It was 7:30, the sun was awoken and Sam threw some notebooks into a beat up backpack. She checked her brightly lighted Iphone, only to come across a blank screen with no texts. 
“Samantha, your bus is going to be here any minuet and I can’t drive you to school today, so please don’t be late!” Sam’s mom ordered.
She barely slipped on her white converse and darted straight out the front door. Picking up the pace, sweat dripped down Sam’s face as the grumbling roar of the bus’s engine came to a jolt.
“Of course,” Sam deeply sighed under her breath. 
She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and started to slowly twist around. Her speedy race to the bus quickly turned into a leisurely stroll back to her two-story home.
“What are you doing home Samantha?”
Sam rolled her emerald green eyes, grabbed a notebook labeled “Algebra 2” off the kitchen counter.
“You better start running to school Samantha! Any more days you’re late and you’ll you have a month worth of detentions!” yelled Sam’s mom as she left through the front door. Again. Sam walked through the busiest part of downtown to get to school, making her an hour and a half late to second period, which was a new record.
“Ms. Jacob’s, I have a pass for you,” Mrs. Chang announced to the whole second period class.
Sam tightly grasped the pass to her dean as she walked down the hallways, passing hers and Chelsea’s locker. The school felt unusually vacant although the classrooms were filled with students. Sam’s heart began to beat faster and faster as she approached her dean’s office, one more tardy meant a month of detention, which was not ideal for Sam.
“Mrs. Smith, I understand I was late and I’m very sorry but I missed my bus this morning and-“
“This isn’t about your tardiness Ms. Jacobs, I’m worried about your math grade. You’ve been failing for over half of the semester,” Mrs. Smith politely interrupted.
“Right… about that, my mom set up a tutor for me that Chelsea started and I start this week. My grade will improve Mrs. Smith, I’m sure it will,” Sam said with a doubt in her voice.
The stinging sound of the doorbell woke Sam up from a deep slumber and acted as a reminder that it was the first day she was going to be meeting with her Algebra 2 tutor. Sam slowly got up from her worn out bed as her wavy, thick, brunette hair fell against her warm cheeks. She stumbled towards her closet and threw on her favorite vintage Blackhawks sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants. Sam always looked flawless with out making any sort of effort, which was envied by many girls at school.
“Samantha! Come downstairs! Your tutor is here,” Samantha’s mother yelped. 
Sam started to walk down the long staircase as she locked eyes with her tutor. Her movements were slow and dragged out, making everyone feel like they were stuck in time. She felt as though she had seen this man before.
“Hey Samantha, I’m Chris. It’s nice to meet you.”
Chris was wearing a clean, pressed black suit and wore glasses that fit his frame perfectly. The stench of dirt however, fumed off of his heavier set body. Sam glanced out the window and saw a beat up SUV planted on her driveway.
  “It’s Sam,” she fired back with an intense stare.
Sam’s mom looked at her daughter’s heated face, but didn’t mention anything.
“Well, I will leave you two alone so you can start studying for Samantha’s first Algebra test,” Sam’s mom spoke.
Sam and Chris lingered towards the kitchen table and sat across from each other. Nothing was said, no eye contact was made, and there was an overwhelming amount of tension being pushed back and forth between the two.
“Alright. I think we should begin on chapter –“
“Listen,” Sam interrupted, “I don’t know who you are. But you tutored my friend, Chelsea last week a couple times.
“Oh yeah, Chelsea. She had a lot going for her.”
“She won’t answer my texts or pick up when I try calling her, it’s the weirdest thing. You haven’t tried getting a hold of her recently have you?
“Did you start learning about expanding equations yet?” 
“Maybe you’ve seen her around? I just want to talk to her,” Sam replied.
“No. I haven’t,” Chris spoke trying to avoid the question.
“Strange. “
“I’m just a math tutor, Samantha and that is all I’m here for.” Chris said with suspicion deep in his voice.
The sarcastic and demeaning tone of his voice got inside Sam’s head. His words replayed over and over again like an act of torture as he tried teaching her how to graph parabolas and find X. Luckily, an hour went by and it was time for Chris to leave.
“I’ll show you the way out,” Sam’s lips quivered as she got up from the table.
“Or… I’ll show you,” Chris grunted as he grabbed Sam and pushed her to the ground.
Everything was blurry from then on. Sam felt blinded from her thoughts and emotions but could hear the car door slam behind her while being dragged on the cold gravel.
“You said you wanted to talk to your friend and now you finally have the chance,” Chris screeched.