April 24, 2012

Tiffany crawls out of bed, her left hand still fumbling with the alarm on her phone. The shrill ringing from the speakers causes her to groan as she prepares to throw it at her wall for the nth time this week.

When she finally manages to shut off her alarm, Tiffany staggers to her desk and attempts to rub the grogginess out of her eyes as she flips through her binder. She glances at the clock on her wall to check the time. 4:25AM. Her sleepy eyes scan over the organized piles of papers on her desk and she inwardly sighs. She had pushed her homework aside the night before in order to handle some paperwork for her father, but seeing that she had this much to complete, she realizes that she shouldn’t have gone to sleep early—if going to bed at 2:30AM was even considered early.

Tiffany wakes up her laptop from its two hour sleep and immediately begins typing away at the keyboard. She only has a bit over two hours to finish her heaps of homework and she isn’t going to waste precious time. After all, she was raised to know that time is money.

After almost falling asleep several times, Tiffany contemplates on calling up Shinyoung, the house maid, but she decides against it after realizing that it was still early in the morning. Instead, she hurriedly hops out of her seat and quickly sprints down the stairs to the kitchen for some coffee. The clock on the microwave reads 5:45AM, so she prays for her coffee to quickly heat up. After the coffee finishes dispensing, Tiffany rips open a few packets of sugar and cream and tips them into her cup before stirring it up with a spoon.

She returns to her room and places her coffee mug at the corner of her desk. Sighing, Tiffany hastily types a few more paragraphs to conclude her essay. Her alarm rings again at 6AM and she saves her completed assignment before printing it out. With a satisfied yet weary smile, Tiffany proceeds to her bathroom to finally get ready for school.

Within ten minutes, Tiffany is out of the bathroom and in her room, looking through her closet for clothes to wear for the day. She slips on her chic Hilary Skirt, pulls her Malena Peasant Top over her head, and shrugs on her brown Keeley Moto Jacket before tying her outfit together with a brown belt. She stares at her reflection in the mirror and jokingly winks at her reflection. A giggle emits from her as she laughs at her own childishness.

**

A woman in her late thirties eyes her classroom full of students. “Class, I’ve graded your recent test. You may pick them up on the counter over here.”

The class rushes over to the counter and soon, test papers are scattered around that area. Tiffany managed to grab her test and rush out of the crowd of eager students. Once she was safe from the safe from the dangers of the crowding students, she looks at her graded test and gasps.

Her teacher looks up from her desk. “Miss Hwang, I would like to have a word with you.”

Tiffany inwardly sighs and walks over to her teacher’s desk somewhat hesitantly.

“Miss Hwang, I’m sure that you’ve noticed your grades in my class by now,” her teacher begins sternly.

Tiffany can only nod as she waits for her teacher to continue.

“Your last three tests are nowhere near of the excellence that I would normally expect from you.”

Tiffany suddenly finds interest in the corner of her teacher’s desk as her teacher continues on with her lecture. “And I’ve made a point to inform your father about this.”

Tiffany’s head shoots up. “M-my father?”

Her teacher nods solemnly. “Yes. Your father has the right to know about your poor academic achievements in class.”

“But I still have an A in your class,” Tiffany says with exasperation.

“You’re in danger of a B+ and your father has reminded me, as well as all of your other teachers, to inform him of your grades if they ever border a B.”

“But Mrs. Shin—”

Her teacher raises her hand to silence her. “You’ve earned a B- on your past three tests. This doesn’t show me that you’re paying attention in class. Whenever I look at you, you seem to be dozing off and not focusing.”

“I’m sorry,” Tiffany says. “But everything has been so hectic.”

“Tiffany, I know that you are ASB president, but you cannot push your studies behind just for that.”

Tiffany grits her teeth and wants to tell her teacher that it’s much more than just ASB that is bringing her stress. It’s the stress of her father, the stress of her soccer team, the stress of everyday life and not being able to enjoy it. But she keeps mum and nods her head once. “Yes, Mrs. Shin. I’ll try harder.”

“Harder isn’t enough,” Mrs. Shin begins, “In fact, I’m going to have Jessica Jung, one of my best students, tutor you.”

Tiffany’s eyes widen. “What?” she nearly shouts this, but she remains calm.

“Yes, a student tutor. She is one of my best students and I will have her tutor you every school day after school for an hour.”

Tiffany bites her bottom lip and contemplates on the thought. A million thoughts race through her mind: Other schoolwork, ASB planning school events, company conferences to attend, and not to mention that soccer practice begins soon. “But I don’t have enough time as it is, I—”

“Tiffany, I wasn’t asking for your opinion or approval. Your father has agreed to this, so you have no other way around it.”

