zander boeman

“uh huh! exactly. okay, so what do you want to do?” she took exactly one look at the problem to figure it out for her, but she didn’t let it show on her face. having passed the couse with flying colors and then having to redo all the homework left her fairly competent at the meterial.

her job was getting him there.

“ honestly? take a break, ” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. he knew he had asked about that particular problem, but he'd inwardly hoped she would just solve it while he watched. “ use the tangent... solve for x. ” he proposed as he fiddled with the pencil in his hand.

she looked at his answer, then at hers. they didn’t match, which was to be expected. he was still learning. this was her second year doing trig. “okay, sure.” she pulled a whiteboard over so they could do it on that. it always felt more fun like that.

“okay. so first you figure out whether you want sin, cos, or tan.” she drew the triangle, labeling what they knew. “how do you do that?”

he shifted his paper to the side, choosing to look at the whiteboard instead. “ see what two we already have and then do sohcahtoa with 'em? ” he shrugged. he never really felt too confident when it came to trigonometry. it felt as if he’d completely forgotten everything he’d previously learned from geometry. 

“Oh no, don’t stop on my account. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of your fun.” Sofia showed him a small smile in return. “Give me a reason to change my mind and maybe I will reconsider.”  The truth was he did not need to but it would be fun to see him try. “Oh, definitely and it should. But you know, if you wanted to dance with me, you should have just asked.”, she teased him before taking his hand and pulling him with her to the dance floor.

“ uhh... i always give the pens back? that has to mean something. ” it had taken him a second to come up with that reason, and it still wasn’t even that impressive. “ you caught me, ” he chuckled, allowing her to pull him onto the dance floor. once they reached a comfortable space, he started stepping to the beat. “ but whatever your moves are, nothing can top this. ” with that, he started doing the carlton dance to the music, albeit with a little less intensity so he wouldn’t accidentally hit someone nearby.

libby was never an advocate for doing someone else’s work. but it made her money for Ginny’s schooling one day. so she wasn’t going to complain. and besides, most of her regulars were all really great people. they didn’t deserve to get kicked out. especially not because of some homework that with practice, they didn’t even really have time to do. at three bucks a page, it was fine for libby.

one such client, Zander, was actually here to study today. he’d called asking if she was free, and with his basketball schecdule he’d agreed they could meet new year’s eve. they’d review what he’d missed from her doing his assignments during the semester. that way going into the next one, he might have a chance to learn. she’d jumped at the chance. was it really cheating if he eventually learned? no! it was making it workable with his schedule.

“so anyways, trig’s not really as hard as you think. you just need to take it one step at a time, get it?”

@zanboeman​

for the new semester, zander wanted to try to do all his assignments himself. that’s why he had tried to schedule a review session with libby during the break, but as he sat there with a seemingly never-ending pile of math papers in front of him, he was starting to regret his decision. it was the last day of the year, and he was spending a good portion of it doing schoolwork. 

“ uhh, yeah, ” he responded, hoping that was the answer she needed, even though he had zoned out for a bit. he willed himself to focus. although he was paying, he didn’t want to waste her time. “ could you show me how you got this answer? ” he asked, pointing to one of the problems on the sheet. it had seemed simple enough, but the answer on his own paper didn’t match hers.

“ i think that it could be helpful. it would only be permanent until the boys start playing better. there are a lot of areas that we could get better in and not enough time in the evenings to perfect it.” he explained to his friend. “you dont gain all that weight over eating a few cream puffs one night.. it is when you sit around and dont do shit..” he went on. “but if you dont think it will help then there is no reason for it.”

“Does sugar make you this enthusiastic or is that just how you naturally are?”, a question that Sofia responded to him with. As he spoke of his grandmother, she wondered if her hunch about him was right. She hoped not. “Sofia. I’m going to reconsider lending you a pen the next time you borrow one because after six months, you still don’t know my name.”, she joked. “Maybe you should go to mine then. It might teach you a thing or two. Plus, it’s very exclusive.”

“ for tonight, let’s just say it’s the sugar, and i’ll take that as my cue to tone it down a little, ” he said, offering a sheepish smile. “ whoa, let’s not make any rash decisions here. next time i ask for a pen, i’ll remember. promise, sofia. ”  he was so used to forgetting his supplies that he could actually guarantee there would be a next time. “ oh yeah? sounds like you’ve got some moves to show me, and great for us-- the dance floor’s right there. it’s practically calling your name. ”

Marcus: what do you want for a present

Zander: did u text the right number???

I recognize you - that statement was enough to make her a little nervous, causing her to rub the back of her ear. Realizing that he was looking closely at her face, Sofia stayed quiet and waited for him to say from where. Once he did, she let out a subtle sigh of relief. “Ah, yes. You’re the one who sits next to me.”, she answered him before laughing at his second question. “Definitely a pre-party which basically was me dancing around in my room while I got ready.”

completely unaware of her unease at his initial statement, his smile widened at her confirmation. “ knew it! i usually suck at remembering faces, but i guess all those card matching games with my grandma this summer actually paid off. didn’t help me that much with names, though. yours was...? ” he trailed off, hoping she’d fill in. “ you know what? i think we threw the same type of pre-party. no wonder nobody showed up to mine. you must’ve been the competition. ” 

 @zanboeman​

“ i was just thinking that maybe we could up practice to an extra day.” memphis threw himself in his sports. he was shit at school and could barley even read.. though most people didnt know that about it because it was easy to cheat in class.  so the things that he was banking on was his sports getting him where he wanted to be in life. he knew that adding an extra day would be tough on not only him but the other guys. “i feel like we could really benefit from it. i mean did you even see josh? his belly was hanging over his shorts today.”

