Under Her Wing

Chapter 44

Danielle POV

"Just check that one again sunshine," I said gently, pointing to question 5.

I was sat with Mali on the sofa helping her catch up on some of the school work she'd missed. I'd emailed Greg to let him know she'd wouldn't be submitting everything and he needed to just accept the work she does manage to complete.

"Eughh I can't do it," she said frustratedly, throwing her pen to the floor.

"Ahhh ahh Mali it's alright. You've got all the other questions correct," I said calmly, leaning forward to pick up her pen.

I sat back up and rested my hand on her lower back.

"Just have another go baby," I encouraged.

She looked at the question again, frowning and furrowing her eyebrow. I moved my hand to her leg to keep it still.

I watched her carefully as she attempted the question again. She wrote in the answer and turned to me, anxiously biting down on her lip.

"Well done sunshine," I smiled, nodding to let her know she'd done it.

She sighed in relief, her shoulders dropping as some of the tension left her body.

"Come here," I said, pulling her to me and leaning back into the sofa.

"I'm so proud of you Mali," I whispered, holding her head to me and smiling as she brought her arm across me.

"Thank you for helping me," she replied, sighing against my chest.

"You're welcome sweetheart but I hardly did anything. You did so well," I assured her.

"Do you have any English work to do?" I asked, running my fingers through her hair.

"I need to finish reading my book so I can write a report," she explained.

"Go get it babe, I'll read the rest to you," I smiled, patting her arm.

She jumped up to go get it, quickly returning and reassuming her previous position against me.

"Comfy?" I smirked, feeling her snuggle into me.

"Yep," she nodded with a smile.

"Okay where we up to?" I thought aloud, flipping through the pages to the right chapter.

"One rule," I said before I began reading.

"What?" She asked, pushing herself to look at me.

"I know I always go on at you about sleep but this is for your school work, you can't fall asleep now okay?" I warned playfully.

"I'll try but I can't promise anything. Your voice is really calming," she admitted, laying her head back down.

I smiled softly at her before turning my attention to the book in my hand. I began to read and noticed Mali yawn tiredly a few times.

My attention was taken away from her book when there was a knock at the front door. I felt Amalia instantly tense up, her hand tightly gripping onto my clothes.

"It's okay sweetheart," I said calmly, about to go see who it was.

"Wait wait wait, I'll get it," Stefania's voice came from the hallway.

The two of us looked up to see her skipping excitedly to the front door.

"Dani," Mali said warily, holding onto my arm.

"I'm here sunshine," I whispered as Stefania opened the door.

I realised straight away it was a delivery man, holding a clipboard out in front of Stefania. She took it from him and quickly signed. She pointed towards the back garden and gave the man some instructions.