Wolves don't know anything (Jackson)

[Jacob Tapper]

It was two o' clock on Sunday afternoon when Jacob Tapper found himself sitting on the couch in his dorm suite's common room, a textbook and notebook opened up on the table and calculator and pencil in his hands. He was going through some of the math homework he had been given for the weekend, and as usual, it wasn't going very well. Math just didn't come easy to him - and there was so many more interesting things he could be doing with his time than getting better at it. Though, as he remembered his basketball coach's threat to bench him if his grade didn't improve, he decided that maybe some studying would be worthwhile.

Connor and Cade were out for the afternoon, leaving Jake to it. He had told Jackson to come that afternoon to help him study (though the way he requested this favor made it seem more like it was him doing Jackson a favor), but they hadn't spoken in a few days now so he wasn't even sure the boy remembered he was supposed to come, let alone bothered to look up what room Jake was in. Suffice it to say, he wouldn't be entirely surprised if the younger boy was a no-show.

Then again, something about the way their conversation had transpired - naked in the boy's locker room - had Jake thinking he'd find his way here.

The brunet sighed, tossing his calculator onto the table before leaning back on the couch. "Fuuuuuuck," he groaned, looking up at the ceiling. Math was hard. So hard, in fact, that he started wondering just how badly he wanted to be on the basketball team. It was his last year, after all. He could go two semesters without the sport... No, he wanted it. It was fun and competitive and got him attention from girls. He'd make it work. But he didn't think he could muster up the willpower to do it alone.

[Deleted]

It didn’t take much effort to find out which room number Jake Tapper was in. Just a short stop at the RA’s room on the way back from the main campus, really. From there, it was just a matter of waiting for Sunday to roll around.

When it did, Jackson waited some more. When was he supposed to show up? They hadn’t specified a time either, and Jackson was half inclined to show up in the middle of the morning just to teach Jake a lesson in plan-making. Instead, Jackson spent his morning lying in bed half-asleep like most teenagers his age until somewhere around noontime. When the afternoon rolled around, he figured it’d been long enough and gathered his things for a good, hard session of math studying. Bleh…

With his text and notebook in one arm, his glasses and calculator in his shirt’s front pocket, Jackson rapped on the door of his teammate with his free hand. And then he waited. He felt like a dork, standing there with his study materials, but…well, he was a dork. Or at least, that’s what he wanted people to think. Because dorks…nerds…they were good kids, and were mostly left alone. Mostly.

[Jacob Tapper]

It wasn't long after Jake's inarticulate expression of his displeasure with mathematics that he heard someone knocking on the door. It was obviously Jackson, since he wasn't expecting anybody else. Throwing his pencil down onto the table to land on his notebook, he got up off the couch and headed over to the door. A more obnoxious person might make the kid wait on the other side of the door - find an excuse to grab something out of the fridge or go into his bedroom for a moment - but Jake wasn't that type of guy. He was straightforward; he got to the point.

Swinging the door open, Jake's eyes fell upon Jackson and felt almost immediately weird. This was like some kind of academic booty call. Come to my place, do my homework, then leave. But that was pretty much what this was. There wasn't anything else it could be. At least, not to Jake's knowledge. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure why Jackson had even agreed to do this. It was just a waste of the kid's time, unless he was getting something out of this that Jake wasn't aware of.

Of course, the fact that they'd be alone in Jake's room was kind of interesting, but only kind of. It took two to tango, and at this point the transdimensionalist was still pretty sure Jackson preferred to dance with the ladies.

"You're late," the brunet deadpanned as he opened the door wider to let the blond in. He didn't mean it, of course; it had occurred to him earlier that he had no idea what time to expect the other kid, if at all. He let Jackson walk in, before closing the door behind him. And locking it, though he didn't actually notice himself doing this. "You, uh, want something to drink, or something?"

[Deleted]

Why did he agree to this again? Jackson didn’t really need a study buddy, so he had to conclude that Jake was the one who needed help and Jackson just happened to be a convenient smart person to leech off of. Which was fine, Jackson was used to helping people with their homework, or prepare for tests and stuff… It was just the way he asked that made it weird. In the shower of all places, with that intense stare-down…. It made it hard to resist, and while Jackson had considered not showing up at all, it almost felt like he was compelled to come, just because Jake had dictated it to him.

