HELP WITH MATH

BY NYADES ROAD GHOST

AUTHOR’S NOTE: YEAH…WHAT CAN I SAY? I LOVE ANDREW. REVIEW IF YOU LIKE.

SUMMARY: DAWN AND ANDREW SPARK A ROMANCE DESPITE THE PRESSURES OF LIFE. SET IN SEASON SEVEN

DISCLAIMER: I WISH THEY WERE MINE…EXCEPT DAWN. EVERYONE BUT HER.

RATING: G

 

 

 

“Gawd!” Dawn cried out of frustration. Stupid Miss Rader had given her another stupid page of homework just because she was talking…how totally unfair! “This is impossible!”

“Everything alright here, Nibblet?” Spike said as he poked his head inside.

“No, it’s just…”

“Demon? Boyfriend?”

“No, I can’t work with polynomials. They-,”

“Wanna hear a story about a polynomial?”

“Sure, if it will help.”

“Oh, it will. Ok, see, once there was this, er…Polly girl, and come to think of it, I’m not sure her name really was Nomial…maybe I’m thinking she was a Nomad. Yeah, but see, one day I find here mum has just-,”

“So this has nothing to do with math?”

“Well, kind of…” She gave him a look. “Alright. No. If you don’t want to hear, I’ll find Rona…she loves gore…” He stepped out in search of the SIT.

Dawn tried again to figure out exactly what was going on, and still had no clue. She let out another screech of frustration. This time Andrew poked his head in.

“H-hey, Dawn. Uh, what’s up?” She noticed he was wearing another one of her mom’s old aprons.

“Oh, this stupid math homework.”

“Math?” He brightened up and stepped inside. “What kind?”

“Polynomials. They don’t like me.”

“Oh, I love math! I can actually help with something!” He sat next to Dawn on her bed and placed his feather duster on his other side. “Alright, let’s see…” He was quiet as he studied the problem. “I see what you’ve done wrong. See, you add that, but not that. Get it?”

“Oh my god, why didn’t I see that?”

“Need help with anymore?”

“No-,”

“I want to see you do the next one to make sure.” She looked up at him, puzzled. “You know,” he rushed, “so you won’t like, fail out.” He half smiled. Dawn finished the next one. “Ok, you got it.” Silence followed.

“Uh, yeah.” She brushed a piece of hair out her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. She gave him a shy smile.

“Want me to leave now?”

“No, no, it’s fine.” Some more silence followed, and then she kissed him. She pulled away quickly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-,”

“Wow.” He said a little dazed. He kissed her back.

 

A couple weeks later…

 

Dawn was sitting the middle of Mr. Dodson’s class waiting for her name to be called.

“Jones and Hartford.” The teacher called out. “Please approach the desk.”  They were doing one of those “Marriage” projects where you had to pretend like you actually liked your partner for a week along with balancing checkbooks and junk like that. “And lastly, Summers and…let’s see…ah, Rodney Fisher.”

“Rod-,” Dawn sputtered in disgust.

“Problem, Miss Summers?”

“Yeah, actually. I-,”

“Good.” He cut in. “Would you two please come up here.” Dawn reluctantly got out of her seat and walked towards the big desk. Her partner (ick!) did the same. She looked over at him and he winked behind his thick glasses and ran his tongue over his bottom lip. It was all she could do to keep her lunch. “Alright, hold hands.” Rodney’s slimy hand quickly found Dawn’s hand and Dawn again had to struggle against the rising bile in her throat. “Ok then…” said Mr. Dodson, writing something down, then looking back up with a horrible smile. “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

“Dawn?” A voice screeched from the door. Dawn dropped Rodney’s hand and whipped around to see who it was.

“Andrew? What are you doing here?”

“I- I was gonna take you to lunch. But now I see how it is…And you!” He shouted pointing at the teacher. “I’ve heard about people like you. Teachers who perform illegal marriages…I’ll sue ya!”

Dawn started to laugh a little and quickly tried to hide it. “Andrew, calm down! I’m not married.”

“Oh…c’mon. I knew you were two-timing me all along.” Tears began to well up in his eyes. “I guess this is goodbye.” He said dramatically, covering his mouth with his hand.

