Alex
The minute that students began filing into the classroom, I wished that I could just walk out. Everyone stared. It must have been my classmates’ lucky day because today they were spoiled for choice. They not only got to stare at the kid whose mom had just died, but they also got to stare at the new teacher. Luckily for me, Mr. Barakat seemed to be winning their attention. Judging by the looks that most of the girls were giving him and, the not so quiet whispered conversation about how ‘hot’ he was, I knew that Mr. Barakat would have his work cut out for him.

“It’s good to have you back, Alex.” Aaron, the guy I sat beside, stated. “Class has been quiet without you, dude.”

I was about to reply when Mr. Barakat called for everyone’s attention.

“Good morning, everyone. As I‘m sure you have noticed by now, Mr. Evans is not here. I am Mr. Barakat and I shall be your new English teacher for the remainder of the year. My rules are simple and if you stick to them, then I‘m sure that we will get along just fine.”

I began to zone him out as he began talking about homework and handing up assignments on time. I knew that it was going to be hard being back but I also knew that I needed to get out of the house. I was going crazy being stuck at home and I couldn’t stand it. Everything reminded me of her and I missed her like hell. Having dad being sick didn’t help much either. I don’t think that I could take much more bad news.

First, it was dad’s diagnosis with cancer and then there was mom’s death. She’d just gone to the supermarket for food. She wasn’t meant to die. After this round of treatment, they would be able to tell if the chemotherapy worked. I started paying attention when Mr. Barakat introduced the new poet we would be studying - T. S. Eliot. His poetry was interesting and before I knew it, a whole double period had passed.

“Okay class, that’s everything for today. See you all tomorrow morning. Alex, could you hang back for a second?”

I slid my books into my bag and made my way to the front desk.

“Alex, if my timetable is correct; I have you for Music Theory and Music Performance for the final two periods today.” I nodded in response. “Okay, I need you to stay back for about five minutes after class so we can discuss the tutoring thing and arrange a suitable time. It won‘t take long so you shouldn‘t be too late home. Is that okay with you?”

I smiled at Mr. Barakat.

“Sure, that’s fine Mr. Barakat. I’ll see you later then. Oh, and by the way, Sir…thank you for all of this, I really appreciate it.”

With that I turned and left the classroom and headed for chemistry.

My day passed quickly enough and apart from a few sympathetic glances and ‘It’s good to have you back’, it was like I had never left. I slotted back into the group of people that I had hung out with and everything felt like it was back to normal. My group of friends weren’t my best friends but they provided the much needed companionship at school. I had always found it easier to get on with people who were older than me and it was no surprise that my two best friends were twenty-one and twenty-two. They didn’t live in Maryland because of school and work but that didn’t change a thing. They were always there for me and they had both come home for the funeral and stayed until they were sure that I was okay.

Zack was living in California and he was studying Sport, Science and Music in UCLA. Danny, on the other hand, had an amazing job. He toured around the world with Fall Out Boy as a guitar and bass tech. I missed them a lot when they weren’t at home but we kept in touch over the phone and by email and they came home whenever they could.

I don’t remember much about my day apart from the fact that I tried to keep my mind as occupied as I possibly could. That way, I didn’t spend too much time thinking about her. Now, I was both excited and nervous for Music class. In a way, I was glad that I had Music Theory first because since my mom’s death, I hadn’t picked up a guitar or played piano. It just felt weird to play music when it had always been a thing that my mom and I did together. As I headed towards the music room, I hoped that music could resume its place as my form of therapy and once again be my escape from life. I took my seat in class as Mr. Barakat began introducing himself to the class.

“Okay, one thing Mr. Evans’ failed to mention was who’s doing Honours Music Theory and who’s not. So, raise your hand if you are doing Honours.”

I sheepishly raised my hand. I knew I was the only one doing it.

“Is it just you, Alex?” He asked, smiling in my direction. “Okay, show of hands for those of you who picked Music Theory because you thought that it would be an easy option.”

With this question, about ninety percent of my class raised their hands, causing Mr. Barakat to laugh.

“Still think it was easy? …Nope. I didn’t think so.”

With that, he introduced the next era of music that we would be studying, the classical era, giving us a background to what we would be studying for the next month or so. That class went by pretty fast and when the bell sounded, I walked across the corridor to the proper music room. There were only eight pupils in my class and to start off, Mr. Barakat wanted to see our performance abilities so we each had to perform for him on our chosen instruments. Peoples’ instruments varied from piano, vocals, strings, brass and guitar. I had taken on three different instruments, whereas others had only decided to take on one or two. My three were the piano, vocals and guitar. Some of my class had some real talent and the others just thought that they did.

“Okay, last up for today is, Alex Gaskarth. Everyone else, I’ll get to you tomorrow so be prepared. Right Alex, let’s hear something on the piano.”

I took a deep breath as I positioned myself on the piano stool. I closed my eyes and let my fingers ghost over the keys before I began playing a lullaby that I had composed myself. The more I played, the more it felt right to be playing again. I finished my piece just as the bell rang, signalling the end of the school day.

As I went back to my seat to pack away my things, Karlee Jones approached Mr. Barakat’s desk. Karlee was a preppy, popular cheerleader and a walking STD. She had a reputation and it wasn’t a good one.

“Excuse me, Mr. Barakat; I don’t think that I understand what we are doing in Theory at the moment. Could you tutor me and help me?”

Mr. Barakat smiled politely at her before replying.

“We haven‘t even begun the topic. How can you possibly know if you can do it or not? Give it a chance and, if you still need help with it, then we can try and find you a student tutor. Who knows, you might even grow to love Mozart.”