Jackson raised an eyebrow at the way he was greeted, which wasn’t a greeting at all. “….I’ll be sure to get here earlier next time,” he said slowly, taking an equally slow step into the dorm. “How’s 6am work for you?” Jackson didn’t like getting up that early if he didn’t have to, but he would to spite this cocky guy if he kept up that attitude.

No, no, that wasn’t right. Jackson was supposed to be nice. He put on a smile, fake as hell, but pleasant. “It’s okay,” he said, politely declining the offer for a drink with a small wave of his hand. “You probably don’t have anything I can drink anyway.” No doubt nothing but sugary drinks, like most kids. That’s why Jackson usually brought his own to these sort of engagements. Jackson crossed the room to the couch and took a seat on the floor beside the coffee table, setting his own books next to Jakes. “So….” Straight to the point, why not? “What is it you need help on?” he asked, keeping up the polite, teacher’s pet smile, which he turned onto Jake.

[Jacob Tapper]

Oof. Six am sounded dreadful. He usually woke up pretty early to get his morning workout and jog in, but that was more like 6:30 or 7, and only if he had morning classes he had to get to afterwords. If God had intended for people to be awake at 6am, He would have made the sun rise earlier. "On second thought, this is a good time," he relented easily.

Jake shrugged as Jackson declined his offer; he didn't have a clue as to he meant about not being able to drink anything he had. A better friend would have realized that, as a diabetic, the telekinetic had to stay away from sugary drinks. Jake's father had his own problems relating to nutrition, but he was so bad about taking care of himself that Jake didn't really know about all of that. He went to the fridge, grabbing himself a can of Pepsi and cracking it open.

Joining his teammate on the other side of the room once he'd done this, he found it strange that Jackson had chosen to sit on the floor instead of on the couch, but hey, that meant more room for Jake on the couch. Another kind of person would have found it appropriate that the boy was literally sitting at his feet, since he was basically just doing what he said by coming here to help him study, but that didn't really occur to Jake at the present time. "Math," he replied simply, giving a sigh like the subject really drained him. "Uh, this weekend's homework is..." He trailed off, not wanting to call it "hard" or "confusing" and make himself sound stupid in the process. He turned towards the other boy. He had a nice smile, but didn't most people have nice smiles? He didn't want to read too far into how much he liked this kid's smile. "Did you do it yet?" He looked down, noticing his foot was indeed just inches away from where Jackson was seated on the floor. It occurred to him that, by moving his foot just a little bit, he could make contact and have a vision. But he had to concentrate now, so that would be a bad idea.

[Deleted]

"I thought so." Two pm was a good time to show up for anything with any reasoning. Though still, next time they should plan it a little better so there wasn't so much confusion between the two parties.

Jackson didn't think anything of it when he chose the floor over the couch. It was more comfortable for him down there and made the most sense to him. All those years of living with his grandmother, a very traditional korean woman, was the likely influence, since that's how he always did his homework when he was staying with her on the weekends. With Jake next to him on a higher platform, however, it would give the older boy a better view to look over Jackson's shoulder at his work, rather than leaning across to the side. But none of these had occurred to Jackson at the moment. He was just sitting down.

"Math," he repeated with a small laugh. "I figured, since that's the subject we were on when you 'suggested' this." There might've been the slightest of bites in that statement, as if to say that Jackson knew Jake sucked in math and was trying to mooch off of him. Jackson wasn't sure, but he had good reason to think it might be true. Maybe. And Jake's attitude towards the homework told Jackson that he wasn't wrong. "Annoying," he offered to finish Jake's impression towards the homework. Because it was true. It was annoying. Not necessarily hard, just annoying and time consuming. Jackson scoffed. "Of course I did," he said, as if the idea of otherwise was ridiculous. Which was. Sorta. Just because Jackson did it didn't mean he liked it. And it didn't mean he didn't try to distract himself with TV or something else while he did it. Jackson pulled out the worksheet the teacher had given them and flipped to the page in his notebook where he'd done his work. "Okay, so...how far have you gotten?" he asked, just to be sure. "Or...which ones are giving you the most problems?" With luck, Jake had actually tried first before Jackson came over today. Though Jackson didn't count on it.

[Jacob Tapper]

The other boy's slight attitude wasn't lost on Jake, but he didn't pay it much heed: he knew his teammate was doing him a favor by being here and, at least to his knowledge, was not gaining anything whatsoever from helping him with his homework. So if he wanted to be a little sarcastic, that was a fair price Jake was willing to pay.

