Another Lyst

English: English lessons at school start in the second grade of high school (age 13-14). A lot of younger kids already speak English rather well because songs, video games, and foreign comics are not often translated into dutch. Our language group is too small a market to target. The French part of the country is less versed in English because they have French dub and a lot more is translated in French, so they feel less need. I started learning English when I was 7 years old by translating song lyrics with a dictionary. I became rather fluent in it by the time I was 10.

Chapter 44: Another Lyst

The rest of our morning we would have to spend with some miscellaneous tasks to prepare for the school festival. Luckily we could leave everything concerning promotion to Elodie and Gazette. But the more practical stuff like hiring a PA and someone to do the lighting fell to us, and all the calling back and forth easily filled our time.

I looked at Anna who was negotiating hefty. Every call she made, she got the deal she wanted. Seeing her in action I felt something stir inside me. It was hard to believe she became so weak when she was in the presence of her family. When Anna finished her call she walked toward me. She must have noticed that I had been staring. I felt like I got caught and felt that my blush was reddening my face.

Anna started massaging my shoulders and whispered “I noticed your gaze...” teasingly in my ear. When she is in her professional mode she also becomes a teasing Casanova, and I really did not know how to deal with her like that. I could feel my sense of control over the situation waver. I felt like a lamb in the clutches of a wolf. The room temperature must have shot up by at least 5 degrees because it was really getting hot.

“Don't worry, I will take care of you.” She said and kissed me in my nape. Part of me wanted to run, part of me wanted to push her away, but the biggest part of me just wanted to submit and melt completely into Anna's warmth, so I turned my head backward, and let her kiss me. Anna's hands were caressing me tenderly and exploring my back and sides. I was ready to completely submit to her caresses, but at that point, we were interrupted by a knock at the door.

I came back to my senses, and quickly put my clothes back in order. My mind was racing. I almost completely lost control there. I could not let Anna win like that. Even though it felt really good to entrust myself completely to Anna, that did not mean I should lose control like that. I mean, what if that knock had come 5 minutes later... I reprimanded myself to be more cautious. When I started gazing admiringly at Anna I tended to forget that she was still Anna Lyst, the cause of at least 93,4% of all troublesome events in the last 2 weeks. If I was not careful I was sure that percentage would escalate a lot higher, and I would never see the insides of my kitchen ever again. I turned red again when I thought about what would have happened at school if this situation had escalated some more. “No, I can't lose control like that, I need to get back into control. I need to be wearier. I can't let Anna just win like that.” I repeated to myself again.

Anna had noticed me turning red and embarrassed, and then getting angry at myself and kissed my ear before she went to the door to open it. In an instant, all my resolve left out of the door and I was ready to give myself to Anna again. I restarted my mantra from the start again and when I got myself back together I was surprised to see a little tanned girl on the other side of the desk.

Anna noticed my surprise, and with a smirk on her face, she introduced the girl to me. “This is a cousin of mine, Maura Lyst. She started here this year as a transfer student. ”

I looked at the tanned dark-haired girl with a beautiful long ponytail. She seemed rather small to be a high schooler. If I had to compare, she was at least half a head smaller than Fien, but there was something in her demeanor that made you notice that she was definitely not an elementary schooler. My guess would be that she was a first or second grader.

Then Anna turned to the girl. “I did not know you were in this country or this school, you should have said something. The last time I saw you, you were just a baby, so there was no way for me to recognize you. I will make sure to complain to Aunt Maxima.”

Maura laughed shyly at those words and said “I am sure mom told aunt Kath. They often meet.”

I noticed an uncomfortable frown on Anna's face. She had broken contact with her family, so of course, she would not know about her cousin transferring in. So I decided to quickly change the subject.

“A pleasure to meet you, Maura, I am Claire. I assume you did not come for a family talk. So what can we do for you?”

Seems I was a bit too direct for the girl, and she turned a bit red and shy, before taking a deep breath. Maura started telling us her story in standard dutch with a slight accent, changing to English or French when she had a hard time remembering a word.

“I transferred in this year because mom was needed for a job at the main branch of the group in Brussels. I had a hard time adapting because I wasn't very well versed in the languages of this country and it took some time to learn them. Even now I often don't get a word of what people are saying when they speak in a local dialect. People are kind enough to speak standard Dutch with me, but when they talk among each other I am lost immediately.

At the start of the year, the only one in our classroom that could speak English was the other transfer student, Fien.” I noticed she was making a real effort to tell us all of this, so I let her take her time to tell us everything while listening attentively. From time to time, I gave her an understanding nod.

“Every time I talked to Fien, she immediately started talking about yuri novels”. I had never heard about those. When I told her that, she looked a bit disappointed and stopped coming to talk to me.

