Lessons to Educate

[EffyDearest]

jsaw.


Morning had come. The darkness in the air was still disappearing, but it hadn't mattered. Adalia was a busy body at the time either way. It had probably taken her father thirty minutes just to wake her up, long enough that he packed her belongings in the car himself and almost had fallen back asleep inside of his truck. His daughter's ability to be late everywhere was infuriating, but after today she would only be his problem during breaks.

Adalia had used all their free time possible to be lenient on the road with for sleeping. By the time she finally rose from bed her hair was frizzy and mismanaged. It had taken her several minutes to get herself looking presentable and cute, only deciding to even bother getting changed after enough pouting. How was she going from an average public school to a private one with a uniform!? Life was becoming so unfair. She didn't even really want to go, some of her best friends were going to be off to college by the time she even got back.

After fussing with herself the white-and-black blazer-and-skirt setup went on and she admitted to herself it very much fit her appearance. Adalia had a thing for monochrome colors, especially in hair. She twirled around in front of a mirror for a moment before finding herself sprinting down the steps, almost shouting.

"Sorry daddy I forgot!"

All she had time to do was grab a protein bar and slide into the passenger seat, shaking her dad back awake to a grumble. The entire car ride though was perfect for her. She had a phone and some headphones, while the duration of the drive was eased with a handheld that she purchased before leaving her part-time mall job.

Adalia was in love with video games, using them as a way to not only pass time but competitively edge her. She would end up spending almost an entire day playing if unsolicited. As a child she would cry the hardest if a punishment involved no games for a week and her room at home was stuffed full of Nintendo and Sony posters. A lot of her homework in high school was missed because of her uncontrollable desire to stay connected.

Sometime during the two hours they had to travel to drop her off Adalia dozed off. Her father, being the evil prankster he is, decided to finally halt the car unnecessarily hard, jerking them back and forth a tad. She shook awake to this half-shouting, her father chuckling and already helping unload her belongings from the back.

"N-Not cool at all Dad come on! What if I dropped my console!? What if I hit my head on the window cuz I was leaning against it!? What if...."


---


Night crept by slowly. Underneath soft cotton blankets and the dark sky he tossed and turned, unable to actually sleep. A little boy sat upright in his bed, staring outside his window. Messy black hair was pushed out of his sight, revealing sharp hazel eyes that didn't seem to be looking at anything at all. He crawled from his bed and leaned against his windowsill, staring down the walls to the ground.

Anxiety was swallowed with every passing moment. He wasn't going to be with mommy and dad for the first time, and wasn't going to be learning on his own rate. His parents had assured him where he would be going would easily keep up with him, which he doubted but did have high hopes for. However fear of knowing there would be other students overtook him evermore.

Unable to actually fall asleep, Yomi strolled to his bathroom to shower, preparing himself in his black uniform several hours ahead of time. He grabbed a novel- usually one related to a topic he was studying but today was one he wanted to read for fun. Of course, being so young that meant it was about ninjas and samurai and all sorts of goodies.

The sun had nearly fully risen when a servant who had came to find Yomi in his room instead found him at the front room, already ready to go. He was loaded into the vehicle already packed with his two suitcases. He had a laptop case on his side, sitting in the backseat with the same book in hand. Such was the last he knew, at least. He was shaken very gently by whoever his parents had hired to drive him. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and got out, grabbing the handles to his things.

Yomi stood, staring the building he was to be learning at down. The style it was built in made him assume the manor was old, but he couldn't exactly find fault in the seams between panels, and the lawn outside was taken detail to, he noted. Yomi liked it, though. Admittedly he was hoping for something more modest, wanting to actually experience a downgrade from his comfortable lifestyle from wealthy parents. But they were also busy people, constantly trading money around. There had been much time where he wanted to spend time with them but couldn't get them to. It didn't matter now.

His ears perked to hearing someone yelling, turning his head. He saw a pretty young woman with lovely snowflake hair, yelling at a taller man who seemed amused. Yomi took notice of the car he drove, liking the shiny red color. It seemed rather unique, too, but he couldn't be sure. He looked around for anyone but saw nothing. The truth was that girl was still intimidating to him, unsure of who she was except that she liked yelling.

He started walking to the front.


---


Adalia found herself in a tight embrace with her father for a few more seconds.

"Okay. Bye daddy, see you soon." She turned with her things trailing her and walked towards the front, noticing a small boy headed the same. She giggled in her head, thinking him adorable. The age gap was crazy, though. Were there more students inside? She had to have assumed so. But with how high tuition fees were she suddenly wasn't so sure.

[La Fay]

After receiving her orders, a young woman started down the hallway of the grand manor heading for the entrance hall.

She wore a shin-length black maid's dress and white apron, her long light brown hair flowing softly down to the base of her back, with a green ribbon in her hair. Her hazel eyes shone brightly and happily, as she made her way down the hall, excited hearing that the manor would be receiving not one but two new students that had just arrive, normally the manor only took one at a time, so two was going to be such an experience for everyone at the manor.