“Well fun for me and the rest of the girls that are going to blame either how lame or epic the dance is on you guys,” she stated with a grin. “It does get in the way of the whole social scene of school, which is clearly the most vital part of high school,” she agreed with him. “You clearly underestimate the alcohol tolerance of filthy rich kids. This is nothing.”

“ whoa, way to put on the pressure, but i can almost guarantee that we maxwell boys never disappoint. ” he nodded in agreement with her next point. “ exactly! i mean, what else would my grandma be paying all this money for? an education? ” he spat out the last word as if the mere idea disgusted him. “ yeah, well don’t come crying to me when you have to end the night playing nanny and tucking all your friends in, ” he laughed, not completely willing to reveal just how low his tolerance level was compared to his peers.

For some reason, his voice sounded quite familiar and it took one look at him to figure out why. A lot of years may have passed since she last saw him, and a lot has changed about his appearance in those years, but she knew those eyes anywhere. That is why it took her a while to answer his question. “You sure do look like you’re enjoying whatever it is that you’re eating.” She laughed. “I actually just arrived.”

he responded to her observation with a nod, dutifully finishing the rest of his dessert. “ hey, i recognize you, ” he said, once a flash of light illuminated the other girl’s features. she seemed too familiar to just be a random face he’d seen in the halls, so after taking the time to analyze her face, he snapped his fingers with realization. “ english class, right? ” he questioned, confident he’d gotten it right. once he heard that the girl had just arrived, he briefly checked his apple watch for the time. “ so what’s your story: pre-party or just fashionably late? ”

ramona immediately turned around and posed like the queen she was and spun on her heel and  posed again acting cute.” 

“did you get it?” she said trusting him to get the right angles because that’s just the kind of friend he was. “i look good and all that?” she said doing a different pose again before laughing. “Come on, i’m messing, let’s go in.”

clicking the record button just in time, he let out a whistle as ramona posed. “ perfect as always! you never disappoint. ” he made sure to save it, making a mental note to send the shots to ramona when he looks through them that night. “ wait, i think i left my purse somewhere. we’ve gotta go back, ” he attempted to joke as he opened the door to the entrance.

“ wait, ramona -- i need some footage of your ‘fit for this tiktok i’m trying to make. can you do a spin or a pose real quick? ”

zander expectantly held his phone up, ready to hit record. they hadn’t walked into the banquet hall yet, but he wanted a clip of ramona and her dress for his video while they were still outside. although they had agreed to go to the dance together, there was no telling what would happen once they actually stepped inside, and this would be a crucial clip for the intro.

Sofia was not the type who enjoyed school dances but because it was her first year in the academy, she decided to go to the Winterfest Dance anyway. It took her a while to get ready which is why she was quite late. Not that she really minded. By the time she got there anyway, things seemed to have just started to be interesting. “So why aren’t you dancing?”, she asked as she approached the person standing by the dance floor.

having lost ramona earlier in the night, zander had mostly been floating between different groups of people. after photobombing a couple instagram photos and snapchatting way too many videos, he had stepped off to the side to snack on a slice of coconut cream pie and observe the dance floor. “ i was just out there, but i had to take a quick snack break before all the good desserts were gone. ” he took another bite, then turned his attention to the girl who had approached him. “ what about you? tired already? ”

“But I want to. It’s so much more fun that way,” she joked lamely with the other. She rolled her eyes as he went on with talking about statistics. “Don’t try and sound so smart. You’ll make the rest of us look bad. It’s supposed to be a dance. No homework or anything,” she added as she nibbled on a cookie. “Usually they at least until after a song or two, not right away. But I guess they want to make this the most epic dance ever.”

“ fun for who? ‘cause i feel very attacked right now, ” he laughed. “ usually it’s everyone else making me look bad, so i’m just gonna quit while i’m ahead. i’m always an advocate for no homework. ” as he absent-mindedly poured himself a cup of punch, he seemed to remember their current conversation and took a quick sniff of the drink. he set the cup back down, opting to grab a brownie instead. “ personally, i think it’s still a little too early for this. i have a feeling this thing won’t be as epic if everyone passes out before 9. ”

@harwickstarters​

The winterfest dance was definitely something to see. The events committee had worked hard making sure everything was right. Ashley almost didn’t have any time to get ready since she had stayed behind, perfecting every little detail that she possibly could. Now that she was there and the dance was in full swing, she could relax and enjoy herself. “I think this dance is definitely my favorite one we have every year. Though I’m a little worried about just how crazy things are going to get with the merge now. The punch was already spiked in a record amount of time.”

even zander could appreciate the obvious preparation that had gone into the dance that night. this was only his second time going to harwick’s winterfest dance, but he could tell that it had definitely stepped up its game this year-- especially with the food. “ hey, you can’t blame that on the merge. ” it probably was someone from maxwell who spiked the punch so quickly, but there was no proof of that yet. “ you’re not supposed to confuse coincidence with correlation... or causation. however that statistic thing goes. but whoever’s trying to spice this place up clearly isn’t wasting any time. ”