Haven

Slowly swinging from left to right in my hammock, I wrote things down into my notebook. Turning the quick scribbles into proper sentences of our Philosophy lecture, I took a sip of the fruit smoothie I had made.

The strawberries had made the smoothie a tad bit sour, but the vanilla ice cream and cherries had made it a bit softer and sweeter.

Smoothies- they were the perfect thing to drink at evenings like these, twenty degrees with the sun falling and breeze laying down.

The sky was full of pink and orange, the clouds smudged out all over, as if an artist was tired of its painting and let his brush sweep all over in frustration. It was fascinating, especially when geese started to fly over.

"Haven, stop staring at the sky and do your work," Jude, my twenty years old brother, kicked the hammock, making it swing even harder. "You won't be a poet,"

I rolled my eyes, chuckling. "Never tried to be,"

"What are you writing, then?" Jude raised his dark eyebrow, itching his chestnut brown hair as he stood up and glanced at my notebook.

"Just making notes, of my notes. Know what I mean? I scribbled things down, super messily which I cannot stand so I don't understand why I did it in the first place, but besides that-"

"Get to the point, Haven. You're being chatty." Jude pinched my cheek and grinned, roughly pushing the hammock away from him.

I groaned and sat up straight, looking at him. "Just neatly writing down my messy scribbling. Happy? And stop pushing me, it makes me nauseous."

"You'd be a tiny bit more quiet, maybe. I don't mind," Jude grinned again and continued to pester me, until Jonah, my four years older brother, stepped into the backyard.

"Stop being a kid, Jude. Let Haven be," He mumbled, flicking his ear, to which Jude welped.

I laughed, and fist bumped my eldest brother. "Thanks, Jonah."

"Got your back, Have," He chuckled, pushing Jude to the ground as they started to wrestle right next to me.

I had never minded having two older brothers. It was nice to have two guys looking after you, except if they went into the so called "father mode". They'd boss around, making me even grumpier than I would be at that moment, but I loved them to death.

Jonah had always been more serious than Jude, though. Perhaps, because he was older, and got it from my dad. He was more introverted, whilst me and Jude were more outgoing, my mum's personality.

The variety was good. I needed to quiet down sometimes, they needed to speak up more often.

Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrating and I frowned, wondering who'd send me a message at this time. Maybe it was Ittarah, who already asked for my notes, even though this was only the third week of Uni.

Unlocking my phone, I noticed it was an email instead, making me frown even deeper. Clicking on it, my eyes quickly read over the sentences.

'Dear Haven,

Thank you, once again, for signing up for the tutor program for our other students. I'm super grateful that you take your time to do so! It can mean so much to other students.

Anyway, I'd like to tell you that I have found you a student. I think you've helped him before. His name is Zephaniah. I think he's in your classes? It took me a while to convince him about all of this due to personal reasons, but he'd like your help sometimes as he struggles with certain things.

The tutoring will take place on Wednesdays still, perhaps in the library as that is the best way to do so? If not, I'll suggest somewhere else.

My husband is standing behind me, telling me that this email is taking too long, but I'm too excited, so, sorry in advance.

You're Zephaniah's tutor now. Meet him on Wednesdays in the library. I'm sure he'll be there already.

See you!

Mrs. Hannah (from the library).'

"What have you got there, Haven?" My mum's soft voice brought me back to reality, her warm eyes staring right in mine.

"Uhm," I stared at the email again, a small smile had formed on my face. Zephaniah. My heart skipped a beat, making me frown at my own giddy behavior. "It's an email.. from the library woman. She has found me a student to tutor."

"Really?" Mum smiled, peeking at my phone and quietly reading it. She chuckled, "She seems excited, indeed. How old is she?"

I thought about it for a while. She seemed to be young still, and after I saw her email address, which was 'hannahblake86', I figured she'd be either thirty two, or thirty three. "That, I think?" I said once I told mum.

"Oh, lovely." She smiled, randomly playing with my wavy, light brown hair. "Zephaniah. That's a beautiful name,"

"Is it a beautiful boy, too?" Jude asked immediately, wiggling his eyebrows.

I simply rolled my eyes, lying, "I haven't seen him yet," I mumbled, not feeling like telling them that he, in fact, was.. beautiful?

"She says otherwise," mum frowned, pointing at the email. "He's in your classes."

"Busted," Jude whispered. I shoved him away.

"It's been the third week, let me live. You know I'm not desperately looking for a guy." I answered, locking my phone and stuffing it between my thigh and the hammock.

"Nothing wrong with looking," Jude shrugged, smiling sheepishly as my mum glared at him. "I'm going to do the financing," he said as he stood up, walking inside the house to continue his work.

"I'm happy for you, Haven." Mum said, suddenly starting to grin. "Another way for you to let out some of that energy you got,"

I couldn't help but laugh, sighing a little after that. "You gave me it,"

"If only I had a choice," she said, then ruffled my hair, "Just kidding, you know that. So, you've helped the guy before? Is Uni too hard for him?" Mum wondered as she sat down on one of the dark, grey, chairs we had standing in the garden.

