Since the next day was Friday, Kayson, Lily, and Iyana did what they always did. Went to school and came home, preparing for a bland weekend. But one person did something different. And it's no surprise, it was Lily. After school, instead of getting on the bus, she decided to use a little bit of the money that she stole and ordered a cab for later since she knew that her father wasn't going to be home until 8pm. Where was she at? Doing something that women of Abel's religion didn't do.
Getting a job.
Lily walked up to a fruit market that was on the corner of the dirt and crowded road filled with stores. As the man looked at her, Lily had one request.
"Hi, I came to apply for a job." Lily said in a soft and low tone.
As for Madilyn, she didn't go to school. Why? Her adoptive mother, siblings, and relatives were all at a church, watching Madilyn try on her wedding dress. The whole time, Madilyn was less than interested. She didn't want any of this. As her adoptive mother tightened her tight and fluffy white dress, her adoptive aunt stroked her face and smiled at her.
"Why so down, Madilyn?" The woman smiled. "This is supposed to be an EXCITING moment."
As Madilyn rolled her eyes, her mother gave her a stern look, then smiled at her relatives.
"Can you guys give us a moment, please?" Her mother smiled.
"Sure. Come on, kids!" Madilyn's adoptive grandmother smiled as everyone walked out of the room. "We're going to start seeing what we want for lunch, anyway."
As soon as they shut the door, Madilyn's mother turned her around, giving her a serious look.
"You need to fix your attitude, Madilyn." Her mother groaned as she fixed the front of her dress. "A lot of women would be grateful at your age."
"Well I'm not." Madilyn growled.
"Why not, Madilyn?" Her mother growled back.
"Because I don't want to get married at the age of 14!" Madilyn snapped. "I don't even know the boy and he's not even a BIT attractive! This is a bunch of bullshi-"
Before she could get the curse word out, the woman smacked her in her face. As Madilyn kept her head turned to the side, her "mother" made it clear that she wasn't going to be disrespected.
"You ungrateful little bitch. There's so many women in the world who would love to have found their husband by this age. One thing that's clear, is that you're getting married. No if, ands, or buts." Her mother demanded in a low tone. "Do you understand me?"
The woman snatched Madilyn by her chin, giving her a serious look.
"Do you understand me?!" Her mother asked in a louder tone.
Madilyn gave her an angry look as small curls of her red hair sat on her face. She gave her a furious look as her mother turned her around and finished touching up her dress.
"Now be still while I fix your dress." The woman growled as she pinned a flower onto the back of her dress.
Madilyn was furious. But like a lot of girls in her country, she had no choice but to suck it up and move on without questioning of any sort. A few hours later, Kayson arrived at home before Lily and Iyana. He jogged upstairs and placed on his gloves, preparing to go out and work out in the gardening and planting. He stepped back and glanced inside of Lily's room.
Her things were unpacked.
"I knew it." Kayson chuckled in his mind.
As he stepped inside of her room, he looked at 5 pictures she had laid out on the bed. One of the photos, were of Isaiah and Kayson together at his school. Kayson picked the picture up, squinting his eyes and trying his hardest to remember who the person was.
"Who's this?" Kayson thought in his head. "A relative? An uncle?"
Another picture he came in contact with, was Taylor holding and kissing him on his cheek when he was only 2 months old.
"I wonder if I can get back in touch with this woman." Kayson wondered. "Seems like she was close to me..."
Unfortunately, Kayson couldn't remember who it was. As he placed the photos back down, he heard the doorbell ring to the home.
It was Madilyn. They were scheduled to hang out today.
"Hey Madilyn!" Kayson smiled.
"Hi!" Madilyn cheered.
Madilyn's fluffy red hair was slicked back into a ponytail. Her outfit was a white top and some baggy jeans to go along with her green flats. It looked like a country outfit for sure.
"Wanna go fish?" Madilyn asked as she pulled to fishing rods from behind her. "I brought my fathers fishing rods."
"Sure." Kayson cheered lowly. "Let's go."
But Kayson was breaking a cardinal rule. He didn't exercise, do any farming, or wash any of the fruits out.
For an hour and some change, Madilyn and Kayson caught around 30 fish all together in their buckets. Of course, Kayson had the most. He fished often. They did nothing but had small talk about random things, such as their plans to go off to college and other things that didn't revolve around them being sheltered around their parents. When they got back to the home, Kayson placed the fish inside of large buckets of ice for them to remain fresh until they're ready to cook.
