From dust, Will come
When you'll have to rise
Above the best and prove yourself
Your spirit never dies!
I have officially been here for three days. I had spent a lot of time with Teddy, who just seemed to love the attention I gave him. In those few days, he really came out of his shell. He became super bubbly and talkative towards me.
Kiel had an extra bed snuggler now next to me. Oeps.
Adaline had not done anything to either me or Teddy. Maybe it was because of the evil glare I continuously gave that said 'Try! I dare you!' Or because of the fact that Teddy had barely been alone since my arrival.
Today was my last day of freedom as I had to go to school tomorrow. Not a school in Miami which I had a love/hate relationship with, but one here in L.A. A PREP school. Meaning a highschool filled with rich kids whose kindergarten fights were about whose parents made more money or got them the newest items. I didn't understand the hierarchy. Yes, I was also pretty 'comfortable', but I had never seen myself as better than someone else. Next to that I work for my money. I don't work hard, since it just comes to me easily, but still.
All in all, I was not looking forward to it.
I was currently bingeing Lupin again. I never made it to the end because of what happened.
Teddy was playing with his Lego's and Geomag on my carpet, building all sorts of intricate things. I think this kid is smarter than he's letting everyone know. His eye for building something and his way of troubleshooting is immaculate. I smiled at this.
This kid can go far with the right motivation.
"That's awesome buddy. Can you explain to me how you came up with this design?" I had no idea what I was looking at, but was not about to tell him that.
"It's a spaceship. The ones currently are not for long travel because of the shape of its engine's cryogenic state. They are built in standard shapes, which makes it hard for fuel to be preser.. preser...?"
"Preserved?"
"Yeah that! I already found a way to make it better. You see if you make the outside a square, but the inside hexagon shaped, the fuel would heat up but not be used yet, making it like an extra tank of fuel." I had no idea what he was talking about or if it was actually true, but he did sound positive.
"Buddy. You're going to make headlines in the future. Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?"
"Yep! A fire truck." He said with a toothy smile.
I laughed hard at this. "Teddy, do you mean a firefighter?" He simply nodded. Just wait till your older kid. Our amazing conversation got interrupted by Aquila.
"Hey guys, what are you doing?"
"Teddy was explaining to me how NASA should change the cryogenic state of their spaceship engines." I said smugly, still not completely knowing what it was about. Maybe I should get books about space engineering...
Aquila had no idea what we were talking about. "Rrrrrrigght... Anyways we're going to skatepark, you wanna come with?"
"You want to go to the park, Teddy?"
"Sure. Will you play with me there?" He asked with big puppy dog eyes. Not big, HUGE.
"Of course buddy. Go get your shoes and jacket, it's pretty cold outside." It was only February.
Getting downstairs, I saw Aquila, James and Ezra ready to leave. After putting on my own jacket I got Teddy his jacket and a scarf.
"Theo's going with us?" James asked me.
"Yes, I invited him. Do you have a problem with that, Jamie?"
"No, not at all. He just never goes out with us."
"Have you ever actually sincerely asked him to?" Jamie looked down, slightly ashamed.
"It's fine. Teddy is coming along now, so you can make a slight effort for your little brother, right?"
"Yeah." Jamie smiled at me and I felt proud of making Teddy one of the boys. Nothing is more nurturing than having a younger sibling have you as their Idol.
"Ready!" Teddy yelled out. I put him in his jacket and tossed his scarf around his neck, making sure he wouldn't get cold.
"Let's go!" He yelled out. For once not hogging me to the door, but Ezra for some reason. I think Ezra and Teddy are almost as close as Noah and I were at that age.
It pains me that Noah would look at me with a cold glare, or even worse disgust. I haven't seen his loving, caring side in years. I missed it.
"I wanted to talk to you about what happened." Aquila started.
"What do you mean?"
"The fact that I didn't recognise you, while you did immediately. You were right that night and the next day."
I looked up at him.
"About how awful it is that I didn't. And how you had hope that was overrated. How you cared more for me than I had for you. And in a way you were right. I care about you, I do. Just hadn't cared as much as you have. And I am the worst brother in the world, for not recognising you and I am sorry. I won't accept your forgiveness, let me work for it. Please."
What Aquila didn't know is that the other two had heard every word he said.
"Qui. Yes you are a bad brother for not recognising me, but at least you admitted it and with that we can work on our relationship again. And don't worry. I'll let you work extremely hard for my forgiveness. So much so that in the end you'll want to rethink it all." I laughed out loud.
"And there is only one thing that happened that killed me that weekend and no it wasn't you."
"It was dad wasn't it?"
"Yeah..." I murmured.
"I mean from you I can sort of understand, You were only 10 years old when you last saw me. But our father did not even recognise me when I was standing right in front of him. His own daughter. And he tells me he cares. He says he loves me and cares about me. If he'd love and care about as much as he says he does, then how is it that he had completely forgotten what I looked like?"
A small tear went down, but I was quick to wipe it away.
"Ugh. I can't even, with these feelings right now. The last few weeks have been extremely overwhelming." I gave out a huge dramatic sigh.
"Let's talk about something that was fun. The illegal party everyone went to? Do you know who made it all happen and how everyone got to know about it? I heard from one of my friends, who heard it via someone else. But how did you end up there?" I laughed hard.
"Illegal party? Oh details sis!" Ezra exclaimed
"You wanna know who organised it in such a short time frame? Our school's debate team. They are geniuses at anything illegal."
I laughed even more at that.