“Andrew, listen. We’re not over. And I’ll have to see you later anyway since we both live-,”

“Goodbye!” He cried and ran out the door. Well, he would have been successful – in running out the door – if it hadn’t been for the big wall. He ran right into and bounced off onto the floor. He pulled his hand away from his face and stared, horrified at it. “Look what you made me do! I’m gonna bleed to death!” He stood up again and actually ran out the door.

The classroom sat in stunned silence. “Summers has a boyfriend?” Someone whispered. Rodney buried his face in his hands.

“Mr. Dodson? Can I-,”

“Yes, Dawn. Go after him before he hurts himself even more…” With that permission she ran out the door in search of him. Finally she got into the parking lot and found him sitting in his car and staring at the steering wheel. She tapped on the window. He glanced up with his puffy eyes and rolled the window down.

“What do you want now?”

“It wasn’t what you thought. It totally wasn’t. I don’t even like that guy.”

“I knew I should have been gay…” He mused.

“Oh come on. You think I would choose him over you?”

“You kind of do have a geek thing going here. It isn’t that unlikely.”

She snorted. “Oh, cause he’s a hottie alright. It was just for an assignment. I swear.” He didn’t answer for a few minutes. “Believe me?” She asked hopefully. He stared at her for a little it more, then broke into a smile.

“C’mere.” She leaned down and he gave her a kiss. “Hop in, we’ll get lunch.” He said after they broke apart.

“Ok. Where to?”

“Anywhere you want.”

 

 

Dawn walked into the living room and growled to herself.  She had just searched the entire house and still had not found Andrew. Part of her wanted to kill him, but the other part was worried that he might have forgotten their date that night. They were going to see a new Sci-Fi film, something to do with aliens. She didn’t really care what the movie was so long as Andrew was with her.

“Andrew?” She called out again, one last time.

“Dawn! C’mere!” She heard the voice from the kitchen.

“Xander?”

“Yeah!” He yelled back. Ok, so she hadn’t checked the kitchen yet…

She walked into the room to find Xander repairing the window on the back door and Anya watching him while sipping on some of Giles’ tea. “Woah…what happened in here?” She asked surveying the damage.

“Someone panicked last night and smashed the window.”

“I said I was sorry.” Anya defended. “It was your fault anyways…” She added under her breath.

“And how is that?” He turned around to face her, large shards of glass in either hand.

“You were the one who made me watch that stupid Mothman movie.”

“The Mothman Prophesies? We own that?” Dawn said.

“Yeah, and I was the only one who would watch it with him.”

“The Mothman wasn’t little and brown, now was he?”

“No…but the one last night had red eyes and I figured it could have been the First.”

“So she knocked out the window.” Xander said, looking at Dawn.

“Neat. So, uh, anything you want me to do?”

“What?” He asked, a look of puzzlement crossing his features. “Oh, yeah…were you looking for Andrew?”

“Uh huh. I needed…uh…”

“He went to get some milk.”

“Or so he said…” Anya put in. “He probably went to the gay demon bar.”

“There’s a gay demon bar?” Dawn asked. “Wait, no, I mean, he’s not gay.”

“And how would you know this?” Xander asked, now completely abandoning his project.

“Well, I…”

“You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with that guy.”

“And? He’s my friend.”

Anya snorted. “With benefits.”

“What?” Dawn and Xander cried in unison.

“Oh come on, Xander. You know they’ve been going at it for weeks. How could you not?”

He looked at Dawn with horror. “No, no. We haven’t slept together or anything yet…”

“Yet?” He demanded. The horror was now replaced with disgust. “You’ve been making out with him? He’s your boyfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“I think it’s cute.” Anya said, winking at Dawn.

“I thought he was gay…” Xander said, shaking his head. “Ah, I don’t care. Does he make you happy?”

“Yeah.”

“The world’s gonna end anyway.” He turned around and began to patch up the glass.

“Dawn, you in here? We have to-,” A voice called from the living room. She ran out of the kitchen.

“There you are.” She said and smiled at Andrew.

“C’mon…we have to leave in two minutes.”

“I thought you had forgotten…” She pouted.

“Forget? Psssh…no way!” He looked around. “Anyone in here?” He whispered.

“Not that would care.” She smiled. He bent down and gave her a little kiss.

“Let’s go.” He said, taking hold of her hand and leading her out the door.