"What was that all about?" Justin asked once they were in the elevator descending down to the basement.

"What was what about?" Nick replied looking at Justin.

"THAT," Justin said pointing up to indicate the little scene in his homeroom. "How do you know Mrs. Russell and Lance?"

“Mrs. Russell is to teach at my old junior high school. I had her in sixth grade for English but then I was absent from school for the next year and a half and by the time I returned for the second half of either grade she’d already transferred out and joined Xavier high. As for Lance, like I said, he's Marshall's freshman bro,” Nick finished just as they walked out of the elevator in the basement. “Why don’t you go get your things and I’ll meet you here?”

Justin nodded his head. He walked over to his locker and went about getting his things together. A few minutes later he knocked on the door to the student council room. Within moments Nick opened the door all dressed up in his winter gear.

Justin frowned. “What are you doing? I thought we were doing the tutoring thing!”

“We are,” Nick simply stated as they walked towards the elevator. He pressed the button for the first floor.

“Okay? The resource center in on the second floor Nick,” Justin pointed out.

“I know Justin,” Nick said as he stepped out of the elevator. Turning back he looked at Justin who was still in the elevator staring at him in confusion. “Do you really want to stay in school on a Friday when you got the perfect chance and excuse to go home a bit early?”

Justin wrinkled his nose. “No, but I thought you said you were going to tutor me today?”

”I am!” Nick said. He walked over to Justin, took his arm, and pulled him towards the main entrance. “We’re going to your place. You actually want to stay in school on a Friday when you can go home early?" Nick questioned with the raise of an eyebrow.

Justin wrinkled his nose. "You forgot to mention that little ditty about tutoring at my place but since you put it THAT way, no," Justin said and then chuckled when Nick laughed. "Where are the other guys?"

"Oh, Brian has choir practice today, Marshall has hockey practice, and Scott, he went home 'cause his cousins are visiting for the weekend from England," Nick supplied.

"Oh, he's british?" Justin questioned as he tried to remember if he noticed an accent on the older teen. "I didn't know that."

"Yah, he is. I know what you're thinking and yes he does have that accent but he never uses it outside of his home. He pretty much perfected the art of speaking american a few years back... when he moved here," Nick said.

"That's gotta be totally cool," Justin exclaimed.

"Uh huh," Nick said and remained silent. Both teens zipped and buttoned up their coats, put their gloves on, wrapped their scraves around their necks more securely, bent their hood covered heads down, and walked quickly against the raging snow storm towards the subway. It's a miracle that they even made it to the subway especially with the near zero visibility but they did.

Once the train arrived they managed to stuff themselves into the ridiculously packed and heated train. When Justin’s stop came they both poured out of the train with heavy sighs and began to inhale decent air since it was a bit claustrophobic in the train.

“Here we go again,” Justin stated as they walked out of the subway and quickly made their way to his apartment building a block down in the storm.

“Oh my god,” Justin gasped out as they made into the warm confines of his building. “I can’t feel my nose or my body. Hell, I can’t even speak right,” Justin said, his speech a bit forced. His whole face was red and numb from the frigid cold weather and the beating his face received from the snow.

Nick just nodded his head and followed Justin to the elevators after he smiled politely and nodded his thanks to the door man and security guard at the entrance.

Closing the door to his apartment Justin leaned his back against it with an exhausted sigh. “Thank god it’s Friday. Hopefully, the storm with subside by tonight or tomorrow morning.”

“Tell me about it,” Nick shook his head. He removed his gloves and stuffed them in his pockets. He wiggled his fingers, then he opened and closed them, hoping to get some kind of feeling and warmth into them.

Pushing himself off of the door Justin took his winter gear off and placed it in the closet. “Would you like some hot cocoa or something warm to drink or eat?” Justin asked as he passed Nick and walked into the kitchen.

