Series Book

2.0

Chapter 10: Quiet the Man

Usually, when Ava waited for Phantom to call her, she'd occupy herself with her work. She had finished early though so she had nothing to do, and no call to expect since Phantom was going to go over to his father's for a while and leaving the phone at home.

She sat in silence in her room for a while before deciding she'd spend the time outside. She had not gone on a walk for a while so she decided it would be best, and also because she knew Phantom would get mad at her for not using her free day wisely.

She put on a hoodie, pocket her phone, and trudged downstairs, walking outside onto her porch.

She checked the flowers, and as expected nothing had grown yet. It was the scary part about growing flowers, in the beginning you don't know if anything was happening at all yet.

She decided she would go to the park. She brought a small notebook and pencil to sketch her surroundings as she used to do with her grandfather when she was young.

She caught sight of the swing set and found a bench close by. She sat down, sighed, and started scratching lines on her notebook.

"No Zion, I told you not to be mean, and you didn't listen." Ava heard a woman say. She turned around and saw Megan, scolding Zion who looked grumpy.

"But I want ice cream like Nyomi! It's not fair." He cried, but his half-mother wasn't letting up.

Megan pointed a finger at him, "I told you a million times. Don't be mean to girls! What do you do? You call Lilith 'Lithy' until she cried."

Zion's mouth gaped open, "SHE LIKES TO BE CALLED THAT. IT'S HER NICKNAME, MUM!"

"Fine then," Megan said, "if that didn't make her cry. What did?"

Zion put his head down in defeat, "I chased her around with a stick and told her if I got close enough I'd poke her."

Megan groaned, "Zion, you can't go around doing that."

"She de-desrve-"

"Deserves?" Megan finished.

"Yes. That word," Zion pleaded.

"Why does she deserve it?" Megan tried to understand her half-son.

Zion waved his hands, "She's a girl!"

Megan sighed and turned away. She caught sight of Ava on the bench and waved, "Oh, hello! You talked to my husband the other day I believe?"

Ava nodded, "Zaiden. Yes." She smiled at her and then gestures toward Zion, who had his arms crossed and flared his nose up when he looked at her. "So that little man is still being trouble. I see."

Zaiden was walking with Nyomi toward them now. Nyomi looked at Zion have him some of her ice cream.

Zaiden's eyes glanced at Megan and Ava talking, "Ava!" He exclaimed, "Pleasure to see you here."

"Hello Zaiden," she greeted, "how was the meet up with your father?"

Zaiden thought for a second, "Quite odd. He's constantly refused to come home here but suddenly we get a call saying he's on a flight to Canada and to get the guest room ready."

Ava chuckled, "Dinner go well, though?"

Zaiden nodded, "I'd say so. Zion was a bit shy and weary of him at first but he warmed up to him when he protected Zion from uncle Allen."

Ava smiled, "Seemed like a good time."

Zaiden shook his head with a grin, "We don't even have a guest room." He rolled his eyes, "He took Megan and I's room and made us sleep with Zion and Nyomi."

"Sound like a very 'old person' thing to do." Ava told him, and they both shared a laugh.

Zaiden watched Ava closely, almost as if he was waiting for a certain reaction, but found nothing here.

"Oh," Zaiden saw Ava's book and pencil, "may I borrow your pencil for a moment?"

Ava nodded and handed him the pencil. Zaiden took out his pocket notebook and scratched a few lines on before returning it, "Thank, you."

Ava took the pencil, "No problem. What brings you to the park?"

Zaiden turned to Megan and then back to Ava and whispered, "In all honesty, to escape my father."

"He that bad?" Ava said.

"Not necessarily." Zaiden explained, "He lives in England. Obviously I'm a French and I was born there, but he wasn't. Anyway that's too long of a story, basically he's moody because he's old and because of jetlag."

"I've actually thought about how funny it was that me Asian ended up in a French neighborhood a couple houses from each other in Yonge." Ava joked.

Zaiden nodded, "Yeah, well," he ate a spoon of ice cream, "dad bought us a house here, said Yonge was fun. I mean who'd say no to a house."

Ava was giving what Zaiden said some thought when suddenly, out of nowhere, Allen was walking towards them pulling at his hair.

"You came here to escape him too, Allen?" Zaiden grinned.

Allen rolled his eyes, "He keeps wanting me to fight him." He complained, "An old man wanting to fight me."

Zaiden turned to Ava, "Dad and his old friend used to come over and teach us how to fight. We'd fence, kick box, you name it."

Ava let out a breath of laughter, "Sounds like quite the man."

"That he is." Allen said plainly as he picked up an ice cream cup from the table.

"Oh Allen," Megan said, and Allen turned toward her, "that's Nyomi's ice cream, she left it there to go play with Zion."

"So I'm stealing from a child?" Allen questioned, "That makes it so much better."

Ava thought he actually was going to steal the ice cream, but he put it down and sat on the table part of the bench.

"So Allen, you're American but I presume you and Zaiden are brothers?" Ava asked.

Allen nodded, "Got used to this country, I guess."

"It's an impressive American accent." Ava complimented.

"Yeah well, I do it because it sounds better than my British one." Allen admitted with a shrug. "Megan are you sure Nyomi doesn't want this ice cream?"

"Let it alone, Allen." Megan scolded, and Allen sighed in defeat, he couldn't win against her.

There was a vibration coming from the bench, Ava checked her phone but it wasn't her, "It's not mine that's ringing, I reckon it's yours."

Zaiden checked his back pocket and indeed his phone was ringing, "Oh, it's dad."

Allen glanced over, "What does the old man want this time." He said plainly.

Zaiden answered, and Ava could hear faint mumbling. "Mhm." Zaiden said, "Yes, I have, dad. No that's tomorrow, not today. How do I know? Dad you were the one that wrote that date down, how do you not know? Alright that's fine. Bye dad."

Allen raised his eyebrows.

"He was just uh- checking in on where we went. Said it was a mistake leaving him alone in the house."

"Oh no, what did he do to the house." Megan said.

"We'll have to see." Zaiden sighed, "We're going to head home now, Ava. I'm a bit scared as to what he's done to the house, but maybe if we get there earlier enough we can prevent more damage."

Ava laughed, "Alright then. It's getting late and I should probably head home as well."

Zaiden smiled, "Sounds good. Have a nice evening, Ava!"

"You and your family as well." Ava waved them goodbye.