"Oh, that's smart." Henry commented, realizing the possible uses. "Anyway, I should probably be home in about an hour, so what do you want to work on first?" He spread out the books, glancing around them and again realizing how incredibly behind he was.
Apaixonar: The act of falling in love.//OxO//Romance//CLOSED
"What are you having the most trouble with?" Babe asked, leaning against the wall by the desk and looking down at the books. Her room was cluttered, and kind of messy. A guitar case was propped up in one corner, and sheet music was spread through out the room, along with clean clothes that she had just never put away. There were trophies on various bookshelves, and a couple different jerseys were scattered, on hanging over the back of the desk chair.
Henry sighed, looking around the room and taking in the things. It gave him a lot of questions, but he decided to try to focus. "Honestly, everything. I barely scraped by last year. Right now, though, I think I'm farthest behind in English." Hopefully she'd be able to help him out with it, since nothing he did seemed to make sense at this point.
"Oh, I love English!" Babe brightened at that, and gestured for him to sit down. "Show me what you need to do, and what you don't understand or whatever. I'll see what I can do!"
"People actually love English?" He asked, only mostly joking. He pulled out his book and sat down heavily, flipping to the section they'd been assigned in class. (I'm making the assumption they have multiple classes together, if that's alright) "I don't know. I think I understand it, but when you actually use it on paper, it doesn't… work out."
((They probably would, yeah.))
"Oh, this one's easy. I'm guessing you're using it wrong." Babe made her way around to lean over his shoulder, pointing at the page. "This was the easiest one, try it out so I can see what you might be doing wrong."
Running a hand back through his hair, he squinted at the paper. "I thought I had it…" He scribbled down on the paper, changing the words and going back through the whole sentence. It still didn't make perfect sense to him, but to be fair, it never did.
"Oh, there's your problem." Babe tapped a word, chewing on her bottom lip. "That's not right, example-wise(I'm being so vague because I don't know what we're doing lmao). Here-" She grabbed a pen and a loose sheet of paper that was on the desk, and copied down the problem. She wrote down what she had on her homework in class, and pointed. "See? You gotta be careful, otherwise they get mixed up easily."
(Neither do I, so that's perfectly alright with me!)
Henry nodded, a look of understanding flashing on his face. "That makes way more sense." He bent over the rest of the paper, going through the problems methodically. He did each of them the way she'd shown, careful to check them with the first example she'd given.
"Look at that!" Babe said excitedly, a grin on her face. "You got it!" She had watched each one he did, mentally checking it with her own work. "Rickson doesn't do a very good job explaining, does he?"
"No kidding. I haven't understood a word he's said except 'class dismissed." Henry answered, a note of sarcasm in his face. He glanced down at the paper, pleased with the work and with the explanation he'd received. It actually wasn't as hard as he'd expected it to be, and this was one less class he'd have to catch up on over the weekend.
"Y'know, way way back, I actually wanted to be either a teacher or a hockey coach." Babe said, laughing. "I might just stick with tutor for now. What's up next? Let's see how much of this we can knock out."
Henry looked at her closely again. "That's crazy. You could do it, though. You don't yell when someone doesn't pick stuff up the first time." He pulled out his algebra (I don't know if he would do algebra at his age but I don't know enough high school math terms I guess…) and opened it to the page. "So, math is a little closer to my strong suit, but not with all these letters. Letters belong to English, numbers belong to math." He pulled out a notebook and started copying the equations he didn't understand.
"Okay, I'll admit I despise math, but let's see…" Babe leaned a bit closer to read the problems. "Oh, we did this at my old school, just before I left. What's the part you're having the most difficulty with?"
Henry leaned over it to point at the section he hadn't been able to finish before. He'd stayed up past midnight the other night staring at the same numbers. "Right here. I spent hours on this last night, and it still doesn't make sense."
"You're simplifying the problem wrong." Babe said almost immediately, copying down the problem the way she had the last one and showing him how to simplify it. "Staring at numbers too long can do that, so it helps to take a bit of a break, y'know."
Henry scratched his head. "Oh." He'd been simplifying it wrong? That meant he'd literally wasted two hours of sleep. He groaned, rethinking the problem and correcting it. "I thought you said you hated math. That would imply you aren't amazing at it."
"I'm not. I'm just good at picking things up quickly." Babe grinned, nudging his shoulder with her own. "Helps for learning plays, how people play, and anything I need."
"That must be a great skill to have. It took me forever to memorize enough plays, and even now I usually have to wing it and go with my gut." He finished the page of problems, nudging her back as his pencil scratched down on the paper until each equation had its answer.
"I turn them into songs sometimes." She admitted, turning her head as her phone buzzed from where it was lying on her bed. She limped over, leaving Henry at the desk, to check it. It was a text from Rico, one that made her roll her eyes.
Henry watched her closely. He couldn't recall ever meeting anyone quite as interesting as Babe, that was for sure. "You're amazing. You play hockey like a professional, wrangle a house of brothers, sing like an angel, and remember things by turning them into songs." He shook his head at her teasingly. "Listen, Nova, you better stop being so amazing or you'll make the normal kids feel bad."
Babe looked up, meeting his eyes as a light blush blossomed on her cheeks. "Uh, I'm not though?" She only played hockey so well because of who her dad was, and the brothers thing…that had just always been like that. "The song thing is a proven method of memorization, and I don't sing that well?"
Henry grinned, thrilled to see she felt awkward. "You sing better than anyone I've ever heard. How did you even get so good at hockey? I've always had an advantage, but what's your explanation story for those icey skills?"
Babe seemed to sober a bit at that. She wasn't sure whether she should tell him or not, but…she shook her head, limping over to one of her shelves. She pulled a framed photo off of it and brought it over, setting it in front of him. It was the front page of a newspaper, and the headline read 'Pro Hockey Player Bryson Nova's Daughter On The Fast Track To Her Own Career.' There, in the photo, was a picture of a younger Babe, with a man who had the same grey eyes and mischievous smile.
Henry's eyes scanned it all. "That's… Babe, what happened?" Without knowing it, his hand set down the pencil and the rest of the papers remained untouched. Something had changed, that was for sure. He had never heard any mention of Babe's father from her, or her brothers. His mind whirled around it, starting to put the pieces together.
Babe shrugged, shoving her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. "He left. Had a career to focus on, and seven kids…that would have taken too much of his time." She looked tired, and just a tad bit empty. "He left a letter, and I-I watched him drive off in the middle of the night."
Henry, very awkwardly and slowly, reached out an arm to hug her. He really didn't know what to say, but he wanted Babe to know that he cared.
Babe blinked, pulled out of the memory. She looked down at Henry, who, thanks to the height difference and the fact that he was sitting, had an arm wrapped around her waist. After a moment she returned the hug, a shaky breath leaving her.
Still with nothing to say, Henry just kept his arm there until she pulled away. "How have you been since?" The question was quiet. He wasn't sure how much she wanted to tell him, and he didn't want to push her or make her feel like he was intruding.
"I've adjusted." Babe said, focusing on unbraiding her hair. She did that, the braiding and unbraiding thing, when she was slightly uncomfortable, or it was a heavier topic. "I've got mom, I've got my brothers."