---------LEGEND---------
PLAYER/USERNAME
Alexander/AlexFae
Grace/Lasair
Xia/Genevieve
-------------------------------

“E-excuse me?”

Xia stopped walking and put all her weight on the crutches, she had nothing against Grace considering the many adventures they had faced together up to that point, but she was reticent to meet her outside the virtual world... or to be more precise: she was reticent to get to know Grace and learn who she was outside the virtual world. Xia couldn't know if Grace realized Genevieve was her and asking would confirm any suspicions if she had any, so the only thing Xia could do was pretend she didn't know she was Lasair.

“Tell me everything, I'm listening.” Xia pried herself off the crutches so she could turn and face the red-haired girl, eye to eye.

“W-well, I t-thought…” Grace lowered her gaze, embarrassed, “I wanted to ask you if you could help me study, since you're among the best in the class.” She ran a hand over the back of her neck, grabbing a few curls and pulling them nervously, "b-but don't have any problem on refusing, if you don't want to…"

Xia should have refused, at that point she was about to cross one of the many lines she had drawn to ensure she kept people away from her as Xia didn't want to be pitied and living her life felt like an injustice, as if doing so meant that she actually didn't care for her aunt and cousin that much, however, Xia couldn't find the strength to refuse.

"Thank you!" Grace smiled at Xia candidly.

“Can I at least know why you chose to take these courses? After all this time it's clear you don't care," Xia pointed out.

“Um?” Grace fluttered her eyelashes and looked back at her as if she hadn't understood the meaning of the question, "w-well, if you really want to know..." Grace wet her lips, "can we talk about it where there are fewer people?"

Xia took a look around her; they were just outside the college doors and there were students who were lingering to chat with each other or wait - for those families who could not afford more than one vehicle per family - for a relative to arrive with a car to pick them up. There were some benches set up in an outdoor courtyard in front of the college where people weren't crowding around at the moment and so Xia motioned for Grace to follow me there.

They sat on one of the benches, Xia placed the crutches next to her and put her legs together before placing her hands on them, she then watched Grace sit next to her, at a distance wide enough to allow another person to sit between them and then looked away in a manner that Xia would have dared to say was distant, almost sad.

"So?" Xia pressed her.

“Actually, I only decided to come to college because I wanted one more reason to get out of my house,” Grace said softly, almost as if she was ashamed to confess it. “I… I don't feel comfortable in the company of my parents and my sister.”

Xia remained silent.

Grace glanced at her fleetingly a single time, perhaps just to check if she was listening, “my sister is mommy and daddy's girl, definitely. I mean, she's not mommy and daddy's girl for nothing: she's a genius, she can learn and master anything she wants in a third of the time it would take to me or any other person to do the same.”

"Are you jealous?"

Grace shook her head vigorously and waved her hands in quick negative signs, “no no! It would be stupid of me, I have no hope of competing with her, in anything", she lowered her hands to her legs, "that's exactly the problem: I can't compete with her, not even in the affection of our parents."

Grace looked so dejected that Xia couldn't help but put a hand on her leg, a gesture that made Grace jump. “you should try to do something you like, not something that takes you out of the house for more time”, which to her own ears sounded like an obvious advice, “even if I helped you study and managed to graduate, what would it change if then you don't like that job?”

Grace bit her lower lip and bowed her head.

“And how's it going with your sister?” Xia asked when she realized that without her encouragement, Grace would have remained silent.

“My sister enjoys seeing how I can't compete with her in anything. Once upon a time it wasn't like that, when we were younger we were inseparable, but now she does everything I do just to show me that she can do it better than me."

Xia withdrew her hand, “I won't let you fail and prove that you can't do it to your family,” Xia stated softly, as if it were a secret between them. She wanted to confess to her that she was Genevieve and that if she ever needed something she would have helped her, but Xia ended up suffocating that desire inside her, confessing that would have meant forming a friendship, a real one… it would have meant moving on, away from the memories of her lost best friend…

What right did she have to move on with her life when her cousin wasn't afforded the same privilege?

 

“Actually, it would be the second time I fail, I've already wasted a year,” Grace confessed with a hint of a bitter smile.

“All the more reason,” Xia strutted, “we start today, I expect complete dedication.” she narrowed her eyes and gave her a faint smile.

“P-perfect!” Grace’s eyes almost shone, “can I study at your house? I'd rather not bring you to my house…"

“I can understand why, and yes, you can study at my house… in fact”, Xia put a hand in her bag and took out her smartphone, “I'm writing to my mother that I have a guest today. Your studies to avoid failing start today.”

