Chasing Hearts

Thirteen

I had no choice but to go back home after school and face my father. He was waiting for me in the kitchen when I walked through the door.

"Where were you last night?"

I put my bag down and sat across from him. "I was angry about what happened, so I stayed at my friend Xiuying's place."

Shockingly, he seemed to believe this and just sighed.

"I don't know what happened with the painting, but you can't go around treating your stepsister like that. You need to be able to use your words and communicate with people, don't be like your mother."

"I'm nothing like her, and you're the last person who can make that comparison. You don't know who your daughter is, and you wonder why I act out like this."

"If you know you're acting out, then stop and start acting your age, Maia. I won't tolerate this nonsense much longer."

I glared at him. "Or what? You'll throw me out like my mother did?"

He went silent at this walked over to the kitchen island and grabbed a paper off the table. "Speaking of your mother, she contacted me recently and asked how you have been doing."

I scoffed. "I bet you didn't have much to tell her."

"No, because you are never home! You've barely spent any time with your stepmother since you arrived, you're never here for family meals, what do you expect?"

"You haven't treated me like family since the moment you abandoned me and my mother 7 years ago. It's too late for you to start treating me like it now." I picked up my bag and walked away, ignoring his shouts for me to come back and ran into my room to lock the door.

I wanted to run to the art shop, but I couldn't do that again. I was coming to rely on Reign too much, and that wasn't fair to me. Instead, I finally got to work on my tutoring flyers and curriculum. It took me the rest of the night and thankfully, my father didn't bother me once.

I was able to get everything completed and ready for tomorrow morning, I just had to get my thoughts sorted so I could fall asleep.

As much as I hated the thought, I tried to think about my time with Reign the other night, and that helped me fall into a peaceful sleep.

~*~

I got to work putting up my flyers as soon as I got to school the next day. As I was putting them up around the school, I was overjoyed to have a few people from my class approach me and show interest in having me tutor them.

I was already starting to think this would take off a lot better than I thought.

But when lunchtime rolled around and no one had approached me again, I was starting to wonder if I had gotten ahead of myself again. Once the lunch bell rang, I told Reign I would see him later and raced out to find one of my flyers and see if anyone had signed up.

I went to the one at the main office, and to my surprise, there was a signature on the first line, but I couldn't make out what the name was. It looked to be the writing of a guy, with how sloppy it appeared, but regardless; I had my first customer!

I said I would be happy if even one person signed up, and on the first day, I already had someone. That was all I needed to get my motivation and hope back into place for this scholarship, and hoped the other person going for it wasn't doing the same thing.

After lunch, I was excited to tell Reign how I had someone signed up already, but I stopped my thoughts when I realized just how excited I really was and wondered when I had started to look forward to sharing the good news with him.

As soon as he arrived in class, I told him all about it.

"Does that mean you're considering staying now?"

I frowned playfully at him. "Again, if I can get this scholarship, then there would be no need for me to go anywhere else. It also means I can work until then and only have to pay for room and board."

"Don't stress so much, I'm sure you'll get it."

I smiled. "Thanks, it feels good hearing that, I just hope my hard work pays off for once."

"Have you talked to your dad about it?"

I remembered our conversation from the other night, and how my mother was also mentioned. What would she think if she found out I planned to stay in the United States? Was she really going to come back for me?

At this point, I didn't want her to. I was finally settling down into my new life, the last thing I wanted was to be uprooted again. As much as I missed my friends back home, a lot of us had drifted apart the past few weeks and it felt like if I returned home, things wouldn't be the same anymore.

"What are you thinking about?" Reign asked.

"A fight my father and I had last night. He said my mother contacted him to see how I was doing, but she hasn't even tried to contact me yet."

I felt a hand on my knee and a slight squeeze before it disappeared. Reign didn't say anything, but the gesture said all he needed to.

~*~

Today was the day I met the person I would be tutoring. I posted that I would be in the study rooms in the library for anyone who signed up. I had everything set up on the table and had a slideshow out on my laptop with all the different subjects and what we were learning at the time.

I waited until it was 10 minutes after the time and they still hadn't shown, I was starting to get discouraged that they wouldn't show, until the door finally creaked open, and Reign walked in. My shoulders sank when I thought it was the student I was tutoring, but I became confused when he put his bag down on the table and started to take out his textbooks.

"What are you doing here, Reign? I have work to do."

He nodded. "I know, I'm here to help you earn that hard work."

"What do you mean? I don't need any help, I appreciate it, but I'm hoping the person I'm tutoring will be here soon."

He snickered. "I'm right here, Maia."

"W-what?"

He leaned over the table. "Please take care of me, Miss Beaufort."