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"Isabella, are you even awake yet?" Mom yelled. 

When I didn't answer her, her constant yelling and banging became louder and louder the more I'd ignored her. I groaned, covering my ears. "Isabella!" 

I rolled my eyes, shoving the covers away. "I'm up!"

"You better be," she shouted back, probably smiling. "Your tutor is here, so be downstairs soon."

"Okay, Mom," I said, making sure she heard me loud and clear. 

Jumping off my bed, I gathered up my clothes and headed into the bathroom for a shower. Once I was finished with my daily morning routine, I ran downstairs, immediately smelling bacon. 

I sighed, knowing I couldn't have any. Not with Alex, and my family keeping a close eye on me. I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting away with anything for the next few months.

In the end, I decided on a glass of milk and a bowl of oatmeal. Mr. Baker said something about it being high in fiber. After I'd finished my breakfast, Mr. Baker told me my home tutor was waiting for me in the living room. I smiled gratefully at him and brought the dishes to the sink.

As I approached the living room slowly, not wanting to have a repeat from the other day, I saw a middle-aged women with shoulder length hair dressed in a business suit, sitting with her hands clasped together. When she saw me, her whole strict demeanor changed, and a bright smile appeared on her face.

"Hello Isabella, I'm Mrs. Miller," she said smiling, extending out her hand. "Your new home tutor."

I took it with a small smile. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Miller."

"Likewise." She pointed to the seat next to her. "Let's get started," she said, getting straight to business.

I nodded, and took the offered seat. 

She twisted around, reached inside her bag, and pulled out a yellow folder stacked with sheets of paper inside. Her eyes met mine, propping up her glasses. 

"Before coming here today, I reviewed your files, and I must say I'm thoroughly impressed," she complimented, as she pulled out paper after paper. "Straight A student, High Honor Roll three years in a row, President of four extracurricular activities, and you speak three different languages. Plus, you're taking college level courses and you're still a junior." She glanced up at me with praise, as I dipped my head, blushing. 

"School always came naturally to me," I said, as I bit my bottom lip. "I joined clubs to pass the time with, and the only reason why I speak three languages is because Dad's from Germany, and Mom's from Russia."

"That's still beyond impressive, Isabella." She smiled. "And with my help, you'll have one of the top transcripts in your age group. Once, you're done with your SATs, colleges will be begging for you to go to their school."

"Thanks." I smiled, even though I could care less about how grand my file was. I already knew what college I was going to anyways.

"Sure thing," she said. "Before we begin, I talked to your personal trainer earlier this morning and we came up with a schedule that you'll have to follow for the next year," she told me as she handed me a neatly printed calendar.

Glancing at it, the times where I had school was color-coated in purple while training was color-coated in blue. I couldn't help but groan when I saw that school started again at eight. Looks like I wouldn't be sleeping in like I thought I would.

"So, I meet with Alex right after I get done with you at three?" I asked, hoping for the love of God that she'll say no, but when I saw her nodding, I knew I was doomed. I couldn't believe I wasn't getting a break in between school and training. Knowing me, I'll probably go to sleep right after training was finished at five.

"Do you want a break or something?" she asked a moment later. "We could give you an hour break and then you could start training from four to six instead."

I breathed out a sigh of relief. "Please."

She nodded and grabbed the paper back from me. She reached inside her bag, took out a blue pen and drew an arrow in between school and training. "I'll make a copy and update Alex on this."

"Thank you."

"No problem," she said, and made sure her glasses was perfectly on the bridge of her nose. "Since that's taken care of, let's start with some Calculus, shall we?"

I lowered my head in a nod, hiding my clear distaste for the subject. I started to drown out her overly perky voice when she started to explain differential equations, praying to God that these next few hours will go by quickly.

After going through five different subjects in the crash course of seven hours, and a full workout routine, I was finally able to relax. Plopping down on my bed, I gave out a content sigh as I felt the softness of my bedsheets. Shutting my eyes, the exhaustion finally caught up to me as I drifted in and out of sleep. When I couldn't stay awake any longer, I let the sleep overcame me, and got some much needed rest.

