Chapter 2: The First Lesson

"Let's go over how you're feeling today." The therapist adjusted the pen so that it was ready to write in the notebook propped on his knee. "How are you today, Alison?"

The blonde brushed aside her knotted hair and smiled deviously, one corner of her lip coming up; but to the doctor, she looked innocent, grinning while brushing her doll's hair. "Very well, Doctor," she replied sweetly and politely. "Lunch was delicious, and Bessie let me have my other dolls back now." The therapist glanced at the other dolls lined up at the wall: one missing hair, the other an eye, and the other…a head.

They'd been the dolls she'd destroyed when she'd been taken in. The therapist made note of that, then wrote down that the newest doll, the one her parents had gifted her with a few months ago, had stayed in perfect, tip-top condition. "How do you feel about going outside in the garden?"

Blue eyes wide, Alison glanced up at the doctor and grinned ecstatically, tears falling freely. "I'd love to go outside! It's been so long, I—" She studied the walls around her, windowless. "I've forgotten what the sun feels like."

Nodding his head, the therapist made a note at the bottom of the page: "Patient displaying signs of progress; request granted to be allowed in the garden."

"Was my letter request accepted?" Alison couldn't break the twisted, seemingly normal, grin on her face.

The garden was fenced, of course, and strictly guarded. It was an award for those who were "better" now, as though seeing the sunlight after being deprived of it for months would snap them back into society's definition of sanity.

"Yes. It was sent a few days ago. And you deserve it, Alison. You'll be better in no time."

"Oh, good," she gushed, clasping her hands together. "I want to get better."

However, Alison had a plan, and it was a devious one. When the doctor left, locking the door behind him, she dared to glance in her pocket, and smiled at the unswallowed pills.

…

"This is bright and early," Aria commented, squinting her eyes from the yellow rising sun. "I don't know if my brain is prepared to absorb new information just yet."

With books cradled in his arm, Ezra followed Aria out into the yard and to the gardens, passing by the gardener on their way. "Good morning, John," she politely said. "The gardenias are looking beautiful this morning. Astounding work."

Once they passed him by, Ezra caught up to her so they were side-by-side and said, "Well, we have to start your education sometime. It's too gorgeous of a day to miss out on it." They came to a bench and he sat on it, unloading his books while Aria had to carefully splay out her skirts in order to sit comfortably. He would never understand the woman's fashion of this time, so layered and tight and puffy at the same time. If he'd gotten the right impression from Ella, he'd see Aria ditching those styles a lot in his stay here, and hopefully she wouldn't fall out of a tree and surprise him. "For all we know, it might pour tomorrow, and we'd be stuck indoors with a dark sky and a million candles."

Aria scuffed her shoes into the ground and smiled, a slight breeze pushing a curl from behind her neck over her shoulder. "I like the dark weather, though," she said. "I think the rain can be as mesmerizing as the sun."

"How so?" he asked, despite Ella possibly watching from a window and wondering why the heck a book wasn't cracked open. But he wanted to talk to Aria; he wanted to know the kind of person she was. Maybe that would make it easier for him to understand the best teaching style.

"People love the sun because it's symbolic of light and hope, but have you ever seen how the rain reflects everything? It's perfect for people who find comfort in the past rather than the future or present. It's reminiscent of looking back at yourself, at your life…"

Intrigued, Ezra leaned forward, but Aria wasn't looking at him or anyone, instead squinting at the blooming flowers around her. "Do you find comfort in the past?"

This time, she turned her face to face his, her hazel eyes unreadable. Rather than an answer, she just stared at him thoughtfully, as though she was debating how much she'd want to open herself up to him. "We should start with that lesson," she finally said, and reached over him to grab the French textbook.

"Okay," he sighed, and pulled out a notebook and some pencils, replacing the book she'd taken with them. "But from now on, I'm the teacher and you're the student. That means you take notes and do what I ask, I read from the textbook, and we pretend we're not friends."

Aria smiled at his sudden attempt at trying to regain some authority. "Of course, Mr. Fitz." And she picked up the pencil, opened the notebook, and conjugated the verb savoir before having a discussion about the subjunctive.

