The Exchange

Chapter 8: Giselle

'What happened you sound tired?' Dad asks through the speaker of my phone. He decided to do a double check in and face time me.

'I sprained my ankle at training yesterday.' I sigh, rubbing my forehead. 'I can't train for three weeks.'

'You're such a clutz.' Hugo - my younger brother - says.

'You know I forgot how annoying a nine year old can be.' I reply.

'Hey be nice.' My father says. 'You'll be fine Brownie, you always find a way to get through it.'

'Brownie?' Archer laughs as he passes me a protein shake I begged him to get me. Today is my day off, no classes but I was supposed to train.

'Shut up' I mutter and he puts his arms up in a mock surrender.

'Dad I'm going to be at a disadvantage then everyone else.' I sigh. 'Who knows if I'll make it past the elimination round.'

'I know you will.' Hugo says.

'You're my brother, you're supposed to say that.' I roll my eyes.

'We mean it.' Dad says. 'No matter what happens, we will always be proud of you.'

'Thank you dad.' I reply.

'I've got to go now Brownie, but I have one teeny favour to ask.' He looks at me pleadingly.

'Go for it.' I reply.

'Could you ask Rafe if your brother and I can get free tickets to come there for the match between them and the Sea dogs?' He asks and my eyes widen.

'Are you serious?' I raise an eyebrow and he nods.

'It would make your brother so happy to see his favourite celebrity and his sister both at the same time.' When he says that I know he really means himself.

'I'll see what I can do.' I reply. He thanks me and him and my brother say goodbye before ending the call.

Rafe walks out of his dorm, his gym bag in his hand.

'Rafe can you do me a favour?' I ask.

His head turns to me and his eyes me as I take off my cast and put some cream on my ankle, rubbing it in.

'What is it?' He drawls.

I pass him the piece of paper with my essay on it and he eyes it.

'Give this to Mrs Jonae please.' I say.

'We don't have a class today.' He goes to hand me back the paper.

'It's an early submission' I flinch as I move my ankle.

'Let me help.' Rafe grumbles as he sits down.

His strong hands softly grab my leg and places it on his lap. He grabs the cream and moisturises it into my skin. He grabs the top of my foot an bends it forwards and backwards when it cracks, relieving some pain.

'You're so tense.' He says quietly.

Rafe's touch makes every hair in my body stand, goosebumps going around my whole body. He focuses on easing the pain in my foot, massaging softly

He makes sure that he's not hurting me when I gasp quietly. After a while of silenced massaging he checks the time and lets me go.

'I'll take this to Mrs Jonae.' He assured me. Rafe makes sure not to look me in the eye as he gets up and walks out.

*********
The next day, Archer has no issue carrying me to my class even though I've told him to drop me many times.

'Well done everyone for handing in your essays on time.' Mrs Jonae says, looking at me sternly. I give her a small smile which she ignores.

'This lesson will mostly be us examining our last essay. Making improvements and reading a couple more chapters on The Scarlett Letter.' She hands back our old essays and I see an A+ on it again. The grade makes me smile. Anya taps my back and grins at the B+ on her paper, I congratulate her and she grins proudly.

At the end of the lesson everyone is packing away and I slowly get up, using my crutches to support me.

'Giselle and Rafe please stay behind.' Our literature teacher says. She turns to Rafe and clears her throat before continuing.

'Rafe you did amazingly on this newest essay.' She says. 'What I don't appreciate is that you stole Giselle's work.'

'You did what!' I exclaim. She hands me a sheet of paper with my writing but it's signed off by Rafe.

'No I didn't!' Rafe says. One the paper is the exact essay I gave him to hand in.

'I'm going to kill you.' I snarl. 'Do you know how hard I worked on that?'

'Oh please you're so dramatic Gigi.' He smirks and crosses his arms.

And here I thought this asshole was finally doing something selfless.

'This incident has opened my eyes.' Mrs Jonae says. 'Giselle I would like you to start tutoring Rafe.'

Rafe's smile immediately drops and his eyes are cold.

'No way.' He says. 'Not going to happen.'

'I agree with him for once.' I reply.

'I've already spoken to Coach Hartley and Principal.' Mrs Jonae informs us. 'They said that if you get one more F than you're not playing for this season.'

'But I'm captain!' Rafe yells.

'They really couldn't care less.' She shrugs.

'Find another tutor.' I grumble. 'I'm not doing this.'

'Come on Giselle I thought you were more mature than this.' Mrs Jonae sighs.

'You have to do it.' Rafe snaps.

'Oh yeah?' I raise an eyebrow. 'And what I guess you're going to make me.'

Rafe is silent but he glares at me.

'I'm not spending more time than I need to with him.' I snap. 'Find another tutor.'

'You're the best in the class.' She says. 'Plus it would boost your credit Scholarship score by ten after every session.'

Boost my scholarship? That means that scouts look for people with high scores so they can take them to further skating contests. I might have to consider this.

'When will it start?' I ask.

'Tomorrow.' She replies.

Rafe looks at me, his eyes raking me up and down as if he was judging me.

'Can I think about this?' I ask.

'I need your answer by tonight.' She says.

'Ok,' I reply. I slowly use my crutches to help me go back to my dorm.

On one hand I could boost my scholarship and scouts can make my popularity sky rocket, making me attend more skating competitions.

One the other hand, I'm going to have to spend more time with this insufferable excuse for a human being. I'm going to have to deal with all his gloating and everything.

I shudder at the thought of us spending even more time together.

*AUTHORS NOTE*
I hope you're enjoying the story and let me know what you think so far.
Have a nice day!