Chapter Text
False liked to think she was a smart girl.
She did well in her classes, she was punctual, she hung out with good people.
She was, however, quite antisocial. She was content with just her two friends and her younger sibling—but apparently, not wanting to socialize with people she didn’t already know was concerning for her counselor.
Her counselor clasped her hands together, being attentive and open as she asked False, “I see that you didn’t go to the community event your teacher recommended over the weekend. Any reason?”
False twiddled with her fingers in her lap. “I- I meant to, but plans fell through, so…” she awkwardly excused. She didn’t say that her friend, Cleo, who she planned to go to the clean-up with, finally mustered up the guts to ask out the girl she liked, and ditched False so she could take her on a date that weekend. She could’ve gone on her own, but she didn’t really like going out if there wasn’t someone there with her.
“Okay, well, I don’t know of any other community events like that, and you’re running low on time to get the credit,” she explained. False knew she was just trying to help, but she found it so frustrating that her grades weren’t enough to get her to graduation.
The counselor had a certain hopefulness in her eyes when she brought up a new solution. “We’ve got some slots open for student tutoring. I think you’d be great at it, and it’d get you the credit if you’re consistent with your sessions,” she proposed.
False grimaced at that. “…I don’t know. I’m sure I could understand the material for almost any class, but I don’t know if I’d be very good at teaching it.” She also didn’t know how well she’d do sitting in a room, talking to a stranger for two hours. That sounded like her personal hell, if she was honest.
The counselor sighed, and crossed her arms.
“False, I’m gonna level with you,” her counselor settled into a more serious tone. “You’re a great student. You’ve got amazing grades, great work-ethic, I think you’d be a shoe-in for any college you apply to. But sometimes they need more than that, like seeing that you’re willing to work with others, and volunteer work like this always looks good on your application.”
False softly scoffed, and had to make an effort not to roll her eyes. “I can work with others. I have friends. I just work a lot better on my own.”
“I know you do, and that’s fine. You just need this on your file, and then you can figure out how you want to do things when you get to college.”
She sighed, and swallowed her pride. It’d just be a few sessions, and then she could never do it again. It couldn’t be that bad anyway—surely anyone who scheduled her would be there because they wanted to learn, not dragging their feet like they did in class.
“Fine, I’ll do the tutoring,” she gave in.
The counselor smiled warmly. “Perfect. I’ll look at my list of students who could use a little extra help, and see if they want to set up an appointment with you. What days are you available?”
They went on to set up a schedule during after-school hours that would work for False, and hopefully some of the students that would want to work with her. The counselor seemed optimistic about someone requesting her. False didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse about the whole thing.
The next day, when the teacher later pulled aside some students to quietly talk about their grades and offered student-led tutoring, a certain boy finally thought tutoring might be worth something when he saw her name on the list.
False tried not to crumple up the sticky note her teacher passed her when she read the name of the student who requested her.
Ren Dog. Tuesdays, 3:30 to 5:30. Library, Study Rm. 3
Ripping it up and burning it also sounded enticing.
You have got to be kidding me. Of course it’s Mutt, of all people.
If she wasn’t in dire need of the tutoring gig, she would have told her counselor to cancel it immediately. She could not stand him, and she certainly wouldn’t be able to handle two hours, alone in a room with him.
A slew of scenarios came to her mind—some good, some terrible. Maybe they’d just sit in silence for the whole session. She couldn’t imagine slacker Ren coming for tutoring and actually doing some work, especially not if she was teaching him.
Or maybe everything would be fine. Maybe he’d actually learn something!
…She wasn’t that optimistic, but tried to not let her bias against him get the best of her. It’d just be two hours a week, then she could go home and rant to Cleo about every stupid thing she knew he would do.
She tucked the note into her pocket as a reminder, and dug her palms into her eyes as she groaned.
It’s just for a little bit.
False doodled in her sketchbook while she waited for Ren.
He was twenty minutes late already, not that she expected anything less. This was the same guy who somehow showed up late every single day, even when the teacher themself was a few minutes behind the bell.
