The Home Tutor

Rock bottom. That’s what I saw when I looked into my coffee cup on that day, I had half a teaching degree and enough money to get another coffee. I lit my last cigarette and raised the empty cup up to the view of the waitress, she gave me a slight nod brought over the jug.

Three days ago I was submitting my paper on Youth Education, the path that was a head of me on that day was endless. My tutor took the paper an gave me a little wink, telling me that if my paper was anything like my ass he couldn’t wait to get into it. With out a second thought, I slapped him. Maybe it was the stress of the work, the paper I’d written, or something. But my slap left a hand mark on his face for hours.

He told the University that it wasn’t what he said. Saying if my paper was as good as my Last, he couldn’t wait to get into it. I called him a liar and looked like a stupid child whilst doing it. I was suspended and have a hearing set for next month. In the mean time I was told to relax, take some time out for myself.

So sitting outside of a coffee shop feeling sorry for myself was the way to go. Or at least, that’s what I thought anyway.
”Lauren?” A voice came from behind me, I turned around in my seat and saw Janet, one of the mothers I used to babysit for back when I was fifteen. ”Janet, Hi. Hows it going?” I asked as she took a seat at the table and smiled, ”All fine thank you, how about you?” she asked.
”Well, it looks as though my degree is in the toilet, at least for now anyway. So pretty sucky to be honest.” I told her.
”I don’t know if this is fate, or just one hell of a coincidence, but you remember my boys?” she asked. I remembered her three brats, sure. She had Triplets. ”Tyler, Milo and Leo? Of course I do.” I replied.
”Well, they’re eighteen now and there doesn’t seem to be a college in the world that wants them, they dropped out from school, and by drop out I mean that two of them were kicked out and Leo just just kind of followed them out the door. Short of sending them off to boot camp I don’t know what to do any more.” She told me, ”Janet that’s horrible.” I told her.

In truth, it was a future I had predicted for them. They were a few years younger than I was when I was babysitting them. Tyler and Milo had the hormones of fully grown men, but Leo was always the quieter one that followed his brothers around like a lost and obedient puppy.

Janet ran a hand through her hair, brushing it aside before continuing, ”Then a friend suggested home tutoring, they get the education while being at home. I didn’t think much about it until now. See their main problem is having to do the interview. If they can ace that then there’s a greater chance of being accepted. Of course Leo is always ready to listen and learn, but the others, not so much.”

”So what’re you saying?” I asked her. She looked at me with what seemed like her last ditch effort, ”Lauren, I was wondering if you could tutor them for a week or two, get them ready for the interview.” she told me, I was beginning to think she was crazy.

”I’d be willing to pay, of course. But if you spare a few hours of the day then coming over and teaching them something would be money well spent. I could tell the college board that I’ve hired a private home tutor and then beg them for a second interview, while at the same time giving you some experience.” she said.
”I don’t even think it would be legal on my part, I’m not qualified.” I told her. ”You are as far as I’m concerned.” she shot back, ”Besides, all you would be technically doing is talking to them.”

She then took out a pen an wrote her number down on a napkin before getting to her feet, ”Please think about it, it would mean to world to me.” she delivered a brief smile before walking off down the street.
Home tutor to three eighteen year old half-wits? Could be a boredom breaker until my hearing, I thought.


Monday morning I text Janet to tell her that I was outside, and a moment later the front door opened and she appeared with the biggest smile I had ever seen. She quickly greeted me with a thankful hug, ”God I’m so glad you accepted.” she told me before leading me through to the lounge. I couldn’t believe how little the place had changed, I remembered the hide and seek games I played here, and how everything we played would always turn into a wrestling match.

She had set up her lounge like a class room, a white board was stood on a tripod at the centre of the room, and not too far in front of it was three chairs and desks. The desks looked to be something you would eat your dinner on while watching TV, but I couldn’t believe at how good it looked.
”This looks awesome,” I told her, she beamed a huge smile and handed me a pack of dry-wipe markers. ”I really can’t thank you enough,” she told me, ”the boys have had breakfast and will be down in a minute, do you want anything?”
”Coffee would be great, thanks.” I told her, and in a flash she disappeared leaving me to be alone for the moment in ‘my classroom’.