Soon we were at the park and we had spent hours there. Qui and I talked more and more. I could see he was really trying to get to know me again and I appreciated the effort.
Ezra was skating and Jamie was teaching Teddy how to use one. Until he fell down and started running while crying to me. 5 minutes later he was back on the skateboard again.
It was close to dinner time when we came home, so I went to my room to watch the rest of my episode. Aquila had joined me even though he had no idea what it was about, which forced me to rewatch episode one of season one. Not that I minded.
"Why is it subtitled?" Aquila asked confused. "Because, doofus, it's in french."
"It's a cool show, but why don't they just do the voices in English?"
"You barbaric boy. It's french, made in France, why on earth would they talk in English. You can read, can't you?"
"Yeah..."
"So read the subtitles, idiot!" I reprimanded him.
He wanted to say something back when we heard a crash.
Aquila immediately got out of bed to run downstairs with me on his tail.
Everyone was in the living room. And they were all looking at Teddy. Teddy who was crying, what the hell happened?
"Theodore, This is the last time. I'm taking away your toys." Father told him.
"But Theo didn't do it." Teddy said back.
'But Adelaide is sorry papa'
"Yes you did, Theo. I saw you do it. I just don't know why?" Adaline countered back.
"What happened?"
"It's nothing, Adelaide." Noah told me. He called me by my full name again. He never did that. He always called me Rora. Why did he change so much? And why does it hurt me.
"Well, if Teddy is crying that much, then it isn't nothing, so tell me what happened. Now!"
"Addie said Theo broke Mom's favourite vase." Ezra commented.
"No, Theo didn't!" He yelled out, still crying. Genevieve was trying to console him, but it just wasn't working.
"Yes Theo, you did! I saw you do it, remember. I was here when you did it." Adaline said smugly.
"You were here?" I asked her, making her look at me.
"Yeah. That's what I said right." This was going to be battle number one, she was not going to win this from me. I looked at Genevieve who was trying to console his tears, who looked at Teddy with love, at least one adult believed him. So I fully turned towards Adaline and stood right in front of her.
"You were here?"
"Yes. Are you deaf?"
"Who else was in the room when the incident occurred?"
"Just Theo."
"And you saw him standing there knocking the vase over? On purpose? Not by accident?"
"No, he reached for the vase and then harshly knocked it over." She smirked at me. And I simply smirked back, got you now bitch.
"So you're telling me that you were in this room when Teddy knocked over the vase? Just the two of you? No one else was here?"
"Yeessss." she dragged out annoyed.
"And he was standing there? Right there where he is now? With his feet planted firmly on the ground?"
"Yes, what else do you want to hear?"
"The truth!" I said sternly. She looked at me shocked. The others just got confused by the questioning.
"If Teddy had knocked over the vase, then where is the ladder? Where is the stepping stool? Where is the object that Teddy used to knock it over?"
"He didn't use anything. He did it with his hands."
"Adaline, just tell the truth. You knocked over the vase and proceeded to blame Teddy!"
"What? NO!! He did it. I saw him!" She yelled out defensively.
"Only the two of you were in this room when it happened and Teddy is not tall enough to get to the top of the dresser to then get to the vase that stood in the middle of the dresser. If only you and him were present, then out of the two, you are the only one capable of doing so!"
Genevieve immediately looked at Adaline with a death glare.
"Adaline, this may have worked for you when we were kids, but now it's just petty." I shook my head in disappointment.
"Wait, what did you mean when you were kids?" James asked.
"Jamie, how many times did Adaline say I did something and then I got punished for it?"
"Uh... a lot."
"Well ladies and gents, I give you the real culprit. It's weird isn't it? When I was here, I was blamed. I leave, everything is just peachy. Then Teddy gets born and it happens all over again. And you all take her side over your little bro's. Just like you did with me. I have not been here a week and I already know that Teddy does not have the same psychotic tendencies. Adaline does. She's just so good at hiding it all from you. You know what Adaline, I suggest you get help, now. Before it's too late and you start sharing isolation with someone called Candace. Who evidently is there awaiting trial for attempted murder." Most of my brothers gasped at this. Were they seriously not aware?
My eyes never left hers. Hers looked at me with hate. Like she wanted to kill me. I smirked at her.
I took a step back. The bitch fight could continue another time, Teddy was priority right now.
I bent to my knees and gave him the kind of hug he needed. A tight loving hug. A protective hug.
Genevieve stood up and cleared her throat. "Adaline. You are hereby grounded for a month. No parties, no friends, no shopping, no tv, no internet, nothing. I want your phone, your laptop, your smartwatch, your car keys and most importantly, your credit cards. NOW!"
"What? You can't do that to me. I did nothing wrong!" Adaline shouted out.
"Make it a month and a half. Want to add more time?"
"Dad! NOAH! Why won't you say anything?"
"Sweetheart, unfortunately what Adelaide said makes perfect sense. And you did say there was no one else in the room. Listen to Genevieve." Father replied to her.
I exploded. "Unfortunately? UNFORTUNATELY?! How can you choose one child over the other? Is Teddy not also your child, yet you call the fact that Adaline is now being punished 'unfortunate'? So if Teddy was punished, it wouldn't have been unfortunate? What kind of father are you? Wait, don't answer that. Just give it a few months and you'll send Teddy away as well. But instead of a bitch of a mother, he'll probably go to boarding school?" I spat out.
I picked a still crying Teddy up and left towards my bedroom.
Yeah! Show them who's on top! Poor Theodore...
Your thoughts? Comment and Vote :)
Till next time, Love Sarah.