Raw Deal (Beauty for Ashes: Book One)

by Dayo Benson

  I hung up the phone on the wall holder and walked back to my room. If she couldn’t be there for me, I didn’t want her feeding me either. “Jace is coming to help me with schoolwork.”

  My mom followed me. “He’s coming here?”

  “Yeah.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Has he been here before?”

  “Only once to drop me off. He’s never been inside.”

  I could tell my mom wasn’t sure whether to believe me. “So he hasn’t been while I’ve been working late?”

  “No, I would have told you.”

  “And he’s coming to help you with schoolwork?”

  “Yes. Economics to be precise.” The clock said quarter to four.

  “I wasn’t born yesterday, honey.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Mom, none of that is going on. He’s just coming to help me with some stuff!”

  “Well, I’m going to pick up some groceries. I’ll be back home soon.”

  “Okay.”

  She left, and I looked in the mirror. I was wearing a pink velour tracksuit and my fluffy pink flip-flops. I thought I looked casual and relaxed. I really didn’t want to look like I was ‘trying.’ I dabbed on some lipgloss. I was about to squirt on some perfume, but decided against it. Once he got a whiff of perfume he’d think I was making an effort.

  I frowned at my reflection. Maybe Jace’s spell had been broken. I’d chatted to him okay yesterday on the phone, and I’d thought I’d be a bag of nerves about him coming over, but I wasn’t.

  Jace arrived a couple minutes before four. I picked up my work and went to let him in. “Hey.”

  Jace smiled, and my heart almost stilled. “Hey, Lexi, ready to break some brain sweat?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  He shut the door and smiled down at me. “You’re short today.”

  “Yeah, I don’t wear heels in the house.” I led him to the den, and we sat down on the couch. “Did you find your way here okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m tall for a girl, you know?”

  Jace frowned. “How random, Lexi.”

  I laughed. “No, you said I’m short. Just letting you know I’m not. It’s you that’s tall.”

  “Oh. Thanks for letting me know.”

  It felt real weird having Jace sitting there in my den. I’d never brought a guy home before. Not that I’d brought Jace home in that sense. “How was the party last night?”

  “It was good.”

  “Are you able to think straight enough to teach me?”

  “Of course. I didn’t drink.”

  “I don’t believe you.” All our friends at school were underage drinkers.

  “Why not? I’m a good guy, you know.”

  “I didn’t say you weren’t.”

  Jace looked pointedly at my work.

  “Right,” I said, dumping my bundle of papers on the table and pulling it closer. “I mainly want you to look at my assignments and tell me why I’m getting such low scores. And about the notes from Friday’s class? I have no clue what I’m supposed to learn from them. Same for most of the notes he’s given us.” I looked at the short list of topics I’d compiled. “And I’d like us to go over some of these.”

  “Cool.” Jace leafed through one of my assignments. “Anything else?”

  “I think that should do me for today. I don’t want to keep you too long.”

  “Well, if you think of anything else, feel free.”

  “Okay.”

  Jace leaned forward and looked at my list of topics. “Shall we do inflation first?”

  “Sure.” I went through my pile and found my notes on inflation.

  “If you’re answering a question about inflation, it’ll probably be about comparing why this country’s rate was higher or lower than another’s, and you’ll need to talk about aggregate demand in comparison to aggregate supply, their productivity levels, fiscal deficit, levels of unemployment in the different countries—”

  “Hold up,” I said, scribbling furiously in my notebook. When I finished, I looked at him. “Okay, carry on.”

  “Cost push pressures, what the conversion rate is for country x against country y...” Jace paused.

  I looked up.

  “You could even suggest that they may have different monetary policies and targets.”

  I scribbled away. “Yup?”

  “And you wouldn’t just throw out these points. You’d have to analyze each one, and say what effect it has on the inflation rate. Then you need to discuss them and say which is most detrimental—things like that.”

  “I know about some of that, but I wouldn’t have related all of them to inflation.”

  Jace looked at the next item on my list. “Shall we move on, or do you want some more ideas on that?”

  “We can move on. By the way, McGee hasn’t covered some of the things you’ve just said.”

  “Yeah, well, you need to do some wider reading so that you can demonstrate deeper knowledge. That’s what makes the difference between an okay grade and an excellent grade.” I grinned, and Jace jabbed me in the ribs. “Do you want my help or not?”

  I heard my mom come in. She’d returned from her shopping in record time. She obviously didn’t like to leave me home alone with Jace. “My mom’s back.”

  “I better go say hi.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want her to walk in here and be like ‘who are you’?”

  “I told her you’re coming. She’ll know who you are.”

  He stood up. “Just come and introduce me, Lexi.”

  I led him to the kitchen. My mom was putting packets of pasta, rice, and cereal in the cupboard. “Mom, this is Jace.”

  My mom turned. “Hello, Jace.”

  “Hi, Mrs. Dixon. Do you need help with that?”

  I couldn’t believe that Jace, heir to Glacier hotels, was offering to help my mom put the groceries away. “Do you put groceries away in your own house?” I asked.

  Jace glared at me.

