The Secrets

  "What the—What did you do. R*****, what did you do." Mommy says, running towards him. Towards my crib.
  "It was an accident. I swear." He says, backing towards the wall.
  "Just go." Mommy says. He quickly leaves and mommy runs to my crib. Picks me up in her arms.
  Liar. He's such a liar.
  ****3 Weeks Later
  "He said it was an accident. I haven't talked to him since then. It's fine. I forgive him, though." I hear mommy say. Whoever she's talking to leaves and she walks into my room.
  "Alright. Time for lunch." Mommy says, picking me up. I smile, then giggle.
  "Ha–ppy?" I ask mommy, cocking my head to the right. She doesn't respond, but instead just smiles and kisses me on the cheek. Then, something tells me no.
  "Are you happy?" I question myself in my head.
  "No. Not really." the voice responds. This voice....this voice sounds like mommy's. Like maman's. The same thick, French accent and gentle, kind, loving voice. I look up at maman. Notice her eyes. Her pretty, pretty mismatch eyes. I'm happy I have pretty sea blue eyes, sort of like her.
Liar. I look at her and think. She stops walking and looks at me.
  "Anghel (ANN•GEL), baby girl, did you say something?" Mommy asks in French. I stare at her. Shake my head no. I didn't lie. I thought something.
  Liar. You're not happy. I think again.
  Baby girl, can you hear me? I hear mommy ask, but her lips don't move.
  Yes, mommy. I think. Mommy closes her eyes, then opens them.
  "Let's go eat lunch, shall we?" Mommy says.
  I see she's pretending that everything's okay. I don't care that she is. But I saw something change. Change in her eyes. The colors. Her pupils. They changed color.
  They turned gray. An unnatural, cold, icy gray.
  She knew. She knew because she can see right through me.
  She can do it too.
  That's why she's not mad.

