I'm a Good Person (Book 4)

Chapter 8

Tutoring began on Monday. The dining room was turned into a makeshift school from ten in the morning to five in the evening, which allowed Robert to continue to work at the mill and Robert took to this new routine better than anyone had expected. Even Rebecca was impressed by his work ethic and aptitude. It seemed removing the social aspect of his school experience allowed Robert to focus on the work at hand.

Laura, on the other hand, seemed to struggle with the whole idea of tutoring. She was still quiet, reserved. Being in the same room with Robert did help some, but she still didn't want to actively participate and when she did answer, it was quiet. She was also struggling with her concentration, often looking outside and daydreaming.

It took Rebecca a few days to see that Laura was capable of doing the work and was up to grade level, if not a bit beyond, but that she simply wasn't in the right head space to learn. It was clear to Rebecca during this brief observation period that Laura was aware of her difficulty and frustrated by it.

So by the dawn of the second week, Rebecca pulled Laura aside.

"I'm really trying," Laura said before Rebecca had even spoken, "I promise I am. I just... I'll try harder, really..."

"Easy, Laura," Rebecca soothed, "I don't want you to try harder."

"But I didn't even finish the quiz you gave me."

"And that's alright. We did say we were only making sure you were up to grade level, didn't we? Well, I can assure you that you are and then some. So, you don't need to worry. Besides, I don't think you're really ready to be back doing school work yet."

"I am," Laura insisted, though her voice remained quiet.

"There's nothing wrong with not being ready. You've been through a lot lately, several major shocks and life changes. It would be enough to throw anybody off. Why not take some time to relax, to do things you enjoy?"

Every time someone told Laura she had been through a lot and deserved to take it easy, she felt like a fraud. In all this time she had yet to feel anything approaching sadness regarding her parents' deaths. Using that to get out of doing things, despite the fact that she did seem to be struggling with them, seemed disingenuous and made her feel tremendously guilty.

"I'm alright. I just need to get back into the habit."

Rebecca could tell that Laura was no less stubborn than Grayson had warned her Robert could be, so she decided not to argue the point, "alright, then what do you say we focus on the subjects you enjoy for a while, hm? Do you think that might help? You can read or write? Perhaps you'd like to learn music?"

"Not music," Laura exclaimed.

That was the first time Rebecca had ever heard Laura's voice at anything above a whisper, "no music, understood," she laughed, "I never could stand piano lessons myself. But they were always 'what was done'. I learned just enough to be able to teach a little."

"I took them for years," Laura replied, "I hated every minute of it."

"You did? How far did you get?"

"Not as far as my mother wanted," Laura joked, "some intermediate pieces. I couldn't even tell you what they were called. I started to tune it all out after a while. I just played."

"I can understand that well enough," Rebecca felt she and Laura were finally having a conversation and she was eager to keep it going, "so, what did you like at school? Or if not at school, just learning about?"

Laura thought about that for a moment before answering, "I enjoy reading, and English. I always liked history and geography, too. Could we do something with that?"