Matters of the Hart

Chapter 2 - Dude, your tact at asking for help sucks.

Everything in this world is about triangles. A slice of pizza. Evil face-cuts. Love (my favourite kind, note the sarcasm). And then there was trigonomometry, whatever the hell that is. Let's stick to trig.

A sine theta over a cosine theta would give me a tangent theta. How would I apply this in the real world? Like what did they expect, a single leaf of lettuce over a piece of bread would make a sandwich? Nah. I didn't understand why we had to learn trig.

Out of all the things that had been discovered by the smartest of people over the millennium, I got stuck with trigonowhatever.

Class had just begun and I couldn't help but not pay attention. I still had over twenty-five minutes to kill before it was lunch hour. Sam Reed in the front row was really paying attention (the Head Scholar of the Scholar Collars, now we know why). Aaron Riley was scribbling something on a piece of paper. Aaron was a pervert - as simple as that. I wouldn't even want to guess what he was doing/writing/drawing on it.

Cole was trying to sneak into class through the back door.

Cole, you ask?

Cole Finley, my childhood friend. You know those friends, who will trip you so you would face-plant into the mud but beat other people up when they laughed at you? Cole - playground bully turned Golden Boy.

Brown eyes, copper-coloured hair, uniformly tanned all over. Thought he was God but was actually a sexist Pig. Yep, that would be my friend Cole Finley. His sexist attitude wasn't necessarily a bad thing, just a tad bit annoying.

"Psst, Theodore." Remember when I said his sexist attitude was only a tad bit annoying, it's because my old pet-name topped the list of 'Ten Annoying Qualities of Coley Finley.'

I acted like I didn't hear him. There was no way in hell that I was responding to him to that name- Theodore. Nope. Not happening. In fact, I improvised. I pretended like I was actually paying attention in class by looking into my notebook, but actually I was just admiring the quality of wood that our desks were made of.

"Theodore." Noppity nope, totally not looking that way. Ignorance is bliss.

"Thea...” Ah, there it was. My beautiful name and the recipe to set people straight - three ounces of ignorance plus a frustrated Golden Boy. Easy peasy.

"Yes, Coley?" I asked innocently. I was going to win an Oscar for this someday, I swear.

"Don't call me that." He snapped. Okay then buddy, two can play a game.

"I need to get in. Distract Mrs. Hux." Mrs. Linda Huxtable or Mrs. Hux as we called her was one of the most non-enthusiastic human being in St. Theo's. After the Broody Brothers of course. Nothing, and I meant nothing could distract her from us. She kept a watch on everybody. Mrs. Hux had reading glasses so when she was scribbling on the board, she wore them on the back of her head. Said she had two eyes 'at the back too'.

She had the eyes of a hawk and I was so lucky that she had assigned me a seat in the second last row, away from her scrutinizing gaze where I could actually not pay attention and look around and still not get a detention. Yay me.

"No can do, Coley. We only have ten more minutes for class to end. Just skip." I whispered coolly. I was sitting close to the back door but obviously if Mrs Huxtable heard me I'd be in detention today and well, I couldn't afford one. I had plans after school.

"Miss-I-have-plans, I have skipped the whole week already," he replied back through shout-y whispers. The irony of that statement was way too amusing.

"And why is that? Too busy getting it on with Swiss girls?" I asked out of sheer sympathy. School had already begun but his vacation hadn't seemed to end. Guys like him kept the free clinics running I tell you.

"You don't want to know. Theodore," he said but his sly smirk did all the talking really. Ew.

"Well that's too bad, Finley," I said, disgusted, turning around to face the front.

"Help me, Theodore." Oh boy. There's that name again.

"No I won't, Co-leeeey." I purposely exaggerated that last syllable, wishing he hated Coley more than I did Theodore so he would stop calling me that. I was Thea. How difficult was it to remember? And what kind of a pet-name is Theodore? It's longer than my first name for God's sakes!

"Yes."

"No." I scowled.

"YES." There was the shout-y whispering again.

"NO!"

"YES!"

"No. No. No!"

"Excuse me, Mrs Hux. Cole Finley is standing right outside the back door right here and wondering if he can come in. Miss Hart and he have been having troubles deciding whether or not you would allow him to enter at this time. Could you please sort out their issue? Some of us are having problems concentrating in class due to their constant chattering."

**********

It's funny how small this school was. I mean, there were six hundred people in one form but as my lack of luck would have it, I still crossed paths with people I desperately wanted to avoid. We all had one or two people in our lives (four in my case) whom we wanted to avoid at all costs - not because we hated them or anything.

