I woke up to my phone ringing next to me. I picked it up, not bothering to check the caller ID.
"Guess who is in Italy?!" Charlotte's voice cheered in an excited tone, making me jump up my bed in realisation. I had completely forgotten to ask Alejandro about her.
"Hey! That's great. Umm..." I said, going to the bathroom "I will call you later" I stated, brushing my teeth and having a quick bath, before wearing my uniform and running to Alejandro's room.
"Allie?!" I called out, knocking on his door. The vibes the room gave was so like him; cold and emotionless.
He unlocked the door from inside, opening it and staring down at me with a curious expression on his face. It wasn't every day I went running to his room after all. He dressed in his blacl suit pants and white long sleeve shirt as he arranged his black tie around his neck collar.
"Come on in" he said, stepping aside. I entered inside, acknowledging the appearance of the room. It was classic with modern colours and less detailed art designs and pictures. On his night stand was a picture of him and woman that resembled him quite alot- Mother, I guess and on the other was a picture of a baby girl.
"So what do you want so early on the morning?" He questioned.
"Umm... I know this is unexpected or just... kinda crazy but I have this friend, Charlotte in France- she was my first friend after the accident actually and she is really nice and jovial. Well, she got into Allegro High school too and yeah, she is actually really smart and intelligent-.... I was wondering, no- I was asking if, maybe.... Well, if you could- I don't know... maybe-"
"Will you stop beating around the bush and speak clearly? I have an important meeting this morning" he said, glancing at me with an impatient look "But I'm giving you time"
"Ok" I stated in a nod "will you.... take her in as a host family?"
The room felt silent. Yeah, really silent that I could hear a pin drop to the floor but his expression did not change as he arranged his hair. I stared at him through the glass of his mirror, waiting for a response or something.
If it's a no just say it, she is already at the airport!
"Are you sure? We don't let any one within this gates"
"Yes! She won't cause trouble. If anything happens, I will take the will blame for it. I will even share my room with-"
"This is a family mansion, Kara. What do you think all this rooms are for? I won't subject you to share your room with any body. In our business, we can't trust any one. Taking her in is kind of risky and I don't want anything bad happening to my family, especially as we have you back after all this years" He said.
"But-"
"I will take her in"
"Great! She is already at the airport!" I informed.
He turned and faced me with a scrupuluos look "And you are telling me now?!"
I shrugged with a beaming smile "I love you, brother" I said excitedly, jumping around his room. I went close to him and stood on my tiptoes, placing a small kiss on his cheek before skipping out of the room. I heard him let out a small chuckle.
I was still smiling when I went down to the dinning room, greeting the others as I took a seat next to Hester and Anwen.
"Hey sis" Anwen said, peeking my cheek "What's with the good mood?"
I just smiled as Hester and Anwen gave me both weird looks. I looked up at Casey and waved at her with a smile, she gave me a smaller but genuine smile and a little wave.
"What was that?" Hester asked.
The maid placed my food on the table and I quickly forgot his comment, having a huge will to eat all of my food today!
***
1hour 45 minutes later...
My cheek was against the dinner table, my food in my right hand as I played with strawberries and blueberries in my plate. I stopped eating after the second bite of my whole grain pancakes and damn, my stomach was full to its brim.
All the hyungs had to leave to work, including Allie who just gave me that 'Are-you-really-serious' look before leaving. Lawton decided to seat on Allie's seat while he was away, watching me as I struggled to finish my food.
Kiernan, Riordan and Casey were seated around the table, manipulating their phones and occasionally tying to encourage me into eating but nothing worked.
"I'm full" I said again, seating up straight.
"We are already sufficiently late, Jocasta" Wave commented.
"Lawton, you're not hungry?"
"Do I resemble a dog?! And who eats cold pancakes?" He asked.
I stood up with my plate in my hand, walking to the kitchen. I cook sent me a little wondrous look as I walked up to the microwave and warmed up the pancakes. There's no way is ill be able to continue this journey.
"Let me be Ferdinand Magellan and you be Sir Francis Drake. Have a nice day, I'm off to school" I say, placing the pancakes in front of him and picking up my bag and walking out of the mansion.
By the time we reach school, we had already missed the two first periods of the day and I was to go to my F/N practical lab. At least, that was a class I partly enjoyed but I had to wait for 10 minutes for the previous class to be over.
The guys left along with Casey, leaving me stranded in front of my locker with nothing to do.
"Kara" an all too familiar voice called out. I closed my locker and turned to face Claude. This boy was just every where.
"Hey" I smiled sweetly, pretending to arrange the books in my bag.
"You've been avoiding me" he stated.
"No-no of course. Why will I ever?" I laughed nervously, still checking through my bag.
"I don't jnow. You should tell me. Did I say anything wrong?" He questioned.
"No-" I was caught off by my bag falling and my books falling down on the floor. I quickly went down tryinbg to recollect myself as I picked up my stuff. Claude too went down, helping me pick up my books.
It's not me who have the problem. It's him who have a serious problem that have to be solved.
I was about to stand back up when our foreheads collided, making me squeal.
"Sorry!"
Talk about typical cliché.