“Hot cocoa sounds wonderful. Thanks,” Nick said. Walking over to the chair that was next to the closet in the entrance hallway he sat down on it. Placing his book bag beside the chair he began to take his snow shoes off. These shoes were amazing for walking or running in the snow BUT were horrible when it came to preventing water. He quickly removed his melted snow absorbed socks and stuffed and placed them beside his shoes on the shoe rack. Then he removed his coat but opted to continue wearing his scarf and sweaters.

Walking barefoot into the kitchen Nick saw Justin scooping out a few spoons of cocoa powder. “Hey,” Nick greeted, leaning on the door frame.

Justin turned his head sideways and looked at Nick. “Hey, I’m almost done with the cocoa.”

“It’s okay. I hope you don’t mind that I’m barefoot. My shoes and socks are soaked right through,” Nick blushed.

“No problem,” Justin replied. “Mine are soaked as well but I wanted to get the drinks made first. You can borrow some socks if you want. There’s a new pair in the hall closet. Open the left hand door and on the second or third shelf you should be able to see it.”

“Oh, you sure?” Nick asked and when Justin nodded his head Nick walked back over to the closet and looked where Justin had told him the socks were located. He found a new packet of socks and took two pairs out of it. One for himself and one for Justin. By the time he was done putting his pair on Justin walked out of the kitchen holding a cup of hot cocoa in each hand.

“Do you like marshmallows?” He asked Nick.

“Yup, I do. Why?” Nick asked as he walked over to Justin and took the cup Justin held out for him. "I also took out another pair of socks for you." Nick nodded over to the small table by the closet.

“I put two baby ones in each of these,” Justin stated as he nodded at the cups. He then walked over to the closet, placed his cup down on the small table, removed his shoes and socks, and put on the new pair of socks. Justin sighed a happy sigh. "That feels so much better, thanks."

"Don't mention it. I should be thanking you. So, thank you." Nick blew on his cocoa and tentatively took a tiny sip of the hot liquid. Mmmm, warm. He felt the warmth travel down his throat and into his stomach.

“This is some good, creamy, rich flavored cocoa J,” he stated as he walked over and picked his book bag up. “I like it.”

Justin stood up and grabbed his bag and cup as he followed Nick upstairs to his room. “Thanks. The coffee shop on the corner of this block has this amazing blends of coffees and drinks. My mom and dad fell in love with their stuff and they ended up asking the manager if they could buy a few cans of their hot chocolate mixtures,” Justin shrugged as he walked into his room and flopped down on his chair by the writing desk. “You should definitely go check that place out.”

“Awesome,” Nick stated. “I think I will.” He sat down on the same chair he had a few nights prior. Taking a deep breath he said, “I heard you did an amazing job on your bio quiz. I’m sorry I wasn’t there-“

”No, Nick,” Justin said immediately cutting Nick off. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for snapping at you this morning. I was just having a bad morning and I shouldn't have taken it out on you,” Justin apologized. He needed to get that off his chest and conscience. “And as for the quiz, yes, I passed it. I even got it back today.” Justin opened his book bag and retrieved a paper from one of the folders. Handing it to Nick he said, “Here you go.”

Nick took the paper and smiled big at the big red numbers that read out 97. “Ooo, awesome!” Nick exclaimed. He looked at the time and noticed that it was 3:15 P.M. "Do you want to get started on bio or math first?" He asked looking back at Justin.

Justin shrugged. "I don't know, you pick."

Nick thought about it for a minute. "I think we should do math first. It's a lot easier to understand once you get the gist of the problem. Do you have the Math Regents book?" Nick questioned. Regents is a state-wide examination that is taken at the end of each year, it's similar to a final exam except this is given by the New York Board of Ed. It is mandatory for all New Yorkers to take this test in order to graduate or move up to the next level. During the year students are taught using the Regents as the basis for their course guide. Everything, basically, revolves around the Regents. If anyone were to fail the regents they get only one opportunity to take it again during the summer after attending special summer courses but if they manage to fail that one as well they get left behind.