The brunet watched as the blond took out his own homework. Oh yes, he had clearly done it; the sheet was filled with all sorts of equations, many of which Jake recognized from class and his textbook but which he just wasn't sure how to use. How was he supposed to know which equations went with which problem? It seems like they should be told that.

He next looked down at his own worksheet and notebook, which was looking quite a bit less organized and certainly less complete. Large groups of numbers and symbols were crossed out like he realized halfway through that he'd been approaching it wrong. Then there were some answers that were circled - with more pride than it appeared - but certainly not enough answers to answer all the questions. He'd tried, though, and he was pretty sure at least a few of the answers were right. Math didn't come easy to him, but he wasn't a total dunce.

"Umm..." He realized he wasn't really prepared for this meeting, not having made note of which questions were giving him the greatest difficulty. "Maybe we can just start from the beginning. So I can make sure I got the right answers." By this, he meant he wanted Jackson to tell him the answers, both so he could check his work and fill in what he hadn't figured out himself. He wasn't so interested in learning how to do the homework, as making sure it got done.

[Deleted]

Half the point of the assignment was for them to be able to recognize which problems required which equations. Because in the real world, they weren’t going to be conveniently listed there whenever you needed them. That is, if you were ever going to use them in the real world to begin with. As students in high school, however, the best you could hope for was allowance to use a calculator during an exam. Though honestly, once you knew which formula to use, it was just a plug-and-chug technique. Arithmetic. They learned that in elementary school. It shouldn’t be that hard.

Jackson quirked an eyebrow at Jake’s answer. So that’s how it was, huh? Fine, he thought with a shrug. “Okay, we’ll start from the beginning,” he said, pulling out his pencil and floating it over the worksheet.

“First problem is a quadratic equation, simply solve for x. Show me what you got for that one,” he directed, suddenly taking charge of the situation. Jackson wondered if he could actually turn this into a tutoring session rather than a simple ‘homework copying’ session.

[Jacob Tapper]

Jake was squarely in the "we'll never need this" camp; he couldn't imagine what kind of career path would require him to have a working knowledge of advanced mathematics, but he was fairly certain he'd be avoiding any of those occupations. The way he saw it, basic arithmetic would enable him to file his taxes, manage a bank account, keep track of his expenses... and what else was there?

Once Jackson agreed to start with the first problem and work their way from there, he pointed to a circled number. The first question had been pretty straightforward, and he was fairly certain he'd gotten it right; his work even looked well-organized, like he knew what he was doing. Peering over at Jackson's own notebook, he found that he indeed had gotten the same answer. "WIN," he stated proudly, feeling pretty confident already.

Things only went downhill from there. Most of his other answers - those he'd gotten an answer for, that was - were wrong, not so much because of a fatal error but because of a stupid math mistake he'd made while not paying close enough attention to what he was doing. That, he found more frustrating than anything, not to mention the fact that comparing Jackson's neater homework to his sloppier mess of numbers and symbols made him feel somewhat insecure.

Jackson seemed to be putting a good faith effort into helping Jake without simply doing the work for him, but finally after several minutes Jake had had enough. "Fuck this," he stated, not so much anger as exasperation on his voice. He tossed his hands into the air, pencil flying wherever it may, and leaned back somewhat heavily into the couch. "This sucks. Just... give me the answers." Then they could be done with this.

[Deleted]

Jake certainly didn’t seem to be a complete idiot, he did know what he was doing most of the time. It was just that he made stupid mistakes. He didn’t pay attention and ended up adding instead of subtracting, or forgetting to divide by -b, or something equally simple. Jackson understood. Those kind of thing could be frustrating. Though…if Jake was maybe a little more organized in his writing and how he showed his work, then maybe he wouldn’t make those mistakes as often. Just saying!

Jackson wouldn’t say that out loud, at least not so harshly. If Jake wanted the help to improve, then Jackson was more than willing to give it to him. As long as Jake put in the honest effort himself, Jackson had no problem with helping. It was when he was used as a convenient answer key that he got irritated. Which is what apparently was going to happen, given Jake’s next statement.