Entering into the large spacious entrance hall with its many doors and grand staircase to the second floor, the young maid made her way right for the double doors out onto the manor’s front steps where she was to meet the new students.

Opening the double doors she stepped out with a bright smile, “Welcome to La Fay manor” she greeted them as they approached with their luggage, “My name is Helen Carter, I’m a maid here at the manor, and personal servant to her Grace, if you would please leave your belongings in the entrance hall, I have been given orders to escort you both to her grace’s office, as it is customary for all new students to be met by her upon arrival to the manor. Your things will be taken to your rooms while you are in conference with her Grace” she explained before turning to the side and gesturing to enter politely.

[EffyDearest]

Upon reaching the front Yomi grew unsure. Was he supposed to just go inside? The only thing he wanted to do was run back to the vehicle to go home, but they had already departed. Same with Adalia's father, apparently. By the time he came to a decision, the doors were swinging open without his choice. A young maid was revealed to them with a sunny expression but she could have been the devil for all Yomi cared.

He instantly grew nervous and felt cold and alone without the safety of being surrounded by his parents and his own home. He stared at her feet mostly, still attentively listening to what she had to say. The 'Grace', hm? Yomi wasn't too quite sure if that was how he would actually refer to the headmistress, but if she was nice he figured why not. His head slowly turned to see Adalis who had made her way next to him.


---


"Sounds good!" Adalia smiled up at Helen.

She turned her head to see Yomi looking rather curiously at her, but it didn't take long for her to understand the fear he had in him. Unfortunately she just wasn't sure what to do for him. He wasn't her brother or anything. Adalia's massive soft spot for children took over, though. She stepped a bit behind Yomi and gave him a very gently encouraging push. He had yipped a bit when she touched him, but he made his way inside.

Once they were both inside Adalis left both of her suitcases next to Yomi's, stuffing her handheld and headphones inside one, leaving her phone in her pocket.

Yomi's suitcases stayed together with his laptop case tied to the side of one. He didn't really like leaving his belongings out of his sight but he wasn't exactly afraid someone would take them here. He still couldn't meet Helen's eyes or anything but found Adalia more soothing already.

"I guess I'm ready for you to take us to her," Adalia responding, getting a resounding nod from Yomi signaling him ready as well.

[La Fay]

Helen smiled, “then please follow me” Helen said as she gestured to the right-hand side of the entrance hall to a long narrow corridor that leads past a set of double doors a few meters in on the left, while the right-hand side was all windows that looked out onto a closed patio at the front of the manor.

Helen lead them quietly down the corridor and around the bend heading to the last door on the right at the far end of the corridor, before stopping at it and knocking on it.

After a few seconds, a feminine voice spoke “Enter” and Helen opened the door stepping in for a moment as she addressed the young woman behind the desk

She had a slim figure with a modest bust hidden behind a light grey short sleeves blouse, and a loose darker grey ankle-length dress, she had long silky smooth silver hair with white highlights that flowed over her shoulder and down her back, which matched well with her smooth unblemished complexion. Around her neck sat a decretive neck collar separate from her blouse with a small set of three purple roses with a green ribbon behind them, which matched her violet eyes completing her appearance.

Helen bowed in the doorway, “your grace, the two new students have arrived” she stated

Christina looked up from her paperwork with a smile, “Thank you, Helen, please send them in and return to your duties” she instructed with a pleasant smile.

Helen bowed once more before leaving the room and gesturing for the pair to enter with a soft smile.

[EffyDearest]

Once Helen took off Adalia put a hand gently on Yomi's back and pushed him forward some. He ended up walking at a better pace to keep up with Helen and Adalia's footsteps. It wouldn't really have been a task had he not been so distracted by all of the grandiose. His focus now darted everywhere because, well, he was still young enough to be excitable. It suddenly occurred to him he wasn't seeing many students. Were they it? That seemed rather nice to him, actually.

Adalia walked casually, her fingers slyly slipping to her phone to flick the switch to vibrate so it wouldn't make noise while she wasn't at her room. She figured it'd be rather rude to go off during the first meeting. Of course she made sure to note everywhere around so she wouldn't have to constantly be asking. She was certainly going to. Oh yeah.

As they arrived to their destination she nudged Yomi to enter first into the room, following him directly after. He didn't move so fast this time, almost paralyzed as if he was afraid. It made Adalia a bit nervous of looking rude, so she nudged a bit harder and he shuffled inside the room.

"Hello," she greeted first quickly, staring the woman down quickly, a smile on her face. She adored how Christina was dressed, noticing more features after. "I'm Adalia." She tilted her head and put her hands together some, trying to look as pleasing as possible for her first impression.

Yomi however hadn't managed to look back up yet. The aura in the room changed some; he feared Christina somewhat and wasn't sure why yet. He was unable to meet her eyes at all and instead opted to mumble out of his mouth.

