"Let's work in my room for the time being, if that's okay?" Tam asked, closing the door behind her.

Biana Vacker stood there, looking nervous. She wore a simple dark green wrap dress, taking off her white fila sneakers at the door. "Sure, lead the way," she said, smiling. Then, "your house is really nice-looking."

Tam shrugged, starting up the stairs. "I'm sure you've seen better. That said, being humble isn't my parents' taste."

That much was true. While not in his life at all, the immaculately decorated house had just enough perfection to seem cold. He rather preferred the silence, but Linh always wished that it was more homely.

Tam pushed open the door to his – newly cleaned – room. He was no designer, and it showed, between his messy desk and the lack of items all around. While not good enough to be a minimalist, he wasn't one for sentimental pieces of clutter laying around to keep the dust on the shelves company.

"Sit wherever you like," he gestured to the space.

Biana sat down at his desk, pulling over another chair and waiting for him to follow. "Are you particularly good at school?" she asked, her fingers reaching up to touch one of the speeches and debate awards he'd won in the past.

"Don't," Tam said sharply, and she put her hand back down sheepishly. "Academics come to me easily enough, I guess, but that doesn't make me particularly passionate about them. Since you asked, English is just a subject in school that I happen to be competent at. If you don't mind, let's get started. Is there anything specific that you need help with?"

He was being cold to her and they both knew it, some unspoken tension hanging in the air. It was unintentional on Tam's end, but what had happened earlier with Linh hung over his mood like a dark cloud. He couldn't help but feel guilty that Fitz's group of friends was treating her so badly, but here he was cozying up to another Vacker that hung out with the same group of people.

Biana's curious expression dropped immediately back into her usual mask, and she straightened, flipping open her book. The silence she responded with felt like her own wall that she'd put up, and she quickly put them back on topic. "Do you mind helping me with the basics of an analytical paragraph to start? I struggle a lot with topic sentences, but any tips you have are useful."

Tam nodded, taking out a clean sheet of paper and beginning to draw a template. He explained as he went, making labels and bullets underneath each so that she could use it as a reference later.

Biana was a fast learner, just someone who had a lot of questions. It was very apparent that no one had ever explained this to her in a detailed way. She'd been left to her own devices to figure this out. Her theses needed practice, specifically in the realm of whether or not they were arguable in the first place. Tam didn't blame her; he'd had to search up a couple detailed explanation online to fully understand what Mr. Manson had asked them to do in the first place.

Half an hour had gone by when Biana's phone went off, cutting off his explanation. She turned to him with an annoyed look on her face after checking the caller. "It's Alvar, my brother. I've got to pick this up. Give me a second?"

"Yeah," Tam nodded, and she picked the phone up and held it to her ear.

"What is it?" Biana asked. "I'm in the middle of something important. Now's not a good time."

Her brother seemed to be yelling something for thirty seconds straight, and she tensed in her chair, her hand fisting around the eraser in her left hand.

"Fitz? Fitz isn't—" Biana stopped short, her tone weary and the features on her face hardening into an unreadable expression. "You know that I have nothing to do with that. Don't call me about his issues, that's your job, helicopter."

Tam awkwardly doodled in the margins of the page he'd been drawing his diagram on, making a badly formed pig with spiky teeth.

"Look – what I'm doing right now is none of your business. I know that I have some lower grades. Calm down, I won't flunk out of school. Yes, I know. I'm literally with a friend getting help right now, don't call me again."

Biana hung up, blowing out a breath. She put down her phone. "I'm really sorry, he's just a pain."

"You good?" Tam questioned. "That seemed intense."

"It's the Vacker Legacy shit," Biana answered. "My whole family's crazy over it. Alvar's a certified golden boy at Harvard right now, and my parents are the owners of a whole conglomerate brand. If I don't live up to expectations, all of them collectively see it as a hit to their reputations."

Jeez. The Vacker family clearly had a lot that they were dealing with behind closed doors. He was suddenly thankful that his family situation was more or less handled.

"That seems like a lot of pressure. My parents tend not to bother me, and I'm grateful for it," Tam said, glancing at her.

"If I had a quiet day where I didn't get a call about some grade or event going on at school, it would be an actual miracle," Biana said half-seriously, rolling her eyes. She relaxed slightly. "You have no idea."

"Well, we shouldn't need much longer to finish this up," Tam said, grabbing another clean sheet. "I think you've almost got everything. There's only a finite amount of information to know about analytical paragraphs."

A finite amount of information about analytical paragraphs and an infinite amount of information to know about the mysterious Biana Vacker.

Biana had been driven today, concentrating hard to grasp every new concept he threw her way. Slowly, he'd begun to respect her more. She was different than he'd imagined. The more time Tam spent with her, the more he found that he didn't know – and wanted to find out.

〰

Originally, this was supposed to be one chapter with the last one, but I wrote too much so I got two out of it. Both serve their purpose technically, I just feel like this one's a bit weaker. I'm not entirely happy with it, but I don't really know how to make it better so I'm done messing around with it for now.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it! How do you all feel about this story so far?

PSA: I have some personal stuff that's really taking its toll on me at the moment, so for my own sake I'm going to take a week or two off from WP as a whole I think just to kind of take care of myself. For the time being, I won't be replying to comments, but I will get back to you later! Love you all xx