“What!?” he asked sharply with an incredulous crease in his brow. Seriously? After all that, Jake was just going to give up and take the easy way out? Jackson could sympathize, he would prefer to do that himself(and had on several occasions, so didn’t really have any room to judge), but…the idea of being used without getting anything in return didn’t sit well with him.

Jackson sighed and leaned his head back against the cushions of the couch behind him, closing his eyes as he thought it over. “…………fine,” he said after a long pause. “Not all of them, though, otherwise it’ll look like you actually just straight copied from me.” He rolled his head slightly to the side and panned his eyes up at Jake, a look of exasperation reflected behind them. “And I’m not doing it for free.” Jackson had no problem being paid to do someone else’s homework for them, so long as it didn’t put him out too much. No, especially since it would put him out at all. That wasn’t unreasonable to ask Jake to do, right?

[Jacob Tapper]

Jake had sort of settled into the couch and into the idea that Jackson would simply provide him with the correct answers, until the blond snapped at him. His eyes widened, but he didn't move much, simply looking over at the younger male. "Well, I mean... it would just be easier for both of us," he reasoned aloud. And it would: the sooner they got done with this 'tutoring session' of sorts, the sooner they could be moving on to their respective other things.

When the telekinetic finally agreed, Jake was relieved; he still hadn't forgotten Coach's words about lifting his grades so that he could keep playing on the team. Honestly, he wouldn't have thought the guy would take academics so seriously, but evidently he'd be wrong. Guess all Hammel staff is the same in that regard. Jackson's given condition seemed reasonable enough, since he certainly didn't want to get caught. "Hey, that's cool with me," he agreed, finally sitting up, already feeling better about his situation.

His eyebrows furrowed briefly when the boy said he would require payment, though Jake quickly concluded that this was also fair, if kind of obnoxious. He should, after all, get paid for his time and brainpower. But as for how he'd pay, that was another matter. "If you want money, I mean, I got some, but..." He didn't have a job, and frankly relied on his parents' putting an allowance into his debit account to be able to buy stuff. He wasn't sure how much of that he could afford to give away. "...Not a whole lot of it, to be honest," he finished with a shrug. He wondered how much this kid was going to try to get out of him.

[Deleted]

Jake was right, it probably would be easier for both of them…but that didn’t mean that Jackson was okay with it. After all, Jackson did all the work, spent the hours that it took to get it done and understand it. If Jake didn’t want to even bother understanding the work…

It wasn’t going to be Jackson’s fault when Jake failed the exams.

He expected a little more resistance to not letting him copy all of it, but was glad that Jake seemed more reasonable about the arrangement. “And…” he started. “You know it’s going to look terrible if you get the homeworks done correctly, but you bomb the exams, right? So unless you really look at the answer and don’t just copy it, you might not do as well.” He was just pointing it out, though Jake wasn’t completely stupid, Jackson gathered. He should be able to figure out that much.

Jackson frowned slightly when Jake brought up the difficulty in providing a monetary payment. Well, he should have expected that. Jackson wouldn’t have been able to do that either, what little money he had was precious to him. “Hmm…” he hummed in thought, closing his eyes again. What else could he do? “Is there something you’re good at you can do for me?” Jackson couldn’t even think of what might work. He sat up and turned around, holding out his hand in a rolling gesture as he listed off some possibilities. “Like…cooking? Cleaning? Massages?” Jackson paused for a second, then added, “Sex?” He snorted and grinned, shaking his head. It was supposed to be a joke, though his cheeks still tinted a slight pink.

[Jacob Tapper]

Jake thought about each suggestion as it was rattled off. Cooking? No, Jake was no good at that. He had some friends who could cook, but he rarely tried and even less frequently succeeded at the endeavor. He usually just ate at the dining hall or went off-campus to grab something to eat (hence not having a lot of extra money to fool around with). Cleaning? Jake wasn't too good at that, either. He managed to keep his dorm room fairly tidy, but at the end of the year it was usually dustier, smudgier, and more mildewy than it was when he'd moved in. Massages? He had no idea how to do that. He wasn't even sure there was a real "way" of doing it. Having never gotten a professional one himself or even tried to give one to someone else, he just assumed you put your hands on the person and rubbed around. He wasn't doing that.

Sex. That was an interesting suggestion. The boy had said it with a laugh, but no straight guy would have suggested that. At least, no straight guy Jake was aware of. He thought about the other boy's prolonged glances in the shower, his readiness and willingness to come to Jake's room to help him study... nah, there was no way this guy was totally straight. He was at least bi-curious... which put them on a level playing field.

