Chapter 10: Tutor

"Yes... Yes... I understand. If you need anything, just let me know. Of course. Goodbye."

Principal Brown hung up the call he was on and placed the phone down. He then removed his glasses and rubbed his face. He just finished a call with the parents of Todd Campbell, One of the school's students, one of his students. It appears that Todd was involved in some altercation, resulting in him losing his life.

"How horrible."

"Principal Brown? Is this a bad time?"

The voice of his assistant jolted him from his thoughts. Brown then rubbed his eyes again and placed his glasses back on his face; he took a deep breath and nodded.

"No, no. I'm fine, Jannet. What is it?"

"I have a student, Harvey Miller. He wants to speak to you."

"Miller? Okay, let him in."

Jannet nodded and walked out of his office. What could this be about? He has not spoken to Harvey since he was brought in for questioning after his father, Tommy Miller, the school's Treasurer, Ran off with thousands of dollars after embezzling the funds over a couple of years. It wasn't until the police informed them that they found Tommy in Miami dead from an overdose that they finally stopped keeping tabs on Harvey.

He always felt terrible for treating Harvey like a criminal, even though he knew he had no part in what happened. The investigators involved in the case were optimistic that the boy had a hand in everything, but they were proven wrong. Brown then rubbed his forehead when he remembered the fiasco when the student body discovered what had happened. Rumors and whispers of bullying were heard in the halls; in the beginning, most of the teachers tried to stop it. But a small handful of the staff looked the other way, and some students took that as permission to continue their actions.

"Sir?"

Brown looked up and saw Harvey walk in after closing the door; he sat up straight and motioned for Harvey to sit down.

"Please, Harvey, sit down. Sit down!"

"...Right."

Harvey walked over to the seat in front of his desk and sat down. He placed his bookbag by his side. Brown smiled awkwardly and nodded to the young man.

"How can I help you, young man?"

"I... I'll just get to the point." Harvey said as he clenched his fists. "My... father. What he did to this school, and to everyone involved. Wasn't right. He is- was a criminal. He stole precious resources that this school could have used to buy better equipment, new textbooks, have school events, and so much else."

Principal Brown frowned as Harvey spoke. Of course, it had to do with what happened. He wanted to refute it all. But it was all true.

"I'm here to make it right."

Harvey then grabbed his bag and stood up, placing it on his desk and unzipping it. Brown's eyes widened at what Harvey pulled from his bag; It was a large stack of bills. Harvey continued pulling out money until his bag was empty. It appeared that was all the bag held, no notebooks or textbooks. When he was done. Ten stacks of bills were lined up on his desk, Almost taking up the entirety of it's surface.

"My father took twenty-five thousand dollars from this school; I'm here to return it. Plus interest."

"Harvey! What is this?" Brown stood up in shock.

"This here is thirty-five thousand dollars. Use this to help the school get back on its feet."

"This is amazing, Harvey! Where did you get all this?" As shocked and amazed Brown was at the sight, he quickly regained his logical mind. Where could Harvey have attained so much money?

"My... Mother. She had a life insurance policy that left me a lot of money. I always knew I had to use it to pay back the school. I just... didn't know when. But I had time to reflect and finally realized it was time I did the right thing."

"Harvey... I can't let you do this. This money. Your mother left this for you; I can't accept this." Brown shook his head and placed his hands on his hips. "It's not your mess to clean up."

"It is my mess to clean up, no matter what anyone says. I'm my father's son. It's my duty to right his wrongs." Harvey told him with a severe look that made him feel small. "You will accept this. Please... accept this. For the school."

"...Very well. I'll run this to the board. Thank you, Harvey. Truly. With this, the school can finally improve many of our underfunded areas. We can now officially have the school fair we were talking about! This money will help a lot. Thank you, Harvey. Truly."

Principal Brown said with a smile; he then walked over to his chair and sat down. Bending down, he grabbed a few empty file boxes and started placing the money inside them, he will call the board and inform them of this new development. There was a lot to do!

"I... Actually have something I need help with. I hope you don't mind."

Harvey rubbed the back of his neck after speaking, The boy looked uncomfortable. Almost as if he was unfamiliar with asking for anything.

"Anything, my boy!"

"I'm having some trouble with my calculus class; I'm hoping to get some extra credit work to help build up my grade. Could you talk to Mrs. Allen and get her to give some to me?" Harvey asked.

"I can do that. I'll talk to her during lunch. Hm.. You know what! I can do one even better! What do you think about a tutor?"

"Tutor?"

•••

"Well, that went better than I thought."

'Indeed.'

Harvey was in the school library eating an apple. He had an old calculus textbook open alongside a notebook full of problems and equations. It was lunchtime; he decided to use this time to catch up with schoolwork. Spirit tried to help with some problems, something about challenging himself. But he couldn't recognize most of the problems; after a while, Spirit gave up and called it the work of some old friend of his.

Principal Brown told him to wait in the library at lunch. Something about sending him a brilliant tutor to help him catch up in his studies. Harvey was skeptical at first but ultimately agreed. To improve his grades, he would need any advantage he could get.

"Excuse me, are you the student Principal Brown told me about?"

Harvey turned to look at the voice that spoke to him. It was a girl wearing glasses carrying a stack of books. She was wearing blue jeans and a long-sleeved purple shirt. Overall, she looked pretty young, possibly in his year. Was this the brilliant tutor Principal Brown spoke of? Harvey felt a little embarrassed that someone his age had to help him.

