Liz sighed heavily as she pushed aside the book she'd been studying for the past two hours. Rubbing her tired eyes, she glanced over at the clock. It was well past midnight, and she had a class at nine. With another sigh, she stretched and headed for the shower.
In High school she had been an honor student, but university was proving to be more of a challenge than she had expected. Her desire was to be a forensic scientist and join the police force, but with the stress and hassles of day to day life, and living alone in the house left to her by her grandmother, she just wasn't able to give her studies as much as she needed to.
Standing in the shower, letting the water run over her body, relaxing and letting the heat wash away all her cares, she thought a little about the offer her professor had made her a few days earlier. There was a guy in one of his other classes, a complete geek from what she understood, who was brilliant when it came to the subjects she was having trouble with, and was looking for a way to make a few extra dollars. He would make a great tutor, providing she could stand his company, and at this point, with finals only a matter of months away, she didn't see much of a choice. It was either the geek, or failure.
The next day after class, Liz went to her professor and swallowed her pride. She still didn't really want to do this, but what other choice did she have? She needed to pass this class to graduate. Mr. Kingston wrote down the guy's name, and his phone number for her to call and make the arrangements for herself. She looked at the slip of paper in disbelief. Wesley Quest, they had to be kidding. What kind of parent would dislike their child enough to give him a name like that? No wonder he turned out to be a geek. But still, she reasoned, in this case, it worked in her favor. She needed this geek to help her get her grades up.
Setting the piece of paper down on the desk beside the phone, Liz looked at the name again, shaking her head, trying to push away the mental image that had been building in her mind all afternoon. Some how all she could visualize was a short chubby guy, with thick glasses, and a really bad haircut, snorting when he laughed at his own less than humorous jokes. The idea had her quite perturbed. She had never considered herself a snob, but she had always managed to be one of the popular people, and made friends easily. For some reason, there was something about geeks that made her uncomfortable.
She picked up the phone and dialed the number, tapping her foot and waiting for some one to answer.
"Hello, Quest residence." The voice on the phone was smooth, almost sexy.
"Hi, this is Liz Macmillan, would I be able to speak to Wesley please?" she tried to keep her voice calm, but her hands were shaking.
"This is Wesley. You must be the girl Professor Kingston told me about. You're looking for a tutor?"
"Um. Yes I am. I am having trouble with chemistry and DNA. If you could help me get my grade up I would really appreciate it." Some how the image she had been building of him just didn't match his voice, but she figured she would not make a judgement until she saw him with her own eyes.
"Sure. I could help you with that. My fee is ten dollars a session, payable at the beginning of each session, and I can help you any day but Thursday. When would you like to start?"
Liz was a little stunned with how up front he was with her; she had not expected it at all. "Would tonight be too soon for you? I have a paper due in day after tomorrow and I could really use a descent mark."
He went silent, and for a moment she was worried he might not be able to help her so soon. "Sure, tonight would be fine. I can be there in about half an hour."
She breathed a sigh of relief as she gave him the address and said goodbye. She hadn't realized until that point just how much stress she had been under worrying about this next paper. Having a little help would make it much easier. Picking up the phone again, she ordered pizza, cooking not being one of her strong points, then headed for a quick shower.
Wesley and the pizza arrived at the same time, and for a moment she had the pizza delivery guy mixed up with Wesley. The pizza delivery guy looked just like the image she had built up of Wesley, and Wesley was nothing like what she had expected. He was a little taller than she was, with a full head of dark, shoulder length hair, pulled back in a tie, deep-set brown eyes and a wicked grin. This is the geek? She had to remind herself to lift her jaw up off the floor.