"Lily and Iyana, y'all can take a break from cooking." Kayson said. "I'll do it, today."
"Oh really?" Lily snickered, folding her arms. "You sure you know how to cook, farmers boy?"
"Better than your soggy casserole, farmers girl." Kayson scoffed at her.
"Oooohhhhh." Iyana giggled, pointing at Lily. "He told you."
"Oh shut up." Lily scowled at Iyana, turning to Kayson as she kept her arms folded. "You just make sure that you cook right."
"Don't start Lily, because you and Iyana are supposed to be doing this job." Kayson growled as he pointed upstairs. "Bye!"
Iyana and Lily rolled their eyes, making their way upstairs. Kayson glanced at Madilyn, shaking his head.
"You're SO lucky that you don't have siblings." Kayson groaned as he mixed the batter for the fish.
"Please." Madilyn chuckled. "I have 1 little brother and 1 little sister."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, but sometimes my family treat me like an outcast since I'm American." Madilyn mumbled.
Kayson stared at her for a few seconds, then started the olive oil grease on the stove.
"So how many pieces of fish do you want?"
"Two please." Madilyn said.
Kayson nodded at her, placing them inside of the creamy and buttery batter.
"I have mashed potatoes and green vegetables in the fridge from last night if you want those as your sides." Kayson added.
"Yes." Madilyn smiled. "And I'll eat those as well."
After Kayson spent 12 minutes cooking the fish, he placed the 12 pieces on a napkin and warmed up the mashed potatoes and greens as well. As he set them out, Madilyn came over with her plate.
"May I?" Madilyn asked innocently.
"You may." Kayson winked.
Madilyn walked over to the plate of fish and grabbed three pieces. She placed a lot of mashed potatoes and a little bit of greens on her plate as well, walking back over to the table. She placed a little Tabasco sauce onto the fish, tartar sauce on the side, then began to chow down on her plate of food. Like Kayson suspected, he thought that Madilyn ate accessibly like this because of the malnourishment that she wasn't receiving at home.
But something else caught Kayson's eye.
Madilyn was starting to fill out. Once they first started talking a month ago, Madilyn was scrawny and underweight. With the food that Kayson was giving her, it was starting to help her gain a tad bit more weight. She was still skinny, but she had a full waist, plump butt, and perky breasts instead of looking like the 6th grade boy that she was posing as a month earlier. Kayson was happy.
And by 3 months, she was the right size for her age. Her body was nice and curvy from eating many of Kayson's dishes.
And for these next 3 months, as expected, Kayson and Madilyn went from hanging out every other day, to hanging out 4 times a week, to hanging out everyday after school. Kayson still managed to maintain his grades and athleticism, but what Madilyn gave him a chance to do was take a smaller break from his booming social life with the whole entire school and relax at home. Having good grades gave him a privilege of hanging with his friends at parties, events, etc. And being raised by Abel, he found things relaxing that teenagers in America didn't.
Things like fishing, nature, and more. One of those things, were canoeing in the large river that surrounded the valley.
"Wow, Kayson." Madilyn nodded. "This is beautiful."
Kayson rowed the small boat that they were in as they glanced at the beautiful sunset that went along with the waters. The water was so fresh and so pure that you could drink right out of it. As they sailed and glanced at the other houses around the valley, Kayson gazed out at the homes and pointed to one in particular.
"An old couple named Carolyn and Peter used to live in that home. Everyday, that would take me, Lily, and Iyana swimming here." Kayson said, staring and smiling a little at the house. "They passed away 5 years ago."
"I'm sorry about that." Madilyn said in a low tone.
"Well they were old anyway so, yeah." Kayson laughed.
While Kayson and Madilyn rowed slowly down the river, Madilyn decided to talk about a coincidental topic.
"My parents are still trying to make me get married." Madilyn groaned. "It's such bullshit."
"Oh really?" Kayson laughed. "I've turned down like 50 women!"
"Yeah." Madilyn sighed. "Sometimes I wonder how it would feel like to go and head off to America."
Madilyn sighed, adding one more thing.
"I wonder what my real parents are doing." Madilyn mumbled. "My Indian parents said that they didn't even care about me...."