  “I’m fine, Jace. It’s nice of you to offer though. Lexi never does.” My mom shut the cupboard. “I hear you play basketball. What else do you do? What are you studying?”

  I was mortified. I couldn’t believe my mom was going to try and drill Jace. “I’ll be in the den.”

  I went to the den and switched on the TV. I heard Jace and my mom laughing. He came back after a couple minutes.

  “Your mom is hot,” he whispered, dropping down beside me on the couch. “She looks really young.”

  I pulled a face. “Eww, how can you say my mom is hot?”

  “I know, sorry, but she really is.”

  “Where were we?” I asked, trying to change the subject. I looked at my notebook.

  Jace laughed. “Okay, okay, back to work.”

  Jace talked me through the subtopics within each point I’d raised and what I’d need to cover if I was answering an exam question.

  We were just about to go over my recent assignments when the doorbell rang.

  “That’ll be our pizza,” I said.

  “Cool, break time.” Jace stood up and felt in his back pocket. He removed a fifty dollar bill.

  “What kind of a person just has fifty dollars in their back pocket?” I teased.

  He offered me the bill.

  “Don’t be silly, Jace.” I pushed his hand away and walked past him, but he caught me and pulled me back.

  “I’m paying for it, Lexi.”

  I struggled to break free. “Let go.”

  His grip on me tightened. “No.”

  “Okay, give me the money,” I conceded.

  Jace let me go, and I snatched the money out of his hand and went to get the door. It was Monica.

  She scowled. “Where’s your phone? I’ve called you like a zillion times.”

  “Sorry, I left it in my room. I’ve been downstairs.”

  “Is Jace here?” She looked at his car. “What are you two doing?”

  “Just homework. He’
s helping me with economics?”

  “Right,” Monica said. “And when were you going to tell me that he comes round to ‘help you with economics.’ I guess I better go find someone else to hang out with. I don’t want to poop your party.”

  “You’re not pooping any party. Come in.”

  She stepped into the house. “You might want to go ahead of me and warn him that I’m here.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want to walk in there, and he’s in his drawers or something.”

  I exhaled in exasperation although it was quite funny. “Monica, he hasn’t taken off any of his clothes. For goodness sake, my mom’s upstairs!”

  We walked into the den, and Jace glared at Monica. “What are you doing here?”

  “Why? Am I ruining your seduction plans? Studying? My backside!”

  The doorbell rang again. “That’ll be the pizza,” I said. I went to get it.

  Monica and Jace were still arguing when I got back to the den. “Cut it out, you guys.” I put the pizza on the table and opened it.

  “Shouldn’t you be with Hayden somewhere?” Jace asked Monica.

  “Shut up, Jace,” Monica retorted.

  “Monica, have some pizza,” I suggested.

  “No. What if I get signed?”

  “Signed for what?” Jace asked.

  “With Lexi’s agency.” She started telling Jace about the open call on Thursday. I sighed. It looked like my economics tutorial was over.

  Between me and Jace, the pizza rapidly diminished. Jace looked at the last slice. “Do you want it, Lexi?”

  “No, you can have it.”

  Jace took the slice. “Okay, break over. Let’s look at some of your assignments.”

  I handed him the 36% one and he briefly scanned through it. “You’ve actually covered a few of the main points that needed to be raised. The main problem though is that you haven’t expounded on things. You haven’t compared anything, you haven’t evaluated, you haven’t shown evidence of critical thinking.” He looked at me. “Need I go on?”

  Monica snorted.

  I laughed. “Well, how do I do that?”

  Jace dug his hand into his very large jean pocket and pulled out a wad of folded paper. “I brought my assignments so that you can look at them.”

  “Did you bring this one? What did you score?”

  “86%.” Jace passed me his assignments.

  “Okay, now I feel dumb.”

  “Don’t. Like I said, you touched on some of the main things, but you just didn’t discuss them at all. And personally, I think you need to adopt a better essay style.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, everything’s kind of all over the place, and it’s all pretty random. You need to have more of an introduction, then start discussing each point systematically, and then finish with a concluding paragraph that ties everything together. In fact, this is all just one big two-page paragraph. You need to break it up.”

  “Okay.”

  “And you should probably use some references.”

  “I know.”

  “You guys really are doing work. This is so lame,” Monica grunted from her cross-legged position on the floor. She rose to her feet. “I’m outta here.”

  After Monica left, Jace and I went through my assignments and compared them with his. I started understanding what I was required to do. To be honest, I wrote good essays for literature, but I hadn’t been applying the same principles in economics.

  Jace gave me an essay structure for the next assignment. He told me what points he was covering and how he was relating them to the question. I wrote it all down and grinned at him when he finished. “Don’t worry. I’ll tweak it a little so that we don’t get penalized for producing identical essays.”

  Jace leaned back on the sofa and took the remote. He changed to a sports channel. “Let me know anytime you need help.”

  “Thanks, Jace.” I felt like telling him he was really sweet, but I didn’t. I’d already said that too many times.

  “Why do you always do that?” Jace’s eyes didn’t leave the screen.

  I wasn’t sure whether he was talking to me or the basketball player on the TV. “Do what?”

