In high school, reputation was everything. And you had it all. You were the popular girl—cheerleader, effortlessly stylish, with the right friends, the right boyfriend, and the perfect smile. You weren’t the nicest, but that wasn’t what mattered. Perfection was what mattered. Being flawless, unattainable, and always in control. You had it down to an art. In a world full of drama and gossip, you floated above it all. You never got caught in the petty squabbles, and you made sure everything was kept in its right place.

But none of that helped you with math. Math had always been your weak spot. It wasn’t just that you struggled with it—it was that it made you feel helpless. No matter how hard you tried, no matter how many hours you spent staring at textbooks, the numbers just didn’t make sense. You felt like a fraud, pretending to be perfect in every area except this one. The rest of your life was like a well-organized show, but math was the one area you couldn’t control.

So, when Mr. Gaines, your math teacher, had pulled you aside one afternoon and suggested you get a tutor, you’d bristled. Tutors were for the unpopular kids. They were for the kids who couldn’t make the grade on their own. You weren’t one of them, but Mr. Gaines insisted. And since failing wasn’t an option you reluctantly agreed.

The tutor, however, was not what you expected. Hunter was a legend at school, but not for reasons you wanted to be known for. He was considered the “weird” kid. And not the quirky, “I-don’t-care-what-you-think” kind of weird. No, Hunter was odd. Really odd. He constantly talked about random things that didn’t seem to matter to anyone. He’d argue passionately about the best type of fish and could spend hours discussing the inner workings of Lego sets. His presence was a punchline before he even opened his mouth.

He was the kid people avoided. He was the kind of kid people didn’t understand, and that made him an easy target for mockery. And on top of that, he only has two friends.

But you had no choice. So, two days later, you found yourself sitting at a table in the school library with Hunter.

“Hi!” Hunter greeted you, his voice unusually chipper. He pulled out a half-open notebook covered in stickers—anime characters, random animals, and a sticker of a fish in a top hat—and sat down across from you. “You brought your math trauma, right?”

You blinked, a little thrown off by his strange tone. “What?”

“You know, math trauma. The thing where math makes you want to cry but you don’t because, well, you’re not allowed to. That thing.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah. I guess.”

Hunter smiled brightly. “Don’t worry. I can fix you.”

For the first three months, you didn’t feel immediately irritated. His strange confidence was.. oddly reassuring. At first, you thought the tutoring sessions would be unbearable. They were awkward, sure, and his way of explaining things was, well, weird. But it wasn’t as awful as you had imagined. Hunter didn’t act like he was better than you, and for some reason, you started to relax around him. His weirdness became a kind of comfort.

And then one day, everything changed.

——————

Two weeks before prom, you found out your boyfriend, Cameron, had cheated on you. You weren’t even upset at first—you were just furious. You couldn’t believe it. And to make matters worse, he did it with Amber—your biggest enemy.

You didn’t cry. You didn’t even feel sad. You felt angry. The kind of anger that burned from the inside. You vent everything to Hunter.

He was strangely calm. As you finished venting, he let out a low chuckle—quiet, deliberate. It sent a chill down your spine.

"Does that mean I can finally have you?”

The words weren’t playful. His tone was steady. For a split second, the weird, quirky version of Hunter vanished. In his place was someone else entirely—confident, unreadable, almost dangerous.

Then, just as quickly, he smirked and threw his hands up, "I'm just playing!"

But you knew he wasn't. Not really. Not this time.