The Tutor of Two Rivals

Chapter 2: The Job Offer

Adrian Cole did not raise his voice. That was the worst part.

He said it again, slower, like he was giving Julian one chance to produce an answer worth hearing. "What is he doing in my house."

Julian recovered first, because of course he did. He slid his hands into his pockets and leaned his shoulder against the bookshelf like he'd been invited to a garden party instead of walking into a minefield.

"Funny story. My dad got a call from your assistant. Something about a tutoring session, seven o'clock, don't be late. I figured you two had finally patched things up and decided to co-parent my academic future." He tilted his head. "Guess not."

Adrian's jaw tightened. Mira watched something pass behind his eyes, gone so fast she almost missed it, something that looked less like anger and more like being caught.

"There's been a miscommunication," Adrian said.

"Clearly," Ezra said, and there was an edge in his voice that made Mira glance over. He wasn't looking at Julian anymore. He was looking at his father, and whatever was in that look went a lot deeper than one awkward evening. "Since when do you make deals with Marcus Voss's office without telling me."

"I didn't make a deal with anyone's office. I hired a tutor."

"And it didn't occur to you that Julian's father might have the same idea, given that our sons attend the same three classes and are apparently now on the same team for the one competition that actually matters this year?"

Mira's head turned sharply at that. Same team. She hadn't heard that part yet, and from the way Julian's easy grin faltered for exactly half a second, neither had he, not officially, not out loud in this room.

"Wait," Julian said. "What team."

Adrian exhaled through his nose, the sound of a man recalculating an entire evening in real time. "The Lumen Scholars Competition released final pairings this afternoon. Ashcombe's advisors matched students by GPA weighted against extracurricular load. You two were placed together."

The room went very quiet.

Mira had spent two years perfecting the art of making herself smaller in rooms like this, invisible enough to refill water glasses and clear plates without anyone remembering her name. She had never once been in a room where the temperature actually dropped, but she felt it now, watching two boys who apparently despised each other absorb the news that they were now, officially, stuck together.

"No," Ezra said.

"It isn't optional, Ezra."

"Then I'll withdraw."

"You will not." Adrian's voice finally sharpened, just barely, just enough to remind everyone in the room whose house this was. "Do you have any idea what that scholarship means. What it opens. You are not throwing away a full ride to a top program because you'd rather not share a folder with Marcus Voss's son."

"I'd rather not share a folder with Marcus Voss's son because the last time our families tried to work together, you didn't speak for six years."

Adrian's face didn't move. But something in the room did, some pressure shifting, and Mira found herself watching Julian instead, because Julian had gone very still too, the charm draining out of his posture like someone had pulled a plug.

"That's ancient history," Julian said, too lightly. "Nobody cares anymore."

"Your father cares," Ezra said. "Mine clearly cares enough to hide a tutoring appointment from me rather than have this exact conversation like an adult."

"Enough." Adrian's voice cracked through the room like a closing door. He looked at Mira for the first time since walking in, and something in his expression reset itself instantly into the businesslike tone she recognized from the phone call. "Miss Delgado. I apologize for the confusion. I wasn't aware Marcus had also reached out to you."

"He didn't tell me either," Mira said carefully. "I found out about thirty seconds before you did."

That got the faintest flicker of something from Adrian. Not quite amusement. Recognition, maybe, that she wasn't going to pretend this was normal just because he was standing in an expensive suit in an expensive room.

"I assume," Adrian said, "that under the circumstances, you'd prefer to work with Ezra alone. I can make arrangements for Julian to find separate tutoring."

"Actually," Julian said, straightening off the bookshelf, "I'd prefer to stay exactly where I am."

Ezra shot him a look sharp enough to draw blood. "Why."

"Because if I leave, you get to spend the next six months telling everyone at school that I couldn't hack the tutoring your dad set up, and I'd rather die than hand you that." Julian's grin came back, thinner now, more like armor than warmth. "Also, in case anyone missed it, we are apparently stuck as partners either way. Might as well fail or pass physics in the same room."

