“Un-FUCKING-acceptable!” Lauren nearly shouted, Griselda and I both slinked back from the target of Lauren’s displeasure, which at the moment was Gilda. She looked down at her hands. We’d just gotten ourselves ready for Club when Lauren stormed in and called an emergency meeting.
“Look at this.” Lauren held up her phone to Gilda. “What is this?”
“A report card?” Gilda muttered.
“Very good.” Lauren smiled darkly. “It’s your end-of-year report card from the very expensive private school I just learned you were expelled from!”
Lauren rubbed her temple. “Your sister did explain that our activities were rewards for good grades right? Also, not being expelled??”
Gilda looked crushed, crumpling down on the bed like she’d been punched in the stomach. “Nooooooo...”
I put a hand on Gilda’s shoulder. “Hey. I think we can give her a little bit of a break, yeah?” I gave Lauren a pleading look. “I’m sure we can fix this. It’s still early in the year.”
Lauren took a breath and handed me her phone and it was so much worse than I thought.
Griselda looked over my shoulder. “Well...” She tried to reassure Gilda. “You have an A in gym at least!”
“Gym doesn’t count.” Lauren and I immediately responded at the same time.
“Oh...” Griselda sank back sadly.
Gilda looked like she was on the verge of tears. I could see the heartbroken look in Lauren’s eyes. “Okay Fine...” She pulled Gilda into a hug. “You can stay but you’ve got to get those grades up okay?”
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Gilda wiped a tear from her eyes. “I’m not sure I can… not that much.”
“Nichole and I will help you.” She said looking at me desperately. I had to admit I really really liked Gilda’s energy and she was pretty so I reluctantly agreed.
“T-thank you...” Gilda nuzzled Lauren softly.
“It’s alright baby girl.” Lauren pulled her close and wrapped her arm around the girl's waist. “I know you can do this. Deep down there is a good girl who can succeed if she tries. I’m sorry I yelled.”
Lauren kissed her softly and I could see a sparkle in Gilda’s eyes. I knew Lauren would never have accepted Gilda if she’d known what her grades were like at the time but she was one of us now and I was relieved Lauren was willing to give her a chance. Actually from the looks of it things were starting to heat up between the two of them and I decided it was time to work with Griselda who was otherwise very much enjoying the show.
I love the homework club. I love it so damn much.
Griselda and I looked over Gilda’s actual homework after our usual club activities wound down. It wasn’t much as it was the start of the year. Fortunately Gilda was a Junior and thus we both were somewhat familiar with the material if rusty due to it being so long since we’d covered it. We tried to teach her the material but found she was having a real hard time following. Until Griselda realized we would probably make it easier for her if we at least put out shirts back on. She protested but we got partially dressed anyway and it helped. Not gonna lie it was a struggle and clearly she was missing quite a bit we had to try.
What was probably intended to be a 10 minute worksheet took her the better part of an hour. She slumped over on the bed pitifully as she finished. “It’s too harrrrrd.”
Griselda stroked her hand. “It will be at first but it gets easier.”
“I wish I was smart like you.” She moped rolling on her side.
Griselda rolled her onto her back and crawled on top of her. “Why don’t we take a break?” She asked, pulling her top off again and watching Gilda’s eyes light up. Only to find I had gotten the spray bottle and was pointing it directly at her head.
“We already messed up one set of sheets. You wanna get it on? You know where the shower is.” I said putting my finger on the trigger. The girls scurried off into the bathroom leaving me to put Griselda hastily discarded garments in a pile next to her bag. I picked up my backpack as I heard the water hiss from the bathroom.
“Ah fuck it.” I dropped my bag and followed them into the shower.
