English class always comes around the worst times. Liam and I walked towards the school from the river court. It took us longer than we expected so we were late for English class. Hailey will not be happy with us. She probably won't be pissed off as much at Liam. She will be furious with me though. I skipped the last class too and now I am late. I know she is my aunt and all but I don't think she will appreciate this.

We stood in front of the door which was closed. I looked at Liam.

"Let's just go in," he said

I knocked and slowly opened the door. The whole classroom was looking at us. Hailey turned her head and said, " Well what's makes it that you are late this time?"

"Uhh, to be honest, I don't have a good excuse," I said bluntly.

"What about you Liam?" Hailey replied. Do you have a better excuse than no excuse?"

"Uh not really, we just lost track of time this morning when we went for a walk". Liam responded nervously.

"Alright then, sit down. We will discuss this after class. There were only two seats left in the front of the class. Just my luck. Now I couldn't zone out and just forget about stuff for a while. Let's just say this past few months since moving hasn't been exactly the easiest to deal with. Also, the bottle of pills Dan gave me was weighing heavily on me. I couldn't hide them somewhere in my room since mum would find them, so instead, I stored them in my locker. Not the best of options but where would I hide them otherwise.

Suddenly a note was swift on onto my desk. It was from Tash. She was sitting somewhere in the back of the class. We made eye contact when I opened the letter.

"Everything alright? I am getting a bit worried about my new friend." It read

I wrote back " Yeah everything is fine, just dealing with some stuff.'

I passed the note back to the person behind me that and he gave it to Tash, but just before she wanted to open it Hailey called her name.

"Natasha, can you please pass me that note that you just got."

Hailey got the note from Tash and stored it in her cupboard under her desk. Great, this day isn't going to be any better, is it? Luckily I had the game tonight to look forward to. It would be an outlet for me to play basketball.

Finally, the bell rang. Liam tried to sneak past everyone and managed to get out of the classroom before Hailey called on him. I wasn't so lucky.

I was hiding behind Tash when she called my name.

"Mellissa, can you stay back for a few minutes."

"Well, I have class, miss Scott." I lied

"No, you haven't. I looked up your schedule and I know for a fact that you have a free period after this so there is no excuse to not stay for a few minutes."

I put my back on the ground and sat down on the chair. Haily shut the door when the last student was leaving and sat next to me.

"Mell, what going on?" Hailey asked

"What do you mean, miss scot?' I answered

"You can call me Aunt Hailey now Mell, nobody is in this classroom anymore. I am just getting a bit concerned with you skipping out of class yesterday and showing up late now. Could you just enlighten me on the situation?"

I didn't know if I wanted to tell Hailey the full story since it did include Dan too and I already knew how the Scott family thought about him. I just couldn't make my own mind up about what to do with my so-called grandfather.

"I don't know aunt Hailey, it's just been a lot. Moving countries, starting fresh and the Dan came. I still have a feeling I don't know the whole story or something. It just confuses me a bit, to be honest."

"Understandable, I do get that believe me. I was in high school once to and that was when the story with Dan took place. Although I do think Lucas should tell you it and not me. He is your dad after all. If you really want to know and it makes you feel better ask him. I know him for a long time and I bet he is willing to tell you it." Hailey said assured

"Sure, I will talk to dad about it," I responded.

Hailey looked at me as if she was waiting for me to continue my story but I didn't. What more did she expect. I normally only open up to Mum or uncle bass. Hailey got up and got a piece of paper from her desk. It looked like it was marked already.

"I know this is maybe not the best time to mention this but I also wanted to talk about something else for a bit, If that is alright with you? Since I know you have been having a hard week already."

"Yeah sure, I can always have a chat about things" I replied a bit nervously

"What do you wanna talk about?" I asked

Hailey turned around the paper where and gave it to me. She continued speaking: " I was just wondering how you have been coping with English class and all .." Hailey trailed off a bit.

I knew what she was going to mention or at least I could guess it. It had probably something to do with my bad mark and that she may or may not have noticed that my spelling was a bit off. I think my own little secret wasn't going to be a secret longer to Hailey at least.

