Black & White

Chapter nine

I am going to my room and my sister is staying in the kitchen, to grab some candies. My dad is noticing candies in her hands and he tells her calmly:

-Nikakikh konfet, Anastasiya. Ne do uzhina.
(No candies, Anastasia. Not before dinner.)

She is sighing and I see her putting candies in her pocket anyway. I am smiling at her exactly knowing what she did and she is giving me a knowing smile back. Her secret is safe with me, she knows that I am not a snitch. I am going upstairs to use some tissues and I decide to take a nap, because I didn't sleep a lot last night. I am laying my face right into my pillow and letting myself go. I think that the nap I took in math class haven't satisfy my sleepiness, because I already know that I'll be sleeping for hours straight right now. I have approximately 2 hours to sleep. It's not bad...

It feels good to feel calm for once, just being on my bed and falling asleep. My dreams have been weird, I don't remember any of them, really. I was feeling so cozy until I heard my dad coming into my room and shaking me aggressively.

-Prosypaysya, Aleksey! Do vstrechi ostalos' vsego dve minuty!
(Wake up, Alexei! We have only two minutes left before the meeting!)

Why does he have to shake me like that...

-Ladno ladno...
(Okay okay...)

-Ne govori so mnoy tak, molodoy chelovek.
(Don't talk to me like that, young man.)

-Prosti, papa...
(Sorry, dad...)

I then quickly get out of my bed and rush into the bathroom to rinse my face with cold water. I always do this after getting sleepy and it truly helps, it wakes me up well. Certainly more efficient than being shaked. My mom is quickly hugging me and kisses my forehead, telling me goodbye before she leaves and then my dad is kissing her, as he does every time before she goes out. I want things to be like this with Vicky.

I can feel my stress coming into me again and so stomach pain and sweat on my forehead. My sister is laying on the doorframe waiting for me to see her. I can read through her lips "good luck" and she is leaving to get into her room. I am nervously smiling back and she comes back to her room, minding her own business, or not... I can't wait for this meeting to end already. My dad is opening the computer, and is opening his mail from the teacher, that has a link in it. He is opening it to open the camera next, and to shut off the microphone before entering the online meeting. We are waiting a few seconds and the teacher is already joining, greeting my dad. "Hello, Mister Pacaroskov. How are you?",asks my tutor with a smile. "I am alright, thank you" answers my dad. Let's say that he doesn't care how my tutor is doing. He is only there to know about what is the thing with me. That's all he wants to hear.

"I thought it would be a good idea to just- Organize this meeting with you, and the mom if ever she is joining" my tutor is clearing his throat, "Alexei might need help somehow".

My dad is looking me straight in the eyes. "Thank you for organizing this meeting, sir. His mom, unfortunately, won't be able to join us, but I eventually will tell her everything that you'll address about my son in the few minutes"

"Before starting all of this intervention, I would like you to know that Alexei is not a bad student himself. He is very quiet and this is a great quality that I want more students to possess. It would feel so much better for my nerves if all of them could be as quiet and not bothering as him" says my tutor trying to make it humoristic. And this, without any success. My dad still have his straight face and is absolutely not in the mood to laugh. Not even giggle.

"What about his behavior recently?"

"I'll say..." my teacher is saying with a quite slow tone, "It should get better"