Song of the Day: Chasing Pavements by Adele.
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T h i r t y f o u r
"Is-is this really my house?" My father questioned to himself, disbelief clear in his voice as well as exasperation. And no, not in the good kind of way but rather 'what went through the beaded head of yours to destroy my house?' kind of way.
I looked at Nolan, the sheepish, nervous expressions similar on our faces. After our sheepish eyes met fathers', we looked away and at the mess we made of the living room. The curried Scalloped Potatoes were now a mush on the floor, dirtying my mother's favourite maroon carpeted floor. The pots of Scalloped Potatoes that rested in my hand fell to the floor with a thud, dropping the curry even more.
"Yes, I think it is," Nolan muttered. My father's expression changed from curious to furious in seconds. Whoopie, that even rhymed!
Good thing everyone was still in the dining room, having food fight or else father would have exploded.
Just then Harriet came sprinting into the living room where Nolan and I were standing sheepishly as she started ducking, Mark hot on her tail. My eyes widened when I saw another pot in his grasp. I tried to reach out his eyes, trying to warn him that father was in the same room as us but to no avail. His eyes were glued to Harriet's back, a weird of determination set in his brown eyes. He raised the pot up and hurled it towards Harriet, who somehow knew he had hurled it over to her and she ducked. And just like that it landed on someone else, someone who wasn't Harriet, and someone who wasn't Nolan, too and surprisingly, someone who wasn't my father too. No it was someone new, not someone I knew.
Damn, even that rhymed! I really thing I should try my luck at poetry, might work just fine for me, I thought to myself.
A slightly petite, almost my heighted Asian lady, who was standing behind my father before and now, had decided to step into the battlefield was hurled the pot at. Her beautiful white coloured dress, that screamed Prada, by the way, was smudged with a creamy, cream that trickled down and down unto her shaped and shaved legs. Wearing similar mortified expressions, my father and that lady exchanged a glance their expression said how much off guard they had been caught. They stared for a moment and two turned to five and then ten. No one uttered a single word, even the crickets seemed to have muted their chirping and cricketing sounds.
I could see her. She was beautiful, definitely beautiful. Her hooded dark brown eyes were complimenting her dark brown mane and her face was perfectly heart-shaped. Her skin seemed clean and flawless and there were no seeming, visible spots on them. She might be a middle aged lady but she sure didn't look like one. And her dressing sense gave off a feeling that could be slightly unpleasant to have her around. She looked like a rich brat, Asian one at that.
I first turned to Mark and saw his horrified expression that I was sure of I was wearing too and then at Harriet. She just looked confused as she stood up from her ducking position. Nolan caught my eye and mouthed, 'So dead.' I nodded, apprehensively.
I closed my eyes as I waited, waited for the woman to start shouting and screaming profanities at us, kids.
But then she did something even shocking. She started laughing as if we hadn't destroyed her beautiful Prada dress at all. And nothing about that laughter sounded sinister or cruel, like I had imagined her to be. In fact it was rather warming, her laughter. Her eyes were twinkling with mirth, something I didn't expect to be twinkling in the eyes of a middle aged beautiful, rich woman whose expensive dress had just been marred.
"How fun do you seem to be having?!" She exclaimed, her laughter replaced by a kind looking, warm smile. Her smile and statement was directed to all four of us, standing in front of her, clothes ruined. Her chilled question made all of us crack a smile replacing our guilty looks.
My father looked fuming though. "Kimberly!"
"Ignore him everyone, he's just pissed his house isn't all spotless like how he had bragged about to me in the plane," Said the giggling Asian lady whose name was now known to be 'Kimberly.' Everyone snorted at that.
"No, kids apologize right now. She's a guest and this wasn't how I wanted to welcome her to my abode," Father angrily muttered, slightly red in the face due to embarrassment or rather anger.
But before anyone of us could even say anything, a large Joe's burger was hurled in my father's direction, surprising us all. My father's eyes closed momentarily as the large peppy burger hit his impeccable white shirt. Large gasps of shock and surprise echoed through the living room. My own hand covered my mouth in order to contain my laughter and Mark literally let out a sharp bark of laughter. Even Kimberly started laughing, looking just as pretty.
I turned around and saw the delirious duo, Asher and Breckin, whose faces were similarly guilty and sheepish.
With a gingerly cautiousness, I turned to my father whose mouth still was gaping wide, absorbing shock.
"What is happening inside my house?!" Roared my father after a moment of deadly silence.
"Why is there a food fight in my house? And wasting all that food? Really, everyone of you? Food is a gift of God, my children," He now said, his tone very patronising as if he were talking to a bunch of five year olds. I almost rolled my eyes at him and his speech.
