Chapter 2- Change

**********

Still Benji's POV

Two hours later, the brownies were ready. My mom put them in a box, and I got ready to go.

"Joel, you want to come?" I asked him.

"Absolutely," he said.

So Joel got his shoes on,

"Hi, can I help you?" A woman said, answering the door.

"Hi, I'm Benji." I introduced myself.

"I'm Joel," Joel said.

"We're friends of Ashley from school, and we just wanted to bring these over to welcome her to the school," I explained, indicating the brownies.

"Oh, well, that's very nice. Why don't you come in? Ashley is in the living room."

"Thanks," I said, and Joel and I followed the woman (who must've been Ashley's mom) inside and to the living room.

"Ashley," she said," these two boys are here to see you."

"Hey, Benji. Hey- Joel?" Ashley greeted us. I guess she wasn't quite sure of my brother's name.

"Hey, Ash," I said.

"So what's up? What brings you over here?" Ashley asked us.

"Our mom wanted us to bring you these brownies to welcome you to the school. It's totally cheesy, I know, but-"

"No, no, it's nice. I love brownies," she smiled.

"Hey, you know, I used to do gymnastics," I told Ashley. It's true, except I did gymnastics when I was about five years old. "I'm really good at handstands." I'm also really good at math, and if you can't tell, I'm really good at sarcasm.

"Really?" she looked interested. I wondered if she could tell that I was exaggerating a bit. "Can I see?"

Joel raised an eyebrow at me.

"Sure," I replied. I hadn't done a handstand in about ten years, but I did one anyway.

Well, I tried to do it. I failed.

"That was very nice, Benji," Ashley said. I could tell she was amused.

**********

Ashley's POV

The rest of the week passed by surprisingly quickly. All of my classes were interesting, and it was really awesome being with Benji. He's pretty funny. He thinks he's an idiot, but he's really not, and he's pretty charming, too.

Friday came, and I couldn't be happier when it was the end of the day. I was at my locker (which, thankfully, was on the first floor) when Benji ran over to me.

"Hey!" I said.

"Hey! What's up?"

"Not much, I'm just so incredibly glad it's the weekend. What about you?"

"Same. Can I ask you a really, really, big favor?" Benji pleaded.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, math is really, really, hard for me, and I'm not doing very well, and I was wondering if you could maybe help me, seeing as you're in AP Calculus so I'm sure you already know all this dumb pre-calculus stuff."

"Pre-calculus isn't dumb, but sure, I'll help you. When do you want to start?"

"Well, we have a test on Monday, and I don't really want to fail it, so maybe today?"
He said hopefully.

"I'm sure you won't fail it, but that sounds great. Why don't you come over to my house and we can go over whatever you need to for the test?" I suggested.

"Uh- okay, sure," Benji replied. He looked a little shocked at what I had said.

**********

"So the limit of the function f of x as x goes to zero is what?" I asked.

"Uh… one?"

"Awesome! Benji, you totally know limits. Let's take a break now. It's almost 6:00," I said.

Soon, my mom came in to my room.

"Ashley," she said, "it's almost time for dinner. Are you going to say the prayers?"

"Um, sure. Hey, can Benji stay for dinner? I know it's Shabbat, but-"

"Of course, Ashley, of course," she said. "I'll go set an extra place for him." She left.

"What's Shabbat?" Benji asked, once she had closed the door.

"The Sabbath, it's the Jewish day of rest. It begins Friday at sundown and ends at sundown on Saturday. My family is reform Jewish, but we do Shabbat dinner every Friday night. It's just a tradition."

"That's really cool. But can I say, I'm a little surprised you're Jewish. Del Rossi isn't exactly a Jewish-sounding name."

"I know. My dad's not Jewish, but my mom is, so they raised me Jewish."

"That's pretty cool."

"So I'm guessing you've never been to a Shabbat dinner before?" I asked.

"Nope. But I'm sure it'll be good."

**********

Benji's POV

Eventually, Ashley and I decided that we'd do our tutoring sessions on Tuesdays and Fridays, for an hour or however long it took to go over the material.

I got home that night at around 7:30. When I walked in the door, Joel came down the stairs.

"So how'd it go?" He asked.

"How'd what go?"

"Ashley 'tutoring' you. How'd it go?"

"It went fine, Joel, and I have no clue why you're so excited," I told him, point blank.

"Dude, whatever. It's so obvious, whatever."

Huh? What was he talking about? What was so obvious?

By the time I said, "What's so obvious?", Joel had already headed into the kitchen.

**********

The next Tuesday, after math, I met Ashley outside of room 111.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey! What's up?" She said, and started walking in the general direction of her locker.

"Nothing, really, uh, I was just wondering. You're tutoring me today, right?"

"Yeah, that's the plan. Do you want to come over to my house again?" She suggested.

"Actually, I was thinking maybe you could come over to my house, and maybe stay for dinner? My mom really wants to meet you."

"That sounds great," she said.

**********

Ashley's POV


"So what did you get?" I asked Benji.

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes!"

"Are you really sure?"

"Yes! Come on, tell me!"

"Alright, fine." Benji fished the test out of his backpack and showed it to me.

"Eighty-eight percent! Benji, that's great. I'm so proud of you."

"It's all thanks to you," he said. I smiled.