"That'll be me."

•••

Alex Dunphy was surprised. Principal Brown told her she could tutor a fellow student for a large amount of extra credit points. At first, she found this odd but ultimately accepted. After all, extra credit was extra credit. But when the student answered her, he stood up and turned to look at her. Alex felt her face warm up slightly at the sight of the boy.

He was tall and handsome! It looked like he lived in the gym. His muscles stretched his red shirt under his black, unzipped hoodie. Alex had to fight her hormones to lift her eyes away from the boy's chest, only to fail and look down at his toned forearms. She was grateful that the library kept the temperature warm inside, which caused the boy to raise his sleeves. Allowing her to ogle him.

Alex finally looked up at his face and hair. His eyes were a brilliant brown, almost orange. His short brown hair glowed under the fluorescent light of the library. The boy smiled calmly at her, causing her heart to flutter. The boy stopped smiling and tilted his head to the side; his kissable lips moved hypnotizingly. It wasn't until he rested his hand on her shoulder that she snapped out of her hormonal teenage thoughts.

"-right? Hello? You alright there?"

"Gah, AH! Yup! I mean, yes, I am. Sorry about that. I was just uh... thinking about the history test tomorrow! Yeah, that's what I was thinking."

Alex closed her eyes and cursed in her head for tripping at her words. The cute boy she knew she now had a crush on must think she was a total spaz!

"Ah, no worries then. Mr. Bailey likes to make his tests harder than they should be." The boy smiled dazzlingly at her. He then grabbed her books and guided her to the table he was occupying. "You must be the brilliant tutor Principal Brown told me about, its nice to meet you!"

"Yeah! You too! I'm Alex! Alex Dunphy!"

"Dunphy? You wouldn't happen to be Luke's sister?"

Alex had a small look of confusion; she then sat down next to him. Could this boy know Luke? A possible friend?

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Last name. You don't hear the name Dunphy too often. Wait a minute, I think I met someone else with that name..." Alex saw the boy have a thoughtful look on his face.

"It's a pretty unique name. Are you one of Luke's friends?"

"Yeah, I am. Oh! Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Harvey Miller."

"...Harvey Miller?"

•••

"Yeah... Is that going to be an issue?"

Harvey asked as he looked at Alex, curious if the girl heard the rumors about him and his father. It wouldn't surprise him if she did; it was a common rumor throughout the school. Was she one of the people that held what happened against him?

"NO! no! Let's get started! After all, Lunch is going to end soon!"

Alex spoke in a hurry as she quickly opened her textbook as well. She then flipped to a blank page in her notebook, pencil in hand. "So what are you having trouble in?"

"Ah, you see..."

Harvey and Alex spent the remaining time going over the material. Alex was indeed brilliant. She was able to explain what Mrs. Allen taught with ease. Harvey made sure to let her know how impressed he was, which always caused Alex to look away or appear uncomfortable. Eventually, their time together came to an end; Harvey smiled at her and thanked her.

"Thanks again, Alex. I understand a lot of the more complex equations now. You're amazing!"

Harvey told Alex as he placed his textbook and notebook into his book bag, completely missing Alex's red face. She shook her head and calmed her breathing.

"N-No problem! Listen... If you want. We can meet again tomorrow. We didn't cover everything today. There are still some aspects I think we can work on more!" Alex said in a hurry. "Only if you want, of course!"

"Yeah, That sounds great! I'll be counting on you from now on!" Harvey smiled brightly at her; he then pulled out a phone from his pocket. "What's your number? That way, I can text you if I'm running late."

"Aaah! Of course! Its..."

Harvey and Alex exchanged contact information. All the while, Alex was smiling brightly. Suddenly, The school bell rang, warning everyone that it was time to head to class. Harvey waved goodbye and started walking away; Alex waved back but stood in place.

"Oh, man. How am I supposed to focus in class now?"

•••

"Harvey! Harvey, Hold up!"

Luke yelled as he and Manny ran up to him. Harvey finished tying his shoes and looked at his friends running up to him. They were both out of breath.

"What's up, guys?"

"Good, we ran all the way here from across campus!" Manny said as he finally got his breath under control. "We're glad we caught you before you left for work."

"Ah, I finally bought a phone! Here's my number. Should make getting in contact with me easier."

Harvey laughed as he gave both of his friends his number.

"Thanks, this should make things easier. Okay, back to what we wanted to tell you." Luke said as he put his phone away. "Okay, don't freak out! Buuut we told our family what happened, and they want you to come over for dinner! Tonight!"

Luke spoke so fast that Harvey almost didn't understand what he said. When he looked over to Manny, his friend understood his unasked question. Manny then repeated the question more slowly and concisely.

"Dinner? I don't know, guys..."

"Please, Harvey! If they hear it from you, I'm sure they'll settle down some! Trust me, They won't stop asking us to have you over." Luke said. "Just tonight! We'll owe you one!"

Harvey looked over to Manny and saw him nod. Looking down at his new Nike shoes, Harvey weighed his options. What happened in that alleyway could have gone very wrong; of course, his friend's parents would have freaked out after hearing about it. He could end up walking into a minefield. Looking back to his friend's awaiting faces, Harvey made up his mind.

"Alright, I'll come."