Fallacies of Fidelity

Julia's POV

There amongst the many text messages from Alec that I never answered was Brunch? My fingers flew across my screen giving him some excuse that I was busy. It's a habit I had fallen into. Every time Alec would ask me out again I just couldn't go. I mean it's not like I didn't have a totally fun time with him last week, because I did have fun. The pizza was perfect, the park was perfect, the car was perfect I could basically go on and on about how perfect everything was. What still was bothering me was Alec himself.

I just know he's is hiding something.

And I know it has to be his parents or his family stuff so whenever he's ready I want to find out. I'm not going to be a total bitch and extract it from him but I want to wait to see him because if there's one thing that remains unforgivable to me, it's secrets.

"Julia?" I jumped and turned seeing Mila staring at me.

"Oh Mila... what's going on?" I asked because it's been a couple days since we talked, and by talked, I mean yelling at the top of our lungs.

"Are you doing anything today?" she asked.

"Besides laying in bed and contemplating my life, no I'm free."

"Do you think you could possible come with me to the uh... principles office?"

"The what?"

"I know it may sound bad but it's just about grades and I need an adult. Please Julie? I don't want mother and father to find out and I swear I'm trying to raise them up," she pleaded.

"Mila, I'm not sure it's a good idea I mean if they find out their going to be pissed."

"Then it'll be our little secret?" she suggested. I was almost about to say no but I really didn't want to get on her bad side plus, this is the first real conversation we've held since our fallout a couple weeks ago.

"Ugh fine, but! Conditions! Conditions!" I said because she was bouncing in place, "Numero uno, you must make me a smoothie."

"Done!"

"Numero dos, you have to keep up with your studies, Mila. This is not a joke, okay? School is serious, especially because this is your senior year."

"I know I know, I promise."

"And finally... Mila I want us to talk. Just a nice, long talk about why you are... how you are." I stared at her carefully.

Mila grew pale, well paler than usual for her before she stuttered an answer, "That... I cannot promise."

"Mila, please just--"

"We have to be there in 30 minutes, quickly come on. I'll go make your smoothie," with that, she turned and left.

Whatever is bothering her, whatever has been bothering her for only God knows how long, it was a sensitive subject for her. Just the mention of it makes her go stiff. With possibilities of what it could have happened to Mila swimming through my brain, I clipped half my hair up and shoved my feet in a pair of boots before heading downstairs. She was waiting for me, sitting on the couch with the smoothie in her hands. It was like she had shrunk into the cushions, making herself smaller than she really was.

"Come on babe, let's beat it," I said taking my smoothie and taking us outside. As I normally would admire all the cars and decide which one to take, this time I merely took a pair of keys and clicked the button to see what car was the lucky one today. It ended up being the 2013 McLaren MP4-12C which was another car I have been dying to drive.

"Please keep your car facts to a minimum," Mila muttered with her eyes closed.

I rolled my eyes, "I wasn't going to recite any car facts" I said although that was a total lie. I was actually about to tell her how it came in 17 colors, not to mention it's hand painted and the convertible rooftop could be pulled down in about 17 seconds also how the engine used was--

"You're stating facts in your head right now, aren't you?" she peeked at me

"No." I lied. We pulled up to her school and got down, I could see she was feeling shaky so I took her hand like any good sister would do. Mila led us down several different hallways before we finally got to the principle's office. Together, we both walked in.

"Ah, Mila I've been expecting you and Julia Haddock what a surprise. I thought perhaps your parents were going to come," the woman said.

"No, sorry they were very busy and I figured maybe I should come," I shook the principal's hand, lying coolly.

"Well, let's get right down to business." Mila and I sat down in front of the principal's desk, "Mila is a very special student. In her early years in high school, she was beyond a 4.0 student taking all the advanced placement classes we provided but in her upperclassmen years her grades have dropped considerably." The woman gave me a folder with Mila's report cards and I saw as the grades took a complete plummet from A+ to straight D's and F's.

"Holy shit," I muttered.

"I beg your pardon?" the principal said.

"I said 'holy shit,' pardon my french. It's just wow, I've never seen grades drop this quick." I explained

"Yes, neither have I, and if I'm being honest, I'm concerned."

"I am too," I said, "So this went on for her junior year where she barely scraped by and passed her classes but my parents were never notified?" I asked, last time I checked, that's what principals do.

"They are informed."

"They-- wait but--what?" I stuttered, looking at Mila.

"Julie, mother and father knew last year but I promised I'd keep them up this year." Mila explained.

I nodded, "Principal..." I stopped short for not knowing her last name.

"Adams," the woman filled in the blank for me.

