Alex gets up the next morning and packs the rest of stuff after he completes his daily routine.
He goes to distribute the newspapers and then returns to his apartment to take all his luggage.
He drags the big blue bag out and walks to Austin's house which is just opposite to the building.
He knocks the door and a middle aged woman opens the door. She was surprised by Alex's presence."What happened Alex?"
"Good morning Aunt Maya. I am moving from my apartment,so I am here to give you the keys." The slightly sleepy look on her face vanished after she heard Alex's words.
"Why? Did Austin do something?" Her husband doing something was the only thing she can think of.
"Aunt Maya, he seems to be in need to money. His gambling might have worsened. He tore off my receipt to accuse me of lying but I had more copies of it so he couldn't continue. But he decided to raise my rent by 1k which was against our agreement." Maya seemed to be visibly angry and ashamed of her husband's deeds.
"Alex, I will convince him. So don't take such actions. Please." Maya tries to convince Alex but he doesn't budge.
"Aunt Maya, I am grateful for you to rent me your apartment but you do know about it's condition right? Sir, collects the 'maintenance' money every month but I don't see any repairs. He seems to be in need of money to an extent that he would try to scam/cheat me now and even raise rent doesn't it mean that he can raise other fees later?"
"He had been taking advantage from the start and now he is crossing the line. Aunt Maya,I cannot afford to take risks about this at this time." Alex is adamant on leaving. He left 300 credits with her because he didn't want Aunt Maya to be scolded by Austin. She could say that she had earned this money from Alex since she could not stop him from leaving which would pacify him to an extent.
'I owe nothing to you so I don't need to compromise my safety and take risk for you.' Alex thought about Aunt Maya. She was a reasonable person not a kind one. He didn't get any decrease in rent for being a orphan and his maintenance fees were gobbled up. Austin did not even give him few extra days when rent is due. All she did was stop Austin from creating more trouble.
He took his belongings to his new flat.
'Another new roof above my head. Can this be called 'home'? I guess not.' Alex shakes his head and gets to unpacking. He unpacked the essentials and left the others in the luggage.
'I am settle these later. I have to study to catch up on the missed days.' Alex takes his books and reads them until it was time for Shelly's tuition. He quickly gets ready and leaves for Shelly's place.
While in a alleyway near the school. Shelly sees a bag on the ground and she stuffs the cash in it for the security company and leaves after making sure that there was no one had seen her.
'This concludes my part. Those gang members will make to look like a fight and beat up those punks. I told them to injure Brad so that he won't be able to get off bed for at least a month. This will save Alex and stop him from coming for a month. Brad's already abysmal grade will drop. School would suspend him for fighting and low grades.' Shelly doesn't feel bad for what she had done.
'This is what you get for trying to harm Alex.' She thought and headed home.
Brad was walking towards their meeting place to inform them that Alex didn't come today. He saw his friends getting beaten up by few people. He wanted to run away and pretend that he didn't know them but one thug saw him and yelled
"He is one of those who caused trouble in our turf." He said this and the thugs charged and beat Brad up while the students looked on. Someone called for help but they were finished by the time he'll arrived.
"You punks are years away to beat us. Don't think of causing trouble in our turf again or we will be more ruthless." One of them said and the thugs left leaving the punks and Brad groaning in pain.
They made it look like the punks were the ones who initiated it and therefore it is a street fight. The police won't care much about this.
Students took pics and shared them in the campus forum. The school's higher ups noticed this and deleted all the posts. The principal knew that if this was not handled properly, parents would transfer their children. No parent wants their child to be near street punks and gangs. He decides to call for a meeting and take some strict measures. He called Brad's father and asked him to come to school.
Shelly came home to see Alex waiting for her. She avoids Alex's eyes as she remembers what her mother told her. Shelly was unconsciously attracted to him and yesterday's talk made her realise that she has a slight crush on him. So she doesn't know how to face him with all that in mind.
'Did he also notice?' Shelly's thoughts wander and then she saw him looking at her and she got flustered.
"Are you alright?" Alex saw Shelly standing in a daze and asked her.
"No-I mean yes. I am fine. Are you done with your stuff?" Shelly asks him to divert her attention from those thoughts.
"Yeah,I moved from my place due to few things." Alex said.
"Huh!You moved? Why at this time?" Shelly asks without much thought.
"I found a better place closer to school and the restaurant I work in. I can save money I spend on bus and save time travelling."
"Where do you live now?" Shelly was sure that there was more to the matter.
'Alex might have faced some problem in his old place. Why else would he move so abruptly at this time even taking two days off from school?'
Alex gave her his new address. He didn't think much about giving his address to her as he already considered her a friend. He was oblivious of her plans.
'With this I can meet him whenever I pass by this place with various reasons.' Shelly thought.
Next day, Shelly heard that Brad and few of his classmates were expelled from the school. The higher-ups decided to expel his school lackeys as well even though they did not participate in the fight to placate other parents who seemed concerned about the fights and school's study environment.
Teachers took time during the classes to lecture the students to not play around and mingle with street thugs as the school is taking strict measures. They also started to increase the homework so that students don't have time for anything else.
Shelly was not too bothered with this while all others were groaning.
'I can spend more time with Alex with extra homework.' Alex doesn't have set timings for weekends. He would teach for few hours when there were important topics or just goes to take some other jobs.
Time passed and the academic year came to an end. Alex never lost his first place but Brendan was not too stressed and flustered as he was before. There was no one to mock him as 'eternal second ranker' as Brad and his lackeys were expelled.
This reduced his pressure and his parents also noticed that Brendan was spending more and more time on studies to get the first rank and understood that it would be bad for him in the future so they encouraged him and increased his diminishing self confidence. They also fired him to take up few hobbies to clear his mind from studies.
Brendan marks improved tremendously after that. Even though he was still second rank, his marks were lot closer to Alex than before. Alex took fewer jobs during weekends to tutor Shelly but managed to save quite a bit which made him hopeful for the future. He also got information that the school would give 10k as an award for the student who scores the best rank in the national entrance exams which motivates him further.