All About Us

Chapter 4: Going Home

At the end of the day, the girls packed their bags and left school. It was their first day and they were tired. Unlike most of the students who stayed for after-school clubs, they went home. The girls haven't signed up to any clubs yet and were very exhausted. On their way out of the gates, there was a young man about 16 years old, waiting near a limo. He was just leaning on the school gates and looking off at the distance. The girls didn't acknowledge the young man's presence and kept walking by.

"Hey!" He yelled to the girls.

Bella recognised the young man and wished he hadn't seen her. She felt a little guilty because she knew that the young man was waiting for her. She kept telling herself that she should have thought it through. She should have said that she didn't have time.
Bella continued to have her conversation with herself and walked even further. She finally turned around when Eureka and Jenn taped her on the shoulder to tell her that she had been walking the wrong way. She saw her friends waiting at the corner for her.

As they were walking home, Jenn noticed that Bella was talking to herself again. Someone must have said something to her that made her over think. Bella was like that, she would over complicate herself over small things. It then occurred to her, that person was Parker! Jenn recalled the conversation with Bella about Parker. She must really like him then; Jenn thought.

"Hey, Bella wasn't that Par-" Jenn spoke.

Bella was quick to respond by saying, "Parmesan? Yes, that's what you put in parmesan chicken, Jenn. Everyone knows that it's like right in the title."

Jenn wasn't about to give up, she was going to make Bella talk. She planned her attack carefully. How would she get Bella to let down her guard? Bella was holding onto Eureka to make sure she wouldn't get lost again. Eureka! thought Jenn.

Jen thought out her plan.With Eureka's help, maybe I can get some answers. It may be difficult tho. I don't know her that well. She kept thinking how to convince Eureka. Maybe some food? What does she like? What did Bella say? It started with a c. ... Oh! It's Ceviche!.

Jenn thought a bit more, they had just moved there and she didn't know where to get any Ceviche. She could try to make some, but she didn't know how to make a shrimp cocktail. Especially an Ecuadorian Shrimp cocktail.

It didn't seem necessary at the moment thought Jenn. What Jenn needed was to get Eureka alone and that was going to be a bit difficult since the girls shared a room. They may live in an apartment but there was only two rooms, a master bedroom that Jenn and Hansol had to fight for against Yakima, and a regular bedroom who Eureka and Bella shared.

When the girls finally got home from school they went their rooms and changed. After some time, they went to the kitchen to start on dinner. Bella, Hansol, and Yakima were trying to make food but kept arguing on what to make. Eureka and Jenn were setting the table.

"How about some Parmesan Chicken?" Asked Bella with her head in the freezer pulling out some chicken.

"We don't have bread crumbs and Parmesan, Bella," Yakima said as she looked through the cupboards.

"What else can we make? Pasta er stir fry?"

"I have no idea how to make that," said Hansol.

"Which one?" Bella asked Hansol.

Hansol smiled saying "Guess."

The girls were stumped. They didn't know what to make for dinner and they couldn't go out to eat because the eldest girls haven't started working. They just moved from Okabena to the suburbs and were getting used to the setting. Not to mention working would mean having to job hunt and waiting for interviews that might never come. The eldest girls, Yakima, and Hansol worked but since they had recently moved their work was too far from their current home. They hadn't thought of work distance when they chose their apartment. From everything they considered they chose an apartment that was close to the school, affordable, and that was cozy.

"Hey, what about we make something like a rice with tuna?" Eureka said shyly from the table.

The girls looked at her and pondered. Bella was about to interject but was cut off when a sudden crash could be heard from the room upstairs.

"What was that!" Bella yelled out. Suddenly the power cut out. "Noooo!"

The room was in pitch black darkness. The girls stumbled around the room trying to find each other.

"Is everyone okay?" Vernon asked. A murmur of yes assured Vernon, who started taking out her phone's flashlight. "Does anyone know where the candles are?" her friend nodded no. "Great, just great."

"Wait! I don't have any candles but I do have crayons?" Bella said as her friends questioned her idea. "Just hear me out okay? " she said as she took a deep breath. "So I saw on the internet that..." her friend groaned. Bella had once again believed something on the internet to be true or wanted to try it out. "Hmph! Alright, then I won't show you."

"Go ahead Bella"

Bella immediately perked up and continued with her demonstration, "Okay, so I read that if you burn the paper part of the crayon with the wax of a crayon, you can have a temporary candle" She had taken out her lighter and began setting it on fire. "Viola!"

"Okay, so we have light but we can't really hold the 'candle' with the wax melting and all," Jenn pointed out the detail to Bella.

"Oh, I guess you have a point," Bella replied.

"It was a good effort, though." Eureka conforted Bella.

"So what now, I mean what do we do know? We still have dinner to make and homework too," Yakima said as she went into the kitchen to open the refrigerator.

""We can me make what Eureka suggested," Jenn said.

"I mean I guess but I don't eat fish," Bella protested. Bella was a very picky eater and completely took off fish from her diet, even bacon! Well, turkey bacon she was okay with but that's not real bacon.

"You're going to eat it and you're going to like it," Yakima teased Bella.

"Nooo!" Bella cried out.

In the pitch black darkness, the girls stumbled around trying to find each other. Vernon took out her phone and used the flashlight.

"Everyone okay?" She asked.

"Yeah. But where's Eureka?" Bella asked. Vernon swayed her phone to find Eureka but couldn't find her. "Eureka? Where are you?"

"I'm right here," she said as the lights flickered back on. "Sorry, I tripped and turned off the lights. I was just turning them back on."

"At least you're alright!" Bella said as she ran to hug her.

As they ate their dinner they talked from where they left off at lunch that day. Bella had no comment to say and ate her dinner with tears in her eyes. She really did not like fish, especially since her friends were forcing it down her throat. Jenn just watched from one end of the table quietly laughing as Bella gagged at the taste of fish.

"You guys are so cruel! " Bella said as she choked back tears.

"Come on, you have to learn to eat everything," Jenn said.

"Who are you? The headmaster, hmmm." Bella replied while trying to throw the fish to her but her friends stopping her.

At night time, the girls departed to their rooms. Jenn was the first to fall asleep and the others soon followed. As Jenn slept she could not stop thinking of that guy she met today at school. She kept thinking about him but felt that there was something else to it. She wanted to know more. She dismissed her thoughts and just went to sleep.

In another room, Bella was quickly writing stuff down in a journal and kept talking to Eureka who politely but desperately wanted Bella to sleep already. After some coaxing, she did go to bed but she could comfort herself to sleep. She feared the darkness that surrounded her new home. Sleeping in a new home always terrified Bella, she never knew her her neighbors could be. What if her neighbors were serial killers or they would burn down the building while they slept. She kept stirring and kept repositioning her pillow trying to find that sweet spot that would invite her to that great dormant state of REM.