Mira looked between them. Two boys who'd clearly spent years perfecting exactly how to needle each other, and a father standing there watching it happen like he wasn't entirely sure whether to intervene or let the fire burn itself out.

She thought about the envelope in her sock drawer. She thought about how significant pay from one family was good, but significant pay from two, for the same two hours, was the kind of math that could shave a full semester off how long she needed before she could stop counting fourteen dollars like it mattered.

"I'll tutor both of you," she said.

Three heads turned toward her at once.

"Together," she added, before anyone could talk her out of it, or worse, before she could talk herself out of it. "Same sessions. It's more efficient than running the same material twice, and since you're apparently going to be sitting across a table from each other at every Lumen round whether you like it or not, you might as well start getting used to it now instead of imploding in front of judges in April."

Silence.

Ezra looked at her like she'd said something in a language he didn't recognize. "You want to tutor both of us. At once. Knowing what you just heard in this room."

"I want to get paid," Mira said flatly. "And I'm apparently the only adult present who's noticed that you two failing this competition because you can't stand to be in the same room isn't actually going to hurt your fathers' rivalry. It's just going to hurt you."

Adrian Cole studied her for a long moment; long enough that Mira started to wonder if she'd overstepped badly enough to lose the job entirely before she'd even started it. Then, unexpectedly, something that might have been the ghost of a smile crossed his face.

"I like her," he said, to no one in particular, and turned to leave the room like the matter was closed. At the door he paused. "Miss Delgado. Same rate, doubled, since you're now managing two students instead of one. I trust that's acceptable."

Mira's mouth went dry doing the math. "That's acceptable."

"Good. I'll have the study prepared for Thursdays and Sundays going forward." He glanced at his son, something unreadable passing between them. "Try not to burn the house down, either of you."

The door shut behind him, and the three of them stood there in the sudden quiet, the kind that rings in your ears after something loud.

Julian broke it first, dropping back into the armchair like nothing had happened, though his jaw was still tighter than it had been ten minutes ago. "Well. That went about as well as I expected, honestly. Which is to say, terribly, but at least nobody called security."

Ezra hadn't moved from his spot by the window. He was looking at Mira now, properly, the way you look at something you're trying to solve. "You didn't have to do that."

"Do what?"

"Volunteer for this." His voice was quieter than it had been all night, stripped of the ice he'd been wearing since she walked in. "You could have taken half the money and walked away from all of it. Instead you offered to tutor both of us. Together. Knowing my father can't be in the same room as his father without something breaking."

Mira met his eyes and didn't look away, because looking away was a habit she'd trained herself out of a long time ago. "I need the money more than I need this to be easy."

Something flickered across Ezra's face. Not warmth exactly. More like the first crack in a wall that had been standing a long time.

"Fine," he said finally. "Thursday. Seven o'clock. Don't be late."

"I'm never late."

"We'll see."

Julian let out a low whistle from the armchair, glancing between them with an expression Mira couldn't quite read. "This is going to be so much fun," he said, in a tone that suggested he meant the exact opposite, or possibly meant it completely sincerely, or possibly hadn't decided yet either.

Mira gathered her backpack and let herself out through the front doors before either of them could say anything else, before the tight, humming feeling in her chest had a chance to turn into something she'd have to examine too closely.

The gate swung open for her the same way it had swung open on the way in, silent, obedient, like the whole world here had been built to never make a sound it didn't intend to make.

She walked the three blocks back to the bus stop with her phone buzzing in her pocket, three texts from Priya stacked on top of each other, each one more frantic than the last.

She didn't answer any of them yet. She was still trying to figure out how to explain what had just happened, two boys, one impossible rivalry, and a decision she'd made in about four seconds that was either the smartest thing she'd ever done for that envelope in her sock drawer, or the first domino in something she wasn't ready for.

Her phone buzzed again. Not Priya this time.

An unknown number.

She stared at the screen under the streetlight, thumb hovering, and then the message resolved into words that made her stomach drop for the second time that night.

Unknown Number: This is Julian. Got your number off the intake form my dad's assistant left lying around. Don't be mad. I just need to tell you something before Thursday, and I really don't want Ezra in the room when I do.