Jack
Today marked the end of my first full week as a teacher at Dulaney High. Tonight would also be my second tutoring session with Alex. I wasn’t even sure if it was still going ahead or not though. Alex wasn’t in school today and I will admit that I kind of missed him being in class. His musical ability is second to none. He also had a presence that lit up a room. I know it’s weird to think of him in that way, and I know as his teacher I shouldn’t but, I just can’t help it.

At five-fifteen, the doorbell rang and when I answered it, I found Alex standing in the doorway trying to catch his breath.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.”

“It’s no problem, Alex. Come on in. Can I get you anything to drink? You look like you’ve just ran ten miles.”

“Umm…water would be good.”

I returned from the kitchen with two icy bottles of water as Alex was getting his things out of his backpack.

“Is everything, okay?” I asked as I handed him his water and took a seat beside him.

“Everything is fine now, but dad caught a bug and he ended up in hospital. I spent last night looking after him and getting him settled in there. I was there all night and went home for a few hours sleep this morning before going back again. He‘s okay now, but they are still going to keep him in until Tuesday when they begin his next round of treatment. My cab got stuck in traffic so I‘m sorry I‘m late.”

“There‘s no need to apologise, Alex. I hope that your dad is okay. Are you sure that you want to work tonight? You‘ve had a rough day. You could just skip it or you could just hang here for a while and chill. I wouldn‘t mind.”

Alex smiled in my direction as he placed his bottle on the table.

“Actually, Mr. Barakat, I think that work might just take my mind off of everything. Music usually does.”

It seemed that Alex’s mind worked the same as mine. Music could always calm me down if I had a rough day or if I was feeling worked up.

“That‘s perfect with me. Oh, and you can call me Jack while we aren‘t in school. Okay, he‘s the plan for this evening; for the first hour we will catch up on what you missed in school today. Then, we will discuss your portfolio and begin to work on it.”

I handed Alex the music score and filled him in on the basics of the piece.

“Okay, so today we started on our classical piece; Mozart Piano Concerto in A Major. We got as far as the solo exposition but first we are going to listen to the movement one as a whole. Stop me if you get lost at any time.”

I pressed play and let the sounds of Mozart fill the room as we listened to the movement in full before breaking it down into smaller sections to analyse it. Alex seemed to pick everything up and he really didn’t seem to have any difficulty in understanding what was going on in the piece.

We were nearly finished with the first hour when the door of the living room opened and Matt, my housemate, entered with an apologetic look on his face. Alex jumped slightly at the sudden intrusion and at the fact that the bundle in Matt’s arms was crying.

“Jack, I‘m sorry. I wouldn‘t do this if it wasn‘t necessary but she just won‘t settle for me. I know that you are in the middle of tutoring, but could you try? She‘s been off all evening.”

I walked over to Matt and took the young baby into my arms. I held her close to my chest and began rocking her gently which seemed to silence her cries.

“I‘ve got her, Matt. Thanks, dude.” Matt left the room, closing the door with a soft click and I took my seat once again. “I‘m really sorry about this, Alex. I didn‘t think that she‘d be a problem. This is Bella, my niece. She seems to be settled so I think that we can go ahead and begin discussing your portfolio.”

Alex smiled as he peeked into the bundle in my arms.

“She’s so small and cute.” He noted as she lay contently in my arms, looking up at me with the big brown eyes that she had gotten from my brother. “Did you get caught for babysitting?”

“Umm, something like that. Bella’s parents, my brother and his wife, died in a car crash about a month ago. Since I was her legal guardian, I’m taking care of her. She’s the reason why I can’t take you after school; I have to pick her up from day care.”

Alex’s face reddened at this.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you that. It was a really personal question.”

With my free hand, I reached over and patted his shoulder, trying to make him stop worrying.

“Alex, it‘s okay. Trust me, I‘m okay about talking about it. You weren‘t to know and, to be honest, you had a right to ask since she more or less gate crashed your tutoring session. She‘s not going to be a bother so why don‘t we continue? Have you decided what three headings you are going to do your portfolio under?”

Alex began flipping through his notes, stopping when he found the right page.

“I have some ideas that I‘d like to run by you. I was thinking of taking the rock genre and doing my portfolio on the progression of the genre and its fusions with different genres of music. Then I was going to take the guitar as my instrument and for my group, I want to use Blink 182 and what they have done for the pop-punk genre.”

Alex seemed to have his basics planned out and he had understood the brief for the portfolio. “Take any section, genre, era of music and research three related topics, one to be a group or performer related to the topic.”

“You seem to have everything planned out. Your portfolio is similar to the one that I did for my finals. I used Blink and I used the guitar as my instrument. I‘ll show it to you during the next session. It‘ll be easier to help you since both of our portfolios are similar.”

Alex seemed shocked that I liked Blink 182. We began working on the basics of the portfolio and just talked about Blink in general. Before I knew it, our time was up. As Alex was getting ready to leave, I remembered that his dad was in hospital.

“Alex, wait. I meant to ask you earlier, but it completely slipped my mind. Since your dad is in hospital, I‘m guessing that you haven‘t had a chance to eat anything proper today. Matt and I always order pizza on a Friday night and you‘re more than welcome to join us. We always order way too much.”

Alex was silent for a moment as he thought it over.

“I couldn’t.” He started. “I don‘t want to intrude or be a bother. You‘ve already been more than kind to me. I‘ll be fine, Jack. I‘ll just fix myself something to eat when I get home.”

Alex was really clutching at straws, looking for a reason not to stay.

“Actually, I‘ve changed my mind. I insist that you stay and I won‘t take ‘no‘ for an answer. Neither will Matt, for that matter, when he finds out. Please, just stay and have some dinner with us. I won‘t let you go home on an empty stomach. I‘ll even drop you home later. Matt‘s a nice guy. He won‘t bite.”

It seemed as if my persuading was working and Alex seemed to be giving in.

“Well…I don’t know. I guess I’ll stay if you are sure that it won’t be a bother.”

“Of course it won‘t be a bother. I‘m taking that as a yes. I‘ll just put Bella down to bed and get Matt to ring in the order. I‘ll be back in a moment.”

I left the room, stopping off first in my room to put Bella into her crib and then at Matt’s room to let him know that Alex would be joining us. When I got back to the living room, Alex was finishing up a phone call with his dad.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, taking my seat and curling my feet up beneath me.

“Yeah,” he replied. “He‘s comfortable and getting ready to sleep for the night. He‘s had a long day and it‘s really taken its toll on him.”

I nodded in response. I understood exactly what he was on about.

“The treatment is seriously brutal. My dad was always tired and run down. He even fell asleep in the middle of my brother‘s Graduation ceremony.”

Alex smiled slightly at this thought.

“I know that I‘ve said it already, but thank you so much for all of this. You didn‘t have to do all of this, no other teacher would have.”

Alex really didn’t need to be thanking me.

“Alex, for once and for all listen to me when I say that I do not mind helping you. I wouldn‘t be doing this if I didn‘t want to. If I‘m honest, I don‘t really see this as a teacher helping out a student. There‘s such a small age gap between us that it feels more like helping a friend. You feel like a friend to me because you are exactly the type of person I would become friends with. If I wasn‘t your teacher, I think that I would have become friends with you at some stage.”

Alex looked up at me, smiling shyly.

“I think that I would like to have you as my friend.”