Sora yawned, and pushed his papers away, not caring that they fell of the desk. He checked the time and saw it was 11:45 PM, and groaned. The bright light of the latop screen hurt his eyes, and glared at the 200 word essay. At least, the essay should be 3 pages, which was due the next day at 3:00 PM. Sora didn't have time during the day, so he tried his best right now.
He typed his essay for a while, then worked on the very few worksheets he had left, and went back to his essay. He kept going back and forth, and his head started to hurt. His eyelids started falling, but he shook his head to wake himself up.
He stifled another yawn, and tried to keep himself awake as he saved his essay. He was done, finally. It was probably a mess, but he did it. A knock was heard, making the tired teenager jump. He rubbed his eyes, something their maid found rather cute. The door opened, and that very same person poked her head in. She had gotten up to get a glass of water, and saw Sora's light on.
As she was very close to Sora, she worried. Especially since his parents had been on a business trip for about almost three weeks. Sora looked up, and smiled.
"Clara..."
She shook her head with a smile, and walked inside. Sora had already changed, so she just helped him up and took him to bed. When Sora laid down, and turned to his work. He had finished, but still needed to put his stuff up.
"I got it. You sleep, tomorrow you'll be really tired if you don't," Clara told him.
She started putting his papers in small stacks, and closed his laptop, charging it so Sora could take it tomorrow in case he needed to fix something. She walked to him, and he was already wrapped in his blanket. She sat down on the edge, noticing how he was still not asleep.
"Think about things you love," she said softly, running her hand through his hair. "Anything you like to do, anything that could help you sleep."
"Mom...dad," he whispered, closing his eyes. "And Riku...I'd love to spend time with them."
Clara nodded. "I think you can, and you should."
"Will I get to see Riku again?" Sora mumbled, looking at Clara with tired half lidded eyes. "Do you think he still likes me? And wants to see me?"
"I'm sure he does," she told him.
She didn't know who Riku was, but she could tell that he was an important person to Sora. Clara had this idea, if Riku really was Sora's friend and Sora was as special to him as Riku was to Sora, then there was no way he could forget him.
"I hope so," he muttered, and within a few minutes, Sora was fast asleep.
She stayed for a bit, until she made sure Sora was asleep. She got up, and went to her own room.
Morning came quickly, and Sora wearily opened his eyes. He pulled the covers up, trying to block the sunlight. His head hurt, and did his body. Everything was sore, and he could barely sit up without his back hurting.
"Damn school. I started hating it with a passion now," Sora mumbled, sitting up from his bed.
He scratched his neck as he walked to the bathroom. He took a quick shower, got dressed into his school uniform, brushed his teeth, fixed his hair quick. Clara was up and around already, busy doing one thing or another. Sora was grateful. He quickly grabbed his stuff, and went to eat.
"Sora, I have a question. Of course, you do not have to answer if you do not wish to," Clara said, her back still to Sora.
Sora shoved a spoonful of food, and nodded.
"Yeah."
"Who's Riku? You mentioned him last night."
Sora put his spoon down, and swallowed his food. She turned, taking her own plate and serving it. Sora always told her to eat with him, so now she was doing it, at least for one day.
When she was done, she sat down, and Sor sighed. He pouted, and brought more food to his mouth. When he ate it, he looked up again.
"Riku was a not so rich guy at my old school, and while I did pick on him a lot, I actually started to like him," Sora told her, finally spilling what he wanted to say but never could. "You probably remember the contest, well it was partly because of my big ass ego but for the most part, it was because I wanted Riku to join.
I didn't expect him to, but turns out he did. I misunderstood something and thought he had a boyfriend, so I was a bit gloomy for a while. Anyway, Riku joined for the singing competition, and let me tell you Clara, he has an amazing singing voice! He's so freakin' perfect."
Clara chuckled, ignoring that word that seemed to slip out of Sora's mouth for now, though it seemed like realized it himself.
"And, I'm just taking a guess here and you're more than free to correct me if I'm wrong, but you have a crush on this Riku, don't you?" Clara asked, glad that Sora was more happy now, despite the pressure and amount of work that was school related.
"Yeah...I told him, but he said he would wait with with his answer, but now that we moved, I have no way of contacting him," Sora mumbled, poking the remaning food on his plate. "Even if I could, the amount of school work is too much, and I can't afford to lose focus."
"It may not be my place to say this, but I don't think that school is good for you," Clara said, taking a small sip from her drink. "I see that all you're doing is work, work, and more work without a break and you're stressing. You're eating habit has changed, you barely get any rest or breaks, and I'm worried."
Sora smiled. Sometimes, he felt like Clara was more of his mother than his actual one. There was no way Sora would ever let her leave. If she was fired, Sora would follow right after, even it meant he would lose a lot of privileges and work to earn to pay his own apartment.
"Thanks, but I'm fine," Sora told her, and picked up his glass to mumble, "I think."
Clara looked at the time, and stood up to pick up her's and Sora's plates. He was done, so the brunet was already picking his stuff.
"It was nice talking to you," Sora told her. "I got a lot off my chest, and I'm happy that you care about me but don't stress too much because of me. I'm fine."
"Alright. Take care," she said, then went to get money for groceries. "I hope it's not too early to buy groceries. I'll walk with you on your way."
Sora nodded, beyond happy he would still get to talk to her. If he was honest with himself, he'd rather be living with only Clara than with his parents. Sure, Sora may seem to have the most perfect life, and he did have a lot, but what is all that worth if he didn't get the attention from his parents that he deserved. Their love was what Sora really needed, and he got that from Clara.
And from Riku, friendship love or romantic, it didn't matter, because Riku was special.