Tiffany gravely nods. Her schedule is not a flexible one, so any additional events would lead her to less sleep than she already has. As far as she can tell, her two hours of restless sleep are barely keeping her awake throughout the day. But if her father’s wishes are involved in this, she has no choice but to go along with them.

“I’ll be here after school then, Mrs. Shin.”

Her teacher nods and dismisses her with the wave of a hand.

**

Tiffany sighs and rakes a hand through her hair. “I can’t do this,” she mutters.

“Can’t do what?” her friend asks.

“This,” she says as though her friend is aware about her current situation.

“Here you are lying on a bench with your head in my lap, muttering something about something. Do you think I have the slightest clue what you’re talking about, Hwang?”

Tiffany opens her eyes to look up at her ranting friend. “I just got myself into a bit of a situation.”

“Which would be?”

“I have tutoring for an hour after class now.”

“Tutoring? Do you even have time for tutoring?”

“My point exactly. I can’t balance everything on my schedule if I have an hour of tutoring, Yoona.”

Yoona offers a lopsided smile. “Maybe your teacher thinks that it’s for the best.”

“No one understands,” Tiffany sighs. “I get the material, I really do. It’s just that I fall asleep before I even learn it.”

“Then how do you understand the material if you don’t learn it?”

“I glance over my textbook from time to time, but that’s beside the point. Point is, I can’t afford to add an extra hour into my schedule. It’s already too hectic as it is.”

“You know, if you knew the material, you wouldn’t fail the tests.”

Tiffany screws her eyes closed. “That’s the problem. I fail the tests because I fall asleep during it. Shin thinks I don’t answer the test because I don’t understand it, but I just fall asleep, Yoong.”

Yoona brushes Tiffany’s bangs to the side with her index finger. “You should get some sleep then.”

“No, I can’t. I’m too busy to sleep. Even if I try to go to sleep, the thought of having something incomplete drives me insane, so I end up waking up early to do my work. I just need to make this work somehow.”

“Maybe you should quit one of your everyday activities,” Yoona suggests. She knows that it is an absurd suggestion seeing that Tiffany is the overachiever who gives her all in everything and doesn’t give up.

“Very funny, Yoong.”

“It’s just one hour. How bad can it be?”

“I don’t know. My tutor is a student too.”

“Really? He or she?”

“Jessica Jung.”

Yoona raises an eyebrow. “Jessica Jung?”

“Yes, why?”

“No reason.”

“Tell me.”

Yoona sighs. “She’s not exactly the type of person you’d want to befriend, Fany-ah.”

“Why?”

“She’s one of those rebellious students. I hear she does drugs, but that’s a rumor.”

“Rumors are rumors, which means that they’re untrue.”

Yoona shrugs her shoulders and plays with the ends of Tiffany’s hair. “All I know is that she’s rebellious, so watch out.”

Tiffany laughs and Yoona feels her legs shake when Tiffany moves. “Watch out for what? It’s not like she’s going to murder me.”

“I don’t know. Why is she tutoring you anyway? I mean, she can’t be that smart.”

“Shin said that Jessica’s one of her best students.”

“Hah! I highly doubt that.”

“Haven’t you ever heard to not judge a book by its cover?”

“Hey, don’t say I didn’t tell you so, but watch her bail on you.”

“As if.”

Yoona flicks Tiffany’s forehead. “I’m just warning you.”

“I'll keep that in mind."

TBC

----

A/N: Well that was the first chapter... somewhat. Well, it's the first part of the first chapter. Too short? Sorry, the first few chapters have to be short for some reasons.

The next chapter will be Jessica's part, so please be patient. I already have it written, so maybe an update next week or so. It depends on you guys, really.

Hey, thanks to those who have commented and/or subscribed. Let me give you guys brofists.

I hope you know who this is based on the 'about me' section on our profile. Take a guess (if you even bother to read the A/N and comment, that is)

Oh, and in case you're confused, pay attention to the dates. The prologue was a foreshadow of the fanfic. If you don't know what a foreshadow is, google it. If you still don't know what it is, you're stupid(:

I should do replies. But I'm lazy. Maybe Sammy will do replies. She's nicer. If I did replies, you guys would be butthurt (unless you want me to do replies since you love me(;   )

All right, go to bed, kiddies. Hopefully you've read the 'about me' section by now, because otherwise I might sound mean when I say:

Pyong, es.

<3