl from before?

  Katie was standing by the open front door when I came down the stairs. Her light brown hair hung perfectly over her shoulders. She had a great curvy shape, which I liked, but it was her eyes that drew me to her. As I looked into her golden brown eyes, I saw something familiar, something—

  “Ready?” she asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  “What?”

  “Are. You. Ready. To. Go?”

  ”Uh, yeah.”

  Katie walked out the door, and I trailed behind her.

  “She pressed the unlock button on the keys my dad had given her, and the lights flashed on the black BMW in my driveway.

  “Your dad is letting me drive this?”

  “Yep. It’s one of Moore Fertilizer’s company cars.”

  “Moore Fertilizer?”

  “My father’s company.”

  She stopped walking, and stared at me. “Your family owns Moore Fertilizer?”

  “I do believe I’ve said yes already. It’s a company that helps with commercial--”

  She put her hand up to stop me from talking. “Yeah, I know. I was raised on a farm. We use your product.”

  “Oh, so you’re a farm girl?” I teased.

  “Enough. I don’t need nicknames, or be called names. This is a business deal, and we don’t need to be friends in anyway.” She jerked on my arm. She opened the door and practically pushed me into the passenger seat.

  “I don’t need to be manhandled, or have water thrown on me. You could’ve asked nicely,” I told her when she jumped into the car.

  “I was nice. I knocked on your door, several times. I even shook you a little bit, trying to wake you up. When you didn’t, I thought I would help speed the process up.” She said it like it wasn’t a big deal.

  “I could have gone into shock, or possibly drowned.”

  She laughed. “Oh, man up, hockey player. Neither one of those things was going to happen.” She turned onto campus and found a parking place.

  We both got out of the car, and walked towards the building for class , neither of us saying a word. As we climbed the stairs to the third floor, I stared at her ass the whole time; it was a nice view.

  The classroom was large, at least fifty chairs. It looked like an old theater. Katie walked up halfway and then went to the middle of the row. I watched her sit down and pull items from her bag. I looked around and saw only a few other students in the room. I sat down next to Katie and stared at her.

  “What?”

  “Why we are here so early?”

  “We came a little bit early so I could give you a summary of what you’ve missed.” I wanted to get up and leave, but something in me told me to give her a chance. “So take off the plastic and let’s get started.”

  I tore the plastic off of the book and listened as Katie gave me the highlights of the first three weeks of US History 101. I hate history. It was boring and I never understood why I would need to know this if I was going to be in the NHL.

  Finally, the class started filling up and the professor came in. I was thankful when he started talking. I slouched in my chair and let my eyes grow heavy. The professor’s monotone voice, and the feverish scratches of everyone taking notes, was the white noise I needed drift off to sleep.

  “Ouch!” A sharp pain in my leg j jerked me awake. Everyone turned to look at me.

  “Is there a problem, Mr. Moore?” the professor asked clearly annoyed.

  I shook my head, rubbing my leg where it was hurting. I could see Katie, whose hand was over her mouth, covering her smile. I gave her a dirty look, but it only made her shoulders shake more.

  I sat up straight, bouncing my leg up and down to release some of my anger and embarrassment. First the water and now this; I couldn’t wait to give her a piece of my mind.

  The class concluded with the professor adding more work onto the final project. Katie was jotting down every word the professor said, while I still hadn’t opened the textbook. The longer the professor droned on, the more nervous I became. This project sounded like a lot of work.

  Everyone began exiting the classroom, and I followed Katie out into the hallway. I grabbed her elbow and pulled her to the other side of the hall.

  “We need to get something straight right now,” I hissed in her ear. I turned her around to face me. “No more water dumping, pinching, or embarrassing me. Got it?”

  She put her hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry. I actually didn’t mean for you to yell out. It was a small pinch, I swear.”

  “Apology accepted. Look—" I was about to tell her that we started off on the wrong foot, and we could start over, but I was interrupted.

  “Andrew, baby,” a blonde squeezed in between us, smiling at me. Her face looked familiar, b
ut I couldn't remember her name.

  “Hey, um . . . baby.” My brain was searching for it, but nothing was coming to me.

  “I had so much fun last night.” She ran her finger up and down my chest.

  “Yep, me, too.” Man, I needed to slow down my drinking.

  Katie cleared her throat. “I hate to break up this fascinating display of young love. I am truly moved, really, but we need to leave.”

  “Who the hell are you?” the blonde demanded.

  “I’m his personal assistant, and he needs to go.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the girl.

  I gave the girl a tight smile, and let Katie lead me away. I was actually thankful that she did. I couldn't believe I didn’t remember that chick’s name. Then again, it wasn't the first time.

  “Thanks for helping me out back there,” I said as we walked out to the car.

  “No biggie.” The car ride back to my house was silent. It was nice. I didn't have enough quiet in my life. My dad was yapping in one ear, my coach in the other.

  “Since you have a game tonight, there will be no studying. However, after practice tomorrow, we will begin at one,” Katie informed me.

  “How do you know about my practice schedule?” I barely remembered my own practice schedule.

  “After this morning’s meeting, I went and talked to your coach. He gave me your practice, game, and travel schedules. I’m working up a study schedule in between all that.”

  “You’re putting time in there for sleep and partying, right?”

  “Sleep, maybe; partying, we’ll see.” She shut the car off when she parked in the driveway.

  I followed her up the stairs and into the house. She continued on, walking straight into my bedroom.

  “Did I lose all my privacy when my father hired you?” I asked as I leaned on the frame of my bedroom door.

  “No, I’m merely gathering the rest of your books and making sure the plastic is off of them.”

  “Why did you take this job?” I asked, before I could stop myself.

  She looked at me with her big golden brown eyes. “You want the truth?”