“Thank you, Xia!” Grace exclaimed in an exultant tone.

Before Xia could react in any way, Grace leaned towards her, overcoming the polite distance she had kept to hug her. It was the first time that in a contact between Xia and Grace she could feel the touch of her skin and the heat of her body and although Xia didn't really want to distance her, she stiffened.

Xia closed her eyes. Don’t think about Natalie. Don’t. Think. About. Natalie.

“You're welcome,” Xia replied dryly, finishing typing the message on her phone.

- - -

After an afternoon spent studying in the dining room of Xia grandmother's house, she walked Grace to the door to say goodbye; her family was wealthy enough to afford a car each and so they had returned from college together rather than having Xia's mother driving them home.

“Tha-thank you again for your help!” Grace said when she was already outside the door of Xia's house, "and also thank your mother and grandmother for the snacks, they were v-very good!"

Xia sighed “I'll thank them, again…” since Grace had already thanked them three times during the day, she was nice but she thanked and apologized far too often, “I'll write you a message for the next study session. See you, Grace.”

“Y-yes! Th…” Grace bit her tongue, “see you soon!”

When Grace started to walk down the short driveway of the house Xia closed the door and let out a deep sigh; that day Xia had crossed a line that she had promised to herself not to cross, they had even exchanged telephone numbers! At least Grace hadn't commented anything about her condition and had never pitied her by offering to do something Xia couldn't do with the same agility as a normal person. Xia rested her forehead against the door and sighed again, although the second one sounded more like a snort than a sigh.

“So you finally made a friend?”

Xia's mom's voice reached her from behind, "she's a classmate who has difficulty studying, I'm helping her not to fail the year", Xia explained with a shrug.

“But you seem to get along well,” Maylin paused for a moment, “and she also seems like a good girl, very shy and introverted, but a good girl nonetheless.”

Xia shrugged.

“Maybe she has some friends she can introduce you to, so you can broaden your circle… I have an idea!” Xia turned to look at her mom, Maylin had such an enthusiastic expression, "what do you say if next time after studying you two go out together? Maybe you could go around doing shopping, she even has a car, so I'm not the one who has to accompany you!”

Xia couldn't understand if her mother was happy that she was making friends or because in that case she wouldn’t have to worry about her for a few more hours a day

“Yes, that's an idea,” Xia said without confirming whether it was what she would have done or not, “now I'm a little tired and I'd rather go and play, if it's not a problem.”

"To play? Again?" Xia's mom frowned, “Xia, if you're not eating you're studying, if you're not studying you're playing, and if you're not playing or studying then you're sleeping.”

“So?”

“You should stop playing games. See real places, do real things, have real friends.”

“I'll talk to my psychologist about it, thanks for the advice,” Xia started walking towards her room.

Maylin stood in front of her, fists clenched at her sides, “I'm serious, Xia. You have to make a new life, we came to Halifax to move on, not to stay where we were.”

"I wonder how you can act like nothing happened," Xia said, "please let me pass."

They stared persistently eye to eye, with neither of them willing to give way to the other. That situation certainly lasted more than a minute before Maylin decided to give up and move to leave Xia free passage.

“I'm just trying to help you,” Maylin said after Xia took a step past her, “why are you treating me like I'm doing something wrong?”

Xia took a deep breath, felt the air fill her lungs, the heavy stomach of someone who deep down knew she wasn't behaving right, but she was too angry with destiny and misfortune to simply let it go, “ you didn't do anything wrong mom, it's just my fault, it's all my fault.”

“I'm sorry, Xia,” She heard her mom say as she closed her bedroom door behind her shoulders.

Having locked the door, Xia began to observe her entire kingdom, her little claustrophobic room that was almost reminiscent of a prison cell. Xia turned on the computer and started Legacy of the Ancestors, then she sat down on the bed and retrieved her NexNet, which she had cleaned as best she could to make it look new and tidy as if this could make it a newer model and more functional.

“Grace will still be on the street at this time and Amber should still be in the shop. Maybe I can take advantage of this to stretch my legs for a while in complete tranquility", Xia said, putting the NexNet on her head. She took off her shoes and after lying down she started connecting to the game; the sad grayness of reality faded around her and was replaced by the bright colors of the virtual world.

As soon as Xia connected, she found a surprise waiting for her.

[Message from player AlexFae]

[HI! I apologize for not hearing from you again after promising to help you accelerate your progression and if possible I would like to make up for it and make you an interesting proposal. I sent this message to both you and Lasair, let me know if, where and when we can meet.]

Look who was back.. and she was online at the moment too.