"I'm Yomi.."

[La Fay]

Christina smiled as she stood up from her desk as her two new students entered the room.

"Hello to both of you, and welcome to La Fay manor, I trust everything has run smoothly for you both thus far" she said as she rounded her table and approached them, "As you no doubt have guessed, I am Duchess Christina La Fay, headmistress and head professor at this manor" she said warmly before looking to Yomi and sensed his fear

giving a warm smile she walked over and knelt down in front of him, "It okay little one, there's no reason to be afraid here, your safe, no one is going to hurt you" she said gently, "can you look at me please, it's rather rude to not look at someone when they're talking to you" she said as kindly as possible.

[EffyDearest]

Yomi froze up entirely, stuck as if someone stuck a stick in his gears. The movement took a moment to come back, slowly meeting miss Christina's gaze with his own. He looked meek, but was willing to cooperate though rather slowly with the person who was now in charge of him. As he took in the sight of miss Christina his vision softened some. Her look was a lot more engaging and less stressed than he had originally thought, mostly based off assumption of position.

"Y-Yes ma'am.." he said a bit louder, though still not all the way there. If he was going to prove any sense of maturity he knew he had to follow up with everything she requested. The niceness in her voice was also rather reassuring to him. He took a finger and brushed hair that had fallen in front of his eyes to the side neatly, trying to save some face from his earlier infraction.

Adalia took note of how she reacted to Yomi and had a happy smile on her face. Adalia suddenly had no idea just what her dad was talking about when he would say 'you can't get away with that at this school!' or 'your new headmistress will really wipe that smirk off your face.' She couldn't help but giggle a bit at the scene, biting her lip back to silence as she waited for the rest of the introduction.

[La Fay]

Christina smiled at the young boy warmly, "thank you, young man, it's always nice to see such bright new students coming to my manor" she said before standing up slowly so as not to startle the young Yomi

"Now then what shall we discuss first, perhaps, do either of you have any questions about the manor or your classes, I'd be happy to answer any you have, as would my staff, my youngest daughter, you have already met, Helen, would also be happy to answer any questions as well, as would her older sister Violet, both are very welcoming to new students to the manor, we don't get many very often" she smiled, "in fact next to the two of you there is only one other student currently taking classes here, Sara, the daughter of our head chef, she's a year younger than you Adalia, I'm sure she'd be most welcoming of a new friend also"

[EffyDearest]

"Huh.. if she's your daughter why doesn't she just call you mom?" Adalia thought aloud, realizing it only momentarily later. She held an innocent expression up, pushing the question aside after. "Let's go over classes then, huh? I know I signed up mostly for classes related to advancing myself as a novelist!" she grinned at Christina but it was for naught. If she could she would just stream herself playing games, having very little interest in the subjects she excelled in.

"Cuz I know I mean, I can write a mean essay and all that jazz, but who is the primary instructor for those classes? Surely you don't teach everything here?"

Adalia honestly had very little care about such a question. She did, however, care to move quickly on to getting to her room so she could bust out her phone. It wasn't that Christina bored her, just that a few texts needed to get sent already and she was dying to play her games. Staring at Christina for a few more minutes didn't sound bad, though.

Yomi looked awkwardly at Adalia, as if she didn't understand the concept behind it at all. Surely she understood it was all for respect, right? He guessed not. He didn't necessarily like it but in his mind he already put himself ahead of her, mentally. However Yomi was very open to ideas and understood different people knew different things depending on different situations from their different lives.

"Y-Yeah.. I have a question. M-My mom made my schedule and there's a class I want to um drop.."

[La Fay]

Christina nodded at the informal question, "Well she addressed me that way as a sign of respect I believe, she does call me such at other times but during the more formal settings the use of my proper address is how she prefers to address me" she explained

"Now if I recall you signed up for Literature, Grammar, and Penmanship, and as it happens, those are all classes that I take personally, so we will be seeing a lot of each other Ms. White." she smiled, "and your options are always open to adding more classes to your roster should you or your parents feel the need, three classes is only the bare minimum of what is required, and I encourage all students to try to expand their skills beyond what they're comfortable with, for how else can we grow if we do not expand our horizons" she smiled, "I might recommend one of our more physical classes, or maybe a hobby class, Helen is the instructor for the manors sowing, embroidery and knitting lessons, I'm sure she'd be happy to take you as a student, or perhaps something more refined, Ballroom dancing perhaps, my eldest daughter, Violet, instructs that class with myself part time, I'm sure you'd look lovely on the dance floor, at one of the many Balls held at the manor"

with her piece said Christina looked to Yomi, "oh, and what class would that be, if I recall your parents signed you up for four classes Political Strategies and Maneuvers, Etiquette, Literature, and Swimming, if you require me to drop one of your classes I would like to know which one, and your reason as I will have to contact your parents to make this request as it was them who listed you attend all of your classes"