Judith’s eyes darted around the library’s entrance, praying that no one would notice her as she snuck through the doors. I cannot believe I’m doing this, she thought as she tried to hide behind her hair as she made her way to a secluded table. Because you are in danger of failing Physics, she rationalized, and he IS a science geek. She sat down in a chair with a sigh. Joan’s little brother Luke was also a science geek. And she knew very well that he was helping Joan, Adam, and Grace study at the Girardi’s at the moment. Which left her no sane reason to why she was secretly meeting up with Friedman to study now.

“No wonder my parents made me go to camp, I must be insane to be doing this,” she muttered to herself as she pulled out her books. She jumped when a voice spoke behind her.

“My sweet Judith, I am ready to offer my services to you,” Freidman was saying as he came to kneel in front of her, with that same mixture of puppy dog and stalker that had been present every since she first met him.

Judith threw up her hands to ward him off when he attempted to take her hand and kiss it. He was seriously deranged, but for some reason she found it endearing that he wouldn’t give up on her. She shook her head at the strange thoughts and gestured towards the chair behind him.

“It’s called a chair, Romeo. Sit.”

“As you wish my dear Ophelia,” He said as he sat.

“Ugh,” she replied rolling her eyes. “Enough. I have to do some major cramming, lets get to work.”

Friedman eagerly scooted his chair closer to her. She scrunched up her face in slight disgust, but chose not to comment as he started flipping through her notes. She began to relax as he started explaining the basis of the chapter to her. She found herself impressed with his knowledge on the subject. And then surprised at his patience when she got confused and asked a lot of questions. For being such a creep and an all out weirdo, he’s awfully normal when he’s talking about science, she thought, with a slight smile appearing on her face. Friedman noticed the smile and trailed of in the middle of his sentence. He seemed to take notice to how close they were sitting and a tiny smile formed on his face.

“You know, I’m on the last act of Hamlet,” he told her softly.

She gave him an appraising look and a raised eyebrow.

“You’ve seriously memorized most of the play?”

“I am intent on reaching my goal,” he said, dead serious, looking her in the eye.

After a long moment, Judith broke eye contact and cleared her throat.

“What were you saying about particles?” she asked, hoping to bring him back into the world of science. She mentally sighed in relief and tried not to focus on his nearness as he continued to explain the material.

++++

Judith threw her backpack on her bed upon entering her room. She and Friedman had studied a good couple of hours, with no more mention of his perusal of her (thank god), and she felt that she had a decent grasp of the material. She logged onto her computer and opened up her Instant Messenger. She popped a CD into the disk drive and began to bob her head to the music. An IM popped up on the screen.

Joan1420: Joanith in the hiz-house!

Judith smiled and typed her reply.

Deliquent905: Fo’ sure my sister. LOL

Joan1420: LOL… You should have come over to study. Luke actually managed to dumb it down for us enough to understand.

Deliquent905: I’m gonna do just fine =-)

Joan1420: What, did you go in for after school help or something?

Judith paused, remembering Freidman’s expression when he told her of his determination to get with her. What was going to happen when he finished Hamlet? She found herself almost anticipating the answer. With a smirk, she responded.

Deliquent905: Something like that.

Joan1420: Ugh. That’s a fate worse than death. How did you survive?

Deliquent905: It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Definitely could have been worse, Judith thought as Joan started talking about what had happened in the study group earlier.