The Teaching Assistant, Part 56

Amelia was no closer to escaping the web Ashley had spun; if anything, she had only managed to tangle herself up further. Her trip to the library had caused her to miss a tutoring session, and her attempt to win over Summer for the sake of securing a phone had resulted in all kinds of trouble. Four infractions from a prefect, plus the report that was being sent to Ms. Song by the security guard. Amelia had also been written up by Maxine at breakfast. Both instances had ultimately been Summer’s fault, though Amelia should have been mature enough to know better. 

Sitting with her ‘cousin’ at lunch, Amelia scarfed down the meal as quickly as she was able to while still doing so in a somewhat ladylike way. It felt good to finally get some food in her that wasn’t just a small collection of snacks, or a tray that had been scavenged by a group of mean girls. Maybe a full stomach would help her think better. At the moment, her only remaining plan was to simply be a good student until Ashley decided to call this extended prank off. Until Amelia had access to technology, there was very little she could do in the meantime. 

Ashley walked her halfway across campus to one of the academic buildings in which Amelia had attended class yesterday. The interior wasn’t nearly as quiet as she had expected it to be. Apparently various clubs and student organizations were able to reserve rooms over the weekend, some of which met with the classroom door wide open. Amelia didn’t have any time to stop and see what kinds of extracurricular options there were, not that she wanted to; public school or boarding school, the differences wouldn’t be that dramatic in terms of what students could do with their free time. If anything, Westridge would just have a better budget for everything.

They walked to the nearest stairwell and up to the second floor, where Amelia was escorted into a nearly empty classroom. A single brunette girl was waiting for them, sitting near the front and idly flipping through a binder on her desk. 

“Hey, Evelyn!” Ashley said, “Special delivery. Your new remedial student. Think you can work your usual magic and get her to test out in a single week?”

“Why do you think they pay me so much?” Evelyn replied. Standing up, she rolled her eyes once she was facing them. “They don’t, by the way. But the glowing recommendation will be well worth it for college applications. Millie, right? Do you know where you want to go to college yet?”

Amelia glanced towards Ashley. What kind of question was that? She had literally just graduated from college. Since everyone believed her to be a young teenager at the academy, however, it wouldn’t really make sense to be looking that far ahead. Unless that’s what Westridge girls did, whether it was their own aspirations or their parents’ influence. Except she wasn’t actually one of those girls.

Ashley just chuckled. “My cousin can be a little shy sometimes. And being the new girl is tough! Anyway, want to take things from here? I’m sure she’ll behave. Won’t you, Millie?”

“Umm, yeah,” Amelia mumbled. Though the false file stated that she was a troublemaker, as did the ever growing pile of infractions she had accumulated, she was still a rule follower and a good student at heart. She had never needed a tutor, of course, but at least this was a more academic scenario compared to the rest of her day so far. There wasn’t any kind of trouble she could get into here, unless Evelyn was another Claire.

Wait, why was she being tutored by the brunette before her, instead of . . . 

“Okay!” Ashley exclaimed, “I’ll leave you to it. Chat later, Millie?” She waltzed out of the room, disappearing around the corner and not bothering with the door.

Deciding to ask right away, in case this was a set-up to make her miss the actual tutoring session, Amelia blurted out, “What about Mrs. Fletcher?” That’s who she had yesterday. A professional woman, rather than a student wearing the academy uniform. Ashley had even gotten on her case about needing a specialized tutor rather than the usual system where older students like Evelyn took on the responsibility.

“It’s Saturday, Millie,” Evelyn explained, without missing a beat, “I’ll be working with you this weekend, and also checking in on your daily progress after regular school day hours. You will spend your study hour with Mrs. Fletcher every morning and afternoon during the week. Make sense?”

“Yes, Evelyn,” she reluctantly said. As an education major was supposed to be here for a decently lucrative job for her real age and experience, Amelia couldn’t deny that it was an impressive system. By just offering one main class for every student in any given grade, it forced everyone to sink or swim, rather than sticking the struggling girls in an easier class for a whole semester where they would still ultimately end up being behind compared to the ones who had spent the year learning more advanced material. 

Evelyn nodded. “Good. Okay, well we were supposed to work on Science this morning, as you and Mrs. Fletcher tackled History yesterday afternoon. I would suggest splitting the difference and reviewing the packet she gave you, but it looks like you didn’t bring anything along. I’ll give you a warning this time; from now on, I suggest keeping your academic materials with you at all times while you work through your tutoring and remedial classes. And then for another week or two after passing the aptitude test, if I were you; until you’re caught up with all your classmates, Millie, you need to put in the work.”

Amelia didn’t realize it, but she was no longer even flinching when she was addressed by the nickname that had been used nonstop since her arrival. She just awkwardly agreed, as well as apologized when prompted a moment later for not being prepared.

Until she could think of something else, this was the plan. Dive into the two subjects she did poorly on, more or less as a fallback. If whatever other ideas that came to her along the way failed, at least she would be paralleling them by ‘developing intellectually.’ And if she put her mind to it as a recent grad with good study habits, learning what she would have been brushing up on anyway after the interview felt like it should be manageable.

As for ‘developing physically,’ Amelia still had no clue what to make of that. 

Before Amelia could dwell on any of those thoughts for too long, Evelyn gestured to the desk adjacent to her own. “Ready to get started?” she asked.