The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 219: Book report struggles. (Patreon)

At Jessica’s suggestion, they’re going to focus on his assignment first. It’s not like they’re going to graduate Hayes with honors anyway, so taking a blow to their own grades is nothing. They have to make sure they can write something good for David in order to show their teachers that they can be reliable.

It’s 4:00 am right now and Olivia is laying on her bed with the lamp on her night stand on and a book in her hands. It’s been five days since Ms. Campbell gave the assignment. Five days that Olivia has spent glued to this book. Thankfully, it’s not overly long nor complex. Not all that boring, either. But she’s still a slow enough reader that it’s taken her this long to finally finish it.

She knows Jessica finished it yesterday and Lilian still has about a fourth of it left. The report itself is due in two more days but for now she can finally go to sleep. Tomorrow they’re getting together at the library to work.

Olivia throws the covers over herself and falls asleep with a heavy feeling in her chest.

______________________________________________________________

“So… what are the themes?” Lilian asks.

“Uh… perseverance, I think? Hope?” Jessica suggests.

“And where do they show up in the book?” Olivia asks.

It’s nearly 6:00 pm. School’s about to close for the day and they haven’t made a speck of progress in David’s report even though they’ve been at it for two hours in one of the library’s cubicles. It’s not that they don’t know what to write, it’s just that nothing seems right. It’s like their analysis is so surface level that it might get a passing grade, but not a perfect grade.

…

Olivia bites her lip.

“Why the hell did we accept this?” Lilian groans, throwing her arms on the table and hiding her face. “This is beyond us.”

“…You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, you know?” Jessica offers her. “Olivia and I have our reasons for trying, but…”

“I’m not gonna leave you alone. This is bullshit, but I’m seeing it through.” Lilian assures.

Meanwhile, Olivia silently reads the questions the report has to answer. They can handle the summary just fine. That’s just telling what happened in the book. But that’s less than half of what they need to answer. They need to identify the themes of the book with examples of when they show up. They need to analyze the characters and see how they reflect those themes. They need to identify antagonists and analyze their relationship to the protagonist.

It’s all stuff that’s done in high school but with a higher level analysis required. Surface level shit won’t do it. But going too deep might make them sound like they’re making shit up.

…

It’s still not 6:00 pm quite yet. It’s a Monday, which means…

…

No choice. They’ll just have to suck it up.

Olivia starts gathering her things and putting them away in her backpack before addressing her friends. “Come with me. We need to hurry up.”

“Huh? Where are we going?” Jessica asks, and Lilian has an equally puzzled face.

“We’re gonna ask for help.” Olivia says.

The eyes of the two other girls widen in understanding. They share a short glance before they also admit to themselves that they have to.

They leave the library and go to the front gates. They stand there quietly, waiting until they see the two people they need.

Sophia Johnson and Katherine Brown.

They’re walking out of the school as they talk, but that conversation comes to a stop when they see Olivia and her friends standing in front of them.

“Hello, girls.” Sophia says with a neutral expression. Unlike her redheaded friend, she doesn’t seem surprised to see them. “Staying late today?”

“We need your help.” Olivia states it bluntly.

Sophia sighs heavily and opens her mouth to speak, but before she does, Katherine puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Let me.” She says.

“Are you sure?” Sophia asks with a furrowed brow.

“Yeah. Don’t worry. I can manage.” Katherine gives her friend a small but confident smile. But even so, Olivia can detect the faint shaking of her hands.

“Alright then.” Sophia nods. And before she walks past them, she gives her, Lilian and Jessica a short but clear glare.

Message received.

They watch the debate team captain walk away towards the bus stop before turning to their old schoolmate.

“So? What do you need help with?” She asks, both trying to sound and stand firm with a hand on her hip. There’s a very faint trembling to her voice, but considering everything, she’s still standing in front of them.

“We wanted to ask both of you, though.” Olivia says.

“Sophia’s busy with club stuff. I’ll be enough. So?” Katherine urges.

And it’s obvious she knows what this is about. There’s no way she doesn’t know. She just wants to hear them say it. Which… is fair.

“We need your help with David’s assignment for literature class.” Olivia says, speaking with an uncharacteristic solemn tone. “You know why we’re doing it, right?”

Katherine nods silently.

“We read the book, but… we’re not confident we can get a good enough grade.” Jessica adds.

“You’re the ones who accepted the deal, right?” Katherine says.

“We did. And it was probably a mistake. We’re not cut out for stuff like this.” Olivia admits, closing her eyes. “But we can’t just leave it at that, right? If we do, you know who it is that’ll be affected.”

Katherine bites her lip, and Olivia feels a twinge of guilt in her chest. She made that sound like a threat when she didn’t mean to. Can she fix it?

“We don’t want to fail.” She adds. “I know it’s hard to believe. Especially so for you. But the past months have been… eventful enough that they’ve made us think things through.” Olivia looks at Katherine firmly. “You of all people don’t need a sob story from us. But I do want you to know that we’re serious about this. This is an opportunity to prove that. We don’t want to fail, even if it means asking for help.”

Olivia sees Katherine close her eyes and take a deep breath as she clenches her fist tightly. Then, her eyes meet Olivia’s, resolute, and for a moment she sees the same confident girl from high school. The girl she was before they nearly broke her.

“What’s the book?”

Jessica quickly takes her backpack, opens it and takes the book out to give it to Katherine. The redhead takes it, opens it to the last page and nods to herself.