Not replying, I heard the bell finally ring and I quickly stuffed my books into my bag, before running away to my food and nutrition class. Why do I always find myself running after our encounter?
*****
"So tell me, why did you come late?" Jovie asked, wearing her gloves.
I shrugged "I was stuck with nice pancakes but couldn't eat"
"And why did you decline my call?"
"Are we really gonna talk about this?" I asked.
"Yeah. Claude have been glancing here since the class started and not to lie but he is a really handsome guy" She said, turning to glance at him.
I quickly held her face to stare at me and not him "Are you crazy?! Do not look at him"
"Why?"
"You will give him the impression that we are talking about him when we're not" I said.
"But we are talking about him" she replied, still staring at him.
"Jovie!" I whisper yell, watching her as she smiled and waved. I slowly turned and saw him wave back at her.
Could the ground not just swallow me alive...
"I will divide you guys into a pair to make a list of pastries and cakes that you guys have to pick out in the box. This will be an exercise that will count 30% of your examination score" Mrs Iyernet stated "I will leave you to choose your pairs"
On instinct, Jovie raised her hand and shouted "I will pair with William R." She said, taking not only me but the William R. aback. She gave me some devilish smile, walking away to William R's table set.
"Claude and Kara together"
Daughter of the devil.
Claude went infront of the class and picked out a paper from the box before walking back to me.
"Sorry about earlier"
"Just concentrate" I smiled tightly.
"Umm Okay. It's just classic French macaroons, a black forest cake and she gave us a free style to do what ever we want" he read out as I arranged the things on the table.
"You're a chef right?"
"How did you know?"
"Umm...." I hummed "I passed by one of your videos on YouTube. Nice, you won le meilleur pâtissier. Congrats"
He nodded "Macaroons are quite technical to make. If the mixture isn't right then the baking will be really difficult" he stated "what will you make?"
"I will start with the black forest cake" I said, more interested in the chocolate than anything else on the table.
After that short conversation, we started working. He quickly and easily made the mixture for the macaroons, humming a sing to himself like it was the easiest thing to make while I was mixture the batter for the chocolate biscuit/cake.
"I'm done" I announced, pouring the batter into the cake pans.
He looked up at me after placing the macaroons into the baking ovens and laughed to himself.
"What's with your face?" He asked, making me self conscious.
"What's wrong?" I asked, facing him.
He picked up a tissue and stepped closer. What did he think he was doing? I asked myself as he whipped the tissue against my cheeks.
"There's chocolate all over you face, Del" he mocked.
"Ohh..." I said quickly sipping with with the tissue as he stepped away and helping me placed the cakes into the oven.
"So what do you think we could do?" He asked, washing his hands.
"I thought of a pink lady" I replied.
"French Classic" he commented "a marzipan sponge cake with raspberry cream, a strawberry coulis, a lychee coulis, a vanilla whipped ganache and a pink chocolate glaze in a form of a dorm"
"I haven't mastered the recipe for a marzipan sponge cake and making a ganache always troubles me, I can do the two coulis and the glaze" I said.
He nodded, already measuring the ingredients for the sponge cake.
"So... have any girlfriends?" Do not blame me, that just came out.
"I'm thinking of someone" he replied cooly.
"Okay... how is she?"
"She's really nice and cute, so is she really funny. She just moved to Italy" he replied.
"So you met her in France?" I asked, placing a raspberry in my mouth as I cooked it up.
He nodded "what about you?"
I shook my head "I don't see my self in such and moreover, I don't have time for those boys and the issues that come with it. Something to make my brother's happy about, I'm technically Asexual"
"So you don't even have feelings for me?" He asked, facing me.
"No. I can't have such feelings" I shook my head. I didn't think much about love and no, I didn't like like Claude. He just made me nervous because I wasn't custom to being around other guys who weren't related to me.
No guy looked good enough for me in my opinion. I always tried looking at the good points in the guys I'm around but I just always fall on a damn flaw. I prefer keeping them friends like Henry and Shaun than dating people who will bring me trouble.
"You don't believe in love?" He asked.
"Yes, I don't. I mean most of the relationships in highschool never last and it's all infatuation; a short ephemeral love that can never last. For example; Riordan was dating Mabel and she thought they will be together for ever but he ended up cheating on her with Rue, a stuck up plastic bitch" I said.
"What's your point?"
"Relationships must fail. You may look at a couple and think that they are so in love and perfect for each other but do you live in thesame house with them? No! You don't know whether they may have an issue together or fight each other over some topic at night. My point is relationship are short lived and useless because there's no point in being with someone that you won't spend the rest of your life with" I explained, occasionally placing a raspberry in my mouth.
He shook his head at my point.
"Not every relationship is a failure like how you percept it to. My parents divorced some years ago but now, they are back together and they are very well happy though my Mother is literally in Tokyo" he said "One day you will find the right one for you and you will let him go because of this your perception of love"
"My perception of love is perfect and true in my opinion. Do you know whether your parents have that typical long term relationship issues? I doubt you do" I said.
He breathe out, speaking no more and turning back to the batter of the cake, no more speaking.
I held back and eye roll and placed the coulis mole pan with the raspberries inside the deep freezer.
Yeah it is. I'm no more nervous.