#E4K Book - Chapter 2

Steph took her plate of cake and cup of tea upstairs to her room. She sat at her desk, and took a bite of the cake. It was delicious. The sponge was nice and soft, and the cream was delicious! She didn’t usually like jam but the taste of it blended well with the rest of the cake. She washed it down with a swig of tea and got back to her online chatting. She should have been doing her homework but it was all so easy, she’d have it done in the space of an hour. Steph was in fifth year. She was a great student, good attendance, straight A’s. She kept to herself mostly, the majority of her friends were online, and they lived in many different countries. She considered herself to be a kind of outcast, but everyone seemed to like her. She was never really bullied or anything like that, but she most definitely was not one of the “popular” kids.
A message popped up on her screen.
“Hey, how are you?”
It was her friend Savannah, from California. They were both really dedicated to the same TV series and spent all their time online talking about it. They had met on a fan site for that TV show and become good friends from there. She started to tell Savannah about Mary making them a cake.
Steph17: “Like, she’s about 100 years old, it’s horrible stormy weather outside. She got drenched coming in here from next door, that’s how bad the rain is! I don’t get why she wanted to make a cake for us, we don’t even really know her. Her friend said it’s because she just wanted to be nice but I don’t know why lol this cake is really good though! Glad she did it, but still confused.”
Savannah19: “Sometimes people are just like that. They do nice things for people for no reasons. It’s lovely really, I think she sounds really sweet. Maybe you should do something nice for her in return!”
Steph17: “Hmm maybe, but she seems to hate when people do things for her. I’ll see what happens! Anyway I’m gonna finish this cake and go do my homework! Talk to you later sweetie!”
She logged off and wolfed down the rest of the cake. She took out her books and started with her history homework. She had to write an essay on the role of women in World War 1. She had already done some study on the Women’s Battalion of Death in Russia, they’d make a great entry for the essay. She wrote out her basic plan for the essay and then put it aside, it wasn’t due until next Monday. She took out her maths book and started to do some algebra. This was so easy for her, she hardly had to think about it.
Steph closed her books and sighed. She was so bored of maths. She was actually good enough to go into the advanced classes, but she didn’t want to have to take the extra class on top of the work she was already doing. She really wanted to take Music, but because of the way the school schedule worked out, she wasn’t able. Music and History class both ran at the same time, so she’d had to decide between the two and she was already a straight A student in History so it made more sense to do it. She yawned, stretching her arms up, then flopped back on her bed. She kept thinking about how people randomly did nice things for others without wanting something in return. She felt so selfish, because she never really did nice things for other people.
“What could I do that would be nice for people?” She pulled her laptop over from her desk and scrolled through the feed on her social media profiles. A few of the students from her class had posted about tonight’s maths homework on their profiles. Two of them, Kevin and Lorraine, seemed to be having a lot of trouble with it.
“That’s it! I’ll help them with their homework! That would be a nice thing to do!” She opened up a group message with Kevin and Lorraine.
Steph17: “hey guys! I just saw your statuses there and I don’t mean to pry but are you guys doing okay with the homework? I finished it already and I was wondering, do you want to meet up in the morning and I could help you with it? Sorry if this comes across as weird, I just thought you might like some help with it if you’re having difficulty with it…”
LorraineXO: “Oh my god that would be so good thank you!!! I’ll come in a bit earlier than I normally do! Seriously thank you! I didn’t know how I was gonna get it done before class! I felt so stupid for not being able to get it!”
Steph17: “No problem! I am happy to help!”
Kevin96: “Umm yeah sure that would be great! Why do you want to help us though, you don’t really know us? Well me anyway….”
Steph17: “Well you’re my classmates and you are having trouble with something I am able to do, so I thought it might be a good idea to help instead of just sitting back. I know how mean Ms. Kelly can get when you don’t have your homework done…”
LorraineXO: “Could you help me out with some other maths stuff too? I’m really not doing well with any of the stuff we covered so far!”
Kevin96: “Yeah Ms. Kelly gets crazy… If you’re not a straight A student, she just doesn’t give a crap. Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. I’ll be in early tomorrow.”
Steph17: “Awe yeah sure I can help you with anything! I’ll meet you guys at the front of the school?”
They agreed to meet in the lobby a half hour earlier than they usually showed up. Steph closed down her laptop and went downstairs to do her chores. She felt good. That woman was right, it was nice to be nice to other people. She decided to do the laundry for her mother too.
A shrill noise woke Steph with a start. She shot up, confused, looking around for the source of the noise. After a minute, she realised… it was her alarm. She reached for her phone and switched it off.
She got ready for school fast, making sure that she had all her maths stuff. She ran downstairs and grabbed a slice of toast.
