The Rise

Veronica freezes then starts slowly mouthing the words 'what do we do'.

Leon's father, Alexander, made his way upstairs as the footsteps grew louder and heavier. Veronica took quickly too out sunglasses from her pocket as well as a hair band and wore them both.

"What are you doing?" Whispered Leon loudly

She put her finger to her shushing Leon. Then begins to do up her hair into a lazy top bun.

"Leon?" asked Alexander again

Leon clears his voice as Veronica stands next to him stiff as a stick unable to move or breathe, just staring at the door with a blank face.

"Y-yes father, up here."

Leon was sure his father would recognize Veronica, he's known her since she was a baby girl - she's like his own daughter. He also knew the trouble that comes with Tundra girls, but that fact that she was the daughter of his closest friend only made this situation even worse for Leon.

'Father already has enough problems as it is..." he thought to himself.

"Oh." Said Alexander as he arrived at the door of the office. "Hello there young lady, Leon's friend I presume?"

Leon felt a moment of relief as his father seems to have not recognized her yet, however, he still felt the need to be honest with his father deciding to tell him who she was anyway.

"Dad, this is-"

"Cleo! I'm Cleo. I go to school with Leo-oon."

Veronica nearly called Leon by his nickname Leo. Leon didn't allow for anyone to give him nicknames, but Veronica's stubbornness bypassed his no-nickname rule.

"I can go to the other office if you two need my office." He said pointing at the other office across the hallway

"No it's okay father, Cleo was just about to leave."

"Y-yes, I was. Leon was just showing me all the books you made him read as a child – he calls them his 'bibles'."

Alexander with a fatherly proud smile walks up towards Leon and takes the book from his hand.

"Bibles huh?" he said still smiling. He looks at the book cover "A history of feuds. This book, do you remember it Leon?"

Leon scratches the back of his head trying to remember.

"Yes, it analyses some of the most popular military, business and political feuds." replied Leon

"Your mother was raised to only fight the fights she could win. But this book demonstrates that you must fight the fights you could never win. For only in the kind of immense pressure where we cannot afford to lose do we truly learn our limits and how to surpass them."

Even when she wasn't around, Alexander was the greatest critic of Leon's mother, his ex-wife.

"Did you meet with mother yet?" asked Leon

"The Tundra's have been taking care of me for the time being. If I need your mother's help I will definitely give her a visit - don't you worry about it" replied Alexander

Despite the two couples being separated, they still had great respect for each other and often helped each other out. To this day, Leon still doesn't know why the two divorced.

Veronica had left and Leon's father was in his office. Leon was in his dark room at his desk on his laptop that projected a dim blue light on his face. His hands were in between his t.h.i.g.hs as he stared blankly at the empty email he had just started writing.

The sharp painful words of George behind his back, his father's arrest and how everyone at school changed their attitude towards him. His father's words about how one should fight the fights that one could never win. It was an acc.u.mulation of all these things that drove Leon to finally starting typing and send the email that started everything.