Tutor||l.h.

three - dad

I held my highlighter in my hand while I marked off key events and things that were "unusual" to the boys' schedule. Things besides the usual soundcheck and concert. They had one radio interview in a few days. About a week from now was their first day off. A few days after that was a meet and greet and so on. As I moved further down the list, I found an unusual-unusual event. "Calum and Michael's tattoo appointment?" I muttered under my breath, quickly highlighting it and making a question mark next to it, reminding myself to ask about it later.

"Dalaiah?" a voice asked, jolting my attention away from the papers I had been putting so much work into. I looked up and saw my mom standing in the doorway off the bus.

"Hey," I smiled at her as she sat down.

She crossed her legs and smiled at me, "Are the boys awake?"

I shook my head, "No I'm waking them up in 10 minutes."

She smiled, "Are you having fun?"

I nodded and placed the papers on the seat next to me, "Yeah, this is a lot of fun. I'm glad I got to do this myself."

"That's great! I usually wouldn't make you manage the opening act, I mean, I've managed both bands by myself before. But with One Direction it's a whole new level. With all the security they have it's harder to get them, and the other boys, to where they need to be, and especially when they don't have the same schedules..."

I laughed as she ran a hand through her hair stressfully, "God it's horrible, but I'm having fun and I'm glad you are, too. It's a new experience."

I nodded in agreement and thought about Liz and how my mom had told her about my dyslexia.

"Thank you, by the way," I said, "for telling Liz about my dyslexia."

She nodded, "Of course. Ae your classes easy?"

"Same as they were before. I told Luke about my dyslexia but not the other boys. He helped me the other day when it got really bad."

"I'm glad you're opening up about it," she admitted to me, "I know you've always been kind of embarrassed about it, but I'm glad you're starting to get comfortable with it."

"It only took 17 years," I joked, seeing a smile break out on my mom's face.

"Well I just wanted to come say hi," she said, "but I'll see you later once we meet up at the venue, alright?"

"See you then," I said, giving her a quick hug. She smiled one last time at me before she left the bus, closing the door behind her.

~~~~~~~~

I sat side by side with Luke while he worked on a large, multi-step problem his mom assigned to us.

"Dalaiah?" a voice asked from the doorway of the dressing room. The two of us turned to look. My mom stood in the doorway with her phone in her hand and a distraught look on her face. "Can I talk to you?"

I nodded and pushed my notebook and pencil onto the couch, glancing at Luke quickly before leaving the room. "Is everything okay?" I asked her, stepping into the hallway and closing the door.

She walked down the hallway and I followed her, waiting for her to say something. "Your father called," she said, "I haven't seen him or heard from him since I got pregnant with you. But he found my number and..." She sighed and wiped a tear from her eye, "Dalaiah... He's taking me to court. He wants custody over you and is saying I'm an unfit parent for making you travel the world and never providing a stable home."

I looked down as tears pricked my eyes, "What are we going to do?"

"Anything we can to keep you here."

I pulled her into a hug as tears fell from my eyes, "I don't want to leave you."

She shook her head, "You won't. I'll do everything I can to keep you with me." She smiled and wiped my tears and her own from our cheeks, "I have to go now, but I just wanted you to know." I smiled at her as she walked away to go back to helping the boys set up. I knew I needed a minute to clear my head before I went back to the room to finish the assignment, but I almost didn't want to. I thought back to what my mom said, about how she was glad I was being open with people and not bottling up my feelings. Maybe telling Luke would be good, then again, maybe not. After a minute of contemplating, I decided to clear my head and just go act like everything was fine. Despite the fact I needed someone to talk to, I wanted to wait a little longer. I wanted to talk to someone tonight. So, I cleared my head before I went back to the room to finish studying, blowing it off when Luke asked what happened, saying she just needed to ask me about something that she heard, wanting me to clear up the rumor. He didn't question it.