𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖆𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖊𝖘 𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖋𝖆𝖍

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

I hummed along to the French music playing in my ear as I went behind the desk in the shop and pushed Francis's swivel chair to the side so I could access his laptop. I went to my file and opened it before filling in some of the details needed so I could begin my appointment. When I reached for his Chinese takeout that's when he finally made a move to stop me, "Fine, keep your shitty food," I rolled my eyes and grabbed his iced tea instead.

"Ace isn't going to be happy to see you V," He said in a sing-song voice, "You know what he said about school."

"Something something. it's important, something something," I mocked, before pressing my lips to his straw, "Fuck that's sweet," I gagged putting the cup back down.

He shrugged, "It's a sweet tea."

"You'll die before your forties Fran," I warned him, taking out my wallet to flick out three hundred dollars and pointing at him with the money before tucking it into his breast pocket.

"If I do it definitely won't be because of the sweet tea," He laughed, pulling out one of the hundred notes from the stack I'd given him to slide into my belt loops. "Your last ones healing nicely?"

"The ink set like last week," I went around his chair to make my way to the back, I was supposed to come on Saturday but I was too busy having you know," I picked the shrimp out of his chopsticks before he could put it in his mouth and threw it in mine instead, "Hot passionate gay sex."

"Get out of my sight Versailles," He glared at me and I giggled disappearing behind the long beads that chimed as I moved through them.

When I finally made it to the tattoo room it was empty, which made me raise an eyebrow as Ace's motorcycle was outside. I took off my school cardigan, throwing it on the chair I'd be sitting off in a few minutes, and looked around the room at the framed pictures of his best work that I'd seen countless times before.

I had to rub away the small smile on my lips at the newest addition to them on the furthest side of the wall. There framed in dark mahogany wood was my back with my tattoos showing, still red and irritated and new but a piece of artwork nonetheless.

Ace had been doing my tattoos since the day I started walking again. At the time he bluntly refused considering how young I was but I broke down in front of him about how ugly I felt with the scars that littered my body and how I'd do anything to stop feeling that way. He felt pity for me, not enough pity apparently because he made me pay two thousand dollars for the first session.

And I did.

Now here I was three years later completing my last session for one of the largest ongoing tattoos that Ace had ever done. It was two snakes, the first's large head was between my breasts and its body curled over my left ribs before crossing over to my hip, looping over my right ass cheek before its tail ended behind my right knee. The second one's head rested high behind my neck and twisted itself into many intricate knots all down my back before crossing onto my left thigh where I needed its tail finished down the rest of my left leg.

Besides being fucking sick, it covered everything I needed to be hidden. Now when I'd get naked people would no longer see the gashes of my accident where my bones shot out of my skin and the cuts that were made during the surgery to put me back together.

The sound of the bathroom flushing broke me out of thought, the tap started and I suppressed a laugh at Ace not knowing I was here when he finally came out and locked eyes with me and my hand that was wrist-deep in his marble collection. A sound that had never been previously made by a human being rose from his throat.

"Francis I told you to call the police if she came back," He yelled, grabbing a small towel on a rack to wipe off his hands. "You promised me you wouldn't come during school hours kid."

I put my hands up in the air defensively, "Who told you to listen to me?" I flopped myself onto the tattoo bench, "I'm a liar."

He grabbed his equipment, running his hands through his white hair, "Sit down and shut the fuck up."

I faked zipping my mouth shut before locking my lips with an invisible key and throwing it away. "You won't hear another peep from me."

I pulled my skirt up slightly so he'd have more access to the leg and he tapped his iPad to start playing soothing music in the back whilst he worked. He took out my file from his drawer and began to flick through it before bringing out the rough sketch of it that I'd brought him the first time I'd come. "This is your last session," He commented, taking out his marker to begin drawing on my flesh.

"I know you're glad to never see me again," I teased as he wiped down my skin with an antiseptic wipe.

"I wish," He scoffed, glancing at the sketch again as he finished the body of the snake. I tried not to flinch when he drew over the scar tissue my leg trembling slightly. This was the first time I'd not put them in dark stockings since the accident, they were beyond hideous without them. "Lily told me to invite you to Christmas."

I smiled at the mention of his daughter, "She good?"

He sent me an annoyed look, "If by 'is she good' you mean 'does she still have that stupid crush on you' then yeah," He turned on the machine, "She's good," the familiar sound of the gun whirling made me take in a deep breath, "You should reject her so she can move on."

"She's cute I should date her just to piss you-ow!" I gasped at him pressing the gun harder than needed into my thigh.

He pointed the gun at me, "Say something like that again see what happens."

I knocked on Mrs Gordon's door, sending her a cheeky grin when she ignored me. "Mrs G."

"I'm failing you Miss Mostfah, I promise I am," She told me whilst aggressively marking the sheets on her desk. I put my stapled work on her desk and slid it to her slowly as if giving meat to a wild animal. "And what is this?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Today's assigned work," I stroked the paper, "Freshly printed in Times New Roman just the way you like it."

"You mean the work I assigned in the class you were not in?" She snatched the paper and ran her sceptical eyes over it.

"I know I'm a prophet," I began leaving her class before she could ask any more questions, "Who knows? Maybe that's my gift," I winked at her, "Knowing exactly how to pass your class."

A grin was left on my lips as I practically skipped down the halls, looking down into my laptop bag to look for my phone but the smile immediately vanished from my face when I looked up and saw that the Principal was heading in my direction. Immediately turning on my heel I began to walk in the opposite direction hoping to the Gods that he hadn't seen me, but just my luck.

"Miss Mostafah!" He said in the most cheerful voice which only made me internally groan as I forced a smile on my face and turned around.

"Principal Damon," I tried to look as in a rush as possible so that he could quickly let me go but once again, no such luck.

"I was actually just looking for you," He said grimly, "Your pupils said they hadn't seen you all morning so I thought you had, had an accident and were at the infirmary so I rushed there to check if they'd admitted you but you weren't there either."

We could both see where he was going with this, "Forgive them, they probably missed me in class." Now we were staring at each other, his disbelief over my last statement and my disinterest over whatever next he had to say.

"Well now that I have managed to catch you, I wanted to speak to you about something important," He pulled out a piece of paper and when he saw that I made no move to take it from him he began to read it instead. "It's a form that was filled out by one of the students in your form, seeking a tutor."

I feigned interest, "Really? Hope they find one."

"That's where you come in actually, I was hoping you'd be interested in tutoring them, just so they can pass finals and graduate like the rest of you."

I slipped my phone into my pocket and took the form from him and nearly laughed at the name I read at the top. "You want me to tutor Angelo Bianchi?" I snorted, moving to hand the paper back to him, "Let's just say the short answer is a no."

"But I need a yes Miss Mostafah, the same one I said when the DSOS sent me an email asking for a letter of recommendation for you," I felt a small smile crack my lips at his change of tactics. Blackmail. "And of course, I can send them a stellar report dressing you down as the star student of this school with a brilliant mind but I need you to work with me here."

I read through the paper more thoroughly, sighing at the four subjects he needed help with. "And you said till finals?" I confirmed eyeing him warily.

"Not a second more."

"When can we put together a schedule?" I finally accepted, folding his form and sliding it underneath my armpit.

"I can meet with the both of you tomorrow bright and early before class starts, don't be late," He told me but it sounded more like pleading to me. With nothing left to say to him I moved past him to continue going where I was headed originally. "Oh and Miss Mostfah? You know I would appreciate it if you did something with your hair that was within the hair regulations."

"I'm sure you would."