Page 17 of Heart Check
“I need you to cover my shift,” Harper announces.
The library’s only open for another thirty minutes, and I’m one of the few students left studying here as the sky turns violet outside. At the sound of her voice, I bolt upright, startled out of my studying daze. My knee bumps the table from below and the impact knocks my math textbook off.“Fuck!”
Ms. Faubert looks over from the front desk, scandalized. She’s typically pretty indulgent—she’s let me camp out between class and practice more times than I can count—but she draws the line atnoise.
“Sorry, sorry,” I grimace whisper. “Won’t happen again!”
Harper holds up her hands. “Don’t look at me.”
When Ms. Faubert’s gone back to her BookTok scrolling, Harper crosses her arms. I stare at her for a minute, unable to totally catch up to this conversation. She’s wearing a short floral dress with tights and clunky boots today, and it takes more effort than it should not to stare at her legs.
They’re nice. Especially for a nonathlete.
“Well? Can you cover my shift tonight or not?”
I blink, refocusing. “I have extra practice this week before our first game. And a mountain of precalc homework I’m behind on, and we have that test coming up, okay? I’m busy.”
She props her hands on her waist, and I fight to keep my gaze on her face. “AndIneed tonight to work on my website, since your rumor mill cost me so much business.”
I wince. Is this revenge? It’s not even totally out of line. I’ve asked her to covermyshifts enough times already this season.
“I can’t do tonight, but I can cover you tomorrow,” I say. “As long as I figure out this messed up permutation shit.”
I wave the problem set Ms. Moore gave us in the air.
Permutations and combinations… Ten choose two means how many ways can you choose two items… or is it how many ways you can choose ten?
More like ten choose whatever the hell I need to do to get this assignment over with.
I expected her to leave as soon as she got what she wanted, but Harper’s still standing there. She’s frowning like she’s faced with an impossible dilemma. I track the clouds passing over her face with curiosity.
Finally, she sighs. “Let me see that.”
“I thought we were staying out of each other’s way.”
“Trust me,” Harper says, “I’m not doing you any favors. I need you to cover my shift and this seems like the fastest way to make that happen, okay?”
I purse my lips in contemplation. This girl is not exactly the first person I’d come to for help. Honestly, I don’t trust her not to deliberately mix up her explanations so I bomb thetest. I’m still not sure whether to take her at her word that she had nothing to do with Red’s firing.
Harper rolls her eyes, fed up with my hesitation. “What, are you trying to end up on academic probation?” She pauses to twist the knife. “Again?”
I open my mouth to retaliate, but she has a point. So I sigh too, pushing back from the table in ahave at itgesture. “I’ve got ten minutes.”
She drops into the chair beside me. “I only need five.”
Before I can say something irredeemably stupid back, she’s grabbing my notebook, bending her head to the problem set.
“It’s pretty simple.” Her voice as she explains the difference between permutations and combinations is brusque and businesslike, so I don’t even feel particularly condescended to. “You know, a combination lock should really be called a permutation lock,” she says at the end of her mini-lecture. “You can’t just put the numbers in any old order!”
I look at her with a raised eyebrow. “Wow. You have a lot of opinions about math. Didn’t know that was possible.”
She huffs and pushes the notebook my way, opening an old laptop and clicking busily over to her own work. “Do your problems.”
I solve them quickly, now that she’s shown me the trick. It’s surprisingly simple when I follow her instructions.
Harper looks them over and gives me a nod of approval. “Nice. I knew you had potential.”
I almost,almostsmile.
