Page 29 of Room to Breathe

He held one of his earbuds out to me. “Music?”

Chapter 12

Then

“Brady! You’re back,” I saidwhen Beau’s brother walked into the tutoring center. I’d known he was coming—he was on my schedule. But I liked to make the kids feel welcome. There were only two other tutors in the center today, Beau and a college guy named Cliff. It was the week before Thanksgiving break and it was slow. Our boss, Lana, was in the back office.

Beau looked up from where he was working with a third-grade boy on reading. For the past thirty minutes I’d listened to him overpronounce hise’s anda’s. I even silently mocked him across the room. He shot me hard eyes but his mouth curved into a smirk.

Now he was wrapping up with his student as his brother came in. Brady looked a lot like him—blue eyes, loose curls, tall and lanky.

“Hey, Indy,” Brady said, his eyes on the ground as he maneuvered around desks to get to mine at the back of the large room.

“That was not a very happyhey,” I said. “What’s wrong?”

“I got a C on my last math test. My mom made me come back.”

I cringed. His mom would be horrified over that grade, even though I thought that for a kid who struggled with math, it was a solid effort.

It had been over a month since he was last here. I’d thought he picked up on the concepts well, but that was the challenge with math—there were new concepts every unit, and they built on the last ones, so if you fell behind, it was hard to turn it around.

“Math is hard,” I said. “And everyone has a different way of learning things. Maybe I didn’t figure out your way last time. We’re going to try a few different methods this time. Okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” he said.

“Do you like music?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Okay, let’s use some music.”

Beau was passing my desk, walking his student out. He squeezed my shoulder on his way by and mouthed, “Thank you.”

My cheeks heated up and I quickly looked away from him.

“You like better music than my brother,” Brady said.

I laughed.

“Hey, I heard that,” Beau said from across the way. He was cleaning up his station. Cliff had left fifteen minutes ago.

Brady and I were listening to music in between concepts. I was trying to help him relax more. We even put a couple of ideas to a beat. I didn’t have a good voice, like Beau did, but I agreed, my taste in music was much better.

“Let the boy have an opinion,” I said.

Brady laughed. His time was almost up, and I watched out the glass door as his mom’s car pulled up out front. I was surprised he wasn’t going home with Beau. But maybe she’d been running errands in the neighborhood for the last hour. Or maybe it was because Beau had given me a ride today and he needed to take me home.

“Watermelon or grape?” I asked, holding up two Jolly Ranchers.

“Watermelon,” he said.

“Another correct opinion.”

He unwrapped the candy and put it in his mouth.

“Do you feel like you understand negative exponents a little more now?”

He nodded. “I think so.”