By Jessica Kuan
“David!” The shrill voice of Celine cut through the sounds of singing birds. The feathered creatures immediately took flight, causing a cacophony of wings flapping to berate David’s ears.
“Clara took my favorite handbag! Ugh, I paid for that!” David's dream ended abruptly and he was shaken back into reality. His eyes snapped open. His eyelashes faintly batted against his eyes, causing him to raise his hands to his face and rub them. A glance around allowed him to assess his situation. He was lying on the couch with a book half-opened on his chest. The young adult furrowed his brows. Had he stayed up too late reading again last night?
He groaned, debating whether or not he should get up. Celine was probably just complaining over something small that her twin had done that would sort itself out later.
“DAAAVIIIDDD!” Celine spoke once more, dragging her words out.
He cringed instinctively. “Aren’t you going to do anything?”
David let out an exasperated sigh, groaning as he rolled off of the comfortable sofa he had been occupying. He really ought to see what Celine was going on and on about. It was during times like these that he wished he had younger brothers instead.
He grabbed his watch and bag and changed into some better-looking clothes before dashing to the living room where his sister was.
“What is it this time?” He rolled his eyes at his sister as he poured some cereal into his bowl. “You’re always arguing with Clara over every little thing. You should learn to share!!”
“You think I don’t know that?” Celine hissed back. She was fully dressed, sitting on the couch behind him. “She should ask for permission at the very least, don’t you think?”
“You’re twins! I would expect you two to be thinking on the same wavelength, you know?” David chuckled, shoveling some cereal into his mouth.
She mumbled something unintelligible, before snapping her fingers in the air.
“David!” Celine gasped suddenly.
David nearly choked on his cereal. He groaned and braced himself. Whenever Celine called his name, that never meant anything good for him.
“What?” he whimpered. He picked up his bowl and dragged his feet to the counter, letting it fall in the sink with a deafening crash. It was a miracle it was still intact. David turned around slowly to face her. Celine had a large grin plastered over her face.
“Isn’t today the day you have to teach that girl? Mom and Dad pulled a lot of strings so you could get that summer job,” she said in a teasing tone. “Don’t tell me you forgot…”
David felt his mouth go dry. His hands began to feel clammy. He had completely forgotten! Without saying a word, he rushed to the door and grabbed his keys. He slung his backpack over his shoulders and ran towards the garage. Celine’s soft giggles could be heard from behind.
“Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you. Clara took your bike as well!” she called out. Her voice sounded muffled from behind the door, but the effect her words had on him was sharp and clear. His blood began to boil.
“I PAID for that! She should’ve asked for my permission!” he yelled back furiously. Celine’s giggles grew into a hearty laugh.
Thinking quickly on his feet, he looked around for any other form of mobility that was available. He could take his bike! He looked for the red bicycle and let out a sigh of relief. It was parked exactly where it was meant to be. The young adult mounted the bicycle and pedaled frantically onto the sidewalk. Sweat pooled down his forehead as his bicycle maneuvered away from the long train of cars stuck in a traffic jam. This was his first day as a tuition teacher and he did not want to be late.
As his bicycle came to a skidding stop in front of the building, David’s eyes widened at the sight. The house the directions had led him to was quite unlike any other he had seen before, with large arched windows that seemed to have level upon level piled on top of each other. Whoever the child’s parents were, he was sure they were extremely wealthy.
The door was opened by a young lady around his age. She was dressed modestly and had her long brown hair tied up into a bun. Judging from the duster she held in her hand, he deduced that she was the housekeeper. She scanned him from head to toe and raised an eyebrow slowly.
“Math teacher?” she drawled.
He nodded slowly.
She scoffed and turned around, gesturing for him to follow her. David gulped and followed her sheepishly. She was certainly going to report everything to his student’s parents and that meant that he had to make a good impression.
“You’ll find her in there,” she said smoothly, pointing to a room down the hallway.
“Aren’t you going to ask for my name... or introduce yourself?” he asked, tugging at the straps of his bag. He tried his best to sound professional. “After all, we’ll be seeing each other a lot from now on!”
“A lot?” the housekeeper laughed. Her tone was dismissive. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach begin to build. “Yeah, right.”
“Oh yeah? What makes you think that?” he said slowly. He was starting to feel angry.
“All of her teachers give up eventually. If they’re good teachers, they’ll last a week. But you don’t seem like you’re a part of the latter. You won’t last a day.”
David furrowed his brow.
“You’re 5 minutes late, hurry up and go inside,” she said matter-of-factly. “Hurry, go.”
She was right about him being late. However, he was determined that she would not be right about everything else. He was going to prove her wrong. In upright defiance, David pursed his lips and shook his head, turning on his heels to meander down the hallway to the door she pointed to.
The 17-year-old walked into the room, hardly knowing what to expect. It wasn’t exactly what he would call a room. He was met with what seemed to be another hallway filled with furniture. Every inch of the walls was lined with bookshelves and every inch of the shelves was lined with books. It was crowded but felt as clean as a hospital. He swallowed.
He took a seat next to the only girl in the room. She was sitting at a large wooden desk and was swinging her feet in the air. David dropped his bag on the ground beside him. and pulled an old elementary Math book out.
