Free

Part 1

"Aika!"

I lift my head at the sound of my name, holding my place in my book with my fingertip. My older brother is above me, looking at me with an annoyed expression. I raise my eyebrow questioningly. "What?"

"I've been calling you for the past ten minutes," Daiki complains. "You need to get your head out of the clouds. Mom wants you in the kitchen. Something about your grades."

I groan, folding the corner of the page before closing the book and trudging towards the kitchen behind Daiki. A part of me expects what's coming, I'm aware my grades haven't been doing too great lately. I've been putting off my studies to read instead. It's not my fault fantasy worlds are a thousand times more interesting than my math lesson.

I stand in the doorway of the kitchen with my arms crossed. Mom turns to face me, my report card in her hands. She looks absolutely furious. It's almost scary. But I don't react, instead keeping my body language cool and collected. "Yeah?"

"Don't 'yeah' me, young lady. You know perfectly well why I called you in here," Mom snaps. Her beginning-weathered face is twisted into anger, which isn't usual but whenever it happens you know you're in trouble. A few strands of her graying brown hair hang in her face, messy from getting home from work. She holds up my grade card, as if I can't already see what's in her hands. "What do you have to say about this?"

I'm aware of Daiki watching the scene unfold from the opposite corner of the kitchen. He's pretending to make himself tea to trick me into thinking he's not paying attention, but I can see his eyes glancing over every so often. I shrug in response to Mom's question. "What about it?"

My nonchalant attitude only seems to anger her more. "Aika, you're almost failing. Does that have any meaning to you? Do you want to have to repeat your third year of high school? What have you been doing this whole time instead of studying?" she demands.

I shrug again, averting my gaze to avoid eye contact. "Nothing," I lie. I've practiced lying so much it's almost scary how good I've gotten at it. Not even Mom can pick up on whether or not I'm fibbing anymore. "I haven't been doing anything. It's just the tests that bring my scores down. I do all my homework, but I suck at taking tests even when I study for them."

I can hear Daiki scoff to himself, but he quickly covers it by taking a sip of tea. I turn my attention back to Mom, who's still as infuriated as ever despite my explanation. "It doesn't matter, what ever happened to those perfect grades of yours back in junior high school? I know you can do better than this. I'll have to talk to your dad about consequences when he gets home."

Daiki lets out a small chuckle of amusement, revealing the fact he'd been listening the whole time. "You're going to have to talk to Dad about this? Jeez, Aika, did you really screw up that badly this time?" he sneers.

"Shut up, Daiki!" I hiss in annoyance. Getting chewed out by Mom is bad enough, I don't need his commentary in this as well.

"Aika, don't yell at your brother like that," Mom scolds. "And Daiki, this isn't your business. You can go to your room." My brother merely bites his lip to keep back a smile, taking his cup of tea and leaving the kitchen without another word. Mom sighs, sitting down at the kitchen table and putting her head in her hands. I know she has a stress problem, but I didn't think my grades would be that high up on her list of things to worry about. "I don't know what to do with you," she admits, sounding defeated as if it's up to her to decide what my purpose is. "It's those stupid fantasies you always get caught up in, isn't it? Aika, you need to start focusing on the real world. Life isn't just some fairy tail where you can dream up a happily ever after. I need you to understand that."