I shrugged, thinking about Zephaniah. Truth was, I couldn't figure him out, and that alone interested me. Innocent interest, though. It didn't mean anything. I had always been interested in humanity alone. Just how everyone was different, wondering what was going on through somebody else's mind.

Diversity, opinions, everything. It had made me doubt my study choice, as Psychology was something genuinely interesting to me, but since it was also a subject that came with Philosophy, although not the main subject, I chose Philosophy. Just because I was even more intrigued by everyone else's creative minds and thoughts.

"He's just very quiet and reserved. Last time he was just not sure if the questions we had to write down were okay. And, he hadn't followed all of the spoken words in the lecture." I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the sky again. It was now dark blue, the colours having faded as the sun travelled to its next destination.

"I see. I hope things will work out for him. It's great that you can be a help for that." Mum said. I agreed. After she gave me another smile, she went back inside where she started to talk to my dad, who had just gotten home from his work. He was a counselor at a Special School.

Closing my eyes, I let my thoughts wander to a few days ago, when Zephaniah had exploded towards Ittarah. I hadn't mixed myself into the situation, as I knew, out of experience, that could make things worse. Though, thinking back, I wished I had stopped Tara before things escalated.

The guys had laughed at Zephaniah's behaviour, I had thought he felt out of control.

It made me sad, but it also made me wonder why it bothered me so much. I didn't know him, so it wouldn't have to be my concern. I guess I just felt bad for people easily in general. My parents had always told me that I was very defensive when it came to injustice.

Could agree on that. I wasn't afraid to speak out my thoughts on that subject.

Let's just say that I wasn't disappointed I was going to be his coach. It was a nice way to get to know him better, to maybe become friends and easily involve him into the things our study group did- maybe even said, as he barely interacted in the conversations we held.

Re-reading the email, my eyes lingered on the words 'personal reasons' and 'struggles with certain things' for a while. What would it be?

"Haven! Haven flipping Faith Sparks!" Jude screamed, making me jump out of my hammock, knocking over my smoothie that seeped all over my clothes and ran over to the door that led to the backyard.

"What?!" I panicked, throwing my phone onto the table and looking at my brother with wide eyes.

"Cookie!"

I frowned, throwing my hands up in the air. "Why'd you scream for a cookie?"

"No! That weed screaming, hairy, monster!" He pointed at the floor, where my black and beige brown guinea pig was walking around in peace.

Sighing deeply, I glared at him, pointing at my shirt. "Seriously? You caused all of this because of my guinea pig? How dare you call him that, by the way." I chuckled, retrieving a wet wipe to, at least, remove some of the smoothie I had thrown over my clothes.

"How are you so calm about this?! That animal, it's not even an animal, that monster needs to be in its cage! Not on the floor, he was nibbling my toes." Jude huffed, glaring at me until I picked Cookie up, stroking its fur.

"You're overreacting, Jude. He's never done that before. And if he did it to you, it's probably because of you." I grinned, high- fiving my eldest brother.

"Have to agree with Jude, Haven. He's bitten through three chargers, ate paint off the wall, nearly died because he swallowed down a sticky toffee- it belongs in its cage, not in our living room on the floor." My father said, a soft smile visible on his face.

I pouted, sighed, but secretly agreed, anyway. Kissing its small head, I placed him back in his cage and walked back over to the kitchen, wetting another napkin to try and get some smoothie off me.

"You should probably rinse off. It's in your hair," Mum said softly, continuing to read her book.

Agreeing, I walked upstairs and gathered my pajamas, walking over to the bathroom after that. Turning on the faucet, I took off my sticky clothes and stepped into the shower, washing myself. After my hair was soaped and rinsed as well, I got out and dressed into my pajamas, figuring it was late enough for bed.

Once in my bedroom, I lied down on my bed and stared at the ceiling, the scent of my shampoo satisfying me. Tomorrow was Sunday. After church service, I'd either read or do schoolwork, but, I felt as if my thoughts weren't there.

Sighing, I grabbed my phone and clicked onto Hannah's email, reading it again. I unconsciously smiled, feeling too excited about the fact that I was chosen to be Zephaniah's coach. He was interesting to figure out.

My fingers lingered on my screen for a while. Then, I clicked on 'reply' and started typing.

'Hi!

Thank you for your long email. I liked reading it. I'm also very excited for this!! I'm happy I signed myself up for this project. Known for a while it existed, because of the introduction evening. The man, (I don't remember his name but he had white hair), had told us about it.

It had caught my attention, but I didn't sign up right away because I didn't know what to expect from my first lectures and subjects either, haha..

Don't worry, my emails are always long. They say I'm chatty. Kinda believe it sometimes? Oh well. Anyway, I'm happy that I'll be able to, hopefully, help Zephaniah, and I can't wait to start!!

I hope to see you on Wednesday, then.

Bye!

Haven Sparks'.

~~~

Bit of a random chapter to show more about Haven's home situation.. did you like it?

Her brothers?

Hannah's email??

I'm excitedddddd