So I went looking online and to stores to find the books she was talking about. It was my only chance to become friends with Fien. I was a bit shocked that all these books were about lesbian romances, but at the same time, I found them strangely addicting. Fien started to intrigue me more and more. I knew she had made a book like that herself about Chiya in Fireworks Warning. After reading that book, the thought that Fien liked shy girls started playing in my mind, and I was sure we could become friends. I wanted to tell Fien that I started reading the same books, and hopefully get closer to her, but by the time I finally gathered my courage to talk to her about it, she started hanging out with popular girls from higher grades. Suddenly everyone was talking about Fien like she was some kind of school idol. There was no way I could approach her now.”

She changed her focus toward Anna and then said “But yesterday, I saw on the news that my cousin and her girlfriend were in that same group, so I thought I'd go to her for help. I was sure she could help me become friends with Fien. After all, the Lysts always help each other before all else.”

After that, she looked at us with expecting eyes.

“Does aunt Maxima know you came to us for this?” Anna asked her.

Immediately she turned red and shook her head. She started to look sad and I noticed a little tear forming in her eye. Then she started pleading “Please don't tell her. Mom was very angry when she found yuri novels in my room and threw them out. She even installed parental blocks on my laptop so that I could not read web novels anymore.”

This was a real troublesome situation. With all I knew of the Lysts, I was sure I would not want to cross Maxima Lyst. I had just crossed blades with Kath Lyst, and we were still seeing the consequences of that. While I was thinking about the situation, it was Anna who continued the talk.

“Does she know it was Fien who put you up to read yuri?”

Now the tears started and Maura nodded.

“So if I help you, it will put us into trouble with Aunt Maxima,” Anna said. She was hemming and hawing about what to do with her cousin.

I was probably oversimplifying things. Things were always more complicated than how I perceived it when I was dealing with the Lysts. So I decided to propose something of my own and see how they would react, and go from there. To me, it was clear that this was a new Y-file.

“How about we make Maura part of the FBY and make Ms. Lourdes give her and Fien an apprenticeship contract? That way she would have to read yuri and spend time with Fien for her function. That way we would have Kath and the Lyst group behind it. Your mom is part of the organization that is our biggest sponsor after all.”

They both looked at me like I had said something extremely bold.

“No wonder they let you go out with Anna. You seem really good at politics. Do you really think you could pull that off? Won't aunt Kath object to going against my mom's wishes?”

Anna seemed to agree with that assessment.

“Well technically she can't, but I imagine we could just ask her?”

“You know that favors from the Lyst family are never free,” Anna said.

“Then let us check the price before deciding.”

I took out my smartphone and started calling Kath Lyst. Anna and Maura looked at me like I was crazy calling Kath so impulsively.

I got to talk to a personal assistant, but after they told Kath who was on the line, I was immediately transferred to her directly.

“Yes Claire, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

I explained the entire situation to Kath, and how I wanted to solve the issue.

“I see you are getting really good at this. You were right to call me. It is a matter concerning the family after all. That Fien you are talking about, is that Fien Anciers, the Dutch math genius?”

Math genius? What was all that about?

“Yes, Fien Anciers is Dutch, I don't know about the math genius part though.”

“In that case, I will not object to giving both of them an apprenticeship contract. Let me deal with Maxima. But in return, you will owe me a favor. I will be visiting next week to discuss the apprenticeships, and I expect you to be very enthusiastic and supportive of my suggestions. Since I am rather busy I will need an answer immediately since I have to add a meeting with Maxima to my schedule.”

I realized that calling her had been a mistake. Now I understood why Anna and Maura had been so reluctant. This was not like getting a quote that we could discuss in peace afterward. I would have to decide now on the spot what to do. It would be naive to think that this deal would be like she presented it. Her support for my support. Thinking that would really be stupid. We had to take the deal, or she would most likely work against us in this case, and I provided her with all the information she needed as a weapon to do so. It was my mistake, so I decided to take one for the team.”

“Ok, that is fine with me.”

“It was a pleasure doing business with you Claire. I will keep my end of the deal, so I expect you to keep yours. See you next week!”

I put down the phone. Maura and Anna were looking at me. Maura with expecting eyes, Anna was worrying.

“What did she ask in return?” Anna asked with worry in her tone.

I explained to them what had been said and what deal that I had made.

Maura's eyes became wide with disbelief. “You would do that for me? Someone you just met?”

To which Anna reacted very sternly “Claire is not yet familiar with the ways of our family so I expect you to be honorable and accept that this was not free and that you owe her for this favor. Try finding someone else that can convince my mother.”

Maura swallowed and lowered her head and said. “Claire, I owe you a big favor. When the time comes let me know what it is you want.”

I could see she was really nervous when she said those words. I would need to ask Anna about what all this favor thing meant later.

“Okay Maura, I think we are going to be great friends. I look forward to having you here as part of the FBY.” Anna said that clearly to finish the topic.

“I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost time for lunch. So I said, “Why don't you stay for lunch, then we can introduce you to the other girls.”

Thinking of it. Why wasn't she in class? It seemed to me there was a side to Maura we would yet have to discover...