Chapter 01

"How the hell do you do this?!" I exclaimed while looking at his math book. "It's so damn hard!" I added. "Well, you should practice solving everyday. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, then solving a single long problem a day will keep the failure away." says Erica. "You should learn how to be patient when it comes to mathematics especially algebra. It really is hard. It's up to the student on how to make the hard problem easy to solve." she added.

Hi! I'm Junpei. A second year college student. What you just read is my tutorial with Erica in the school library. I sort of failed my midterms on algebra so she volunteered to tutor me. Good thing. 'Cause my tentative grade is just 73%. I have to score 85% on the final exam so that I can make my grade a solid 75%.

By the way, Erica is a good friend of mine. We just met last summer of second year. She was introduced to me by an old friend. What she doesn't know, is that I'm already in love with her when I first saw her. Well, you can call it as love at first sight or something. I don't really do anything about these feelings of mine. Hell, I don't care about love - not until I met her. She changed me. Oh well. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. I'm just enjoying her company right now especially now since she volunteered herself to teach me.

"Did I get it? Did I finally solve it?" I asked Erica. "No. You didn't. If you keep doing this, you'll end up in summer class next year and I'm damn well sure that you don't want to waste your precious summer vacation doing some remedial classed right?" she said. "Of course! Who would want to waste a perfect summer vacation?! Not me. Definitely not me." I exclaimed. "Okay, okay. You're determined. I can see that. Go back to solving some problems please." she said with a smile.

I went back to solving some problems. Well, I can't say that I am not inspired right now. Truth to be told, I'm distracted by Erica's presence. I'm afraid to commit mistakes in front of her. After a few moments of solving, I suddenly got hungry. "Erica, I'm hungry" I said. "God damn it Junpei! How short is your attention span?! Can't you please focus on the problem please?!" she said. "But I'm hungry" I said with puppy dog eyes. "Okay! Get some bread or something in the canteen. I'll give you five minutes so hurry up!" she said.

I hurriedly went to the canteen. Good thing there's only a few people there. I bought four doughnuts. Two chocolate, and two bavarian. I went back to the library. "What took you?!" exclaimed Erica while glaring at me. "Nothing, nothing. Please don't be mad. Here, I bought you two doughnuts" I said while handing her her share. She smiled after I gave her those. Maybe that's her favorite flavor. I sat back on my chair to resume solving some problems. She first ate her bavarian doughnut. I almost broke into laughter after she took her first bite. The flour from the doughnut scattered all over her lips up to her nose. Good thing I have a little gentleman side that I took the liberty to wipe it off her face. I enjoyed what I just did. "I'm so blessed right now" I whispered to myself while smiling towards her. "What's your problem?!" she said. "Oh nothing" I replied.

After a few minutes, I managed to solve five long problems. I gave it to her so that she could check it. "Did I get it this time?" I asked. "Well, you certainly did." she said with a smile towards me. "So can we go home now? I really want to have some shut eye right about now" I said while standing up. "Okay. But remember. The test is in two days so if you have some time, please review and practice okay? I'll see you during exam day."

With that, we both got out of the library and went our separate ways after exiting the school gate. I'm so inspired right now. I really am.