Melody felt bittersweet about winter break being over. On one hand she was sad she couldn't spend as much time as she could with her niblings anymore. But on the other hand she felt that she was ready to start the second half of the school year off right. Of course, there was always the lingering unknown of the tutoring session she had to do in order to raise her grade. That, although she tried keeping herself busy throughout the winter break, was always on her mind. But that, hopefully, would be the last extra curricular activity she would have to do to save her grade.

Classes for this semester weren't as different as the semester before, she had almost all of her teachers she had for the last semester, and an almost identical schedule as before. If anything changed, it was the financial literacy course that had switched into a college prep or life prep course. Optional courses that Melody thought shouldn't be, but it was what it was at the end of the day. Out of all of the mandatory courses she had to complete, one that lingered was Physical Education. She knew that she had to take that her senior year. One of the worst courses to have in her opinion.

But for now, she was making her way past the lingering students hanging out by their lockers to her first period class. It was coincidentally the same class that gave her the most trouble and will have her staying after school on certain days. It wasn't that she was terrible at PreCalc, it was just that she had other things that were distracting her, and she ultimately couldn't do the work that was needed from her. Last semester, she thought, would be the first and last time she would ever slip up like that ever again.

She was one of the first of her classmates who had arrived at class before the bell rang. Some students liked the free time they had before class began, and Melody for the most part understood. There were a few people she talked regularly to in all of her classes, but none of them she felt were really her friends. Not that she minded, she couldn't recall a time she really had friends anyway. She felt sort of disconnected from anyone else, something she had felt ever since she was in middle school. She knew everyone knew her as that kind of person, so she just felt hopeless to change that narrative.

As she pulls out a book and notebook for the class, she senses a tall presence lingering by her desk. She looks up to see the teacher smiling at her.

"How was your break, Melody?" he said, resting on her desk. He was always quite chatty, a bit too chatty for Melody, but she knew it was all in good taste.

"It was good." Melody said, nodding her head as she turned her notebook to a fresh page.

"I'll talk to you more about that tutoring opportunity," he said, tapping his hands on the desk. "Sometime later this week. I'll have to talk to Principal Ballard as well as the other student in question but it should go smoothly." He hopped off the desk and groaned. It was kind of funny, although he wasn't that much older than Melody, he acted like an old man.

"Thank you. I'm looking forward to it."

"Great! I love the enthusiasm. Keep up the good work. Let me know if you need anything." as he strolled along to chat with another student sitting nearby Melody sunk in her chair. She just hoped everything would go according to plan. She was used to promises backfiring, typically those from her sister. They would have to reschedule, someone got sick, or whatever happened to not put whatever was supposed to come to fruition. She honestly thought that Mr. Frain had forgotten the tutoring thing throughout the winter break. But she was both happy and nervous that he did. She could finally fix her grade, but she also didn't want the opportunity to do so to vanish. She could only hope it wouldn't fade away like something lost in the snow.

Melody made it a point to focus more on her schoolwork and tried tuning out her homelife while at school. Sometimes while working out equations, she would think about what Aaron, Kimmi and her were going to eat for dinner. While she was trying to read an assigned book in her English class, she wondered if Hana and her boyfriend were going to come home absolutely angry at each other, unafraid of showing that anger to the rest of the house. She sometimes thought of things that upsetted her, and although she didn't want to, she couldn't help it. She couldn't help but to worry. It was something she would have to tune out if she ever stood a chance to go to college. But as soon as the school day started, it ended, and she felt as though she spent the majority of that time within her own mind. This couldn't happen for another semester, she thought. She had to focus if she ever stood a chance of escaping. Only then, could she ever even think of saving Aaron and Kimmi too. She would have to focus on her tutoring sessions, even if and when she got a job, she couldn't just go on autopilot.

When she got home she immediately plopped onto her bed, burying herself into her bedsheets and pillows. The rest of the family were away, most likely at the store, getting groceries. After a while, she pulled out her new laptop, and just scrolled away watching random videos online until she did her homework. She didn't really like any of the teachers that felt like it was appropriate to give out homework on the first day back, but she knew that it was too early for her to falter on her grades. Her schedule would have to change eventually, there was only a few days left until she would have less time for herself. So she did her homework so that she could continue watching videos until her family came home.