The Last Month

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Considering how much had happened in the last month, one would think John had a lot to think about. And he did, but the only thing that ever came to mind was how much Seraphina had been stopping by his room. The first time it happened, he was really confused. John had thought she hated him and he didn't even blame her. Here he was forcing himself into her life and then to add salt to the wound, he went and gloated about his ability.

She wasn't even that rude when she barged into his safe space. Yeah, his step-sibling name-called him and wouldn't stop insulting him with petty comments, but it wasn't like he hadn't fired back. After a bit, she left, but still even after that day she kept coming back. Every few days, Seraphina would stop by to make fun of him, the short conversations they shared were filled with dumb insults and lame comebacks. But slowly over the course of June, Seraphina had started to visit more, and instead of instigating fights, she would just sit on his couch and work on homework.

He never questioned why. He never asked what had changed between them. Honestly, John enjoyed the company. It's not like they said much the first few times she stole his couch. They just sat quietly as the sound of pencils against paper filled the room. At some point during the peace though, their conversations began. It started with her just asking questions on certain problems and then slowly they started to get sidetracked. Nowadays it would be weird if they didn't have at least one full-blown chat about the most random of things. John did start to feel guilty for doing something other than silently working on his assignments, but he couldn't help himself from enjoying the chatter.

After a while, it became a routine. She would knock 3 times, he would tell her to get lost and they would relish in each other's company while grinding down their homework. And it was nice. God was it nice. So many days filled with unbearable silence had made him start to go crazy. With Seraphina, he could finally start to figure out how to act around people. He could finally start the process of learning how to conduct himself like a high-tier.

That brought him back to the only other thing he could think of, his counselor. He h̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ appreciated his counselor. She was just a little too good at her job. No matter how much he tried not to let her get into his head, she always did. Her sweet and kind and annoying, and grating, and tortuous, and-

The point is, she was a̶w̶f̶u̶l̶ a bit more than he could handle and John didn't really know how to cope with her manipulation. The majority of the things she talked to him about were poor attempts at targeting his weak points and the others were just her insulting his dad's bad parenting. He tried to forget most of the things she mentioned, but for reasons he hated, he just couldn't.

There was one thing he chose to not try and forget. His counselor told him of a technique that involves copying someone's way of speech and then making it his own. She told him it might help with becoming more of a leader and to be honest, the teen was already considering doing something similar before this whole mess had started.

Not that he would ever tell his counselor or Narisa, but John had wanted to imitate his d̶a̶d̶ old guardian. The man was charismatic and even with a shitty hand, he somehow always won. Well, every time except for when it mattered. Still, John tried to twist it into his own god-tier way and it seemed to be working on Seraphina. Having said that, it didn't stop the dislike John had for his counselor.

John sighed and looked at number 16 of his math sheet. It was a dumb question that he had been stuck on for the past hour. At one point he gave up and just started waiting for Seraphina to show up. She probably wouldn't have a single clue considering she was a year behind, but he tried to be optimistic. And speaking of the devil, John heard a knock on his door.

Something John didn't notice in his hazy mind though, was that it was not the 3 knocks of Seraphina he had heard. It was 4 quick knocks with no Seraphina on the other side.

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