Little Wonders Chapter 9

The next day continued once again as normal or at least their definition of normal as Noah who was returning to his dorm, heard his cell phone start ringing and he took it out of his coat pocket.

"An unknown number…?"

He then pressed the talk button and pressed the phone to his ear.

"You've reached Noah, state your business." He said in his usual nonchalant way of speaking.

"Oh Noah! I'm glad you picked up! It's me, Sofia's mother."

"Mrs. Sabio, is something wrong with Sofia? Do you need to reschedule or…" Noah said perking up a little.

"Oh no it's nothing's wrong! It's just that I really can't make it to pick her up from school today since I have a huge meeting that might drag out a few more hours. I've seen how well you've gotten along with her on the show, and well you seem trustworthy enough to do it… that is if you want to." She said adding emphasis to the last portion of her sentence.

Noah quickly thought about it for moment along and considering she usually came here right after school…

"Alright I'll go get her. Where can I find her at the school?"

"She's usually in the main office when I pick her up."

"Got it, I'll have her here in a few minutes."

"Thank you so much Noah, it's nice to know you're willing to help."

"No need to thank me."

Noah then put his books away and grabbed the keys to his car, it was a used small car but it wasn't too old and got him wherever he needed to go fine so he had no complaints.

It took him only around twelve minutes to make it to the school, it was actually a pretty small building compared to the high school he went and others in it area it only had two buildings, a Gym, and a couple of sports fields that were immense in size. That was probably due to the fact the school was built near a new housing district which consisted of houses to the left and the school on the right where there was nothing but fields behind it.

As he drove around he quickly saw the students waiting to be picked up by their parents in a system that the school seemed to have set up but, not doubting Mrs. Sabio's word he still found the entrance closest to the office and walked on in. Ignoring all the double takes and terribly hidden glances, he eventually found the main office.

When he entered the room the first thing to catch his eye was Sofia who seemed to be sleeping a sofa that was there for those who had to wait for something in the office. She completely had laid her body across it and put her backpack under her head as a pillow. She looked totally at ease; her face was serene and even a little angelic. Noah couldn't help but give her a bit of an intrigued look and shudder a little at the fact he had to wake her up now.

He gently put his hand on her arm and began shaking it softly; it soon proved useless though as she simply shrugged a little and lifted her arm a moment to get him off before it went limp again.

Noah chuckled a little as he then tickled her nose causing it to wrinkle up and making her use her hand to scratch it which finally woke her up.

"Huh? I did I fall asleep in science again?" She said drowsily as her eyes began to regain vision.

"No but it explains why you're so bad at it."

"Noah? What are you doing here?" she said yawning.

"Your Mom had some kind of meeting and couldn't make it so she asked me to go pick you up."

"Well I'm glad you did because Mrs. Julesworth is giving me her 'Get off the freaking sofa!' look again." She said glancing over at a woman who was working in the office clearly irritated by Sofia.

"You know that wouldn't happen if you didn't just sleep on school property right?" Noah said lifting her off the sofa and leading her out the door.

"Shut up." She said lightly punching him in the arm, which still caused him a considerable amount of pain.

The duo then drove back to the campus and went to his dorm. Sofia quickly put her bag down and sat on the bed.

"Okay Sofia you know the drill, take out your homework and let's start studying."

"Forget the drill Noah, I'm scotch free today!"

"Are you sure? Or are you tricking me again?" Noah said cocking an eyebrow.

"Remember when I said that I was going to have two tests in science and calculus? Well the teachers in those classes never give us homework for the day after we take a test so; I've got nothing to do."

"Fine I believe you… for now anyways." Noah said returning to his desk.

He sat down at his desk, took out his homework and began working on it. Sofia who was watching from his bed tilted her head sideways confused for a moment.

"So is that it?" Sofia spoke up after about a minute.

"What do you mean?" Noah said keeping his eyes on his book.

"Well you're just going to work and leave me here doing nothing?"

"Well for one thing you can sleep if you want."

Sofia heard him and shrugged and she eventually looked at Noah's video game shelf.

"I've slept enough at school today, and besides I was kind of hoping that; well maybe…we could play Spiral Bullet together. I mean I have the game at home but no one to play against." She said in a quiet voice.

"Well I don't know, I've got some work to do and…"

"You always managed to do it when I was here before… right?" She said once again a little nervously.

Noah looked at his work which wasn't really much and sighed.

"I guess we could play a while." He said as he closed his text book.

Quickly Sofia grabbed the box off the shelf and took out the disk and turned on the system and put the disk in. Noah turned on the T.V. and set in to the correct input channel. Sofia then grabbed the two of the four chairs that Noah had brought for sitting in front of the T.V. to play, the two selected their mode of play, and the game started.

"You know I should warn you Sofia you're about to take on a master gamer. But don't worry I'll take it easy on you." Noah said looking at Sofia for a moment.