“I have two conditions. One, we work until I say we’re done. I’m not doing the work for you. I’ll just help you. We start tomorrow at 4:00 pm, right after school, and finish once we’re done with everything.”

“Okay.” Olivia nods.

“Two, read your own books. I’m helping you write your own reports, as well.”

“W-What!?” All three girls are completely taken aback, yet Katherine’s eyes remain firm.

“It’s no use if David gets a good grade at the cost of yours. You want to prove something? Prove you can help him while also helping yourselves.” She takes out her phone and taps it a few times. “What are the titles of your books?”

The three former bullies look at each other with confusion before telling her. She seems to write the names down on her phone.

“W-What are you doing?” Lilian asks.

“Just bought digital copies of them. I’ll have them read by tomorrow. You too, spend tonight reading your own books if you haven’t finished them already.”

“Y- You’re gonna read four books in one night!?” Jessica asks, her eyes wide as plates. “We can barely finish one in 5 days!”

“I’ve been reading books since I was 8. Also, let me give you a tip. Read the most detailed sparknotes you can find and cross-reference the most important parts with the book. It’s obviously longer than only reading the sparknotes, but it’s shorter than reading the whole book.”

“O-Oh.” Olivia coherently mutters.

“If it’s like that, then I think we can do it.” Jessica nods.

“Good. Then I’m going home. I have a lot of reading to do and so do you.” Katherine says, putting her phone in her pocket.

“W-We’ll see you tomorrow then?” Olivia half says, half asks.

“Yeah. See you tomorrow at the library. We might have to move somewhere else after six, but I know a place. Later.” With a final nod, Katherine excuses herself and goes to the bus stop.

“So… I’m not the only one who had flashbacks right there, am I?” Lilian asks them.

“Seriously.” Jessica giggles. “This will sound terrible, but it made me remember why you wanted her out of the picture back then.” She tells Olivia.

“Y-Yeah.” Olivia sighs.

It makes Olivia wonder what kind of woman Katherine would’ve become if they hadn’t made her such an introvert. She used to think that forceful personality of hers was a threat, but now that there’s a chance they might be on the same side, it becomes reassuring.

______________________________________________________________

Katherine sits down on one of the middle seats on the bus and holds her shaking knees. Yet she’s grinning. A feeling of pride swells in her chest.

She stood up to them. She was able to stand firm in front of them and tell them exactly what she thought. She didn’t waver. A part of her wanted to use that momentum to take out her frustrations with them, but she held back. This isn’t about her right now. It’s about helping David. It’s probably because of that that she could act like she did.

But now that she knows she can stand up for herself, there will be other chances to speak her mind. Now she just needs to focus. She ended up offering to help them with their own reports as well. She meant what she said. Even if they get David a good grade, it won’t mean anything if the three of them fail their own assignments.

She chortles and shakes her head.

This is something Emily and Megan don’t get. They don’t understand why an assignment grade is such a big deal for David and the teachers, but that’s fine. Katherine, though, gets it perfectly.

It’s not about the grades, but about overcoming an intellectual challenge. One of the things that makes Hayes Academy stand out is how little they use multiple-choice questions. Just knowing the right answer isn’t enough most of the time. Even math tests don’t use multiple choices a lot. You usually have to write the correct answer or show the process you use to arrive to those answers.

It’s not about how much you know, but how much you understand. It’s subtle, but that mindset can make a world of difference. And Katherine takes pleasure in overcoming those intellectual challenges. Sophia and David do, too, and their teachers design their classes with that philosophy in mind.

So this isn’t as simple as getting a good grade in the report. This is a test for Olivia, Lilian and Jessica to see if they can overcome this challenge. And Katherine is sincerely glad they asked for help.

She and Sophia made a small bet. Sophia said they would ask for help before failing, but Katherine didn’t believe so. She believed they’d fail and screw David over, perhaps unintentionally, but still. That’s why she was surprised to see them standing before them earlier.

If they can swallow their pride and ask for help, then that’s already a step forward. At least, it’s the first thing Katherine needed to give them an honest chance. It’s from here that the true test begins.

…

However, that doesn’t change the fact that she needs to read four books in one night. She really is a quick reader, but even if she pulls an all-nighter, she might only be able to finish two. Should she just use the method she told those three and read the sparknotes?

…

She bites her lip nervously and takes out her phone. She then starts typing to the group chat.

Katherine: I know this is sudden, but… David, how much does the Quick Reader trait cost?

There’s a couple of minutes without an answer before it finally comes.

David: 50 points. Why?

Katherine: If anyone of you objects then it’s fine, but… can I have it?

A couple more minutes pass, and Katherine’s heart starts beating quickly. She feels like she’s stepping too far. Emily, Megan and Sophia have been with David longer and they still don’t have any traits because he’s saving for polygamy. And even if the trait is only 50 points, if everyone starts asking for stuff, then it could be bad.

Really, she shouldn’t have said anything.

Sophia: No objections here.

Megan: Me neither.

Emily: Go ahead.

Emma: I have an idea of what’s going on. Do it. ;)

Anzu: Do it. Just don’t overwork yourself.

Mia: If I remember correctly, this doesn’t put a substantial enough dent on the plans, so it’s fine. Do it.

Julia: I got one already, so I have no objections hahaha! Go ahead. :)

…

David: Alright. Done. Like Anzu said, don’t overwork yourself. Tell us if you need anything.

Katherine: I already did. Heehee. Thanks, everyone. I’ll be alright. See you tomorrow.

Yeah. She’ll be alright for sure.