Picture Perfect

Chapter 3

Jonathan POV (I know I'm going crazy with the POVs rn but I am mostly gonna do Alessia and some Jonathan)

It was a pretty slow day at Pattie's. My best friend, Parker, and I had mostly been goofing off since we got out of school. During the week no one really came in except past like 7, so we mostly did homework until a customer came in. Today was no different, except with homework Parker was professing his undying love or something.

"You don't understand, dude, but today she asked to borrow a pencil in Calc. Guess what I did. Froze up and basically threw the one I had at her. It was terrible man. Kayla probably thinks I'm an idiot." Kayla Turner. The girl Parker had been in love with since middle school.

"Well that's because she's right." I laughed at how awkward he was, not that I could talk really. I was just as bad.

"Oh shut up, Jonathan," he grimaced.

Parker and I had met when he moved here in 1st grade from California. He was the only other kid who had a Bill Nye lunchbox and since then it's been the two of us. Neither of us even tried to make other friends because we never needed to. Taking me out of suffering from hearing anymore nonsense from Parker, the bell at the door rang.

"Hello, welcome to Patti's Ice Cream and Bakery. Would you like to know our special flavors for today?" I greeted a woman who looked around her late twenties with long, light brown hair. She was dressed in a blouse and skirt like she had come straight from an office job.

"Sure, why not?" She said as she approached the counter. I told her the five memorized flavors for today with a big smile on my face, Mrs. Pattie's orders. "I think I'll have a small raspberry cheesecake cone."

"Yes ma'am. Will that be all?"

"Actually can I get two apple turnovers to go? If possible can they be fresh too?"

"It's your lucky day, ma'am, we just had a batch come out of the oven," I said before turning to Parker. "Hey, Parker can you wrap up two of the fresh apple pies." He nodded before heading to back the bakery where the oven was.

"Thank you," She glanced down at my name tag, "Jonathan."

"No problem," I smiled and began to scoop the ice cream for her cone. As I did so I noticed her eyeing my flyers on the counter beside the register. "TUTOR FOR HIRE--JONATHAN PHILIPS"

"Is this you? The tutor, I mean?"

"Yes ma'am. It is." I had decided to take on tutoring last week to help my mom out some. Her job wasn't paying as much as we hoped, so some extra cash couldn't hurt.

"This flyer is very professional, almost like a resume isn't it."

"I just like to make sure every detail is right." I could hear Parker laugh from the back, knowing how obsessive I could be of my own work.

"You sound just like me. You seem like a good kid," I smiled.

"Thank you, I like to think so. Here you go ma'am," I handed her her cone with a napkin to go with it.

"Thank you. You know what I think I have a proposition for you." She gave me a smile before licking her cone.

"A proposition? For what?" I honestly had no idea where this was going.

"For your tutoring. You see my daughter is struggling in school right now so I'd like you to tutor her." Daughter? She must be young so it wouldn't be too hard. Probably elementary school.

"Well that's great. Thank you. What hours are you thinking?"

"Well what are your hours here like?"