"Hello?" a familiar voice asked, followed by loud banging.

"Yeah?" I called out groggily, after I realized the loud banging was actually someone knocking on my door. Rubbing the sleep out of my eye, I peeked up from my blankets, eyeing the wooden door.

"It's Amanda." She came in with her smile as wide as ever. She paused seeing me under the covers. "Did you just wake up?"

"Yeah." I let a yawn out, shutting my eyes. "I fell asleep the moment I hit my bed."

"Boring. Want to hear about my exciting day at school today?" she asked, her eyes sparkling, just begging me to say yes.

I laughed. "Sure."

She smirked. "I punched Thomas in the face."

My eyes bugged out, the sleepiness I'd once felt was completely gone. Throwing the covers off me, I ran over to Amanda and grabbed her shoulders. "Did you just say what I think you just said?"

"If you think I said, I punched Thomas Reed in the face, then yes, you my friend are correct," she said, practically smiling ear-to-ear.

"Oh my God. What exactly happened?"

"Well, I got to class late this morning—" I laughed. Typical, Amanda, "—and when I got to class the only available seat was next Thomas. He, of course was being his typical douchebag self, so I punched him." She shrugged like it was no big deal, even though it was a massive big deal. He could've sued her if he wanted to.

"Please tell me you didn't do that because of me."

She bit her lips, darting her eyes away from me. "Guilty."

"You didn't get in trouble, right?" I narrowed my eyes at her, watching her movements. I didn't know if I wanted to hug her because she protected me, or knock some sense into her for doing something so rash. She could have gotten expelled for crying out loud.

"Don't worry about it, Izzy." She smiled, waving it off. "The principal let me off with a warning."

I looked at her. There's no way he would do that. From all my years I'd known him, he would never let someone off the hook without something. "Are you sure about that?"

"Alright . . . Fine," she said a moment later. "I have detention for a few weeks, but it was so worth it. You should've seen it, Izzy. I'm pretty sure I broke his nose!"

Seeing the clear joy on her face, I gave out a sigh, knowing that I couldn't be mad at her. Even though she shouldn't have used physical violence, she took the risk for my sake. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better friend. "Thank you, Amanda."

She blinked, her eyes fluttering shut for a split second. "For what?"

"For being a true friend," I whispered, pulling her into a hug. Wrapping my arms around her, I lay my head on her shoulder. Cranking my neck up at her, I saw her dark brown eyes, watering. I smiled, knowing Amanda could be a big softly when she wanted to be.

"Thanks for being an awesome friend as well," she said, hugging me back just as tightly.

I shook my head, stepping backwards. She doesn't know how much she means to me. If it wasn't for her, I don't think I would've survived high school up to now—well minus my brother. "No, Amanda. You're the awesome friend. I'm so lucky that I met you."

"Me too." She grinned. "And um, listen," she started off, as she fumbled with a piece of loose hair. My eyes narrowed down, knowing that whatever she was going to say next, wasn't going to be good. "I was going to keep this from you, but since you said that and all, I can't." She paused, probably gathering up her thoughts. "Jason, he . . . um, he said he doesn't feel the same way about you."

"Huh?"

"Today," she started explaining, "I asked why he didn't stand up for you the other day, and he said he was completely caught off guard by your confession, and he um . . . doesn't see himself going out with you . . ." 

Chewing on my bottom lip, I felt the stinging sensation in the palm of my hands as my nails dug deeper and deeper into my skin. I knew it. Why would anybody like me? Why would he like me? Guys like Jason only date super hot girls, not fat, ugly girls like me.

"Izzy," she said softly, placing her hand on my shoulder. "Are you, alright?"

"If that's the case," I said, moving away from her. "I'll just have to get over him."

"You're going to stop liking him?" she asked, wide eyed.

I grinned. "That's right. From this day onwards, I vow to never like Jason hart ever again." 

Cover by annielovex0

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