They were going to be working on an English paper he had yet to turn in, so she had all of her own lecture notes ready in her binder, some sources already picked out for his subject, and her copy of the book they had read in class. There was no way this could go wrong. Assuming he actually showed up, that is.
This was why she always tried to be punctual. She hated making people wait because she hated waiting on others so much. Every other little thing she could be doing suddenly sounded so much more appealing than usual. She could be home and painting, or out with Cleo- nope, they were with their girlfriend. Ugh. Or maybe Xisuma would be free- oh, no, he was out with his other friend group. Dang it. Even her little sibling, Aimsey, was probably getting ready now to go out with their friends later that evening.
Okay, so maybe she had nothing better to be doing, but at least she could be home and making the choice of doing nothing, rather than being in the library study room waiting for some jerk who couldn’t even pay attention in class-
She startled as the door opened, and in came Ren, clad in his signature leather jacket and diamond-colored sunglasses, and holding what looked like an upsettingly empty backpack.
She kept her eyes from rolling, and stood to shake his hand as he approached the table. He tossed his backpack down by his chair, and shook her hand with a smile. “Miss False, right?” he asked with a lilt.
She bit back a scoff, and forced a smile as she replied, “Just False. We’re both students here.” They both sat down, and she already hated his general demeanor, just the way he sat back so casually and looked at her like he didn’t have a care in the world-
…Relax. He’s just a guy. You’re just tutoring him, you don’t have to be his friend, or even like him. You’ve just got to show that you tried, that’s all you need for your files.
“So M- Ren,” she quickly corrected herself. It wasn’t exactly professional to call him by his alias, especially when it sounded so incredibly dumb, in her opinion. He caught her mistake, and smirked. It was that dumb smile he always wore when he did something bad, or when he was having an argument. She hated it.
“Your English teacher mentioned you haven’t turned in one of your papers, so I thought that would be a good place to start since it’s a lot of points?” She pointed to all of the things that she brought as she continued, “I brought some notes, other sources you might need, and a copy of the book-”
“Ugh, that assignment?” he grumbled. And we’re off to a great start, she thought to herself.
She kept up her smile as she replied, “Yeah, it’s a big part of your grade, so he wanted you to focus on that before the smaller things.” She didn’t know why he even bothered to show up to class when he clearly never did any of the work. It was really just a waste of everyone’s time.
She thought he might finally be coming around to the idea of doing work as he glanced at all the papers and books she laid out, but her blood ran cold when she traced to where he was looking. Right at her sketchbook.
“Are those your drawings?” he asked, and picked up the book. She grabbed for it, only for him to pull it out of her reach. “Woah, these are amazing,” he complimented as he thumbed through the pages. She could see he went through her drawings of landscapes, some thumbnails for paintings, sketches of Cleo, Xisuma, her little sibling, her dog, more landscapes and buildings, on and on. She hated that he actually sounded genuine when he praised her work. No, she wouldn’t let herself believe that he meant it.
“Can you give that back?” she hotly demanded. She was one second from getting out of her chair so she could take it out of his hands, but relief flooded through her system once he handed it back to her. She shoved the book into her bag, and took a sip of her water to cool her warm cheeks. “You shouldn’t look through people’s things without permission,” she reprimanded him quietly. She really didn’t want to get in a fight—especially with his reputation—but she just hated people looking at her artwork when they didn’t have permission.
He seemed a little amused at her temper, but softened just a moment later. “Sorry, Falsie. Won’t happen again,” he apologized with an even tone.
She… wasn’t expecting that. It caught her quite off guard, in fact. Ren, Mutt, who argued with his teachers on a weekly basis, and who regularly got into fist fights, was apologizing to her, of all people? Over a sketchbook?
Well… she figured, it’s better than him not apologizing, I guess. …What a strange guy.
She sighed, and responded, “It’s fine, and don’t call me that.” He nodded diligently, but she could see that spark of amusement in his eyes once more. She realized that was probably not going to be the last she heard of that nickname. “Can we get started on your paper now?”
He lightened up a bit, and finally agreed. He looked down at the instructions she had brought, and False felt her annoyance bubble up when he seemed confused.
“What was this paper about again?”