Suddenly Noah's character in the game received a headshot.

"Don't worry "master gamer" I'll take it easy on you." She said with a mischievous smile.

Meanwhile outside on the campus Courtney was once again following her new routine as she once again sat at the same picnic table she sat at yesterday taking her vitamins yet again when she saw the same blonde punk from yesterday walking around with a black eye and multiple other bruises.

"Well looks like someone learned their lesson about stealing, now if only the person who taught him would teach himself." She said grinning and rolling her eyes.

"I heard that."

Courtney turned her head to the right as the green haired father of her child walked up to her.

"Why are you here?" she said raising an eyebrow at his wiliness to come see her.

"Well you saved me from Zeke and stopped that guy from stealing my books so I owe you."

"Duncan; I already told you that you don't owe me anything."

"Listen; you did me a solid and until I repay you for that I'm tied down to something; and as you already know well I hate having to be tied down."

"Look I-"

"Courtney I know you all too well, and I already know that if I don't do something now it's going come back to bite me in the ass."

Courtney couldn't help but agree with him because he was right.

"Well then, if you want to make it up to me I guess you could just bring me my lunch from the cafeteria. I'd usually go get it myself but the stench of that place drives me up the wall nowadays and I don't really have to time to wait in line, eat, and then make my way to class."

"Hm… It could be arranged." Duncan said cocking his eyebrow at first until his tense face relaxed upon hearing this simple task.

"Thanks."

"You know I'm surprised that's all your going to ask for, usually it was something huge you'd ask from me."

"Well I can't be taking up all your time; you've got Gwen and the baby to worry about." She said a bit of an odd voice.

"Yeah though I wonder how much time I will be able to spend with them." Duncan said with a somewhat concerned face as he sat down.

"And why's that?" Courtney said a little surprised.

"Gwen's been getting pretty emotional cause of pregnancy and the kid, which causes me to be in the dog house at times… but I'm sure it's nothing." Duncan explained at first until he remembered who he was speaking to.

"Well just try to hang in there." She said trying her best to make semblance of a small smile.

Duncan looked back at her for moment eyebrows raised at her attempt to encourage him a little since she's hasn't done that in a long time.

"Well it looks like I'll be seeing you tomorrow then." He said as he walked off raising a hand in far well and continuing on his way.

"Be seeing you." She said in a soft whisper hoping that she'd be able to have the strength to tell him soon.

Back in Noah's dorm the game of Spiral Bullet had gone on for hours each in new courses and game play settings as the two had been writing down who had been winning the most games and now it appeared to be a tie for both gamers.

"Alright this game separates the experienced and the novice, the masters from the noobs, and most importantly the teabaggers from the teabagged! Let's go!" Sofia shouted triumphantly as the game loaded to start.

Cody who lived next door and had just finished his last class of the day entered his dorm and then wondered what was causing all that noise. He then pressed his ear against the door.

"Noah? Shouldn't he be tutoring Sofia around now?"

He opened the door finding the two playing Spiral Bullet with their eyes not even flinching at the sound of the open door.

The timer of the round of was running out as the two desperately tried to get the deciding shot in as the two shot at the other at the exact same time and one second before the timer ended the two had killed each other at the exact same time.

" WHAT?!" The two yelled in unison.

Cody seeing their lack of words due to astonishment saw his opportunity to speak up.
  
"Well, well what do we have here?" Cody said smiling slyly.

"Cody?" Noah said turning around in surprise.

"Hi Cody!" Sofia said with a cheerful smile on her face not noticing Noah's reaction.

"Aren't you and Sofia supposed to be studying?"

Noah was about to explain but Sofia quickly explained first.

"Well I didn't have any homework to do today so I asked Noah to go head to head with me in Spiral Bullet and we've playing since." She said happily and obviously glad to be playing instead of studying.

Suddenly Sofia's phone rang as she picked it up.

"Hello?"

Suddenly a yelling noise was kind of heard from the other side of the phone as Sofia cringed for moment and then was explaining her herself finally ending her conversation with a few annoyed okays.

"That was my Mom she's a little upset since she's been waiting for ten minutes longer than usual. So I got to go."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Noah asked.

"No I'm fine."

Sofia then went to grab her book bag and slung it over her shoulder and while she was rushing to the door she quickly ran back to Noah.

"Thank you Noah, today was really fun." She said quickly hugging him.

She then ran out the door with a bye and closed it shut.

Cody then turned to Noah smirking.

"What?" Noah said raising an eyebrow.

"What? Dude, this is definitely not your usual tutor-student relationship."

"If you're implying something, I don't want to hear it."

"Alright, but I will say this; that  was a pretty friendly hug." Cody said as he then walked off back into his dorm.

Noah with his backed turned to Cody raised an eyebrow for a moment before shrugging it off and turning off the console but not before taking a last look at the score.