The evening air was calm, the only sound in the house being the faint rustling of pages as Elias flipped through Lily's workbook. She sat on the floor beside the coffee table, her tiny feet swinging back and forth as she rested her chin in her hands.
"Okay," Elias said, tapping the page with his pen. "What's six times three?"
Lily scrunched up her nose. "Um…"
She looked down at her worksheet, then at her fingers, wiggling them as if they would somehow reveal the answer to her.
Elias watched, his face unreadable. "Do you want to try guessing?"
Lily frowned. "I don't want to guess. I want to know."
Elias's lips twitched slightly. "Fair enough. Let's make it easier."
He grabbed a handful of grapes from the bowl on the table and lined them up. "Okay, watch this. Let's say you have six groups of three grapes. Count them."
Lily's eyes lit up. She carefully counted each group, whispering the numbers under her breath. "Three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen."
Elias nodded. "So, six times three is?"
"Eighteen!" she exclaimed, looking up at him with wide, proud eyes.
Elias gave her a rare, approving nod. "Good job."
Lily beamed, grabbing a grape and popping it into her mouth as if rewarding herself.
Unbeknownst to either of them, a small figure stood between the hallway wall and the door, peeking inside with careful eyes.
Luca.
He leaned slightly, just enough to see his sister laughing as Elias handed her another problem. His hands clenched into small fists, and he frowned.
It wasn't fair.
Lily liked him.
Lily liked everyone.
Luca, on the other hand, wasn't so easy to impress.
He turned away before they could notice him, heading back to his room with his thoughts racing.
---
Back in the living room, Elias was still guiding Lily through her homework.
"What about this one?" he asked, pointing to another problem. "Nine times four?"
Lily's nose scrunched up again, and she grabbed a handful of grapes without waiting for instruction.
"Okay," she mumbled, separating them into groups. "Four, eight, twelve, sixteen, twenty, twenty-four, twenty-eight, thirty-two, thirty-six!"
Elias raised a brow. "Not bad. But you don't have to use grapes every time."
Lily grinned. "But it's fun."
He smirked. "Until you run out."
She pouted dramatically, holding up the last grape in her hand. "Then you'll have to get me more."
Elias leaned back, arms crossed. "Or you'll have to learn the trick to multiplication so you don't need them."
Lily sighed, as if he had asked her to solve the world's hardest problem. "Fine," she mumbled. "Teach me."
Elias tilted his head. "Alright. Do you know the trick with nines?"
She shook her head.
He reached for a piece of paper and wrote down the nine times table from one to ten.
"Look at the pattern," he said, pointing to the numbers.
Lily squinted. "Hmm…"
Elias gave her a moment before prompting, "Notice how the numbers always add up to nine?"
She stared for a few seconds, then gasped. "Oh! One and eight! Two and seven! Three and six! They all make nine!"
Elias nodded. "That's how you can check if you got it right."
Lily's eyes sparkled with excitement. "That's so cool!"
"Math is full of tricks like that," Elias said. "You just have to learn them."
Lily giggled, then suddenly turned serious. "You're really smart."
Elias shrugged. "I had a good teacher."
Lily tilted her head. "Who?"
He hesitated for a brief second before responding, "Someone a long time ago."
Lily didn't push, sensing it wasn't something he wanted to talk about.
Instead, she went back to her worksheet, solving the problems with newfound confidence.
For the first time in a while, homework didn't feel boring. It felt fun.
And for the first time, she felt like she was actually learning.
---
Luca, back in his room, sat on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
He wanted to hate Elias.
He really, really did.
But deep down, a small part of him—one he refused to acknowledge—was starting to wonder.
Maybe Elias wasn't as bad as he thought.