Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 3

Ella’s mood was significantly good today, although it was not that obvious on her usual emotionless face. It seemed like yesterday’s tutoring session paid off. Her score for today’s quiz was not exactly high, but she made it exactly to the passing score. 

Well, it should, because she had to endure a bad headache the whole time she was with Patrick. It was not because of the complicated equations he had her solve, but because of his infuriating condescending attitude. He sure as hell enjoyed making her feel stupid.

Ella promised herself that as soon as she had some money to spare to pay another tutor, she would ditch her current one. Come to think about it, she got the short end of the stick here. On top of enduring an annoying delinquent for a tutor, she also had to act as Patrick’s unwilling wingman to her cousin.

“Congratulations to those who passed today’s long quiz.”

Ella’s musings were cut off when she heard Ms. Santos speak up in front of the class.

“Make sure to continue your studying habits. We won’t know if your future Math teacher would be as kind as I am,” Ms. Santos added.

That silenced the class right away. Ella herself was confused. What did Ms. Santos mean by future Math teacher? She saw Marcus who sat beside Patrick raise his hand to ask their teacher a question.

“Ma’am, what do you mean by us having a future Math teacher?”

Ms. Santos smiled tightly before answering their classmate’s question. “Well, about that... I’m being transferred to the Humanities track. The business math teacher of Section Ruby was going on maternity leave, so I was brought in to fill her spot. That’s why the school hired another to replace me as the Advanced Calculus teacher. You’ll meet him next week.”

Their teacher finished with a sad smile. “I’m going to miss you, Section Emerald.”

There was a collective groan as a response from the class. Even Ella was pissed. She liked Ms. Santos as a teacher. She was at least considerate with her even when she always failed their tests.

The day’s class ended on a disappointing note. Marcus and Patrick passed by her, carrying their bags, undoubtedly going to basketball practice. Marcus was loudly whining out:

“Man... I’m going to miss Ms. Santos so much. She’s the only reason why I study hard on this subject!”

Ella had to shake her head on the noisy guy. Sometimes she found herself wondering if Marcus was fit to attend senior high school. His actions were much suited to kindergarten. Although he could be admittedly funny at times… Even Patrick was obviously annoyed at his friend, as she heard him chastise Marcus again.

“Shut up, Marc. You have no chance at all with Ms. Santos.”

Damn, Patrick was savage when he wanted to be, she thought. Ella then proceeded to finish packing up her things as she heard Marcus’ cries die down as the two varsity players exited the room. Ella was planning to go to the animal shelter after class. She had no tutorial session with Patrick today.

She slipped her bag to her back and was planning to head outside when she felt someone tapping her shoulder. It was Tish, their class muse, another one of the most popular students of the class.

“Ella, may I ask you a question?” Tish had a serious look on her face.

Ella wrinkled her forehead in confusion. “Yeah, sure.” Tish never talked to her so she was surprised by this moment.

“Is it true that you’re dating Patrick?”

Ella blinked blankly at the girl’s question. She hoped that Tish was merely joking but her otherwise expectant face told her that she wasn’t.

Ella grimaced in disgust. “No! What kind of weird question was that?” She and Patrick? For heaven’s sake, she couldn’t even stomach his arrogance!

Tish then released a relieved sigh after hearing her answer. Ella shook her head in disbelief. 

“Why did you ask that question, by the way?” She asked their muse.

“Marcus was telling the class earlier that he saw Patrick holding your hand last time,” Tish answered. “So he said that there might be something between the two of you.”

Well, yes, mutual dislike, Ella answered in her mind. It seemed like Patrick’s fears were correct. Marcus’ loud mouth could not be trusted at all and he already managed to spread such a rumor. 

Ella shuddered at the thought of the rumor reaching her cousin. She would have to do some explaining. Ella then turned to Tish and told her:

“Listen, Ms. Santos told me to find a tutor. You know how bad I am at Math right?”

Tish nodded in response.

“Patrick agreed to be my tutor if I pay him. But that’s it. We’re not even friends,” Ella finished. Gosh, she and Patrick didn’t even talk in class. How could anyone believe a rumor that came from Marcus, of all people?

“Oh, that’s it!” Tish clapped her hand in glee. “Patrick is really cool. On top of being a varsity player, he’s also a tutor,” she added, her eyes shining as she muttered the statement.

“Yeah...” Ella agreed awkwardly. It was obvious that Tish was Patrick’s fan girl. If she were to be asked, there was nothing admirable about Patrick Rosales. 

