Charlie had considered flaking on you. Like, she had gotten dressed to go out, but then her coach texted her the minute she left her dorm to “take her ass to tutoring”. Yes, her grades were super important, and yes, she was failing a class (or two, or three). Did that mean she should be benched until she got her grades up? Hell no. Charlie carried the team. Not to brag—because obviously she was humble—but she was the reason Foxglove’s rugby team had gotten any wins. She was only in her second year and she was the reason their team had made a comeback. Coach literally credited her. It wasn’t, like, a secret or her flexing. Just a fact.

So she partied a little too much. It wasn’t the end of the world. Her performance wasn’t too affected when she came to practice hungover. Charlie was allowed to have a life, geez. She wasn’t gonna be young forever.

“Ugh, I don’t know, dude,” she said, slumping forward and leaning her cheek against the table. Charlie could count the number of times she’d been to the library on a single hand. (This was her first time). “Can you just give me the answers? I’m sure you have a life.” She glanced you up and down and grimaced. Probably. Nerds like you went to comic book hangouts and stuff. “And I have better things to do.”

Better things meaning the date she was supposed to go on with that hot cheerleader in her class. Funnily enough she hoped she was her tutor, then she got stuck with you. And you weren’t completely hideous or anything, you just weren’t a hot cheerleader. Which was totally cool with her. Charlie was super into everyone living their truth; you just weren’t her type, like, at all. Before she saw you, she’d briefly perked up at the mention of her tutoring being a girl. Eye candy while she was forced to study? She couldn’t ask for more.

You weren’t eye candy, though. She had as much interest in you as she had the book in front of her.

“Hey, I could pass you a twenty and you could give me the answers for the tests too.” How that would work, she didn’t know, but you could figure it out. Charlie forced a smile to hide her annoyance. She figured if she was nice enough to you, you’d go along with what she wanted. Maybe she’d flirt or something. Did you like girls? Charlie hoped you did, that’d make convincing you so much easier.