After French, they moved on to English, and while Aria was writing a response to a critical reading question, she paused and set the pencil down, staring at Ezra. "What's after English?"

He stopped flipping through the book, in which he was marking pages for future lessons. "Just Latin. Why?"

She turned so her body was faced towards him, too, in order to show how serious she was. "I want to learn something else, like math and science."

He wasn't surprised, and was actually waiting for Aria to say something about the limitations of her studies. But that was what Ella had told him to teach her, and that's what he was following. "Your mother made it clear that you'd already been taught your basic math and sciences…"

"Yes, but that was over two years ago, and it was so basic I wanted to jam my brain out. I already know that my language skills are superb. But what if math or science is my calling, too?" She sighed and bit her lip before confessing, "And my mother understated my French level; I'm fluent, and this is really a waste of your time."

Now Ezra was surprised. He could tell Aria was gifted in French and English from the last hour he'd been tutoring her, and he had a slight suspicion that she was more learned in the subjects than her mother had let on. But her blunt honesty was not something he'd ever have expected from a student. Instead of telling her any of this, however, he simply said, "I have all of the basic sciences—biology, chemistry, physics—with me, along with algebra and calculus." Glancing up at the large house, he could see a woman's figure watching from a window. It was his first job ever; he'd been lucky to get it at all, since these families preferred women to teach their children, and he shouldn't betray Ella already. But he was here to educate Aria, and that was plain and simple. "We can start on them as quickly as tomorrow if you'd like."

If he could teach a bright woman like Aria the knowledge a typical man of her station received, she'd be able to do whatever she wanted without ever having to depend on anyone else. And he wanted to help her succeed in breaking society's suffocating limitations.

Grinning, Aria nodded her head and fought the urge to hug him; her previous tutor had been vehemently against her learning above adding, multiplying, dividing, and subtracting, or above the basic scientific terms like atoms and molecules and the scientific method. "I'd love that."

At the moment, though, Ezra tapped the questions in the English book. "We'll still be sharpening those language skills, so maybe you can out-write all of the cranky old men in this continent when you publish your first novel—or paper, if you really do love chemistry. I, personally, think it's quite dull."

"Well, I'll have my say in that," she said, proudly raising her head up. "Eventually." She reached out and placed her hand on his arm, making Ezra stiffen. "Thank you." She was warm and genuine, and Ezra politely welcomed her.

Once English and Latin were wrapped up, Ezra got up to return the books and wash up before lunch, but Aria held him back. "Can I ask one more favor of you?"

He stopped and turned around; she was still sitting on the bench. "Sure."

She smiled nervously. "Would you mind if I taught you some music? Give me feedback on being a better teacher, as well? Last lesson of the day, I promise."

Ezra couldn't say no to such an eager face. Needless to say, Aria was a woman bursting with the ambition of knowledge and skill. It was refreshing to say the least.

After lunch, Aria and Ezra met up in the music room where Aria was sitting at the piano, sheet music and a couple books scattered across the floor. "Welcome to music and music theory," she greeted Ezra as he walked while she was delicately pressing the keys into a light melody. "Take a seat anywhere you like."

"I'm impressed already," he said while sitting in the chair nearest to the piano, facing it so that he could see her face as she looked down at her moving fingers.

"Just wait," she said mysteriously, finishing the song with a high chord. "How much music experience do you have?"

"Um, I played some piano when I was little. My mother tried to get me into it, and I bothered her until she let me quit."

"I can fix that." And she reminded him how the keys were set up and showed him C chord. "A music aficionado already."

Ezra gave her a skeptical look. "You can't determine much from one chord. One chord, I should add, with your fingers on top of mine. So I think I'd define it as cheating."

Aria shook her head and clucked her tongue. "Keep doubting yourself, Mr. Fitz, and you'll never know what you're capable of." With that, she smiled, but it drained from her face as soon as it lit up. However, she shook it off before Ezra could make a comment and instead said, "My mother would not have hired you, but you were the only one who answered the advertisement."

Involuntarily Ezra's heart sank. "Oh… Is it because I'm—"

"A young man? Yes. My mother much prefers working around women. Ever since my father—" She stopped, thinking carefully. "Never mind. Let's get back to our lesson."