This is going to be the longest two hours of my life.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
That was all that repeated in Ren’s head when he saw how upset False got at him taking her sketchbook. What was I thinking!? I’m blowing this already!
To make up for it, he tried really hard to work on his essay as she gave him some direction on how to write it. He did understand the topics she was bringing up, and she seemed genuinely surprised when he formatted everything correctly without any help.
They were an hour in, with him halfway through writing the paper and following the guideline they made together, many of the books she brought open and regularly being read by him, when she finally stopped him.
“Sorry if this is a bit rude, but what are you here for?” she asked, confused. She pointed out all of the things she found strange, “You clearly understand this subject, you know how to write an essay—quite well, might I add. Why are you nearly failing every class?”
He grimaced at her accusation, and hated that she knew he wasn’t doing well. Her expression softened when she realized she had been a bit too harsh, and she quickly apologized, “I’m so sorry, that was rude of me-”
“When everyone’s already expecting me to fail, I don’t exactly feel like trying,” he mumbled back. She went quiet as she took in his confession.
What was he doing here? He didn’t even care about his grades anymore, but did he honestly think that some one-on-one help would be enough to fix all of it? Did he really expect two hours to be enough for her like him? She was good and smart, and he was just the guy who got into fights and failed all of his classes. Girls like her didn’t like guys like him.
“I’m sorry for wasting your time, I should go,” he mumbled under his breath. He stood up and grabbed his backpack, only to be stopped when she grabbed his hand.
“No, I’m sorry,” she apologized, and stared up at him with a pleading gaze. He looked back at her expectantly, unsure of what to do. Her skin felt nice and warm against his. He didn’t think he’d ever feel her touch again, so he took in a moment to enjoy it then. “Please stay, we were doing good work. If- if you just need someone to sit with you and help you focus, then I can do that.”
She let go of his hand, in case he decided to leave. It was up to him now.
He chewed on his lip, before he asked, uncharacteristically quiet, “You’d be willing to do that?”
She nodded with a gentle smile. “Yeah, my little sibling is just like that, so I get it. Sometimes they just need someone by them to keep them focused.”
That… did sound like what he needed. Being compared to a child hurt his ego a bit, but he could get over it if it meant False still wanted to work with him. He dropped his bag back down, and sat in his chair. If he had a tail, it’d be wagging when False smiled at him. It seemed genuine, compared to the other ones she’d given him.
“Your smile is really pretty,” he said. The words were out of his mouth before he even processed the thought. Both of them were surprised by his compliment, and Ren wish he had his camera on hand so he could capture the image of her blushing face forever.
Her eyes widened, and she awkwardly replied, “I- um, t-thank you,” before she took another sip of her water and refused to make eye contact. He just smiled and found it cute how she got so embarrassed.
“Uh, let’s get back to the essay, yeah? You were nearly finished, just two more paragraphs,” she tried to get them back on track. More importantly, get the focus off of her.
He nodded, and replied, “Alright, Falsie,” before he picked up his pencil and picked up where he left off. He caught the way she rolled her eyes, but smirked to himself when she didn’t tell him off.
Turns out, some company and motivation to keep going was all Ren really needed. False was quite impressed, actually. If he put in the effort he showed her he was capable of with that essay, he’d probably have near the same grades she did.
She read over his finished essay, making marks with her pencil on the few improvements she recommended he make, and watched as he erased some of his work to follow her guidance without a second thought. She hadn’t expected such a headstrong guy—who happily interrupted his teachers or walked out of class whenever he pleased—to listen to her without question. She was starting to think maybe she didn’t know him nearly as well as she thought she did.
He was still an asshole—that, she wasn’t budging on—but maybe he wasn’t as big of one as she thought. …Maybe.
He put down his pencil, and let her look over the pages once more. She was surprised to find no more mistakes. It was easily up to the teacher’s standards. Even she would be okay turning in this paper if she was the one who wrote it.
“I am… pleasantly surprised, Mut- Ren,” she quickly corrected herself. She cleared her throat, and felt her cheeks heat up when he laughed at hearing his nickname.
“Oh, so you do know who I am,” he cheekily replied. “Wasn’t sure if you knew of my reputation.”