Karlee looked disgusted as she stomped out of the classroom. Mr. Barakat sighed as he ran a hand through his shaggy dark brown hair.

“That seems to be happening so much today.” He remarked. “Anyhoo, if you‘ll please follow me to my office, we can try and work out some sort of schedule for tutoring.”

I grabbed my bag off of the table and slung it over my shoulder, as I followed him into his office.

“Okay, I have a slight problem about tutoring you. I can’t stay after school and I have a pretty packed schedule during the day. The only alternative that I can see is if we pick two days after school, one for English and one for Music, that suit us both and you can come over to my house for an hour or so. How does that sound?”

The fact that he was still willing to tutor me in his own free time, meant a lot to me.

“That sounds great, Sir. I don‘t mean to be awkward but I can‘t do Tuesdays.”

“That’s perfect. Neither can I.” Mr. Barakat grinned. “How do Wednesday‘s and Friday‘s suit you?”

~*~*~*~
When I walked into my house, my dad was waiting for me in the kitchen. Lately, he had been feeling okay because he was in between treatment sessions but, his bald head served to be an ever present tell-tale sign to his illness.

“Hey Alex, how was your day today?” My dad greeted when I entered the kitchen. “Take a seat and tell me about it.”

It was weird having dad at home when I got home from school. Normally, mom would be the one waiting for me when I arrived home. My dad ran his own law firm and he was always kept busy. Even now, although he was sick, he tried to make it into work as much as possible.

“My day was good. What about yours? How do you feel? Everything went back to normal and that’s the way I needed it to be. I’ve got a new English and Music teacher and he has offered to help me catch up on what I’ve missed.”

“That‘s good to hear, Alex. I was so worried about how you would get on today. My day was okay and I‘m feeling good today, too. I have been thinking about something that I need to ask your opinion on. I think that we should hire a housekeeper to help keep this place in order. Your mom was the only one who could ever run this house. You also don‘t need the added pressure of having to worry about cooking or doing the housework. It will be handy especially when I‘m working or too ill to do anything. What do you say?”

He was right. My mom was the only one who had ever been able to run this house. I couldn’t help but smile when my mind filled with the fond memories of my mom shooing me and my dad out of the kitchen as she prepared the dinner or, as she attempted to clean. She had a set way of doing things and no one was allowed to intrude or interfere.

“Sure, that sounds great, dad. It would be one less thing to worry about.”

“Okay then, leave it with me and I‘ll sort it all out. So, are you okay with the whole tutor thing? If you aren‘t, we can try and find someone outside of school for you.”

This was typical of my dad. He always tried to put me first and, always tried to chance something if he felt that I was uncomfortable with it.

“No. It’s fine, dad. Mr. Barakat is cool; he’s new and I like him so far.”

Okay, this was the understatement of the century. I liked him a lot. He was good looking. I was interrupted from my thoughts by my phone vibrating and blasting ‘Saturday’ by Fall Out Boy.

“Dad, it’s Danny. Do you mind…?”

My dad just waved me away but not before calling to me to tell Danny that he said hi. As soon as I answered the phone, without even having a chance to say hello, Danny launched into a conversation.

“Alex, how was your day? I want all the details.”

Danny was never one for formalities such as greetings, especially when there was potential gossip to be heard.

“Why, hello Mr. Kurily, or do we not say those kind of things anymore?”

I heard Danny laugh softly as I took a seat at my desk and switched my laptop on.

“I’m sorry Lex, but can you blame me? I spent the whole day worrying about how you were getting on. I want to know everything. Did it go okay? Did anyone give you any hassle or say anything to you?”

This was typical behaviour for Danny and Zack. Not only were they my closest friends but because of the age difference, they acted like the protective big brothers that I never had. They would kill anyone who tried to hurt me.

“My day went just fine, Dan. I promise. I have a new English and Music teacher so any attention that should have been on me, got shifted onto him instead.”

“New teacher?” Danny questioned. “I guess that Evans finally followed through on his retirement threat. It‘s about time. So, who‘s this new teacher? Are they nice?”

I was all set to fill Danny in when an IM popped up on my screen. It was from Zack.

My classes are finished in two hours. You free to talk then? - Z

I typed back a quick reply before answering Danny.

“What do you want to know about him, Danny? I don’t know much about him to be honest.”

I heard Danny sigh softly at my reluctance to share information.

“Let’s start with the basics. Name, age, that kind of stuff.”

“Fine then, he‘s an ex-student. His name‘s Barakat. Jack I think, I‘m not sure. He looks to be about your age. He seems to be really nice and he‘s offered to tutor me to help me catch up with all of the stuff that I‘ve missed.”

“Hmm, Barakat? I think I know him. Actually, I’m sure that I do. Alex, shame on you! You left out the most important detail. What does he look like?”

Although Danny couldn’t see me, I still rolled my eyes at this comment. Ever since he had found out that I liked guys as well as girls, he was always asking these type of questions.

“I’ll admit that he’s cute.” I could feel myself blushing slightly as I thought about him. “Actually, he‘s really good looking, Dan. He is also probably straight and would be extremely freaked out if he knew that I liked him. I‘m just a kid that he has no choice but to help.”

“Alex, stop being so pessimistic! He’s a really nice guy. He was in my grade. I’m sure that he’s helping you because he wants to. He’s really smart. Be glad that you have him as a tutor and it’s just a bonus fact that you find him attractive.”

I guess that Danny had a point, Mr. Barakat may be straight but at least I had an attractive tutor.

“Thanks for your help, Danny.”

“No problem, Bro. Anytime. You know I‘m here for you whenever you need me. I‘m going to have to go now though. I need to be at sound check in five minutes. I‘ll talk to you soon though. Bye.”