”You know they actually seemed a little excited to see you again,” she called from the kitchen, ”I think this could really work.”
I heard a rumbling of feet on the stairs and turned to see the three of them appear at the bottom, Milo stepped forward and was first to speak, ”Lauren?” he asked.
”Hey guys, hows it going?” I asked with a smile. It had been almost ten years since I last saw them, they were now eighteen years old and on the boarder of being men. And as my eyes darted between the three of the, I realised just how far out of my depth I was.

”Lauren, do you prefer honesty or are white lies acceptable?” Leo asked. ”Well, honesty. Obviously.” I told him, he smiled and told me; ”Good, because you have an amazing…” he trailed off a little as his eyes dropped to my chest, and then he quickly looked back up again to finish his sentence, ”…figure.”
Why didn’t I see that coming? I guess I forgot that as eighteen year old teenagers, they were fully aware of their hormones.
”Um, thanks, I guess–” ”What size are… you?” Milo asked abruptly, I started to reply ”I don’t think that’s–” but that was when Janet swept back into the room.

She handed me a mug of steaming coffee and beamed at me, ”Everything good?” she asked. The boys had all come into the room and taken their seats, ”Yeah, I think so.” I lied.

All three of them had grown up to look like mirror images of each other, facial feature wise anyway. Milo and Tyler shared the same sense of style, even the same hair style. But Leo was still the one who stood out more, hair combed a little differently and he was dressed a little smarter.

The next few hours went by quicker than I thought, I found out roughly where they were in their education and began there. Told them to use the internet to research mental health in studying the book Of Mice and Men, and then gave them the homework of coming up with what they thought was wrong with the character Lennie.
There was a little bit of protesting the content, ”Why are we learning about this book? All we have to do is get passed the interview.” Milo said, I nodded my head and agreed with him, ”Yes, that’s true. But school’s all across the country have all studied this book, it’s almost become natural for people to know this story. It holds more than just a beginning, middle and end. It covers topics from mental health, racism, loss of loved ones and sacrifice.”
”Fair enough then.” Milo replied.

I went through the basics of Maths and refreshed their memories on fractions and did some basic equations. They all seemed to be writing plenty down in the pads I gave them, and at the end of the day I asked them three questions about what was discussed today and had them write the answers down. I told them that I would check them later and sort out a reward for whoever got all three right.

We decided to call it a day and I told them that tomorrow we would be doing History, Science and maybe Art, Tyler winced a little and screwed up his face, ”How about some P.E?” he asked. ”I’ll consider it and think up some options later when I write my lesson plans for the rest of the week.” I told him.
”Do you remember our old P.E lessons?” he then asked with a sly grin on his face. ”Of course. It was fun when you were nine, not eighteen.” I told him. Tyler smiled and looked to Milo, who was still eyeing me up and down.

After they had all ran up stairs to play Xbox I gathered up their books and Janet came into the room. ”How did it go?” she asked.
”I thought it went okay, you’ll have to ask them I suppose. See what they thought.” I told her. She smiled, ”I will and I’ll let you know, I’ll be home tomorrow again but Wednesday onwards I won’t be, I’ll be back at work.” she told me, thinking about being here alone with the three of them was more than a little intimidating.
”By the way, do you prefer daily payment, weekly or monthly?” she asked catching me off guard. ”Um, I don’t know, weekly maybe?”
”No problem, Friday it is.” she said. We hadn’t even discussed what the pay would be, and it wasn’t something I wanted to ask. Obviously she must have known that it would be the only reason I was doing this, but I wouldn’t ask.


Once home I sank down onto my bed and the moment my head hit the pillow I smiled. I could make this work, I could cheat the government for a while no problem. I only wish I knew what Janet was going to pay me, I needed to know if I could survive on it.
I pulled my bag onto the bed and pulled out the three paper pads and leant back. I opened each of the books to the same pages, the questions I gave them to answer.

Question A: The character ‘Crooks’ is made to live away from the other workers, this is a reflection of what? 1) Racism 2) Respect 3) Fear

They all answered Racism, and I had a big fat grin all over my face. I actually felt as though I had taught them something, and that they had maybe taken something from the book after all.
But then something caught my eye, it was in Tyler’s book. It was a small paragraph of writing with the heading ‘Lauren’, it read;
‘Lauren, your amazing. Your beautiful and have the biggest boobs I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.