*********

  I smile. She was always like a mother to me. A second mother. She appeared so nice and sweet and innocent, but in reality, the last one is a total lie. She's not innocent. Not at all. She's lying. Not to me, but to her family. Her itsy bitsy tiny little family—well that is, compared to ours—in London, England. It actually scares me a little. How she's able to just lie and deceive people whenever she wants to. Like how she deceived her whole family into thinking she was Avarra Rianne. The famous, smart, creative, and genius Avarra Rianne—now Cyvaira—who found a cure for all types of cancer. Avarra Cyvaira, the same innocent little girl who lived with her "aunt" in Tausse (TOSS), France.
  I remember when I was little. About 4 years old, to be exact, she came home. Played games with me. I asked her why people were always calling her Avarra. She responded by saying that was her name. I shook my head no. Avarra is too ugly of a name for maman to pick and I know that that's not her name. Then I asked her how she always had time to come over here since, from what I know and eavesdropped on, she's married. Married with a 5-year-old daughter at home in London. She just smiled at me and ruffled my hair. Not thinking anything of it, I giggled in response.
  Then there was this girl. She had red hair, hazel eyes, double-ear piercings, and a mixed skin tone and was just about my age—only a year older. We used to play games all the time together. Then, one day, when my older sister left, she left too, probably taken with her by my sister. I didn't know why, though. Not until 2 years later did I find out why.
  Next, 2 years after I found out why the girl left, I got another sibling. A girl. 5 years old with silky black hair, light brown cat-shaped eyes, and olive skin who also had double-ear piercings with yarmanium earrings. Two ear piercings on each ear is just a tradition that runs through my family. Girls always, always, always get two ear piercings on each ear and the earrings are sometimes mostly white and black diamond, gold, emerald, or yarmanium. Yarmanium is sort of like a diamond but yellow. For boys, they too always get two ear piercings on each ear, but the earrings are mostly white and black diamond, maybe even emerald.
  "Avarra" always helped me with my homework when I needed it and was just overall a great older sister. That is, when she wasn't lying to her daughter about this "Avarra" person being her mother.
  "Xavien (ZAY•V•N). Hello? Earth to Xavien." I hear my younger sister, Sage, say.
  "It's Master Chancellor Xavien Ruler of the World to you, ma'am." I correct, smiling.
  "Nah, I prefer to call you Xavien (X•AY•V•N). How does that make you feel, Xavien. Huh?" She smirks.
  "Shut up. I hate it when people say that. Substitutes always call me that even though the teachers always leave a pronunciation key next to the names. Like, READ THE WORDS/LETTERS." I rage.
****NOTE: No hate to substitutes. This is just meant to be funny.
  "I know right!" Sage comments.
  "I also find it when someone with more than one part of their name name's said. Like "Oh, Chancellor Xavien, huh? Would you like to be called Chancellor Xavien? Or Chance Xavien? Or Chance? Or Xavien? Or maybe even Chanien (CHAN•E•N) Or Chanxav (CHAN•ZAYV)? Or even Xavier? Or Xav (ZAYV)?"" I joke.
  "Are you stupid? You forgot the other half. "Would you like to be called Xavien Chancellor? Or Xavien Chance? Or Xavchan? Or Xavce? Or Iencha? Or Ience? Or Billy?"" Sage jokes back. I laugh.
  "Billy, ma'am, even though Billy is nowhere to be found in my name, it's Billy, ma'am." I smile.
  "Alright, Jacob, let's get to work." Sage replies. I laugh again. I promise, half of the subs I've had would legit be like that.
  "Chance. Work. Do it." Sage commands. I look down at my homework.
  X/50^2/209^90=5
  True or False?
  If false, correct the right side of the equation to make it true.
  "Hey. Xia. Sage. Sister. Best friend. #1 sister. Best person in the world. Wanna do some work?" I ask.
  "No thanks, I'm already doing 8th grade honors math." Sage smiles.
  "Well I'm doing honors trigonometry and I'm in 9th grade." I brag.
  "Wow. Congrats. You're not as dumb as I thought you were." Sage replies. I roll my eyes. I answer False and cross out 5 and put Unknown down. Probably wrong, but I don't care. I open my math folder and put my paper away. Then, I lay down and relax.
****Ravamara
  "Yeah, it was huge." Yavara comments.
  "I'm thirsty." Relvin states.
  "Drink your spit." Verlynn replies.
  "I don't have any. It evaporated." Relvin responds.
  "Well that's too bad." Verlynn says back.
  "I need a break." Relvin comments.
  "From who?" Yavara questions.
  "From all of you." Relvin answers.
  "That's too bad." Verlynn says back again. I sit on the floor, texting my friend Esmond (EZ•MUND). Out of the corner of my eye, I look at mother. She sits Indian style with her laptop on her legs and makeup still on even though she came back from work before we were back from school. It's 6:30. We get back by 4:00.
  "Mother, what're you doing?" I ask.
  "Making money to pay your school fees, that's what I'm doing. How about you, Ravamara? What're you doing on your phone? Raising our phone bill?" Mother asks, raising an eyebrow, her piercing blue eyes staring into the depths of my soul. Blue is mother's real eye color, but she wears hazel contacts. I shift around on the floor, her stare making me feel uncomfortable. I turn off my phone. She returns her gaze back to her laptop.
  "So....oh! Ravamara, what ever happened to that friend of yours?" Yavara asks.
  "Oh! Jamal? He dropped out of honors math." I answer.
  "That sucks." Yavara comments.
  "Eh, I guess. Some new kid came though. A freshman." I reply.
  "A freshman? Doing Intermediate math? What does he look like?" Yavara asks, now really interested.
  "Black hair, blue eyes, sort of your skin tone, maybe a bit lighter." I respond. Mother's left ear twitches—a quick motion I barely managed to catch.
  "And what's his name?" Mother asks, biting her right pointer finger.
  "Why are you suddenly so interested?" I ask in response.
  "You must've not heard me the first time. What's his name." Mother says more sternly, playing with her ear and now staring into my soul again.
  "I-I heard it was something like Morlon or Gordon or something...." I answer.
  "Wasn't it like Jordan?" Ross, a friend of mine, asks.
  "Yeah! Jordan! That's what it was!" I agree eagerly. Mother raises an eyebrow. She continues typing whatever she was typing before. Then, her phone starts buzzing. Mother answers the call and puts it on speaker.
  "You calling me is disturbing me. What do you want." Mother says rudely.
  "I completely forgot. Two weeks ago your mother called and told me she was coming to London for a meeting. When I asked her when was she coming she said "In two weeks", so don't be surprised when you get a little "visit"." I hear Relvin's mother say.
  "Oh, that's just great. Just fantastic. Did she tell you a time?" Mother states sarcastically.
  "9:00AM. So she arrived this morning. It's just about 6:40 and 7:00 seems too soon...too unnatural. So maybe like 8:30? 7:30? Nah, too early for someone who's usually nocturnal on the first day after traveling. What time do you usually go to bed?" I hear Relvin's mother ask. Mother starts chuckling.
  "Like 2:30." Mother responds.
  "Don't you wake up by like 4:00?" she asks.