Thirty Days to Finals, I Swapped Study Buddies

One month before the college entrance exam, Marissa Zinch asks her childhood friend Nicholas Lund for help with a test question. He refuses to let her in, sends her a link to a cheap online tutor, and tells her to stop clinging to him like gum on his shoe. Through his window she sees the school belle, Hailey Lane, sitting at his desk in his jacket, while he gently explains a problem to her.

Marissa quietly contacts the tutor, who asks to be called Shane. He walks her through the question step by step, offers several solutions, and never mocks her for being slow. Under his calm guidance she begins to see that Nicholas was never impatient by nature, only unwilling to be patient with her, and that years of his scorn taught her to doubt herself.

When Nicholas notices she no longer leaves her error log on his desk, he accuses her of throwing a tantrum, while Hailey offers to return him to her. Marissa declines, saying she has her tutor now, and for the first time Nicholas seems unsettled as she turns her attention to her own studies.