"Principal Adams, may I speak to you alone?" I asked. I sent Mila outside to sit with another boy who had a black eye, "Now, I know I only returned to New York a couple weeks ago but there are still things I'm not informed of." She wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion, "Do you know what triggered Mila to have her grades drop this drastically?" I asked.

"I wish I did know, Mrs. Haddock."

"Please, call me Julia. Mrs. Haddock is my mother's name. Do you know the specific time period Mila started acting different?" I asked.

"I think it was right when she returned to school for her junior year, why?"

"So summer when she was 16..." I thought out loud. What the hell happened to Mila then? "Alright, thank you Principal Adams I'll make sure Mila gets her GPA back up to that 4.0. And can we keep this on the down low? I don't want to worry my parents." To my surprise, the woman agreed. "Oh! And could you recommend me to a tutor Mila could perhaps learn from?"

"Well I have this sheet full of tutors that would be willing to help Mila but..."

"But what?" I asked.

"She's already taken lessons from all of them."

"What? How many are on that list?" I said, shocked.

"38." Principal Adams replied.

"What! So Mila took tutoring lessons from 38 different tutors and her grades still remained unacceptable?"

"Yes, but now that I think of it, maybe someone her own age would help her better," she said, "Yes! Okay, do you see that young man out there?" She pointed to the boy sitting next to Mila.

"You mean that skinny thing with a black eye?"

"Yes, well it's very unusual for Nicholas to look like that but he is incredibly brilliant for his age. If he keeps at the rate he's going, Nicholas will be his class valedictorian and, if I'm not mistaken, he's in the majority of Mila's advanced placement classes."

"Perfect," I nodded, "What's the kid's full name?" I asked.

"Nicholas Barnett." I nearly choked on my own spit. I would run into the same 'Nicholas' Alec had told me about last week.

"Grand, well thank you Principal Adams," I shook her hand again before heading into the waiting area.

"Thank God, let's get out of here," Mila got up but I just walked up to the scrawny looking kid.

"Nicholas Barnett?" I said. He looked up at me with his hair ruffled everywhere and I could practically watch the wound around his eye swell up. I could see he was just like his brother in the facial structure: strong jaw and sharp nose, although Alec's hair was lighter. But the one defining characteristic that was opposite to his brother's were the eyes. Besides the fact that Nicholas's eyes were a deep blue and Alec's were more of a hazelish color, I could see pure goodness within him. Something that I had yet to really see in Alec. I tried to push that last thought aside and decided Nicholas was perfect. I don't know why he got in a fight but for whatever reason, I knew it was for a good reason. "How would you like to earn some money?"

"My dad's a millionaire," he answered immediately with a raised eyebrow.

"Well how would you like to earn some money that doesn't come from daddy?" I rephrased.

He cocked his head to the side thinking hard, "Alright, lay it one me," he gave in.

"You're smart, right?"

"On a good day," he said.

I smirked, this kid's witty choice of words were going to be the death of me, "Have you ever tutored before?"

"Sure."

"For who? Give me your resume in ten seconds, go."

"I've tutored kids from 1st - 6th graders on how to read, write, and do math. Middle schoolers were a pain but I taught helped in general from time management to home economics. I normally do study groups only with high schoolers but only once did I do one on one with another student but they were a senior when I was a sophomore." he spoke to incredibly fast I had to actually concentrate on his words.

"Wow son of a overachiever," I joked.

"I wouldn't call him an overachiever."

"How would you feel about tutoring Mila? You know Mila right?" I pulled her to my side and showed her off like Vanna White would.

"I--uh--" he looked away, "Well I-- um I--"

"Julie! I don't need a tutor!" Mila protested.

"Come on, you have to know her." I said, although Mila looked a little squeamish herself.

"I know her." It was like Nicholas had suddenly put up a guard. Not like Mila would but something that told you to back off. Although, it was far from threatening.

"Good then, what do you say?" I said.

"I say no." Nicholas got up to walk into the principal's office but I grabbed his arm.

"Hey, dude what's up?"

"Nothing is up. Alright, I don't need the money so--"

"I'll pay you 1,000$ an hour," he stopped and turned to face me with wide eyes. "Your daddy may be a millionaire but mine's a billionaire," I winked.

I could see he was still contemplating. I mean I understand money normally isn't a problem for kids like Nicholas or for kids like Mila. The one thing you normally can control at that age is where you get your money from. I know because I did. "What does she need tutoring on?" he asked, refusing to look in my eyes or Mila's.

"Everything."

He nodded before giving me his number, "Call me whenever you want her to start." And with his bony shoulders hunched and his eyes cast downward, Nicholas went into the principals office.