Later that evening after supper, Aria was writing in her room when Lacey knocked. "Come in," she called out, setting her pen aside and closing the book.

"You have a letter, miss," Lacey announced while handing her an envelope.

"Thank you, Lacey." And she smiled politely, waited for Lacey to shut the door, then stared at the mysterious envelope.

It was enclosed in yellowish paper and sealed with a wax stamp she didn't recognize. Flipping it over, she saw her name perfectly penned, then glanced at the return address and gasped: Radley Sanitarium. She only knew one person from Radley, and she wasn't well enough to have a luxury of sending letters through the mail…

Unless she was getting better.

Aria's hands shook as she ripped into the envelope and unfolded the letter.

Dear Miss Aria,

It's been so long since I've seen you. How much time has passed, exactly? A month? You really should visit more often; I love your visits. And you should bring Spencer, Hanna, and Emily along—I miss them terribly, too.

I promise I'll keep your secret—as long as you keep mine. Meet any handsome strangers lately?

Kisses, A

Of course Aria should have known that Ali could manipulate her way through anything, even through Radley. She's coming, she thought, suddenly panicking. Rapidly she refolded the letter and stuffed it back in the envelope, after which she locked it in the drawer where she kept her journals. She was compelled to tear it up but needed to show it to somebody, like her friends.

Taking out fresh paper and a new bottle of ink, she was able to sign the first name—Spencer—on the top when her mom entered with no courtesy to knock. "We have guests," she said dryly, a fake smile on her face.

Aria wanted to scream in her head; she needed to get in contact with them immediately. Then she processed what her mother had told her and groaned. "Not the Strausses."

"Yes, the Strausses. And Holden's here." This time she grinned genuinely. "He seems like he's grown into a fine young gentleman."

Embarrassed, Aria laughed. "Stop, Mother, I've known him since I was five. He's just a friend. Be down in a minute." When Ella exited the room, Aria turned to the papers and quickly wrote the names at the top before setting them aside for later.

Truth was, Holden was a nice man. But the way he'd been presenting himself, jittery as of late, especially around men their age, made Aria a bit suspicious. When Ezra entered the room, those suspicions were confirmed. By the way Holden gaped at Ezra for even a second, she was able to read him, her childhood friend, like a book.

"Holden." Aria reached out and took his hand. "Our parents can't stand each other, but for some reason they want us to be together. But is there…other people?" She lowered her voice. "Men, maybe?"

Holden was so surprised, he jumped back and away from her. "Of course not. I wouldn't want to be spending the rest of eternity in hell." However, he turned around and glanced at Ezra, who was introduced to the Strauss parents. "Who's that?"

Not really subtle, Aria thought. "My tutor…but I think he likes women."

"Stop it!" Holden yelled in a hushed whisper, almost covering her mouth with his hand, scaring her a bit. Relaxing back in his seat, he slumped, ashamed. "That's not true."

Aria wanted to point out that he was doing a terrible job hiding it, but she knew better and instead kept her mouth shut. It didn't appear like she was getting a new suitor out of Holden. But how was she going to explain that to her mother?

The following morning, Aria was rushed out of bed again for her lessons, having fallen asleep writing her first letter to Spencer. She so desperately needed to send an SOS as soon as possible, but it seemed like the universe wanted her to wait after all.

"Now, Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation states that the gravitational pull, or force, two objects have on each other is opposite and equal," Ezra was lecturing while pointing at drawings in the book, "and if the distance between the objects increases, the force decreases by the square root of the distance—" He looked up and saw Aria staring at the bushes, not paying attention. "Aria, are you listening?"

She obviously wasn't but she brushed it off anyway. "Oh yes, gravity, weakened by distance… I got it."

He blinked and saw her distracted expression, but knew better than to ask her to bare any more than she wanted, so he continued, "And the force increases as the mass increases by the same factor…"

That afternoon, Aria was finally able to pen her warnings to her friends and request for them to come visit. She watched through an upstairs window as Lacey delivered them to the constantly traveling mailman, and as the carriage rolled away and as the sun set, all the while questioning how she was going to protect herself when Alison came for her.