Sibling Love (Sequel to I Just Want To Be Loved)

Family Tree

Kirika chatted with Amber as the class waited for their English teacher to arrive.

"I can't wait for my tenth birthday," said Kirika. "My big brother's going to let me have my birthday party at the play area at the mall."

"How exciting!" said Amber. "There's going to be a birthday cake, right?"

"Of course," said Kirika. "Strawberry cheesecake!"

"How nice," said Amber. "Any cake I have is gone in one go."

"Well, you do have a lot of siblings," said Kirika. "Thank goodness my parents decided that two was enough."

"Er... Kirika, you have never seen your parents, right?" asked Amber.

"No," said Kirika.

"Are they coming to celebrate your birthday at least?" asked Amber.

"No," said Kirika. "Shu said that they're too busy."

"Something about this doesn't sit right with me," said Amber. "I hardly see my Dad nowadays, but even if he can't be available for birthdays, he at least sends a present. Your parents never send you anything."

"You think that Shu's lying to me?" asked Kirika.

"I don't know," said Amber. "But it's pretty odd for parents to not send their child anything. And there's only two of you! My parents had four of us and they remember all of our birthdays."

Just then, Mr Duncan came into the classroom. "Good morning, class," he said.

"Good morning, Mr Duncan," said the class.

"Before we begin our lesson, please hand in your permission forms to attend this weekend's field trip."

The whole class gave him their permission forms, which had to be signed by their parents or guardians.

A boy raised his hand. "I think that I have lost mine."

"Don't worry, your parents sent yours by mail," said Mr Duncan.

Daphne rolled her eyes as Kirika gave Mr Duncan her permission form. "Does yours count? You don't have any parents to sign that."

"My brother signed it," said Kirika. "And he's my legal guardian."

"Well, your parents must really hate you to not even visit."

"Daphne! That's a horrible thing to say!" said Mr Duncan.

"Don't listen to her," said Amber. "She's just jealous of you. You're way more popular than her."

"But what if she's right? I mean, I know she's just being spiteful, but she might be right and not know it. Your parents are divorced, but your Dad still tries to be in your life as much as possible."

"No parents ever hate their child," said Amber. "If they did, they wouldn't have them."

Kirika relaxed. "That's true..." she said.

"Today, class, we are going to draw our family trees," said Mr Duncan.

"Oh no," said Amber. "Mine's going to take ages. And how am I supposed to fit the entire family tree in one page?"

Kirika raised her hand. "Sir?" she asked. "I don't know my parents' names."

"Don't worry," said Mr Duncan. "If you can't finish your family tree today, then you have a week to complete it."

"Thank goodness," said Amber.

"Mine's going to be the best," boasted Daphne.

"Actually, to make it more fun, you can talk about interesting information about your parents next week," said Mr Duncan.

"Saying the names of all my family members will take five minutes," said Amber. "My presentation is going to be the most boring."

Kirika realized that she knew nothing about her parents. She could talk about her brother, but everyone already knew who he was, from his friendship with Valt Aoi to his intense rivalry with Lui Shirosagi.

"What do I talk about?" Kirika asked Amber. "I don't know anything about my parents!"

"Why don't you ask your brother?" asked Amber. "He should know more about them than you do."

"Well, he doesn't like talking about them for some reason," said Kirika. "But I can at least try."