She rolled her eyes. There was that usual Mutt behavior she was used to. “You make it a little hard to ignore you, with all of your… antics,” she settled on how to describe it. Getting into fights and coming to class with bruises on his body felt a little too long to succinctly describe.
He rested his cheek on his hand, propped up on the table, and looked at her with a maddening combination of fondness and amusement that drove False insane. “You don’t really like me that much, do you?”
She went still, and analyzed his face for any signs he was angry. Instead, all she found was one of levity, like it was so normal for him to point out the fact she obviously didn’t like him. False couldn’t figure him out for the life of her. What is this guy’s deal?
“Well… I wouldn’t put you near the top of my list of favorite people,” she admitted, her voice lightly playful, but still held the seriousness that her confession required. It’s not like she was going to lie—she didn’t care enough to do that to him—but she didn’t want to be blatantly rude.
He smiled, and leaned into the hand his cheek was resting on.
“Yeah, I figured,” he replied with a soft smile, and glanced down at the table. “Why’d you take the job, then?” he continued to question.
She grimaced, and answered, “I needed the volunteer hours. My friend couldn’t go to a community clean-up with me like we planned, so I didn’t go. Can’t graduate without the volunteer experience.” She sighed as she finished. She truly was happy for Cleo, and Pearl seemed like a lovely girl, but did they have to ask her out the same weekend as their plans? Literally just one more day, and she wouldn’t have to be sitting next to Mutt, of all people.
“Aw, not cause you secretly like me?” he teased.
She crossed her arms and scoffed, “Definitely not,” with a bit of earnest disgust on her face. Seriously, the audacity, she thought to herself. “Why do you even care if I like you? We barely know each other.” She tacked on at the end, teasing a little, “I thought that would go against your whole ‘bad boy’ thing you’ve got going on.”
“I can be a bad boy and still care what someone thinks,” he replied indignantly, still keeping up his playful tone.
“Doesn’t make you seem very bad, then,” False pointed out. “Are you just a good boy, then? Is that it?” she teased with a little smirk.
She had expected some quip from him in return, but only found lips parted in awe and cheeks turning rosy. He cleared his throat, and turned to hide his face, his gaze glued to the paper in front of him.
She could only laugh, amazed that the guy who spent his free time getting beat up would get so flustered over one little comment.
He laughed a bit in return, seemingly put at ease with her finally loosening up around him. “Would you… prefer a…” he gulped, then looked up to the ceiling like there was anyone up there to help him overcome the embarrassment he felt at his following words, “a good boy, to a bad boy?”
She stilled, staring at him curiously. “You… really care what I think about you that much? Genuinely?” she questioned, unbelieving towards the sight right in front of her. “Why?”
He cleared his throat, and straightened himself up as he tried to meticulously reply, “Well, Miss False, I would be lying if I said I didn’t fancy you.” False wondered if she had somehow fallen asleep at the table and this was some strange fever dream. That would be a more realistic explanation than accepting that the scene in front of her was true. “And I was hoping this would be a good opportunity to ask you out,” he proposed.
She couldn’t think of a less appropriate time to ask someone out, if she was honest. “Um… I barely know you,” she awkwardly deflected.
“That’s what dates are for,” he playfully pushed back, though she could tell he was trying to not take it too far.
She averted her gaze as she chewed her cheek. Hanging out with him wasn’t as terrible as she thought it would be. And well… he was kinda cute.
Maybe she could make this work in her favor.
“Tell you what,” she proposed. In her head, she was already ashamedly asking herself, What are you doing? but her mouth kept moving. “You keep coming to these sessions, you turn in all of your missing stuff by the time my required hours are met, and get an A on all of your finals, I’ll go on one date with you.” She was setting the bar a little high, but she honestly thought Ren was capable of it if he could put in effort like he did when he was with her.
Ren smirked, and quickly replied, “I doubt you’ll want it to just be one by the time we’re done.”
False rolled her eyes. Was that the only thing he took from my proposal? “Don’t get cocky now. Let’s see if I even survive the first one.” Before Ren could comment anything further about the date, she interrupted, “That’s if you keep up with your work, of course.”