A couple of years ago, a survey was done by the Flexibly Useless Community on f******k about why people avoid each other. 7 per cent of the times it's fear. 3.1 per cent of the times it's out of hatred for the other person. 89.9 per cent of the times - it's awkwardness.

If there was one word I could use to describe my relationship with Noah Stark, it would be - awkward. Now that I was here, sitting in detention after school hours trying to pass time while Cole Finley slept peacefully beside me, I couldn't help but think about Noah and how I was in detention today because of his big mouth.

Noah Stark was the son of Anthony Stark, a commercial television and film actor and Rebecca Stark, a homemaker. No, I was not a stalker. Growing up in the same school, I had met his parents a few too many times.

Born with a golden spoon, he was everything a girl my age wanted in a guy - good looks, shitty attitude, leather jackets, a million dollar sports bike and no gentleman-like qualities. Told you, so boyfriend material that all the girls craved him.

He was freakishly tall: 6 feet 2" or maybe even more. Well built (I knew he had abs. The walls of the girls' washroom held all the secrets). Black hair, brown eyes. On Wednesdays he only wore black. Scratch that. He wore black clothes every day. Girls flocked to him like he was giving out a calorie-free Margherita pizza.

He knew he was lusted after, and he loved it. The attention. The way people whispered about him in the hallways, at their lockers, in the cafeteria. Wherever, whenever. Whatever.

He was on the school team, as shooting guard for the St. Theo's Vultures Basketball Team. Noah was very offbeat though; he was not very violent or passive aggressive for that matter, but then he wasn't subtle either.

For the most part, he stayed away from me and my friends, except sometimes when he wanted to communicate with me. Mean was his code language. He was the reason I was in detention with this sleeping buffoon. Well, it was Cole's fault too but still.

Ten minutes into detention, the door to the classroom opened and in walked Noah Stark.

Wait, what?

I rubbed my eyes once, but he was still there, so I rubbed them once again just to be sure that I was not seeing figures I disliked.

But nope, there he was, in the flesh. Great. First, I had plans with Lia which he had already ruined and now he was with me, serving detention. Not going to lie, a slight smirk was playing on my lips at that thought.

Karma is a B-I-T-C-H, I snorted.

Oh, most importantly, did I mention that Noah Stark was one of the four Broody Brothers?

I didn't? Well, now you know.

Thirty minutes of pure boredom later, detention was done and Cole and I had made a beeline for the doors, straight for the respective washrooms. At this point, even Hermes wasn't as fast as the speed of a girl trying to hold her pee in for half an hour.

Later, I washed my hands under the running water, plotting different ways to evade Noah Stark for the whole year. I wasn't cut out for the whole revenge scene. Avoidance was the hammer to my Thor. But it slipped my mind that since, Amelia Hart was my sister, World Peace was a difficult objective.

"I will kill him," the door opened with a

bang bigger than the big bang. I only rolled my eyes.

Cole Finley just couldn't shut up about our detention time together even though I had given him strict instructions to refrain his stupid mouth from using the words 'Thea' and 'detention' in one sentence, but obviously that was too much to ask for. He had probably ended up vomiting everything that had happened in the last few hours to Amelia.

"You're overreacting, Lia."

"Excuse me? He got you a detention slip. As your older and responsible sister it is my duty to protect you from that pesky retard," he pressed one fist in the palm of the other hand, gritting her teeth. Sometimes I didn't know how to differentiate between her concern and the drama that overflowed from it.

"Okay, one, we're twins," she opened her mouth to explain how she was 'older by seven minutes' but I cut her off very efficiently. "... two, it's just detention, Lia."

Smooth, Thea. Real smooth.

"Fine," she huffed, narrowing her eyes at me.

"But you better hope to God he stays the f**k away from us or else his face is going to have a conversation with my fist and that will be one long conversation." She spat out and I couldn't help but chuckle at her blunt threat. How were we even twins?

"Okay Wolverine," I teased back, trying to dilute the intensity of melodrama. "Your claws are showing. Now let's get something to eat, I'm starving."

**********

It had been two days since the whole detention fiasco. Noah had always been like that. Very rarely, but he would find stupid reasons to mess with me even though he'd never ever come talk to me directly. Maybe he just looked for ways to talk to me but that didn't make sense, because most of the time he avoided me like the plague. So did the other guys.

On a bright note, Lia had cooled down. She wasn't thirsty for Noah's blood anymore but it didn't mean that she wouldn't pack a punch if he ever stood in front of her. That was Lia's way of saying: I will end you. Not literally but you get the point.

Everything was peaceful in Thea's universe again.

And then Noah ordained me to tutor him.

Twenty minutes ago:

I was a simple, seventeen year old teenager who kept to myself and diligently attended all my classes. Okay, so maybe the last part wasn't very true. None the less, I did attend most of my classes.

