Forbidden Lessons On Ice

Chapter 4

Sienna stood there with a proud smile, pulling her dress down and smiling at Vanessa.

“I had to retouch my makeup. This is the first time we are meeting,” she said with no one asking her. She did look beautiful. She was dressed exactly the way my father wanted me to dress.

A professional mini dress, hair properly styled, and makeup done with lips painted bright red. While everyone saw that, all I saw was my bully. The girl who had people beat me last night just for existing.

“This is a family dinner, Axel,” Vanessa said. She didn’t seem to like Sienna, as even when Sienna smiled at her, Vanessa just looked the other way.

“She’s family,” Axel said, making Sienna smile proudly like Axel had just proposed to her. Vanessa didn’t say anything else. She took a sip of her glass of water while Axel and the witch took their seats.

Axel didn’t give me any attention. In fact, he acted like I wasn’t even there as he helped Sienna settle in. It was only when Vanessa told him to greet me that he actually turned to look at me, but just for a split second before he went back to paying attention to his witch. Meanwhile, I wondered if the reason he saved me last night was because he had known I was now his stepsister.

From that awkward moment, we all started eating. There were no real conversations and I was grateful. I actually couldn’t wait to leave here until Vanessa broke the silence by asking Axel about his academics. “I heard about your math grade.”

“Math is not hockey,” Axel simply responded, leaning back in his chair, so unbothered. His lapdog Sienna actually smiled at his response, like she was proud of him or something.

“So hockey is all that matters to you?” Vanessa questioned, placing her spoon down. “Are you okay with being demoted?”

“I’ll pass,” he said, sounding like it was an obvious thing.

Now Axel was the captain of the hockey team. If he failed a course it was going to be really bad for him. He might not play in the next game… he could be kicked off even.

“You said that the last time,” her voice dropped low, “and the time before that.”

“He failed a year?” Yes, that’s my stupid ass. I actually just placed myself into a hot pot. Why did it even matter to me? Why was I even listening to their conversation in the first place?

Crap. I had just questioned Axel and even though I wished for the earth to open up and swallow me, I still looked up to see Axel’s reaction. He had an eyebrow up. He opened his mouth to speak but Sienna beat him to it.

“Not everyone spends their life buried in books,” she scoffed. “Some people have lives.”

Well, she was right. I didn’t bother arguing with her and so I focused on my food when my father spoke up and suggested a ridiculous idea.

“He is family now… and you are good at maths. You can help him.”

“Help him how?” I asked. This was crazy.

“With tutoring,” my father simply said. “It will benefit you as well.” He added that and I turned to look at Axel. His expression was plain. Then I looked back at my father before I screamed.

“Hell no!” Then I got up and ran out of there, my adrenaline kicking in.

I was fast as I already knew this house well. Well, at least I knew my favourite place here: the library I always used to end up in.

There I sat down. I had luckily grabbed my backpack when I rushed out, so I had my novel with me. I reached for it and as I paged through, the memories of what had just happened came all at once.

Never had I cursed in front of my father like that before. Well, at least not out loud. But instead of feeling guilty I felt relieved, like I’d been dying to say that out loud for a while.

My dad and I were very close at one point, so close I told him everything that was happening in my life and he was very supportive. Well, until I turned sixteen and he asked me to change the way I was and I just wasn’t that person. That’s when we started having problems.

When Mom died he was here but not fully, as he immediately forced me to go to college and started traveling. Can you believe the last I heard from him was like three months ago and that was just him sending me a long message?

Sometimes I sat down and wondered what had really happened with my life because first I had a whole village behind me, my grandparents, Mom, aunt, uncle, Dad, but then suddenly they all just disappeared. Sure, my grandparents and Mom were no longer here so they had a good reason, but my aunt, uncle and Dad, they just avoided me. If not, then they tried to fix me. They all wanted me to be someone I was not.

I sighed, almost sat down to try and read when the door opened. Turning around, the witch herself stepped in.

“Do you ever stop?” she said. She was actually talking to me. I looked around behind me to be sure she really was talking to me.

“Okay, so the way I choose to live my life bothers you?” I asked, really wanting to know why she hated me so much.

“Shut up.”

“No. Why should I? You followed me,” I asked. She was alone. Here, even when I didn’t want trouble, I actually could defend myself if she tried.

She didn’t respond. She walked to the table and there was a glass and a jar of water. She poured into the glass and at first I thought she was thirsty or something until she just threw the water at me. Well, she aimed for the book but my sweater got ruined a little.

“What the hell?!” I tried to save the book but it was too late. The ink was disappearing.

“There,” she laughed. “I’ve helped you,” she said, a smirk across her face. And that did it. I don’t know how I got to her so fast but one minute the book was in my hand, the next it was on the floor and my hand was on Sienna’s cheek.

“b***h!” she screamed. Before she could try and hit me back, the door opened again and Axel came rushing in. Immediately his eyes were on Sienna, who now had a hand over her cheek. Then he looked at me, then down to the ruined book on the floor. “She slapped me,” she reported, hand pointing at me. “Mia just slapped me.” Her voice was shaking, which made me realise one thing.

Sienna was always with her maniacs. She always had them hold me for her to hit me. She was always so confident around them and now she was here… about to cry like a baby just because of a slap. She was actually weak.

“Get out,” Axel said. I honestly couldn’t stand being around them. I wasn’t about to have them beat my ass so I almost turned to leave when he turned toward Sienna and said the words again. “Get out.”

“Wait, what?” Sienna’s hand quickly flew from her cheek. “I should get out?” She was surprised. But not as surprised as me because, was Axel just about to side with me?

“You know I hate repeating myself, Sienna. Get the f**k out!” This time he raised his voice and Sienna flinched before stumbling out of the room like an animal was chasing her, again showing just what a scaredy-cat she was.