He gave a solid nod, and held out his hand for her to shake. “It shall become my number one focus, Miss-” He cut himself off, and instead just said, “False.”
She rolled her eyes, trying to bite back her smile. She took his hand and shook it, and tried to not think too much about how much she enjoyed his touch, or how pretty his eyes were when she stared into them.
She let go after a moment, and ignored how she immediately wished she hadn’t. “I’ll see you next Tuesday, then?” she asked as she started putting her things back in her bag. She pushed the essay back to Ren, and had to stop herself from making a noise of surprise when their fingers brushed against each others.
He stared at her for a moment longer, before he righted himself up and packed away his things as well.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, False,” he amicably replied.
False hated that her name almost sounded wrong coming out of his mouth. Part of her wanted to tell him to just call her ‘Falsie.’
…She hated herself for thinking that, and promptly ignored the thought.
“See you then,” she responded, and stood to leave.
She stared at him curiously when he stood as well, but made no move to leave. Instead, he gazed deep into her eyes, and genuinely thanked her, “I wanted to thank you for meeting with me. I think most tutors would’ve just quit on the spot if they saw me request them, so… it means a lot to me that you took me, even though you seem like you didn’t want to.”
False laughed at the ending bit. She had to admit, “Yeah… I’ll be honest, I probably wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t required to, but…” She glanced away from him for a moment, internally rolling her eyes at herself, “you’re not as bad as I thought you were.”
He chuckled, and rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s good to hear. I tried to be on my best behavior for you.”
She laughed again, and couldn’t help it when her cheeks warmed a bit with blush. “Oh yeah, you’re tryna be a good boy, huh?” she teased, laughing as she said it. The blush heating up Ren’s face made her think it was a bit more serious for him than she knew.
“If that is what you wish, then that’s what I’ll strive to be,” he eloquently responded. It stunned her a bit, and all she could think was that False from two hours ago would’ve thought he was a doppelganger if she saw him now.
She wanted to tell him that he should really improve for himself—but hey, if his strange crush on her was what gave him motivation, who was she to stop him?
…Dear god, I might actually have to go on a date with him.
She met his eyes once more, and realized he had yet to even look away from her, still softly smiling.
…Maybe it won’t be so bad.
False sighed as she set her backpack on the ground, relieved to finally be home.
It was honestly a good thing that Ren was funny, because otherwise she probably would’ve fallen asleep during the tutoring session.
He… pleasantly surprised her today. He actually did some work, and wasn’t egregiously annoying or destructive like he usually was. She felt much less guilty about finding him attractive when he wasn’t punching things or being obnoxious.
She laid down on her bed, just taking a moment to decompress as she stared up at the ceiling. She startled when her door opened, revealing her younger sibling curiously poking his head in.
“Falsieee?” they softly called her name. She lifted her head to see that their hands were full of hair ties and beads. “Could you help me braid the beads in? I tried, but I couldn’t get it.”
False sighed as she pushed herself up so she was sitting, and smiled back at Aimsey. “Yeah, come here, I’ll help,” she replied warmly. She pat the mattress, and moved so Aimsey would have more room to sit. They sat down next to her, and handed her the ties and beads before they faced away.
“Are you going out with Michela and Ros?” False asked as she started braiding, trying to make some conversation.
“Yeah, I’ll be hanging out with them for a bit,” he excitedly replied.
False nodded, and reminded her, “Alright, just be back before 8, and make sure you have change for the payphone in case you need to call me, alright?” Aimsey hummed in acknowledgment as False went through her usual spiel. “Do you want me to make food for you, or are you eating with them?”
“I think we’ll probably stop at the diner. Want me to bring you anything?” she kindly offered.
False hummed in denial. “No, I’m alright, thanks. I think we still have some leftovers I can finish off.”
Aimsey didn’t seem to really like her answer, but didn’t say anything. “Okay, just thought I’d offer,” they softly replied, and twiddled their fingers. “How was your day? You had your first tutoring session, right?”
False took in a deep breath at the reminder, a million thoughts and feelings flooding her mind. She tried to get everything in order, and couldn’t stop herself from smiling as she said, “So you remember that guy I really hated?…”