John and I met in high school, he was your typical jock, all the girls wanted him, even some of the guys, but John only had eyes for one person, Jennifer, they were sweethearts from year one. John and I struck up a friendship by necessity. John needed his grades to improve or he would not graduate, John excelled at sports, but not so much in academics. I was to be John's tutor, we were an unlikely pair to be friends, him the jock, big tough strong, well built, myself more of the nerd, glasses, not into sports, more of a book kind of guy.
The school paired us up, my grades at the top of the class, John's at the bottom, one of the girls in class was asked, but quickly refused, I was second choice on the list to be John's tutor. John and I met at school, he really was the dumb jock, this would be a tough task to get this guy to get a passing grade in anything but sports, I would earn my extra credit if I could get this guy to pass even one of his classes. John was the guy in class to horse around, never listen to what the teacher was trying to get us to learn, he always had to be the center of attention.
I met with John in the principal's office, he introduced us, like I did not know who John was, but I could see John had no clue as to who I was, he looked at me like I was the new kid in school. We set up to meet after school, in one of the classrooms, only John and I, the first meeting was getting to know what John needed help in, turns out it was everything. John got this really serious look,
"Why are you helping me man?" John inquired.
"I need the extra credit, and if I decide to go into teaching then I have this as a reference!" I explained.
John again gave me this weird look.
"John you want to graduate don't you? You don't want to be a high school drop out." I said looking at him.
"Yeah I guess, never gave it much thought actually!" John said.
"If you don't graduate you will have to be in here for another year, this is your opportunity to be done with high school. Move on to better things." I said to him.
John got this serious look to him, I don't think he ever gave it much thought. It was a very slow start, we had so much to cover and so little time, trying to get John to focus was the hard part, so many distractions in the school, between his friends coming by to make faces in the windows, to the cleaners trying to get their work done, John just could not keep his mind on the task at hand.
I finally decided he would come to my place, then there would be no distractions no one there to interrupt us, and maybe John would stand a chance at getting to his goal. The first meeting at my place John was late.
"John you need to be on time, I have other commitments you need to make the effort be on time!" I told him.
John was about to give one of his lame excuses he gave the teachers at school. I held my hand up,
"John don't waste my time and I won't waste yours. You don't want to graduate then fine stay in high school." I told him bluntly.
Needless to say he was on time, most times early getting to our study sessions. After about a week of us working together, the teachers and I could see dramatic improvements in John, he was much more focused, he knew the material, he even got a B+ on a class quiz. It must have been week two that something weird happened, we were sitting at the table in my room, going over the material we had to cover, my hand touched John's arm, he pulled back,
"Sorry John." I said feeling bad.
"No its okay I'm a little on edge lately, the big game and the stress of all this extra homework, and my girlfriend dumped me. She said I don't have enough time for her anymore." John said looking so worn out.
"I'm sorry to hear that John, I am sure she will come around we only have a few more weeks, then finals, and you will be done!" I said trying to make light of his situation.
"Finals they have me stressed too, and my ex girlfriend has a new boyfriend she is with Dwayne!" John exclaimed.
