Life as Shania

Chapter 34: Best Behavior

It was a nice cool morning and Mama Lee requested for the family breakfast to be served by the pool. 

Shania came to the breakfast table sulking. Papa Lee noticed and pulled his daughter close to him to give her a hug. "What's wrong darling? I think it's too early to be in a bad mood," Papa Lee asked her.

"I'm fine," replied Shania as she sat on her father's lap and leaned her back to his chest. Mama Lee leaned over to kiss her daughter's forehead. "I just feel really overwhelmed," Shania sighed.

"Your school break is happening next week, you're just 4 sleeps away from it," Papa Lee told Shania. "Will you really let me go to Singapore for my school break?" Shania asked skeptically.

"As long as you show us your best behaviour, I don't think there's any reason for me to not allow you to," Papa Lee stood Shania up and made her face him. "I'm sure you can do it, just 4 more days of classes."

"But I always get so much homework from Colin and I can't do them all," Shania whined. "Okay, from tonight, I'll see you in my office after dinner where you'll do all your homework under my supervision and we'll see if that helps," Papa Lee had originally thought about this arrangement for a long time but only decided to implement it this time. "Nooo, I can do them in my study or in my room," Shania protested. 

"Let's have breakfast first, you both can decide on Naya's homework arrangements later," Mama Lee gave a knowing look to her husband to dissipate his annoyance. 

After breakfast, Shania went to her study to get started on school with Colin. Her first period was online lesson with her Mandarin tutor and with Colin supervising. Mandarin is her least favorite subject as Jasmine Lao Shi (teacher in Chinese) is strict and enjoys doing surprise tests. Sometimes she would test her on the previous month's spelling instead of that week's - because according to her, she should still know the words tested previously.

When she fails or does badly, she'd be punished by having to write each of the word a hundred times as homework. And if she doesn't complete them, Colin would punish her or let Chris or Papa Lee know about it. 

Today's Mandarin class went pretty okay but she was given a passage that she had to memorize and write for the next class and Jasmine Lao Shi added that to her homework list that day. Shania's homework list was stored in a portal that Chris and Papa Lee could access and acknowledge. Usually, Papa Lee doesn't really check the portal as Chris is in-charge of it. But since Chris was out on his business trip, Papa Lee took charge.

School hours went by without any major issues and co-curricular activity went by smoothly with no tears. 

After dinner, Papa Lee reminded Shania that he expects to see her in his study to complete her homework. Shania showed some resistance and tried talking her way out of it but Papa Lee's warning glare stopped her.

Shania knocked nervously on the door to Papa Lee's study as she usually only comes in the study whenever she's in trouble or  to discuss something serious. In the day, Papa Lee's study has lots of sunlight coming inside making it seems rather warm and inviting, but without the sunlight drowning the room at night, Papa Lee's study becomes really dramatic and serious.

On the right side of the study, there's a large 12 seater conference table. Papa Lee signalled Shania to use the conference table.

Maybe it was the atmosphere or situation she's in, but Shania managed to concentrate and complete all her homework in a little less than an hour. 

She meekly called out to Papa Lee to let him know that she was done with her homework. Papa Lee put down the book he was reading and walked towards his daughter. He made a quick look of the worksheets she's completed and patted her head.

"Great job, Nay. I'll see you here again tomorrow after dinner, yeah?" Papa Lee lifted Shania's chin to get her to make eye contact with him.
"Yes, sir," Shania nodded.
"Go get ready for bed," Papa Lee pulled out Shania's chair to get her moving.

About 30 minutes later, Papa Lee went to Shania's room intending to tuck her in bed but he found her already fast asleep. He adjusted her comforter and turned bedside lamp off. Shania shifted in her sleep and saw Papa Lee. "Goodnight Papa," Shania whispered with her eyes closed. Papa Lee looked at her and kissed her forehead, "goodnight sweetie".