Mutual Benefits Ch. 02 – First Time – by BashfulScribe..,

Taylor sighed in resignation. “Can we go back to factorials?” she asked, her voice strained.

She wasn’t understanding permutations at all. We were hitting a bit of a roadblock – while we hit it off well in our first week, all things considered, there was a factor in our arrangement we hadn’t considered: I may have known the math, but I did not have the communication skills to teach them.

“Well, we have n and we have r, so we just need to take n factorial and divide it by n times r factorial,” I explained, the solution clear to me.

Taylor stared at me. I didn’t look her in the eye but I could feel it. I coughed nervously. “What’s n in this circumstance?” I asked her.

Just staring. “What’s n in a permutation?” I asked, trying to broaden the definition.

Still nothing. “The total. n is the set or population. So in this circumstance n is four, right?”

Taylor nodded. I knew she didn’t get it.

“And it’s asking about the top three in the race, so r, the subset or sample from the set is…” I waited for her. Nope. “…r is what number, Taylor?”

Just silence. “I am spoonfeeding you the answer here,” I boldly complained.

“Don’t be rude, I don’t get it! You’re the tutor, isn’t that your job?” she finally snapped at me.

“There are two numbers I pointed out. One of them is n and one of them is r. I said that n is four, and the only other number is three and the only other variable is r. r is the only other number. So if n is four… r issss…”

“Three?”

“We have liftoff!” I almost shouted. “So, we then plug it into this formula. Good news, now it’s just factorials. So now we do four factorial divided by four minus three factorial, which is one factorial, which is one, so the a-”

“When the fuck am I going to use this stuff after I graduate?!” Taylor complained to herself.

“Why’d you take this class, anyway?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I heard it was, like, the easiest math class, and I heard it really helps for a lot of different jobs.”

It was my turn to shrug. “Okay.”

“I think we can call it here today. I appreciate it, Quinn, I really do, but…” she trailed off. I simply stared at her in response. She looked at me for a few seconds before continuing. “I dunno. Like, it seems like I’m not understanding it, and you’re just getting mad at me.”

“I’m not getting mad, I just don’t know any other way to explain it,” I tried to explain myself.

“That sounds condescending,” Taylor complained.

“Now it sounds like you’re getting mad at me,” I pointed out.

“I’m not – forget it. Let’s just… try again next week, okay?”

“Okay,” I conceded. We gathered our stuff and left the library, getting into her red convertible. Before long, we were on the road.

“So what do you want to do for your job, anyway?” Taylor attempted to make small talk while she drove.

“I don’t know.”

“Okay… do you have an idea? Like, are you going to college or something?”

“I sent out applications to MIT, Peterson and Boston University.”

“Oh, what for?”

“Computer Science.”

“Oh, wow! So you do have an idea what you want to do. I hear that there’s a lot of, like, money involved in that.”

“I guess.”

Those were the last words we exchanged before we arrived at my place. Taylor thanked me for my time and quickly headed off.

***

Hey Quin. this is morgan, taylor’s friend. could we meet for a sec afterschool today? I just need to talk real quick

I stared at my phone in confusion. How in the hell did Morgan even get my number…? What was this about?

Kevin lazily craned his head so he could look at my phone, still eating his roujiamo. I caught him staring and just asked, “What does this mean?”

“I’m no expert, but I think she wants to talk to you after school.”

“Yeah, but what about?”

Kevin shrugged. “Either you’re doing something really right or something really wrong,” he said with his mouth full. “But hey, Morgan, huh? Nice.”

“What?”

Kevin rolled his eyes and made a motion with his chest. “Morgan, dude,” he replied, as if he had made his point fully.

I rolled my eyes in turn. “Okay.”

“I’m serious, she’s known around the school for it,” he insisted. “Hold on.” He waved across the cafeteria to some girl. “Hey, Robyn!”

Robyn was a girl Kevin knew. They’d been hanging out a bit, though Kevin insisted they weren’t a thing. She had kind of a reputation around school for being a bit of a stuck-up brat, but she seemed to have good chemistry with Kevin. With a confused expression, she approached us.

“So,” Kevin began, “got a weird question for you. What’s like the one thing you’d say about Morgan that stands out?”

“Morgan Jones, from chem?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, her. And like, not just to you. What’s she, uh… known around the school for?”

“Why?” Robyn was as uncomfortable as I was.

“I’m trying to prove a point to Quinn here.”

Robyn turned her face to me and smiled politely to say hi. I didn’t really say anything, but that was the norm for me. “Um…” she began. “Well, she’s a nice person-”

“Nah nah nah, that’s just filler stuff. What do, like, people around the locker rooms say about her?”

Robyn sighed in disappointment. “Yeah, okay, her breasts are large. Was that what you called me over to say?”

Kevin smiled triumphantly towards me. I could feel myself blushing.

“Why do you want to know?” Robyn asked.

“Hmm? Oh, Quinn’s got some kind of meeting with her,” Kevin replied disinterestedly.

Robyn’s gaze fixated on me for… whatever reason. “What are you meeting with her about?”

“I don’t know. She was the one that asked me to meet with her,” I replied, eyeing the table and not Robyn.

I could still see shock paint her face. Was it really so unbelievable that popular girls were talking to me?! This was getting ridiculous.

I don’t know, in hindsight, why that was the tipping point for me. Maybe it was because Robyn was so very shocked at me getting to talk to Morgan. Maybe it was the realization that this would be the rest of my life if I didn’t do something, and here was an opportunity. Before I knew it, I found myself standing up and leaving.

My feet brought me to one of the two Popular Tables in the cafeteria. One was reserved for the jock-types, but the other was reserved for the other popular people. The two groups kind of mingled with each other, but their lunch seat situation was very precise. When I got there, everyone there figured I was just walking past or something, so I cleared my throat to get Morgan’s attention.

“Hey, Morgan,” I found myself attempting to say casually.

The table quieted down and most of the people there stopped to look at me. The last person to notice me was Morgan, and she was taken aback. “Uh, yes?”

“You asked to speak to me,” I replied, daring to look her in the eye.

“I asked if we could talk after school about someone, yeah,” she replied. My guess was that she was trying to clarify to the others about her reasoning, as if to save face for daring to talk to a nerd.

“I’m busy after school,” I lied coolly. “Chess club or kung fu or something like that. You don’t seem busy now.”

Morgan’s look of bewilderment lasted only a second. “Okay,” she eventually admitted uneasily, then stood up. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she clarified to a friend before walking off.