She just didn’t quite get the appeal. Maybe it was because Patrick was a basketball player? Well, they were quite popular, but there were others in the team who weren’t known to land in trouble as much as Patrick. Was it his bad boy reputation? Ella had to quietly snort at herself at the thought. Patrick was more of a cranky old man than a cool bad boy for her. She mentally sighed. Whatever the guy’s appeal was, it was a mystery to her…

Tish then said her goodbye quite happily. Ella had to shake her head at the poor girl. If only she knew that Patrick was already into her cousin Jasmine.

When Ella went out of the classroom, she found Jasmine and her friends, who all seemed to be in a deep conversation. As they saw her approaching, she could feel their demeanor change and the atmosphere suddenly got awkward.

“Uhmm… Hey…” Ella greeted Jasmine with some hesitation seeping in her voice.

“Oh, h-hi Ella,” Jasmine stammered. Her friends did the same, making Ella feel that she stumbled into something confidential.

“Errr… Did I interrupt something? I could leave if you want,” she offered.

“No!” Jasmine and friends exclaimed unanimously. 

“We actually want to ask you a question,” Anna, Jasmine’s best friend added.

It seemed like everyone was asking her a question today, but Ella nodded. “Yeah, sure,” she answered. “What is it?”

This time, it was Jasmine who leaned to her conspiratorially. “Is it true that you’re dating Patrick Rosales?”

Ella sighed in her mind, and decided to answer the same way she did with Tish. “No, that’s not true. I was already asked about that just awhile ago and apparently, it was Marcus who spread that.” She paused to look the group in their eyes.

“You know how troublesome Marcus could be, right?”

The four girls nodded in agreement so Ella continued her story. “The thing is, Marcus only saw me approaching Patrick, and it’s because he is my Math tutor, nothing more, nothing less.”

“How did he become your Math tutor? He seems a little scary to approach, doesn’t he?” Ness, another friend of Jasmine, asked.

“He… uhhh… He heard about Ms. Santos looking for a tutor for me and I guess he needed some money so he approached me about it and offered to be my tutor,” Ella smoothly lied.

“Oh,” Jasmine perked up. “I didn’t know you had some money with you. Did dad and mom give you allowance?”

Ella blinked her eyes after hearing the question, and then she softly shook her head. “No, actually. I had saved some money when I did some dog-sitting last summer.” That was true anyway.

“I see,” Jasmine nodded and smiled widely. 

Bella, the friend who remained silent all this time spoke up suddenly, turning to Jasmine and squealing, “This is good news, Jas! Maybe you can finally have a reason to talk to Patrick now! He doesn’t seem to be that bad, like what you told us before!”

Ella snapped her head to her cousin’s direction. “Are you interested with Patrick?” She asked, her eyes wide in astonishment.

Jasmine blushed prettily at her question, “Yeah,” she replied in a small voice.

She was celebrating inside her mind. This would make her job much easier. If Patrick and Jasmine were already interested with each other, then all that was left for her to do was to give them an opportunity to meet and talk.

“Jasmine, do you want to meet and talk to Patrick? I promise I won’t tell aunt and uncle,” Ella knew how strict Jasmine parents could be.

“H-how would you do that?” Jasmine seemed interested although a little hesitant too.

“We’re going to have a tutoring session tomorrow at the city library. You can come with me, and then I would pretend that I am needed at the shelter so that I could leave you two alone to talk.” She was confident in her plan.

Jasmine still looked unsure so Ella convinced her more. “Don’t worry about Patrick. He’s not scary in real life.” More like annoying, a voice in her head inserted.

“Alright. I guess I’ll go with you,” Jasmine finally agreed.

Her cousin’s three friends giggled and teased the beautiful girl, while Ella couldn’t contain the little smile on her face. Operation success!

It was 8:30 in the evening when Patrick received a text message from Ella. His forehead creased in curiosity, wondering why she texted him, as he opened the message.

“Dude, don’t forget our tutoring session tomorrow,” the first line read.

Patrick sighed. He almost forgot about it. His Saturdays were dedicated to practicing basketball, but he had no choice because of this deal. He continued on reading.

“You’d need to thank me after, because I’ll finally pay my end of our deal. Jasmine’s going with me, so you can talk to her. I think she’s interested in you too!”

His jaw dropped after reading the last line. Jasmine seemed interested with him? Damn! He quickly replied back, typing:

“Alright. One in the afternoon at the city library, right?”

Ella texted back after a minute. “Yes. I guess tomorrow’s your lucky day,” she said.

Patrick hoped so. He was counting on her. He then raised his fist to the air in excitement. He couldn’t wait!