Antinous was walking down the hallway, his uniform disheveled as always, and his hands in his pockets. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting a harsh glow on the scuffed linoleum floors. He was minding his own business when suddenly he saw the most beautiful girl—the student council president—talking at her locker.

But he noticed something else. She was laughing with Telemachus, the kid he'd bullied last semester. The sound of her laughter hit him like a physical thing, bright and clear above the chatter of passing students. A sharp pang of jealousy shot through his chest, hot and unexpected. He looked away quickly, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets. He didn't have the right to feel jealous, not when he'd never even spoken to her properly.

His math grades had been failing, but yesterday his teacher had made an announcement that changed everything. The student council president would be tutoring him twice a week after school. By the second session, he'd already grasped the material, but something about being close to her—smelling the faint scent of her vanilla shampoo, watching her bite her lower lip in concentration—made him continue pretending. He'd never wanted to understand math less in his life.

Now they sat across from each other in the empty classroom, sunlight slanting through the windows onto her textbook. She was explaining quadratic equations again, her voice patient and clear, but Antinous wasn't listening. He was too busy studying the way her hair fell across her face when she leaned forward, the precise way she underlined important concepts with her pink pen.