"Lexis is your brother?" Rihanna exclaimed.

Anthony jumped back and watched Rihanna's expression with so many questions running through his head.

Why was she angry?

Why does she hate Lexis?

How does she even know him?

Is it possible that his brother knew Rihanna too?

"Yeah. He's my older brother."

"And you didn't think to tell me this until now?"

"I didn't know it mattered that much to you."

Rihanna was caught in bafflement. She stood in denial. "It doesn't matter to me. I just don't want to be around you if you have a brother like that."

"What do you mean 'a brother like that'?" Anthony said hurt and somewhat offended. Rihanna seemed to underestimate exactly how much love he had for his brother.

"Never mind. You better not have talked to him about me." She threatened questionably.

Anthony shook his head. "I never did. I knew your name only today."

Relief flooded Rihanna's chest. "Good. Now, I want you to do something for me."

"What?"

"I need laundry detergent. And a big bucket." Rihanna eyed her uniform.

"I'll get right on it." He turned and ran to the door. Right before exiting, he turned around and said. "How about food?"

At the mention of food, her stomach grumbled. She hadn't realized she had eaten little to nothing that day.

She looked up at Anthony and nodded. "Something heavy. Really heavy."

He flashed her a white smile and dashed out of the door, yelling behind him, "Dinner date baby! Yeah!"

Rihanna shook her head and walked to her uniform. The yellow blotches on it were not merciful. She can already see how tough it'll be to remove them just looking at their crispy texture.

If Anthony was Ellis' son though, she can somehow manage around getting one. He's rich–buying a uniform like this would equal to spending a dime for a person like Rihanna.

But then, if everyone had asked around and found out that it was Anthony who bought it for her, the news will travel, Lexis will find out about their relationship, and if Anthony told him the things he found out about her, it'll be a hassle for her. If anything, she doesn't want anyone to know any more about her than her name...

***

After eating the delicious food Anthony had brought, Rihanna dumped her uniform in the warm water, added detergent to the bucket and began cleaning it.

Anthony watched as water splattered all over her and him. He poked the bubbles that flew out every now and then, then, after some time, put his hands inside the bucket and helped Rihanna with her uniform.

It was his first time doing such a poverty-stricken task: cleaning a uniform he can so easily replace with many. However, Rihanna stubbornly refused his offer and though he didn't know why she declined it, he worshipped everything she did.

All her decisions and words only made her that much more amazing to him.

On accident, he squeezed the cloth too fast and soapy water jumped on Rihanna's face. They paused to look at each other, her expression caught in disbelief.

"Sorry–so sorry." But his apologies were muffled behind laughter that he was trying so hard to hold in.

She flicked some of the soap on her hand on his face. "Rude."

Before long, the two were chasing each other around the room, their laughter filling the air as they went back and forth to the bucket, and chased one another as they played tag with the soapy water. Before long, they both dropped on their back.

Anthony breathless.

Rihanna smiling.

"Thank you." He said. His eyes were closed, shutting off the downsides of life.

"For what?"

"For existing." His eyes opened and he looked at her, seeing life...passion...hope... "Thank you."

She kept quiet, but her heart swelled up with happiness. So much happiness that she, for a second, felt like she could do anything. She stood up and walked over to the piano. This time, she didn't cover her eyes.

And to fulfill her heart's ambition to the revived atmosphere around her, she, for the first time since she could remember, played a heartwarming melody, dedicated to the little boy who lay on the floor, looking at her with the biggest smile on his face.

***

Jessie stood by the abandoned music room. He had heard the most amazing and exhilarating piano music playing and his feet walked right to its door, and as he opened it a crack, he was breathless with shock to see who was behind the piano playing.

Only a few hours ago he was with Rihanna, helping her clean up the glue in the boys' shower stall. He left her to get the things she wanted, but on his way to the dorm he was interrupted by the massive rumors circulating about her. She's poor. She faked a bank document. She's that desperate. She tried to deceive everyone by saying she had that much money. Multi-billion dollar company? Give me a break! She tried to take over Summer's spot. We have to do something about her.

And so many more things that he felt uncomfortable recalling. He went back to clear things up for Rihanna, and couldn't find her. While looking around, he met with his mom, who explained to him what happened and how Summer was involved.

"And you enrolled her in F.A.I.T.H. for that reason?!" Jessie exclaimed, shocked with disbelief.

"Don't be silly son. F.A.I.T.H. is too high class for just anyone to enroll in, and you know that. I would have enrolled Joshua if that was the case."

"Then why?!" Jessie exclaimed, angrier than he thought he'd be. "She's a sweetheart, mom. She's not bad."

The headmistress shot him a look. "You aren't bad either. Rihanna, however, is something that you'll never understand, Jessie, neither will I, and that aggravates me."

"Mom!"

"Jessie. I'm saying this for the Academy's sake. Her connection is more defiant and worshipped than you'd think. I know that well enough to be curious about her. I just want to know who's behind mending such strict Academy rules. No one can do something like this easily. Even I can't."

"And how will you establish something like that by putting such an innocent girl on the line!"

"Whoever it is, they'll come forward. They'll want to rearrange things, talk to me about why she shouldn't enroll. I'll figure out who the third party is this way only."

"Are you serious?!"

"Rihanna's poor, son. Yet somehow, she had a connection stronger than all of the Academy's combined. Just who is she, who's her family, to have something this powerful by her side? If possible, I want them to be by your side as well. Not her, but them."

He didn't care. He thought he would, but Rihanna being poor didn't matter to him. She was a person worth more than money. She was a sweetheart, a gem, the sweetest girl he had met in this Academy, and something like that can never be bought.

Now that he heard her play, he realized she had every right to be in this prestigious school. The music she played was more than music, it was brilliance that would be wasted anywhere else but in the Academy. Her music opened up his heart and made him feel joy, happiness, and a mixture of eternal beauty and warmth. It was a melody weaved by a beautiful soul.

He closed the door as her piano playing came to an end. She was alone in the room, and it would be disrespectful of him to barge in and announce his eavesdropping to her.

After Rihanna was done, she rested her forehead on the piano's top, a smile relaxing on her lips. In the dead quiet room, a word escaped her lips. "Ditto."

Anthony could barely hear what she said, but he did anyway, and his body floated with disbelief and happiness. He straightened in a sitting position, his feet tucked under his bottom, and he looked at her with wide eyes.

"You mean it?"

She kept quiet, the smile not going anywhere.

"Rihanna?"

"Mmm." She tried to remember the song she just played, but was only flooded with dynamic emotions at the fact that she played something happy. That she wasn't terrorized at the sight of her fingers moving on top of the piano keys.

"Your eyeliner mask... I don't know if I mentioned it yet, but it covered something really beautiful."

He looked over at Rihanna. She sat still on the bench, her head resting on the piano's rim. For a moment, he could only see someone more divine than anything he'd ever seen, but as the moment stretched in strange silence, he looked closer at Rihanna and realized that something was wrong. Was she crying? Why? What's a piano to her? And why, as he suddenly recalled, did she have to cover her eyes when she played before?

His thoughts were interrupted as he watched Rihanna's head slide over the piano's rim and up. The bench began to slowly tip over at her sudden staggering unconscious weight, and in a breathless and shocking moment, both the bench and Rihanna fell over against the ground, the sound of the impact echoing through the room and against the walls.

Rihanna's eyes were closed. She lay on the floor unmoving. And it took Anthony a moment to realize what had just happened in front of him.  

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