Chapter 20: Help

I frown and look backwards, towards the steep hill where we came from. Another honk- a car horn?

"Boys!" That's Patrick's mom's voice. What the heck?

I turn to him, still frowning. "Is that your mom?"

"Yeah, I think so." He puts the notebook down and stands, pulling me up by my forearm and going to the hill, looking up. I follow him, still confused.

"There you are!"

"Hi, Mum!"

"Hi, honey! Hello, Todd!"

I give her a weak smile and don't wave because my hands are still bandaged.

"Why are you here?" Patrick calls up to her.

"Your help alert went off! Are you both okay?"

"Well, Todd fell down the hill," Patrick immediately says.

"Oh no! Are you alright, Todd?"

"I'm fine, ma'am!"

"Darla, please! Would you like me to come down to help?"

"No thanks, we'll be okay! We'll toss the stuff up to you, give us a minute to pack it up!" Patrick calls, then starts back towards our small camp.

"Did you press the button because I fell?" I hiss at him as soon as we're out of sight and earshot of his mom.

He shakes his head. "It must have accidentally gotten pressed by something in the bag. Probably one of the water bottles."

"So, that's it? We're just leaving?"

"I mean, since they're here, we might as well, right? I know we weren't going to, but if they've already come out then it wouldn't be a bad idea to get your hands properly taken care of. Infections suck." He's already packing up all of the stuff, and it's kind of a huge relief. No sleeping on the ground in the forest with bugs and animals.

"I know. But what about your project?"

He shrugs. "There's always next weekend. And besides, I've got plenty of notes."

I exhale slowly, trying not to let on how relieved I am that we're going to be leaving and that he probably won't ask me to do this again (because by next week, he'll almost definitely be completely done with me. There's a pang in my chest at the thought, but I push it aside and focus on the relief).

"What about my parents? The note I wrote said I'd be gone all weekend."

"So you can stay at my place. Probably be more comfortable than the forest, anyways. You can sit in on a few of my actual lessons, I'm sure you'd love that."

I roll my eyes at him. "I'm the teacher's pet, not tutor's."

He waves his hand. "Close enough. Here, I'll tell Raymond to come over again, he'll be so happy to see you."

"Because I'm your first friend that he's met more than once?"

"Todd, if you don't want to come to my house, I can drive you home right now."

I don't say anything, because I don't particularly want to go back home, but I also still don't know him super well and I'd be sleeping over at his house and I do have a lot of studying to do. He holds my gaze for one more moment, then hoists the now-packed bag over his shoulder.

"You don't have to decide right now. Just come back to my house for now, have someone other than me look at your hands, maybe shower, get a good night's sleep..."

It's hard not to smile a little at that. "Fine."

He gives me a toothy grin and gestures for me to follow him back to where his mom is waiting. He winds up, then chucks the bag up to the top of the hill. I hear it hit the ground, and a moment later his mom appears again.

"Do you need help coming back up?"

He looks at me, and I shake my head.

"We'll try on our own first," he calls back to her, then turns to me. "We should probably go one at a time. You first."

"Why one at a time? Are we using normal person logic now? We go one at a time so that if one of us falls, we don't both get taken down? Alright, I'll go first so you can intentionally put yourself in my way when I fall, again."

He smirks. "Exactly. Go."

I sigh but do as he says. It's harder physically to climb up the hill, but seems less treacherous. When I near the top, his mom (Darla) puts out a hand for me. I take it, wincing as she grasps my hand and pulls me up. Once I'm safely sitting atop the hill, she takes a closer look at my bandaged hand and gasps.

"What happened to your hands, Todd?"

I flush a little, ashamed. "It's nothing. It's just from when I fell, earlier."

"Down this hill?"

I nod. She looks horrified.

"That's awful! Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Patrick stood in my way and broke my fall on purpose, basically."

She rolls her eyes. "Of course he did. Did that make it better or worse, do you think?"

"I mean, probably better. It was an intentional move on his part, so he had time to prepare himself."

"Telling the story of my heroic sacrifice?" I glance over and see Patrick has nearly reached the top of the hill. I hold out my hand, and he carefully takes my forearm, barely putting any weight on it at all before he's also gotten to safety. I don't bother commenting on his question, because while it was a noble gesture, it was also stupid and he could have gotten a lot more hurt than I think he believes he could have.

We go to where his car is (as well as his parents' car, which is shockingly modest). "Alright Patrick, you drive your car home. We'll take Todd," Darla says, and Patrick pouts a little.

"Why? We're all going to the same place."

Darla ignores him and steers me towards the other car, where I can see Patrick's dad in the driver's seat. I get in the backseat. Both of Patrick's parents are in the front, which is fine because that's what I'm used to, anyways: my family only has one car, and anywhere we go in the car, we usually go together. It's rare that I'm ever in the car with only one parent, and they get priority front seat privileges. So although I've been enjoying the front seat of Patrick's car(s) recently, I'm not upset at being in the back seat.

Once the door closes behind me and Patrick's car speeds off, his dad turns back to look at me. "Where do you want to go, Todd? Home?"

I look down and fold my hands in my lap carefully, not sure what I should say.

"You don't have to worry about what Patrick will think, so don't even consider him. It's whatever you want, okay?" Darla tells me, and I nod a little. I still don't know what I want, though- if I came home in my current state, my parents might throw a fit. I'm a mess right now, dusty and smelly and overall dirty, not to mention my bandaged hands. So I'm definitely not in the best state to be going back home at the moment. And Patrick offered a shower, which sounds like probably the minimum I should get done before being seen by my parents.

"We can drive you wherever you'd like," Darla murmurs soothingly. "Our house, your house, another friend's house, anything."

"May I please come back with you to your house?" I ask as politely as I can, flushing a little at how imposing that is.

"Of course, Todd," Patrick's dad says, and carefully pulls away from the forest, before making his way back to the main road. He drives at such a normal speed that it's almost boring, and I keep waiting for him to speed up. The engine is so quiet in this car that I can actually hear myself breathe- it's extremely weird, after (apparently) getting somewhat adjusted to Patrick's driving.

"You never have to go along with anything he says, by the way. Don't worry about disappointing him, and don't be shy to tell him 'no'. He can seem very pushy sometimes, but you don't ever have to do anything you don't want."

I nod politely. "Thanks. Oh, and he asked me... I take biology, and we were talking about his tutors, so he asked me to tutor him in biology. So I was just wondering... if that would be... okay?"

His parents exchange a glance. I immediately start panicking.

"I- I haven't-"

"No, no, Todd, it's alright. Don't worry at all. You can always ask us about anything, we know he can be a bit difficult to understand sometimes." She swallows, then glances back at her husband before looking at me again. "We would prefer that you didn't teach him biology. Thank you very much for asking us first, Todd. It is... a bit of a difficult predicament. Since we keep him from it, he wants to learn about it even more. But it's important that he doesn't."

I swallow, then (mentally kicking myself for being so pushy) ask, "Why?"

Thoughts on the millionaire's parents showing up? Do you think the button was really pressed by accident? And how about Todd going back to their house? What do you think the millionaire's parents will say about why the millionaire can't learn biology? Let me know in the comments!

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