  He looked at me. “Why do you always look at me when you think I’m not looking?”

  “I don’t.”

  Jace gave me a slow smile that threw me off a little. I picked up the empty pizza box. “Just going to throw this away. Do you want a drink?” That spicy pizza had made me thirsty.

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  “What do you want to drink?”

  “Anything.”

  I brought him back a bottle of water. “Because you’re a sportsman,” I explained.

  “How thoughtful.”

  “I know.”

  Jace took a small jewelry box from his pocket. “I brought you a present.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “Because I wanted to.”

  I took the box from him and opened it. “Oh, wow.” A pair of dangly diamond earrings sparkled against a velvet cushion. They looked beautiful—and pricey. “What are these for?”

  “The party yesterday was near the Diamond Parlor, and I picked them up for you.”

  The Diamond Parlor was a jeweler in Beverley Hills that was so elitist you had to book an appointment to get in, and their waiting list was usually about two weeks long. The fact that Jace had walked in and just picked these up said something. It was actually pretty scary.

  “Don’t you like them?” Jace asked. “Sorry, I don’t even know if you wear earrings. Maybe I should have bought a bracelet—”

  “No, no, I love them. I’ve had my ears pierced since I was twelve.” I shut the box.

  “Well, what’s up?”

  “You.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you’re scaring me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re buying me diamond earrings.”

  Jace looked defensive. “Lexi, I don’t mean anything by this. I’m not trying to have my wicked way with you or anything. It’s just a present because I thought you’d like them.”

  That made me laugh. “Jace, I know. That’s not what I meant.”

  “Well, what do you mean?”

  “Well, I feel bad because you’re so rich, and I wish you could just be normal.” His money complicated things for me. Every time I remembered who he was, it made me feel like I was out of my depth. “Normal friends just buy each other a jam donut or a candy bar or something. This is a lot.”

  “You know what, Lexi?” Jace asked.

  “What?”

  “Stop over analyzing everything and just wear the darn earrings.” He smiled.

  “Okay.” I opened the box again. “They really are gorgeous. Do you buy things like this for all your friends?”

  Jace narrowed his eyes. “If it makes you feel better, I buy Tanya and Monica stuff all the time.”

  “That does make me feel a little better.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to feel like I’m exploiting our friendship.”

  Jace gave me a look of exasperation that told me it really wasn’t a big deal to him. He’d bought me diamond earrings from the Diamond Parlor, so what?

  ***

  “You had Jace in your house all alone for two hours, and you didn’t do anything?” Michelle asked with a sneer that made me feel silly and childish.

  “Maybe she has standards,” Monica defended me.

  “Maybe she’s gay,” Sandy said.

  Monica took a small bite of the stick of celery that she’d been gnawing on for close to ten minutes now. “Shut up, Sandy.”

  “What? You can’t just assume that everyone’s heterosexual in this day and age.”

  “I’m not gay,” I answered. I looked around the cafeteria. No sign of Jace.

  “So do you have a crush on Jace?” Michelle asked.

  “Nah, he’s cute, but not really my type.”

 
; Monica didn’t say anything, for which I was grateful.

  “So, who is your type?” Michelle pressed.

  “Don’t worry. She doesn’t like Matt,” Monica said, patting Michelle’s arm. “I don’t think she’s ever even noticed him.”

  Michelle smiled. “Good.”

  “Matt asked about you yesterday, I told him you weren’t feeling too good,” Sandy said.

  “Yeah, he called me.” Michelle winced. “I’m not sure what I said to him exactly, but I remember him asking if I was drunk. I guess I’ve blown any chances I might have had with him.”

  “Who is this Matt?” I asked. I’d heard his name bandied about, but I was yet to set eyes on the fella.

  “How can you not know Matt?” Michelle put her hand to her chest. “He started the same time as you, and he is like the hottest thing this side of the universe. He looks like Paul Walker?”

  I had definitely not seen anyone fitting that description roaming the school hallways.

  “Maybe he has a girlfriend,” Monica said. “I can’t think of any other reason why he’d not give in to your wiles.” Monica started laughing, and Sandy joined in.

  “He’s religious,” Michelle said in annoyance. “Tanya said he goes to the Christian Union at lunchtime.”

  “Well, Jace is religious, and he’s still into Lexi,” Monica said.

  “Jace is not really religious.”

  “He is a little.”

  “I’d be careful if I were you,” Sandy told me. “Jace has a reputation.”

  “What kind of reputation?” I asked.

  “Heartbreaker reputation,” Michelle supplied. “He’s the kind of guy you don’t take too seriously. Have fun while it lasts, and then move on.”

  “Hey, I like Jace, and I don’t think he’s a heartbreaker at all,” Monica said. “See how he took Michelle to the dance when Matt said no? I think that was pretty nice of him.” Monica paused to nibble her stick of celery. “He seems to really like you, Lexi.”

  “Anyway, back to Matt,” Michelle said waving her hand. “I’ve definitely blown my chances.”

  “Maybe you should start going to CU,” Sandy suggested. “Can’t you just pretend to be religious too?”

  “That would have been a good idea before yesterday’s phone call. I just know I’ve blown it.”