"Hello. My name's David, but you can call me, Dave. I'm your new tuition teacher," he announced proudly. David smiled warmly and held a hand out to the girl. If he could not talk to the housekeeper, he might as well try to give the child a good impression. The girl simply stared at him in silence for a whole minute before opening her mouth.
In the silence, one could hear a pin drop.
"I'm Kiera," she said, Her emotionless expression slowly morphed into a grin. Her two front teeth were missing. All at once, David felt his shoulders stiffen and a chill run down his spine. Kiera seemed to be about nine years old and had a foreboding aura about her. Her blonde hair was pulled behind her head into in a messy little ponytail. A determined glint with just a hint of mischief flashed across her brown eyes as she folded her arms.
“Well Kiera, let’s get started, shall we? Let’s see whether you can do a basic sum. '' David said, breaking the silence. He broke eye contact first, turning to the book and flipping it open. He pointed to the first question in the first chapter, reading it aloud.
“Tim swims 6 metres. If Tim swims another 4 metres meters, how many meters does he swim?”
“Is it… 7?” she said slowly.
“Uhm, no. Try again,” David suggested.
When she continued to get it wrong several times over after he had gone over theory, he felt the blood rushing to his head.
"No! That's not right." He shook his head. Suddenly, the girl burst into tears.
"Oh, Kiera, don't cry." David pulled out a tissue and held it up to her. If she cried too easily he would never get anything done. David frowned.
"I don't want to do this anymore," she turned her head up.
"You have to."
“Says who?” Kiera snapped. She snatched the tissue out of his hands.
“Me,” David said, crossing his arms. He had lowered his voice to the kind one usually used to reason with little children. “Unless someone else here who knows math better than I do. You should at least sit and listen.”
”Just because I should,” she was grinning from ear to ear as she spoke. He could tell from the way she shifted in her seat that she was planning something. “...doesn’t mean I’m going to.”
Kiera let the tissue in her hand fall to the floor as her hand reached out to grab the exercise book.
"W-wait!” Panic flashed in his eyes as he realized what she was planning.
All at once, the child leapt from her seat. She had soon begun weaving through the bookcases around the study, all while holding the mathematics book above her head.
Not far behind the child was David, running as fast as his feet could carry him after Kiera. No matter how hard he ran, he could not seem to keep up with her.
At every corner, he could see the bright flash of her teeth, and each time she disappeared from his sight her high-pitched laughter gave her location away. He was not sure how much time had passed, but the teenager was just contemplating giving up as the little girl ran past another corner.
Slowing down his pace, David finally came to a stop to recover his breath. He retraced his steps and trudged back to the desk.
Even as his eyes were fixed on the ground, he knew at once that the girl had stopped running just as he did. The sound of her footsteps had stopped sounding like they were going further and further away, but instead got louder as she began following him from behind.
“Aren’t you going to chase me?” she asked, stopping as he did before the desk..
David raised his eyes to her. She dropped the arm holding the book to her side. Her arms were hanging limply on each side of her, and the smile turned into a disappointed frown.
Still recovering his breath and unable to speak, he simply shook his head.
“Math is no fun. This is no fun,” Kiera said, walking over to him slowly. She raised a hand out and pointed at him. “You’re no fun.”
The student was scolding the teacher.
“Wh-what?” David sucked in a breath between each word he spoke. It was almost funny.“Math is fun!”
“No it isn’t!” she retorted, throwing the book on the ground.
Slowly, his eyes widened as he came to a realization.
“Is this why you never listened to any of your teachers? Just because it wasn’t fun?”
Saying nothing, the girl simply nodded her head.
The situation was so simple that David was surprised he himself had not already guessed. He couldn’t help but chuckle.
“How about this?” He leaned forward, picking up the book from the ground. “Why don’t we play a game?”
Kiera’s eyes lit up and her smile reappeared just as quickly as it disappeared. “What kind of game?”
“A Math game.”
“That can’t be much fun,” she raised an eyebrow.
“It can when these are involved.” David reached into his backpack and out came a small bag of sweets. He set them on the desk, letting the plastic wrapping rustle loudly as it came into contact with the table. Kiera’s mouth opened so wide, it looked like her jaw had dropped to the ground.
“Let’s try this again,” David muttered as he flipped the book open once more. “Tim swims 6 metres.”
As he said this, he pulled six sweets out of the bag and set them in front of Kiera, “These will represent the metres Tim swam.” She blinked.
“If Tim swims another 4 metres, how many metres does he swim?” David held the bag in front of Kiera. He noticed at once that she was a fast learner, for she reached into the bag and pulled out exactly four sweets before he could finish his sentence.
Dropping all the sweets onto the desk, she swept them up together into a collection and stared at them hard. Slowly, her focused gaze relaxed and she snapped her head back at David.
“10!” She exclaimed. Kiera was smiling again, but this time, her smile was one David had not seen before. It was a smile of accomplishment and pride.
“He has 10 swee-” She paused, catching herself just in time. “-I mean, he swam 10 metres.”
Kiera chuckled sheepishly, and soon enough, David couldn’t help but join in.
As if on time, the door behind them creaked open. The head of the housekeeper popped in. She had a curious expression on her face that David noticed at once.
“It’s time to leave,” she drawled, much like she did when he first arrived.
The only difference was that this time, she smiled.
A large smile tugged at the sides of David’s lips.