Lyrical Love Letter

“Hey Logan, you alright?” Juliette questioned, as they sketched pictures with charcoal. Logan had been unusually quiet and it worried Juliette slightly. Logan had apologized for the incident at the party and the two never spoke of it again. Logan glanced at her briefly and a strained smile pulled across his lips.

“I’m fine, Jules.” He assured returning to his sketch, hidden from Juliette’s view. She watched him for a moment as though waiting for him to turn to her and suddenly confess everything that was bothering him. But Logan never did and Juliette returned to her assignment.
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“Juliette could you stay a moment?”

Mondays. No one liked them, especially Juliette. She was tired, she was PMSing, and Alex was doing his daily routine of pissing her off. Not to mention Melanie was becoming steadily harder to ignore. But Juliette forced a smile and a nod as the students filed out of English Lit leaving Juliette alone with Miss. Ritterman…at least she thought she was alone.

Juliette rose to her feet, stretching her limbs after having sat through 80 minutes of an in-depth discussion about Pride & Prejudice.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Juliette blinked emotionlessly. She was tired beyond words and it was too much work to properly scowl at the boy. Band practice had been held in the Dawson house Sunday night and the supposed sound proof garage beside Juliette’s room was actually not in fact sound proof.

“Language.” Miss. Ritterman sang and Juliette sighed in response as the petite teacher approached the two.

“Now Miss. Barkalow,” Juliette was too tired to correct her but apparently the bird on her shoulder wasn’t.

“Dawson.” Alex corrected

“Right, Dawson,” She waved a hand in dismiss, “I always forget that sorry. Anyway Juliette it says in your records that you were a tutor.” Juliette was tired but she wasn’t stupid. Juliette laughed humorlessly as she put her hands up in front of her, stopping Miss. Ritterman from speaking farther.

“No, no, no, no, no.” Juliette grinned in spite herself. She ran through a list of frowned upon things she’d done and she could not imagine what she had done that was bad enough to deserve this.

“I haven’t even purposed anything to you Juliette.”

“You don’t have to,” Juliette assured. “the answer is no, no matter what the follow up question is.”

“Juliette,” Miss. Ritterman began. “You do not get to choose your students. They are assigned to you by myself and your guidance councilor. You have already been a positive influence on-“

“Oh for cryin’ out loud!” Juliette complained as she threw her hands up in the air. “This is an honors English. And I mean,” She gestured to the figure beside her in exasperation, who only grinned back in response. “It’s Skinny Jeans.”

“Regardless, certain stories hold different difficulties for different students.”

“Then give me a different student.”

“Looking at Alex’s records, his grades have improved noticeably sense your arrival, it is only logical to assume you played a part in that.”

“Played a part in that?” Juliette retorted. “He freaking cheats off me! Don’t you find it slightly strange that he has straight A+ in this class yet he doesn’t even know what the word Epithet means!” Alex gave her a quizzical look. “It means you’re an asshole.”

“Miss. Barkalow!”

“Dawson!” Juliette and Alex replied in unison and Juliette threw him a glare in response.

“Miss—Juliette need I remind you that Stanford looks highly upon tutoring.” Juliette’s jaw locked and angry tears pricked her eyes. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she could do this, she knew she could. Abruptly she turned to Alex.

“After school Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.” She threw in Monday for good measure. Band practice can’t happen without its singer and Juliette needed sleep.

“Sundays & Tuesdays are band practice days!” Juliette took a step closer to him and spoke lowly so only he could hear,

“You should have thought about that before you decided to screw with my future. You brought this on yourself, Skinny Jeans.” He stared at her, determined not to look away first but Juliette was just as determined to win their little staring contest.

“Trading band practice for you doesn’t seem like such a bad trade. Besides I can reschedule band practice, you’re stuck with me three days a week until the end of the semester.”

“Hunny, this isn’t a jam session, your on my turf now and your going to play by my rules.” She was inches away from him and glaring daggers at him. Alex smirked and looked away but only to bring his lips to her ear.

“We could make it a jam session, there’s lots of banging involved.” He grinned cheekily.

“You’re such a pig, Gaskarth.” Juliette pushed him away roughly. “You have no class what so ever.” She turned her attention back toward Miss. Ritterman.

“I need a copy of the curriculum.”

“Right here,” She said passing her a manila folder. “excluding the tests of course.” Juliette rolled her eyes and bit her tongue hard to keep from retorting ‘duh.’

“Thank you, Miss. Ritterman.” She forced a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Juliette never looked back at Alex but he forced a familiar slip of paper into her hand and she gripped it tightly, catching his finger and nearly dislocating it. Juliette smiled in satisfaction when she herd him mutter an ‘oww!’ As she left the classroom, moving down the hallway toward next period, Juliette unfolded the small corner of a piece of notebook paper.

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my funday
My I don't have to runday
It's just another manic Monday