"That's a shame." Kayson growled.
"Yeah." Madilyn added. "They gave me away so that they could continue partying!"
"That's how all American's are. Self centered, fat, and hogging all of our money to do absolutely nothing but blow it off on their failed educational books." Kayson scoffed. "It's a blessing that your parents adopted you away from that wasteland that they consider a country."
"Yeah but they're free to do whatever they want." Madilyn sighed. "Doesn't that seem like fun?"
"But what would that be like without guidance?" Kayson asked. "That's why there's so much crime there. Even though it's fun, it's also a scary place as well."
Madilyn glanced down, twiddling her fingers.
"Well at least I'd be accepted there..." She mumbled.
Kayson scrunched his eyebrows at her, giving her a weird look.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm an outcast because I'm not Indian. I'm labeled as unattractive here." Madilyn whined. "Did you know that my mother had to pay my fiancé money to marry me because I'm not Indian? He didn't even want me in the first place."
"Well you're pretty to me!" Kayson chuckled. "He must not have eyes!"
That wasn't supposed to come out. At all. Kayson froze, trying to cover up what he said.
"I mean.......you're not....you're not that ugly..." Kayson stuttered. "I mean you're not ugly b-but......I'm trying to say that you're not unattractive but you're not ug-"
"It's okay to give a compliment to someone who isn't American, Kayson." Madilyn smiled. "It's not a crime!"
Kayson was a little embarrassed. He really didn't want her to know that's what he thought. As he frowned a little and blushed, Madilyn giggled and placed her hair over her shoulders.
"And if it makes it any better, I think you're pretty handsome yourself." Madilyn smiled.
Kayson glanced up at her, staring at her smile. Kayson's handsomeness made Madilyn a little bubbly inside, while Madilyn's green eyes and beautiful red hair got Kayson in a daze. As they stared at each other for a while, they were all of a sudden flipped out of the canoe since they stopped rowing the boat.
"Woah!" They both chanted.
As the boat bobbed in the water, both of them came up from under the cool waters. Madilyn's fluffy red hair was flattened as Kayson's hair lied on his forehead. They both laughed and moved their hair out of their eyes, shaking their heads.
"What the hell happened?" Kayson giggled.
"I think we stopped rowing the boat!" Madilyn laughed as she held onto the canoe, flipping it over.
As Madilyn climbed into the boat, she flipped her wet hair onto her back and held her hand out to Kayson.
"Come on, goof!" Madilyn laughed.
Kayson grabbed her hand and climbed into their boat as they grabbed their oars and continued to row. Kayson took a quick glance at her, then looked out at the river.
"She's American and she's married, Kayson." Kayson chanted in his head. "Get your damn head out of the clouds!"
After they finished canoeing, Madilyn's father arrived to pick her up 10 minutes later. Afterwards, Kayson walked in and saw Iyana cooking and cleaning alone. He scrunched his eyebrows at her, throwing his towel over his shoulder.
"Why isn't Lily down here helping you?" Kayson groaned.
"I don't know but I keep calling her down here and she's ignoring me." Iyana growled as she wiped the counters. "I'll just tell Dad when he gets back."
"She's getting on my nerves." Kayson growled.
Kayson jogged upstairs, heading into Lily's room.
"Lily!" Kayson barked as he stepped inside. "Get downstairs and help I-"
Kayson paused. All of her drawers were empty. He looked down at a note that was left on her bed, picking it up.
"Kayson & Iyana
If you're reading this, then that means that I've probably arrived to America. Don't worry, I had a fake passport made out for me so that I could get across the country. I also saved up enough money from my job for the last three months so that I could feel a little comfortable in that country. This doesn't mean that I'm gone for good, but I'm just trying to get in touch with my real mother. If Dad asks where I am, you can tell him as well. I already know my biological dad, but I feel that I deserve to know my biological mom.
I'll be fine. Trust me."
And while this note was being read, Lily touched down in Cali. As she dragged her suitcases, she was out in America on a limb. She had nothin but clothes in a wallet, and once she ran out of those resources, she was on her own. She glanced around the airport, looking at everyone inside. The first thing she thought was how unhealthy and overweight a majority of the people in the airport were. She scrunched her eyes at everyone, walking a few people walk past, eating the fast food inside of the airport.
"God almighty." Lily thought in her head. "What have I gotten myself into?"