The English department uses the first three years of high school to prep its students for the English Comprehensive Regents examination that's usually held at the end of junior year. The Social Studies department has two Regents examinations. One is the Global History & Geography Regents Examination that's given out at the end of sophomore year after spending the first two years of high school studying it. The second one is the U.S. History and Government Regents Examination which is taken at the end of junior year. The Math department uses 9th grade and first half of 10th grade to teach algebra and some geometry for the Math A Regents Examination that's given at the end of January. The rest of 10th grade and 11th grade is spent teaching the rest of geometry and trigonometry for the Math B Regents Examination that they will take at the end of their junior year. The Foreign Language department spends the first three years teaching their respective language so that the students would be ready to take the Language Regents at the end of junior year. The last two Regents that the students have to take are for the Science Department; biology and chemistry. Freshman year is spent learning biology so that at the end of the year they will be ready for the Biology Regents and sophomore year is spent learning Chemistry for the end of 10th grade Chemistry Regents.

Justin sighed. "I hate the Regents," he pouted as he handed over the Math A Regents Practice book to Nick.

"Who doesn't?" Nick asked with a chuckle as he opened up the book to the first chapter. "Okay, let's start this thing."

"Okay," Justin agreed as he brought out his math practice notebook, a scientific calculator, and a pencil. "I'm ready."

Nick nodded his head and started explaining the basics of algebra. They spent the next two hours breezing through the first few chapters. Nick was amazed at how quickly Justin picked up the gist of everything. It's almost as if he just needed someone to sit down with him, one-on-one, and explain it clearly. Right now Justin was going over the chapter for his next class, a bit ahead of himself so that when his teacher goes over it in class next time he could actually understand and follow what is being taught. And if he didn't understand something he could easily ask his teacher then. "I don't get it J," Nick said. "You're doing everything perfectly. I don't see why you needed a tutor. I mean I'm sure if you had just given it a bit more time and patience you would have gotten it."

Justin finished the last problem in the chapter he was doing when Nick spoke up. "I don't understand the way my teacher teaches it to me. It's all so confusing," Justin stated. Justin also wanted to add that he worked better when it was just one-on-one because all the attention would be on him and he would be free to ask any question he needed cleared without having to fear being laughed at by his peers. Instead, he kept his mouth shut.

"Well, have you ever asked him to clarify it or explain it a bit more?" Nick questioned.

Justin blushed. "Yea, I have but it seemed like I was the only one not getting anything. After the first few times I kinda stopped raising my hand 'cause everyone was getting pissed off muttering about how stupid and slow I was."

Nick narrowed his eyes. "You're not stupid or slow and you shouldn't really pay them any attention because you're there to learn. You pay the teachers to teach you and if you don't understand something you have every right to make them explain it to you," Nick said.

"I know but I," Justin said as he ran a frustrated hand through his wavy hair. "I don't know. I like the way you explain things to me. It's much more simpler and easier than what the teacher says and does. With you, I actually understand the damn problems," Justin admitted.

"Yea," Nick nodded his head. He noticed this about Justin. "It seems like you're more comfortable with a one-on-one thing, at least, when it comes to math."

"Yah, that's true," Justin agreed. He was amazed that Nick picked that up about him. "You wanna start with bio now?"

"Sure," Nick said just as his stomach began to grumble. Nick blushed as he covered his stomach with his hand.

"Or we can take a break and make something to eat," Justin chuckled as he heard Nick's stomach growl.

"C'mon." Justin got up and walked out of the room and down towards the kitchen with Nick following right behind him.

After a few seconds of standing at the entrance of the kitchen and looking around Nick turned towards Justin who was standing beside him. "So, what are we going to make?"

Justin turned towards Nick and shrugged. "I have no idea what edible stuff is in here," Justin confessed. "All I know how to make is coffee, hot cocoa, cereal, eggs, and a sandwich."

Nick chuckled. "Um, I'm gonna go out on the limb here but don't you think it'd be best if we open up the fridge to get an idea of what it is that you do have to eat?"