LINEAGE

Chapter 10

The library in the Vail mansion was silent, except for the sound of the mounted clock ticking and the noises coming from Elianna's pencil as she scribbled words on her paper. She finished her answer on the third page before flipping it over, revealing a new page full of questions on the packet she was working on.

Elianna sighed, placed her elbow on the table, and propped her head onto her hand. Elianna's eyes flicked over to Justine, who was sitting nonchalantly across from her at the table, reading the book in her hand. Justine's eyes moved away from the book, meeting Elianna's gaze, and she smiled.

"Hurry up, Elianna." Justine looked at the clock. "You only have ten more minutes to complete your test."

Elianna grumbled, hating tests, "I'm almost done. I'm on the final page."

Justine nodded and went back to reading, "Don't rush. Read the questions thoroughly."

Elianna stretched her arms out, hating sitting still. She looked back at the reading and writing test before her and read the first question on the page. It was a question asking her to rewrite the sentence correctly. Going over the question in her head, she wrote out the answer before moving on to the next question.

The questions were simple, thanks to the studying her mom helped her out with. She eventually reached the final question, which was a reading question. She read over the paragraph and read the prompt, which asked her to place punctuation throughout the paragraph properly. Elianna sighed, just wanting to get the test over with. She began to re-read the paragraph, placing punctuations as she went. Once she was complete, she closed the packet and set the pencil down.

Elianna sat straight, looking at her teacher, "I've completed the test."

Justine's eyes flicked up. She saw Elianna sitting properly, as she had been taught. She looked at the test, which was neatly closed, with the pencil lying beside it.

Justine humorously smiled and closed her book, looking back at Elianna. "While I know you are my only student, you still need to write your name to get credit."

Elianna's brows furrowed in confusion before she looked at her test. Her eyes widened, and she felt like an idiot, seeing that the name section was blank. She quickly picked up her pencil, jotting down her name, before placing the pencil to the side again.

Elianna reviewed the first page of the test before looking at Justine again. "Now, I've completed the test."

Justine chuckled before reaching her hand out. Elianna slid the test over to her teacher, who took it and placed it before her. Justine took a booklet out of her bag that was situated in the chair beside her, which Elianna recognized as the answer key, containing the correct answers to the test. Justine placed the book down and opened it to the page with the bookmark.

Taking out a red pencil from her bag, Justine began to look over Elianna's test, "Let's see here."

Elianna sat there anxiously, watching Justine as she read over her answers. Her eyes flicked to the clock, watching the seconds tick by, before looking back at Justine. She began to twiddle her thumbs, watching as Justine turned the first page over without marking a single one of Elianna's answers on the first page.

Beginning to feel restless, Elianna's eyes darted between Justine and the clock, watching as she turned over the second page. Elianna wasn't nervous about knowing if she passed the test or not. She had the confidence to know she did well. She was eager for Justine to finish grading the test because this was the last assignment she had to complete for the day.

Justine paused, her eyes flicked up and she smiled, seeing Elianna fidgeting in her chair, "Patience is a virtue, young lady."

Elianna's eyes flicked back to Justine, and she stopped moving, sighed, and nodded. Elianna knew the saying well, as she had heard it in every other tutoring session from her teacher. "Yes, Teacher."