Chapter Text
Physics was officially the worst subject ever.
Literally every other class so far had been better.
Chemistry? A bit difficult, but not so crazy that a little bit of studying couldn’t up his grades. Biology? A cake walk for a guy like him. Even organic chemistry, the legendary major-breaker, was starting to make sense at the mid-point of his second year.
In stark contrast, physics stood like an impenetrable wall in Avery’s brain. He hated it. No matter how much time he spent studying, and trying REALLY HARD to pay attention to his boring instructor, his midterm grades looked like he didn’t even know how to read. Which in his defense, reading physics problems felt like you were a pre-schooler who’d done acid, and were definitely not up to respectable literature standards.
His housemate, who had to do the dishes and thus could not escape back into the darkness of their room, listened to all of this while Avery leaned against the kitchen counter.
“Frankly, it’s ridiculous,” he bemoaned, toying with a recently cleaned cup. “I mean, literally everything in the class goes against any common sense! Like how the fuck does oil not increase pressure on water?”
His housemate nodded half-heartedly, looking more annoyed than amused. They finished the pot they were scouring and set it on the stove.
“Have you tried going to office hours?”
“I would, but the last time I went the instructor treated me like I was an idiot,” Avery frowned. “He’s a grad student so I think he forgets that not everyone is a super-mega-genius like him.”
Shayla sighed. “And your TA…?”
“Talks way too fast.”
They sighed, pinching the bridge of their nose in a dramatic display of frustration. “What about the tutoring center?”
Avery mused on that for a moment. “Do they even have a physics tutor?”
“Dude. Of course they do, there's no way you’re the only one who can’t figure out fluid systems.”
“Ouch.”
They rolled their eyes. “Whatever man, you know it’s true. Just go visit them in the library. I DO NOT wanna hear you bitching about physics for the rest of my life,” they said, retreating to their room.
Shayla hesitated in their doorway. They always noticed when his smile dropped. “I’ll see you tomorrow man,” they said, eyes darting away in a moment of guilt.
Avery smiled slightly, knowing that Shayla was definitely going to buy him Burger King tomorrow. “Okay, see you tomorrow!”
They nodded at him and shut their door with a click.
–
When he went to the tutoring center after bio lecture, he was a little nervous. Look, he wasn’t used to the library! He always studied at home, and when he didn’t he avoided the library like the plague. Despite the fact that it was a designated study area, it was always crowded and unbearably loud. It was distracting as all hell and even the tutoring room wasn’t safe from the noise. As he closed the glass doors, he noticed that the brunt of the din had been shut out, replaced instead by the dull, idle chatter of students and tutors. He weaved through the whiteboards and followed where the signs chauffeured him to the Physics section.
There was only one other person at the long table, but Avery couldn’t be sure he was a tutor or not. He sat at the end of the table, headphones on and hunched over his table in a way that SCREAMED ‘please God don’t talk to me.’ Avery decided that he didn’t want to get his head bitten off by this random dude today, so he sat a few seats down. He was sure the physics tutor had just gone to the bathroom, and would be back in a few moments.
As the minutes ticked by, it became clear that the physics tutor would not be coming back in a few moments, and was possibly dead. Avery had yet to pull out his physics notes, so he alternated between scrolling through a very dry phone and sneaking glances at the guy at the end of the table. Was he the tutor? No, that didn’t seem possible, he would have said something by now. Unless he hadn’t noticed him yet? He did seem very engrossed in… whatever he was doing. He snuck another look.
The guy had a posture that could put shrimp to shame, and dark braids swept into a bun at the nape of his neck. A few loose ones hung across his face in a way that made Avery think he was trying to be mysterious. One hand penned a note on his tablet and the other came up on the side facing Avery to rest against his cheek, obscuring his face. Avery decided that he definitely was probably not the tutor.
“You aren’t subtle you know.”
Avery blinked. “What?”
“You’ve been staring at me for the past fifteen minutes,” The guy said, shucking off his headphones and pushing them to the side.
