Redemption

How Hard Can It Be?

"So what you're saying is you're here to help me or you die?" Brandon had blanched a little, head tilting slightly to the right.

Anya had just finished explaining everything to Brandon, she'd wandered off with him on her heels and chose to hold the discussion in a nearby park, at his request to not be too far from home and away from his brother in the case of an emergency.

"Yes, so all you need to do is tell me what you need help with. I'll help grant whatever it is." She leaned in closer to whisper, even though no one else could overhear her. "I'm quite rich so I can give you any amount of money once I'm back to my body."

Brandon's brows furrowed, "Money?"

Anya nodded, before she waved her hand flippantly. "Money is not an issue to me and you could help your family."

Brandon stood up suddenly, jaw clenched and hands balled. Anya realized she must have said something wrong by his reaction and began to open her mouth to apologize before he cut her off.

"I don't need your money, I don't care how rich you are." His expression was closed off, face displeased, "If you're here to treat me like your pity party then I suggest you leave." He started walking off leaving Anya stunned for a moment. As he went further and further away, the string reappeared so Anya trudged in his direction and found him standing across the street looking at a cafe.

She stood quietly next to him, watching from afar only to realize he was looking at his mother, as she balanced trays and hurried around the cafe. She looked back at him to see he was already looking at her. "My mother works hard to provide for my brother and I." He kicked the ground with the front of his sneakers, scuffing the ground. "She works long hours and sometimes I work part time to help her but we never go without."

Anya didn't come from such a background, his situation as unfamiliar as it was baffling yet she began to understand. He had his pride and his mother was working hard, they weren't homeless people on the street for Anya to drop coins into a can and say 'God Bless You.' to. They didn't need her money nor pity so she wouldn't offer it. "I'm sorry." She had meant it too.

He nodded stiffly and then turned fully towards her, "I'm not sure what it could be...whatever you're supposed to help me with, that is."

Anya felt alarm bells go off in her head, "So there's nothing you want to accomplish?"

Brandon scratched the back of head, looking up in thought. "Um well, I think I'd really love to ace my final exams, I could probably get a scholarship to a small community college somewhere. The only thing is I'm real bad at studying."

Anya grimaced, she was rubbish at school. She attended a private high school, grades hadn't really mattered there, just your parents money, legacy and how much you'd be inheriting.

"Well I'll help you pass them. All of them." She promised, she hadn't any choice really, it was that or be stuck forever in purgatory. "It's just an exam, how hard could it be?"

-

Anya came to realize it could be really hard. A week had passed and it had really been taxing. Brandon really wasn't joking when he said he was really bad at studying. He struggled with everything to Anya's disappointment. Currently they were working on trigonometry and Brandon had kept getting distracted and joking around, scribbling on the worksheet rather than taking the situation seriously.

Anya slammed her fist on the table, causing him to sit up, face morphed into surprise.

"I'm trying my best here, making sure I fully understand the material to properly teach you. We're not even halfway through this worksheet and we still have English and Biology to do!" She stood up then, eyes stinging in a way that told her if she could cry she would be. "The least you could do is pay attention and try, my life is on the line here." Not sticking around to hear his reply, she stormed out of the apartment, heading up to the roof for a break.

She didn't know if her outburst was out of her desire to return to her life, or her fear of being left in a barren world for eternity. Her life as glamorous as it was was lonely, her parents were always absent, her friends were not really her friends. Anya wondered if anyone sat at her bedside right now. After being stuck here, which she learned was in the East, she observed how Brandon, and his little brother Bradley, had interacted with their mother with such love and care. She couldn't remember the last time her mother said she loved her.

After she had enough of her self pity party she returned to Brandon's home to find him hunched over a book, looking completely enthralled in the pages.

"You're actually studying?" She asked surprised.

He smiled sheepishly, "Well, you're trying so hard to help me, I want to help you too."

She smiled at his words and joined him as they began to study together, earnestly.