# Chapter 1: The A, the F, and the Tutor Who Got Away
Hello everyone, it’s me again! How are you all doing? Today I will continue to walk with you and review Chapter 1 of "The Deal: Off Campus." And wow, what a first step this is—a chapter built on awkward eye contact, academic panic, and one very determined hockey captain who has just met the one girl who refuses to melt.
We begin inside Hannah’s head, and immediately, the poor girl is suffering. She is sitting in Philosophical Ethics, stealing glances at Justin Kohl, the dreamy transfer student and star wide receiver who is so beautiful it practically short-circuits her brain. Hannah knows her male friends would hate that word—beautiful—but there is no other way to describe him. Dark hair, soulful brown eyes, quiet intensity. He is not like the other athletes at Briar. He does not strut. He does not smirk like he owns the world. And that only makes Hannah want to know him more.
There is a painful history beneath her crush, though. Since her assault five years ago, only two guys have made her heart pound. One dumped her. The other, Justin, does not even know she is alive. That detail matters. It tells us Hannah is not simply boy-crazy. She is careful. She is healing. She is trying to trust her own heart again, one tiny step at a time.
Then Professor Tolbert steals the scene, and not in a good way. She delivers what Hannah calls the Disappointment Speech—the third one in six weeks. Seventy percent of the class scored a C-plus or lower on the midterm. Tolbert offers a makeup exam, but with a cruel twist: the two grades will be averaged. If a student does worse the second time, the first grade stands. The whole lecture hall is basically a collective groan wrapped in backpacks and laptops.
Hannah, however, aced it. She is as shocked as anyone. She scribbled what she considered nonsense and somehow walked away with a big red A. Nell, the pre-med student beside her, is devastated. Nell comes from an overachieving family and cannot afford a bad grade. Hannah promises to scan her answers and email them later, a small kindness that shows she is observant and decent even when everyone around her is drowning.
But the real emotional crackle comes when Hannah looks at Justin again. This time, as Nell leaves, Justin pauses in the doorway. He turns. Their eyes meet. Hannah panics internally. Should she wave? Smile? Say something brilliant? She settles on a small nod—cool, casual, sophisticated. And then, miracle of miracles, Justin’s mouth lifts in a faint grin. He nods back. Then he is gone.
For Hannah, that tiny exchange is everything. After six weeks of sharing the same air, he finally noticed her. She wants to chase him, ask him for coffee or dinner or brunch—wait, do people their age even do brunch? But her feet stay glued to the floor. She is terrified he will say no, and even more terrified he will say yes. Her therapist Carole always says baby steps. Today’s victory: she nodded. Next class, maybe she smiles. The class after that, maybe she speaks. It is fragile, but it is progress.
Then the chapter shifts, and we land hard inside Garrett Graham’s head. And Garrett is not having a good day. He failed the midterm. He is furious. For fifteen years, Timothy Lane handed out A’s like mints. But the year Garrett takes Philosophical Ethics, Lane dies of a heart attack, and Pamela Tolbert takes over. Now Garrett is rocking an F in the class. Combined with a C-plus in Spanish history, his average has dropped to a C-minus. At Briar, athletes need at least a C-plus average to play. The dean demands excellence in everything. There is no wiggle room, no special treatment, no friendly jock exception.
Garrett is the captain of the championship-winning hockey team. He is also not stupid, despite what people assume. He lets them assume it, especially women, because casual hookups are easier when people think he is just a big, brawny caveman. But hockey is his future, and if he does not fix this grade, his future is in danger. Tolbert refuses to help. She tells him to attend tutorials and join a study group. He already does both. He is screwed.
As he sits there stewing, he notices he is not alone. The girl from the back row is still there—dark hair, pretty face, a body he somehow never noticed before. He cannot remember her name. Mandy? Marty? Mona? Something with an M. She catches him staring, and her frown tells him she is not impressed. He grumbles. She raises an eyebrow. He tries to brush it off. Then she heads toward the tutorial schedule clipboard, and he watches her go. It is not his finest moment.
When she stumbles and drops her books, Garrett actually does something decent: he helps her pick them up. And that is when he sees her midterm. She aced it. The same exam that crushed him, that crushed almost everyone, and this tiny, dark-haired girl nailed it. Garrett feels like he has just met Stephen Hawking and been handed the secrets of the universe. He asks to read her answers. She calls him forward. He calls her baby. She calls him presumptuous. He finally learns her name: Hannah. And she pointedly uses his name back—Garrett—like a tiny dagger.
He skims her answers and his hope sinks even lower. She writes about theory, about how philosophers would respond to moral dilemmas. Garrett deals in facts. Black and white. This happened at this time to this person. That is why he is a history major. Hannah’s mind works in the gray areas, the exact places where Tolbert seems to live.
So he asks the question. Will she tutor him? He offers to pay. Hannah hesitates. She says she cannot. She is juggling school and work, and the winter showcase is coming up. She is a music major. The winter showcase and spring performance are huge—agents, record producers, talent scouts, and a five-thousand-dollar scholarship for the winner. She does not have time to save Garrett Graham from academic doom.
Garrett tries the aw-shucks grin, the one with the dimples that usually makes girls melt. Hannah asks if that actually works. He says always. She corrects him: almost always. Then she leaves, tossing a final “Baby” over her shoulder like a challenge. Garrett is left staring after her, frustrated and stunned. Every girl at Briar would cut off an arm to help him. Hannah runs away like he asked her to sacrifice a cat to Satan.
And just like that, his faint flicker of hope is gone. He is right back where he started: royally screwed.
This chapter is a masterclass in setup. Hannah and Garrett are opposites in every way that matters on the surface—she is guarded, artistic, academically intuitive; he is athletic, desperate, used to getting what he wants. But underneath, both are afraid. Hannah is afraid of opening her heart. Garrett is afraid of losing the one thing that defines him. Their collision is funny, tense, and quietly vulnerable. The chapter gives us instant chemistry without forcing it, and it plants the seeds for a deal that readers just know is coming.
## Reader’s Impressions & Star Rating
I absolutely loved this opening chapter. It wastes no time establishing both voices, and the dual point of view works beautifully. Hannah’s internal monologue is anxious, witty, and deeply human. Garrett’s section is cocky but also panicked, and seeing him get shot down by the one girl who is not impressed by him is deeply satisfying. The chapter balances humor with real emotional stakes—Hannah’s trauma is handled with care, and Garrett’s academic crisis feels genuinely threatening to his future. The dynamic between them crackles from the very first interaction, and Hannah’s refusal to tutor him makes her instantly more interesting than a typical love interest.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.8 / 5 Stars
## Next Chapter Prediction
Garrett is not the type to give up, especially when his hockey career is on the line. I predict he will track Hannah down, maybe after rehearsal or in the library, and propose a deal. He will offer her something she actually wants—perhaps help getting Justin Kohl’s attention, since Garrett knows the athlete social circle better than she does. Hannah will resist at first, but the temptation of finally being noticed by Justin may be too strong to ignore. The title "The Deal" is practically begging for a bargain to be struck, and I think the next chapter will give us exactly that: a tutoring arrangement wrapped in a fake-flirting scheme that will inevitably blur into something real.
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