“What are you in such a rush for?” Liz was feeding the baby her breakfast at the table.
“I’m going in early to tutor some of the other students, they are having trouble with maths so I’m gonna help them.”
Liz raised her eyebrow. Steph munched down a second slice of toast.
“I’ll see you later! I already have lunch money left over from yesterday!” Steph wiped her mouth, grabbed her bag and ran out the door.
As planned, Kevin and Lorraine were waiting for her at the front of the school. Kevin was standing away from Lorraine and he looked slightly nervous. He was really tall compared to Lorraine, and really pale. He had dark brown hair, slicked back with gel. Lorraine was a short, Asian girl with a bob haircut. Lorraine looked up and saw her. She practically jumped on her as she got closer.
“Thank you soooo much for doing this! I am seriously stuck and need the help so bad!” She linked arms with Steph and dragged her over to Kevin. He smiled and nodded.
“Let’s go find somewhere we can sit, maybe the lunch room?” Kevin nodded again. Lorraine kept a firm grasp of her arm as they walked towards the building where the lunch room was. They settled on a table in the corner away from everyone else. It was by no means quiet, but they wouldn’t be interrupted.
“Ah, I see where you went wrong here.” Steph pointed at the Kevin’s notebook. She took his pencil and wrote the correct formula above what he had written. “Now can you see how to do it?”
She handed him back his notebook and he stared at it, still looking confused.
“I don’t know what I did!” Lorraine sighed as she plonked her copy down in front of Steph. Steph giggled at what Lorraine had written.
“A = this, X = that, Y – Y AM I DOING THIS!!!”
Lorraine went red in the face. She grabbed back the copy and scribbled it out.
“Aha it’s probably worse that you scribbled in the copy, Ms. Kelly will go nuts.” Steph chuckled.
“She’ll go nuts anyway, she hates me. I can’t ever do the homework right” She plopped back into the seat and sighed.
“Ok come here and look at this.” Steph started writing out formulas and did the problem for Lorraine. Lorraine had her head cocked to one side the whole time, like she had no idea what was going on. Steph had to do the problem out three times for her, explaining it step by step each time until she finally understood.
“Ok now you do the next one yourself and I’ll help Kevin with his.” Steph turned to Kevin. He showed her the notebook. “Wow you did really well! You got them both right, good job!”
He smiled at her. He looked relieved. She looked over it again to be sure but he had gotten it completely right.
“Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. I didn’t really want to admit it but I was really struggling with that one.” He leaned back in his chair. “Do you need help with art or anything? ...wait are you even in my art class?”
Steph giggled. “You don’t even know who is in your classes? I thought I was the anti-social one of our year but that’s bad” She stuck her tongue out at him. His cheeks turned bright red. “I don’t take art unfortunately, I stuck to the books this year. I didn’t take art or music for the Junior Certificate so I didn’t think it would be good to start now, I’d have to take them at the lower levels”
The first bell rang. Lorraine started to panic. Steph calmed her down and had a look at what she had done so far. She only had one question left. They went through the last one together. Lorraine was so happy, she practically leapt out of her chair to hug Steph. They all walked to their class together. The first class was English. The teacher spent the whole lesson talking about the essay they had to write. Steph already had it written, so she spent the class doodling in her notebook and thinking about how happy Lorraine had been.
“Sometimes it’s nice to be nice for no reason.”
That womans words echoed in her head. She now completely agreed and she saw now why Mary had baked that cake. Mom was happy, little Johnny had been delighted with it and Steph had certainly enjoyed it. It was a nice gesture that made everyone feel good.
At lunch time, Lorraine skipped up to Steph, with a big grin on her face. She handed Steph two chocolate bars.
“Awh, you didn’t have to get me those” Steph took them from her. “Do you want some?”
“No, no those are for you, because you were so super nice to me today! I felt like I should do something for you but I am bad at every subject you take so I can’t help you with homework, so I thought chocolate would be a good idea!” She hugged Steph. “So don’t share them with anyone okay? They are only for you!”
Steph hugged her back and put the chocolate in her bag.
“I’ll save them for tonight, for my dessert. Thank you!” She turned around to put her books in her locker and Kevin was standing there. He hadn’t made a sound.
“Oh, hey Kevin. Are you okay?”
“I just wanted to say thank you again.” He handed her a packet of expensive chewy sweets. “These are for you, for helping me.”
“Awh thank you! You guys didn’t need to buy me anything, I didn’t help you to get gifts!” Steph was blushing. “But thank you both!”
Steph hugged Kevin and he blushed even more. Lorraine giggled at him then suddenly froze and looked at her watch.
“Oh! I’m late!” She exclaimed. “I’ll see you guys later!”
She ran off, leaving Steph and Kevin behind wondering what she could possibly be late for at school lunch.