" Yeah, English class is just a bit different from back home so to speak. To be frank with you I do find it hard to spell things out sometimes" I honestly replied. I trusted Hailey and was hoping she picked up on my hints since I didn't wanna be treated differently but also knew I needed the extra time and help.

"I understand that Mell and that is perfectly normal. I was just wondering if you were ever tested for dyslexia when you were in The Netherlands?" Hailey asked carefully and looking me in the eye to see my reaction.

I knew I was not able to hold this secret long. It was kind of waiting for someone to find out that I was dyslectic. I always kind of knew it would come out somewhere in English class.

" Yeah, to be honest, I was tested a few years ago in my first year of high school. It just never bothers me so much in The Netherlands. They gave me extra time on the test and they didn't mark down my spelling mistakes too harshly. That's why I always had good grades for my classes there except Dutch and German."

Hailey looked relieved. I think she kind of knew already and didn't want me to feel different or something. "I am glad but also not glad to hear that if you know what I mean." She replied.

"So know that you told me that your dyslectic, how can I and the school help you, Mell? I haven't been teaching for long but I did have already a few dyslectic students and they do meet up once a week to work together. Do you wanna maybe join us?"

I wasn't sure about this yet. I don't need to be in a special group or anything I thought so I answered: " No thanks, I can manage. I just need a bit of extra time and maybe some help with my spelling mistakes. It would already help a lot if we could sit together sometime."

Hailey looked a bit disappointed but agreed and said "Alright, let's just sit together for one hour every week and I will help you out. What do you think about Tuesdays around 3? I know you don't have practice then ?"

"Yeah, that would mean a lot to me," I said while getting up since I kind of wanted to get out of the classroom now.

Hailey saw me getting up and said: "You can go if you want but just remember that if you need help or anything you can always find me."

I was about to walk out of the door when I was wondering how I maybe could have some extra time and asked Hailey: "Could we maybe arrange that I can have some extra time with the test maybe?"

"Yeah of course mell, we can arrange that. It's only normal that you would have a few extra minutes."

That's how I left the classroom. I was wandering the hallways just searching for people I knew when I suddenly bumped into someone.

He looked up and to all of my luck, it was my favorite person in the whole world of course. It was Brett. He looked angry and just yelled "Watch where you are going bitch?"

"Well, that's not very nice to say to your teammate is it?" I replied.

That only got him angrier. I don't know what it is with Brett but I just wanted to get him angry for some reason. Just to piss him off a bit since that is what he has been doing with me for a while.

Brett wanted to reply but he saw Liam shooting daggers at him while walking in our direction.

"Just watch where you are going next time, teammate." That is what brett hissed under his breath when he walked away.

"What was all that about again Mell?" Liam asked

"Ah nothing, I just think Brett doesn't like me that much that all," I replied

"That is an understatement, Mell," Liam said

He looked deep into my eyes and gave me a kiss in the middle of the hallway. When he pulled away from me he got my hand and we walked away towards the next class.

Time skip

Classes just ended for today and nothing special has happened so far. It is a game day so, Liam and a few other teammates were casually shooting some hoops into the baskets before changing into our basketball clothing. Everything was going well but then suddenly we heard people arguing from the coach in his room. It was dad and skills apparently. They were in a heated discussion and the discussion was moving towards us as it seemed. Dad entered the gym together with skills. They were probably not expecting us to be here so early already. Now everyone that was in the gym was watching them. Dad and skills just noticed us watching and immediately stopped talking. "Hi, team. How is everything going?" Skill asked while dad said" What is everyone doing here so early. The game doesn't start in another hour or so."

"Just practicing coach" I reacted to dad. Every time I call him coach he looks a bit surprised.

"yeah, just practicing coach Liam and the rest of the team replied."

"Well since we are all just practicing Dad said while looking at me"

"Why don't we get dressed and warm-up for the game starts?"

"Everybody walked towards the dressing rooms and got dressed for the game."

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please if you see any mistakes let me know so I can improve my writing. Also thanks for everyone's patience with this story since I have been gone again for a while. Just a lot has happened in my life which resulted in me not having so much spare time for writing anymore. I promise I will do better. Cheer everyone and stay safe and healthy!