Having never actually had sex before, Jake was sure he was probably about as good at that as he was at cooking, cleaning, or giving massages. But he didn't need Jackson (or anyone else, for that matter) to know that. He'd be lying if he wasn't totally opposed to the idea of fucking his teammate. He was cute, and there were worse people to lose one's virginity to. But Jake had his pride: he couldn't just submit to Jackson's request to have sex (again, he was operating under the assumption that it was a serious suggestion). It needed to be his own doing.

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, looking right into Jackson's eyes like he had down in the locker room when he'd told him to come to his room that day. "Well, I'm not very domestic," he stated, referring to the cooking and cleaning. "But I'm sure we can work something out." His head tilted to the side, as though inclined to wonder whether Jackson understood fully what he was getting at.

[Deleted]

Cooking or cleaning would have been great, since those were the two things that Jackson was absolutely terrible at. But apparently Jake fit the stereotype that boy could not cook worth a damn. Guess he’d have to keep depending on Bunny for that one. The massages part was just a random suggestion. Something that had a bit more substance than simply “be my slave and carry my books”…because that was just a dick thing to expect anyone to do, and as bitter as Jackson could get sometimes, he wasn’t a bully. No, he wanted this to be a fair transaction.

The suggestion for sex was a semi-serious one. Serious, because it was something that Jackson would probably be okay with, however racy it might seem. Not-serious, because there was no way anyone would go for it. And that’s why he treated it as a joke. It was so out there and unreasonable that just the mere mentioning of it was ridiculous. Jake was totally straight…wasn’t he?

Jackson was reminded of the conversation he’d had with Rue the day before. You never knew unless you asked. But was Jackson going to ask? Hell no! Jackson might think his teammate was very(very) good looking and sexy as fuck, but he wasn’t about to risk putting his own sexuality on display just to confirm Jake’s. Just the mere fact that Jackson was privately acknowledging it was more than he could handle.

Though the fact that Jake didn’t laugh at his ‘joke’ set off a few alarms. Or was he just imagining them? Jackson felt a tickle on his neck and upturned his gaze to meet with Jakes. Was he imagining this too? That white hot stare that seemed to paralyze him and wipe his mind completely of all thought? Jackson gave him a hesitant smile. “Uh…y-yeah, I’m sure we can work out something…” he agreed, hoping his voice hadn’t gone weird on him. “If you can think of something, I’m….I’m totally open to suggestions….” Whether or not Jackson knew where Jake was trying to imply was debatable, but…he it definitely seemed like Jake had an idea of some sort. Jackson kept his gaze on his older teammate, though after a second or two, he broke eye contact and trailed to anywhere else he could without looking obviously avoidant. Hopefully.

[Jacob Tapper]

By now Jake had come to realize that when he looked at Jackson - really looked at him, dead on, full eye contact - Jackson reacted to it. He wasn't sure what was going on internally - if he was intimidated, aroused, a mixture of both, or something entirely different - but his strong gaze definitely gave the younger boy pause. The brunet wasn't a very manipulative person - in fact, he generally hated people who were in any way Machiavellian - but if occasion allowed him to use this knowledge to his advantage, he might do so. And this was just such an occasion.

Jackson seemed to stammer in response to his statement, which perhaps surprisingly was all the assurance Jake needed that they weren't just kidding around. This was real. This could really happen. And that was fine with him. His eyes finally left Jackson's, which had already broken with his, and he looked over at the wall for a brief moment before rising to a standing position. If having Jackson sitting at his feet fed his latent need for dominance in any way, having his face at crotch level was no worse. He looked down at the boy, a small smile creeping on his face. Yes, this kind of arrangement could work for him. If they both wanted it, what would be so wrong?

"Stand up," he said, evenly. It wasn't just a suggestion, but he also didn't say it aggressively. Once Jackson rose to join him, he took a moment to let his eyes trail up and down the blond's body, as though quickly checking to make sure this was really who he wanted to be the first guy he did anything with. "Open to suggestions," he stated, repeating what Jackson had said just a few moments before. He took a small step closer to the boy, trying not to betray the fact that now that this was actually within the realm of the possible, the brunet's total lack of experience made him somewhat nervous. "Open to anything. Anything at all?"