I was at my locker, keeping my trigonometry (finally got that right. yay) book inside and taking out my health-ed textbook. My locker was next to Amelia's but since her class got held up I had to walk to my locker alone. My eyes locked on to the picture stuck on the small door- a memory from my childhood from when I was around seven and this particular picture was taken at the local park.

We were on the dirty red double- seater swing. Lia had her arm wrapped around me and we were laughing because my hair was flying in both our faces when our dad had clicked this picture for us. Cole Finley obviously tried to photobomb and he ended up looking like a retarded Martian.

Hmph, I sighed. I remembered that day so well.

Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, I shut my red locker and turned around, expecting Amelia. But my lack of luck played its part perfectly. I mean, after seeing who was standing before me - I wouldn't have minded Cole either. Anyone but Noah Stark, mean complaint box.

"Urm, hi, Thea." He smiled at me. Oh wow. This is rich.

"Hello Noah..?" It came out like a question but even so, I replied like it didn't matter why he was here to talk to me, me out of all the people he could choose to talk to.

"Long time no see. How are classes going? Which ones are you taking this semester? Anything interesting?" Awkward alert.

Oh god, this small talk is going nowhere. Take charge, Thea Hart.

"What do you want, Noah?" I almost snapped, but at the same time hoping that he could sense the challenge in my voice. I stood up straighter, my hands finding their way on my hips now, my stance matching my tone. He'd be crazy to think that I was going to let go of the stunt he pulled the other day. Boss Lady Mode - On.

"Nothing," he beamed. "Can't I talk to an old friend out of love and appreciation?" Yeah right, I snorted, looking down to his unsteady feet. His cool guy act (such a wannabe) wasn't cutting it for me. It was clear as day that he was hesitant about something as he rocked back and forth on his feet.

I could almost hear Lia in my head, "I hope he slips and face-plants into my locker."

I shook my head.

"So you are telling me that you are standing here and talking to me, out of affection?" He winced so lightly it almost unnoticeable but Thea Hart caught on anyway. I had great observational skills.

"Cut the crap, Stark. What do you want?"

"Fine. Whatever. I need your help with English Lit. I'm not in AP English class but I'm still stuck in this class that you took last year. Mr. Howell suggested that I should talk you into tutoring me and since it's just one semester and I think you should really do it," he huffed out once more before running a hand through his hair and adding, "So yeah...that's it."

How Noah Stark looked annoyed and needy at the same was incomprehensible to me. But he was still standing there, looking at my face, obviously waiting for a reaction. The guy must be really desperate for help if he actually came within two feet radius of my presence.

"A please would have sufficed you know." On purpose, the challenge in my tone was back. Please, I wasn't giving in that easily and I most definitely wanted a please if I had to go through tutoring him for a whole semester. I mean, do you know how slowly time passes?

"What?"

"You've clearly never asked someone for help before, have you?" I sighed, shaking my head, raising my eyebrows at his confused face. Of course he hasn't. Rude.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Oh My God. Why couldn't a guy be blessed with a functional brain and some common sense? And while you're at it, God, maybe some manners would be nice too.

"Dude, your tact at asking for help sucks. Big time." I deadpanned. "You don't go up to somebody whom you have avoided like the plague and say, 'Hi, I need help and I think you should help me.' No Noah. Just No. Ever heard of the word please?" I chanted out, putting extra emphasis on 'please', wishing he took a hint.

I guessed from the change in his expression that he caught my drift. "So basically, you want me to plead you."

Now, I wasn't one to make him plead till the end of time. But I just happened to like the word please. It wasn't a question, rather a statement. Or maybe he just didn't know anything about punctuations. After all, he did say he needed tutoring in English.

I didn't nod my head yes. But I didn't shake my head no either. I simply shrugged. "If you wish to...”

"Wait. Is this about you getting detention because I reported you to the teacher?" Obviously, like the mean boy cliché that he was, the side of his mouth quirked up in a annoyingly comfortable smirk, head shaking in rising amusement.

"No can do, Princess." That was so expected. Told you, He was a walking mean boy cliché.

Asshole.

I was 0.02 seconds away from shooting him down with another smart-ass comeback, but he grabbed his expensive looking, brown leather backpack from where it was placed on the floor and swung it over his shoulder in a swift motion. I could only hope that he finally got the memo. Good riddance, I thought. No tutoring. No Noah.

"I'm glad we had this conversation Princess, I'll see you tomorrow after school. Let's say in the library, four o'clock? Does that work for you? It does? That's great. See ya!" And just like the he was out of there, faster than I could list all the vowels of the English alphabet.

As if.

Flashback over*

**********

The next day, I stood him up.

Thea -1 Noah-0