He flushed, embarrassed. “Uh sorry man.. Are you..?”
“I’m the physics tutor,” he stated plainly, shifting his arm to reveal a little gold nametag on his jacket that Avery had managed to miss. “Do you need anything?”
Avery thought he might die. He grabbed his bag and awkwardly shuffled to a seat across from the tutor. “Um. I need help. With physics?”
“Uh huh.”
Avery was desperate to look anywhere but his face, instead letting his eyes fall to the name-tag. Derek.
“Okay, so what in particular are you struggling with?” Derek asked, hands clasped in front of him on the table.
“Oh! Uh..” Avery struggled to pull open his backpack and wrench out his notes. “I need help for this midterm. I think we’re doing fluid systems right now..?”
Derek nodded, and grabbed his tablet so they could get started.
It didn’t take long for Avery to learn a few things about Derek. Firstly, he was very… straight-forward. Maybe even to a fault.
“You don’t know this,” Derek stated, after Avery had shown him the first practice question he had actually felt good about.
His all too confident smile dropped immediately. “What?”
“Look, here,” he said, pointing at the pressure equation of the second pipe. “This is all wrong.”
Avery frowned while Derek corrected his work with a few precise strokes. That had been.. Harsh. He would even dare to call it rude, and he was the daring type. But, as Derek explained the reasoning behind his incorrectness, he wasn’t able to find any sort of malice behind his words. There was no itching, condescending tone that was meant to make him feel like an idiot. Just.. stating a fact. As Derek continued his mini-lecture, Avery reasoned that maybe that was just the way the guy was. And Derek was right, he was WAY off.
Second-ly, the dude was CRAZY smart. In the interest of polite small-talk, Avery had casually asked his major, which he revealed to be a DOUBLE MAJOR in Bioengineering and Physics. He nearly swooned at the combination of those two subjects alone. Plus, he acted like he lived, ate, and breathed physics. Which made sense, because it didn’t seem like the guy slept, if the bags under his eyes were an indication. It all seemed to come pretty easy to him; he was able to identify all of the correct equations– plus in what order– FOR EACH PROBLEM. He was basically a couple steps away from being a rocket scientist.
Also, he was almost supernaturally patient. Even his TA, who was absolutely trying his best, gawked when Avery asked what a derivation was. He hadn’t meant to– he was able to tell by how the poor guy tried to hide it and explain it to him right after– but Avery understood quickly he wasn’t supposed to be asking dumb questions like that.
Derek didn’t seem to care about dumb questions. He didn’t act surprised, or like he was stupid. Which, he probably had every right to. Instead, he just would nod, pull up some notes, and dive into explaining. And when Avery had follow-up questions, then follow-up questions for those follow-up questions, he’d keep his same docile expression and just.. explain it. Avery kept watching his face for any hint of annoyance, but there never was any.
Avery decided that he liked this guy.
Avery wiped imaginary sweat from his brow as he finished the final practice problem, sliding his notebook over to Derek for his final evaluation. Derek gave it a once over, pen sliding underneath the answers as he read them. Avery held his breath. He really had given this one his all.
Derek seemed to muse for another few seconds, before he gave a swift nod. “You’ve made some progress.”
Avery let all of the wind escape him as he deflated onto the table. “Thank god,” he got out weakly.
“But-” Derek started.
“But?!”
“I don’t think you’ll net a successful grade with this one session alone. You seem to still have confusion over proper speed mechanics and the addition of oil density in problems,” Derek held up the notebook, pointing out his mistakes.
Avery wilted a little at that. “I have to do more??”
Derek nodded. “If you want a passing grade, then yes. Physics office hours are 12:00am-5:00pm every day of the week. Do you have any more questions? Our time is almost up.”
“Do you work every day?”
“...No, I do not.”
“Which days do you work?”
“I-... Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Why?” Derek asked, looking bewildered.
Avery grinned, taking his notebook from Derek’s outstretched hand. “I’ll see you on Wednesday then.”