The Scholarship Girl

f r a m e s - p e r - s e c o n d

Dreptomania, loosely defined as the urge to run away, by the English language.

Xavier could not be more bothered about attending this lecture, if it were not for offending his mother, who would have offended the teacher if her son was not attending her lecture.

Anastasia Maxwell, the 'president' of The Upper East Welfare Society , an elitist club that consisted of women from the rich households who decide to dedicate their free time in running charity auctions, or trophy wives gossiping about some lady who wore her skirt two inches short. His mother had to endure the weekly twice meetings of the club, she being the undeclared 'chairman' of the club, because she was the richest woman there. But she loathed going to the meetings, she would have stopped going long ago if it were not for the fear of Xavier's grandma.

Ms. Maxwell kept showing the slides about Modern fashion and how it affects your position in the society. All of the students were paying money for this. A lesson on etiquette. All the students in the class were nearly on the brink of saying 'we do not care' in chorus, but all of them knew better than to disrespect Anastasia Maxwell.

Well, all of them, except a certain brunette.

Her wide eyes and parted lips, a symbol of the gears turning in her head. A symbol indeed, because her most detested enemies threatened to make an appearance, namely, her insecurities. It could not be more glaringly obvious to her that she did not belong in this world, full of glamour. She did not even know that they were not supposed to ask for soup twice.

For some reason, Xavier redirected his fleeting gaze on Sophia. Him trying to gauge her emotions and thoughts seemed a more entertaining task, than to listen Ms. Maxwell's equation of heel shoe's inches and earring's dimensions.

His phone pinged, making him tear his gaze from the oblivious brunette to his notification bar. It displayed a chain of text messages from his group chat with his two best friends. Both of them, like him, heirs to the top companies and enterprises of the world. But if you would happen to sneak a glance at their texts, it was evident that they wanted a feel of, a breeze of freedom, as normal teenagers, without carrying the tile as heir.

he read the text messages, a small smile gracing his lips. Brian Anders was ranting about he saw a cute easel, with a pretty huge canvas (his words), but when he entered the store to buy it, the paparazzi entered and he had to rush out of the store. He was very sad that he could not buy it right away. Fucking rich people problems, he texted in all caps, followed by a plethora of emojis that made no sense at all.

"Mr Knight, I would be grateful if you would share with the class what is on your phone that could possibly be more interesting than a modern etiquette class? All students would be privileged to attend this class. Now I suggest you hand me over your pho-"

Xavier raised an eyebrow, a cold look forming on his face. Ms. Maxwell, thankfully, shut up and continued going on about the perfect tuxedo material, and which plants in which area of the world one can find them.

Normally, Xavier's standoffish and guarded behavior would scare most of the teachers. who would be so stupid to raise their voice against a Knight?

In whatever situation the world is, the thing that will always flourish and never incur loss in the healthcare industry. Knights had correctly invested and today as a result, in every remote corner of the world, a Knight hospital is in existence. Through their healthcare business, they have managed to build several law firms, interior and architecture firms, and were now looking to venture into the hotel industry.

Unknowingly, his eyes shifted to the brunette again and he couldn't help but smile at their interaction. She was so adorable and the way she spoke about his brother made his heart loom with pride.

It's a mandate for the first born to take the reins forward, in the business world. Knights had again stunned the world when they shattered all the assumptions that Colton Knight would be the next CEO of Knight Corp. He always had a knack for learning that was satisfied by the scientific world. His father simply told him that it would take a fool to force Colton into business and he would drive the business into ground. However, Tessa was set to be next CEO but she was seemingly more suitable to head one of the divisions in the company. Her habit of making impulsive decisions purely based on emotion had restricted her from the CEO position.

And then there was Xavier.

But he actually liked his father's work. He had been accompanying his father on business trips for almost two years now, and he also had made some investments with his allowance. He had even managed to close some deals and managed a day with, the help of his father's assistant, a half day without his father and was running the company. It was a lot of pressure and work, but Xavier had managed to handle the situation with such patience and level-headedness.

"But what exactly happens if you don't follow one of the rules? Say you were starving and desperately needed a second bowl of soup, and you order one more bowl. What would happen then?"

All the students were woken up from their trance with the wall, and directed their attention to Sophia. It was indeed a rare occurrence to see any student taking notes and answering questions in an etiquette class.

She suddenly became aware of the attention, and pushed more hair to cover her red cheeks. Why can't I keep my mouth shut? She wondered. Realizing Ms. Maxwell still haven't given her an answer, she found her staring, with raised eyebrows and she could imagine the string of curse words she wanted to yell at her, but she couldn't, because of a lady's etiquette.

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