Norah and Benny walked out of their History lesson together and were done for the day.

"Are you going to the library?" He asked. She nodded.

"I'll walk with you, I need to give back some books."

After a moment of silence, Benny chuckled. "I still can't believe you're tutoring Rafaello Ferreira. You two almost melted each other with your death glares on the first day, remember?"

" We still glare at each other," she said.

"Man, I wish he asked me to tutor him," Benny said wistfully. He nudged her arm, "I think he asked you because he actually secretly likes you."

Norah scrunched her nose. "Trust me, he doesn't. You can even ask him yourself."

They entered the library, which was an entire building of its own and like everywhere else required a short walk from the main school building. It was three stories high and a large, dome ceiling accentuated the vastness of the building. Rows and rows of books reminded Norah of the library from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Her beast was sitting on a table in the study area, flicking through the'History of Football' book.

"Hey Rafe, meet my friend Benny," she said. He stiffened and offered a shy wave.

"Hey mate, you alright?" Rafe said adding a charming smile.

Benny muttered something incoherent and there was a visible blush on his cheek.

"Benny wants to ask you if you like me," Norah said casually, almost looking bored as she began unpacking endless books from her backpack. Benny's eyes bulged out, and he stuttered an objection.

Rafe looked at Norah thoughtfully and looked back at Benny in earnest. "Hate her guts. Honestly, she's impossible," he said with a grin.

Norah smirked. "You see?"

Benny let out a shaky chuckle. "Right okay well um I'll leave you two. To study."

Whilst Rafe got distracted by a page in the book, Benny gave Norah a I can't believe you just put me on a spot like that, what's wrong with you look. She smiled innocently.

"You can study with us if you want. I'll show you how to make a grown man cry," she said, and Rafe gave her the finger without looking up from his book.

"I'm good... maybe next time," Benny murmured and slinked away.

Rafe snapped his book shut. "He's awfully shy," he commented, taking a seat next to her.

She shrugged. "He is. So am I, actually. That's why we're best friends."

Rafe snorted. "No, you're just awful."

Rafe wanted to make sure he tried a little harder today. He was sure that after their long and draining lesson on Saturday, she would ditch him. Instead, she was more determined than ever and tried to be encouraging. As promised, he bought a new pencil case with a pen, pencils, highlighter, a ruler and an eraser. He also had a snack.

She briefly explained to him the rules of her test and Rafe was impressed at how she formatted the test to look like a real exam paper except there were little cartoonish animals with squinty eyes with an air bubble that said 'good luck' and 'you can do it!'. He pointed at them.

"Seriously? I'm not five," he said, looking at the childish drawings.

"It's just a small touch... to make it less intimidating, that's all," she said. "Now, are you ready? I'll stop the time in half an hour. Good luck."

The library was empty and silent. The only noise that interrupted the stillness was the chirping of the birds and voices of students as they passed the open window by which they sat. The peace was short lived as it's barely been fifteen minutes and they locked in a heated, whispered argument.

"I think when I look to the window," he hissed.

"No, you're spacing out!" Norah admonished. "You've been writing one sentence for ten minutes!"

"We haven't even covered feminism in Sense and Sensibility!"

"Yes, we have! It was in the last week's lesson!"

"This is a stupid test," he snarled.

"You're a stupid test," Norah said, equally agitated.

A very annoyed librarian broke up their fight. She told them to take it down or take it outside.

Norah and Rafe both took a deep breath and glared at each other in silence. Norah crossed her arms and glared at the window. She could've been home by now, done with her homework and helping Nana with tonight's dinner. She wondered if she'd make it in time to see tonight's movie 'Pride and Prejudice' on ITV.

She flipped over the test and paused the timer.

He looked at her puzzled as she hovered over him.

"Get up," she instructed.

"Are you seriously considering taking this outside?" He asked sceptically.

"We're going to exercise."

Rafe scoffed. "Are you joking?"

"Come on," she urged, removing a chair and guiding him towards the door to go outside. She threw his coat on his back and grabbed her own. "You've been studying all day. It's harder to study after school so we need to re-energise a little."

"Norah cut this shit out. I will not exercise like some old man. I'm fine. I have football tomorrow."

"This is not about you being fit. Trust me," she added in a softer voice. Compared to the harsh way she spoke to him, the change in tone made him give in and go ahead with her stupid request.

Outside they stretched. She showed him a few stretches and whilst he tried to follow her whole body, he couldn't help but stare at her ass from time to time. He would never admit it, but these seven minutes of exercise really did re-energise him. The cold nipped at his cheeks and woke him up. He also heard a satisfying crunch in his back as he bent backwards. That felt amazing.

"You promised to tell me about another one of your superstitions," Rafe said as they headed back to the library.

"And you promised to finish my test first."

Rafe held up his end of the bargain. The test took longer than Norah hoped for, but the results of their tutoring from Saturday was already baring fruit.

She began marking his answers and couldn't help but glare at his twitching leg. It was bobbing up and down and rattled the desk. "Stop it," she hissed as she crossed out an entire sentence in angry red ink. Rafe almost winced.

"I can't help it. I'm agitated," he hissed back.

Norah looked at him and back at his papers. "You shouldn't be. I'm here to help. This is an excellent start."

Rafe wasn't sure if she was bluffing because all he saw was red ink assaulting his blue inked writing across the pages. He realised that she was a hard person to read. He could never fully tell what she's feeling, if she's lying, what she's thinking. This girl was an enigma.

After they had gone over his mistakes, comments, correction and made new notes, both let out a long sigh of relief.

Norah looked out of the window as she leaned back in her chair. "Sitting next to windows or doors."

"Sorry what?"

"Another one of my quirks. I have to sit next to a window or a door. Otherwise, I feel unsafe. Like if there's a fire, it's the quickest way to get out."

Rafe thought about it for a moment. "Is that why you lost your shit last week when I had my backpack on the floor? You said something about safety. I wasn't listening then because I didn't care."

"I didn't lose my— Nevermind. Yes. It's against health and safety regulations. Can you imagine because of your sloppiness, if we had a fire, someone would've tripped over your bag in an attempt to escape. And then someone trips over that person and it all turns into chaos and panic? And someone dies?"

Rafe's mouth was slightly ajar. "You watch too many movies. Seriously, what's wrong with you? Me leaving a bag on the floor gives you this much anxiety?"

"Yes," Norah said and fiddled with her sleeves. It was the first time he saw her looking self-conscious. "I mean you asked me," she said defensively.

Rafe nodded. "Thanks for sharing."

Maybe it would take some time to understand this girl.