"Calm down, Ian. Don't scold them for something as silly and fun as a food fight. They didn't know we were coming down. It's obvious they wouldn't have done it if they did. And you kids, it was not exactly a noble thing you did there," She said and at the last part she looked at me and winked, indicating that how she totally loved it all.
But there was a part of that was scared of how easily she had a calming effect on my father. It almost looked like she was a lover or something.
"Now, now Ian. Tell me, which one of these are your kids?" She asked, her slight Asian accent showing through.
And my father had calmed down almost instantly. "Oh you see this girl here," He started off, pointing at me, "is my daughter. And that one there is my son." He was pointing to Mark. "Though I am not sure about the others and who they are."
I took that as my cue to introduce myself and held out my hand, "I am Cadence. Cadence Brown." But then she did something a little surprising. She pulled me in for a large hug, a comforting one at that. But me being the awkward me, I just pat her back, rather awkwardly.
"You are so beautiful. Ian you forgot to tell me how pretty your daughter is," She said after she pulled away from me. My father looked at me and smiled his classic smile at me.
"Yeah, she sure takes after her mother," He said.
I didn't. I definitely didn't. She was a blonde lady with the brightest blue eyes and I was a brunette with my dull, lifeless brown eyes. I didn't know how my father could even compare the two of us.
"Well, your wife too must have been very beautiful, I guess," She said and I detected the presence of an unreadable emotion. Was it jealousy? But why she would be jealous of my mother, I wondered.
"She was," Mark said and smiled sadly.
The sound of my throat clearing snapped everyone out of it.
"Um, yes. Kim, this is Mark, my son. He's older by two years from Cade here," My father said as he introduced Mark with Kimberly. She smiled at him warmly and he waved at her, a bit goofily.
"And children, this is Kimberly, Kimberly Yuen. She's the CEO of the company with whom my deal's made," My father said as he pointed out to the grinning, bubbly Asian who was waving at us like a celebrity does to his/her fans.
"And," My father dragged on, "She's going to be staying here in London for the next two months. Has some business to attend to."
I quickly smiled at her and then pointed to half of my friends present and introduced them all. And then suddenly Nick arrived. With both his hands grasping two large pans of the Salad and was about to throw at all of us with a roar when he noticed my father and Kimberly standing there.
"Oh, so we're not playing anymore," Nick said, his tone full of disappointment.
Just then, Taylor and Hailey stepped into the living room, now changed into some comfy clothes.
"We figured out that we wanted to play but not in our dresses. That would ruin them. And wallah, see," Said Taylor as she pointed at her comfy jumper and continued, "We changed and are ready to play our way."
And then Taylor's eyes moved to my father and Kimberly standing. The smile dropped from her face before she could say anything. She elbowed Hailey who was still grinning wickedly, her eyes locked at the pans in Nick's hands, and then Taylor jutted her chin out in my father's direction and mouthed, 'We can't play.'
"Oh, so we're not playing anymore," Muttered Hailey as the smile dropped from her face. It was really creepy how both the twins literally had the same stuff to say in the same situations.
"Who says?" Kimberly asked, her lips turning up in a large grin as mischief fills her eyes as she grabs the burger that was hanging from dad's shirt, rather disgustingly, and hurled it towards Hailey herself.
And then, all hell broke loose.
--
"I am never ever coming to have a decent meal with you all again," Grumbled Hailey as she pressed her palms against the smooth surface of the tall mop and started mopping the floor.
"What does the meal itself has to do with it? If anything it was your Breckin's fault it started," Taylor said, glaring holes into Hailey's back as she rubbed the surface of the dining table with a wet cloth.
"He's not mine," Hailey weakly protested as her eyes refused to make eyes contacts with anyone.
"Food in this pot seems a little edible. Don't you think so Cade?" Harriet asked as she passed me a half empty pan of Bacon Salad. I turned my head away from her and shook it at her.
"What?" She muttered, defensively and went to the refrigerator and started rummaging through it.
"Girls I think you should be grateful Ian didn't appoint you with the 'picking up gross, spilled food' task. Boys are practically suffering there," Kimberly piped in. I nodded in agreement.
"Oh God, we forgot the pie!" Exclaimed Harriet as she removed the large vessel storing the Apple pie and smacked her lips hungrily.
And that was how we ended up sharing the large Apple Pie, the only food I had cooked that was classified to be edible right then.
--
"God, what is wrong with you, Nolan? You're supposed to be teaching me but here you are doing everything wrong. What's wrong with you?" I asked angrily as I snatched the test tube holder away from his hands and emptied it in the sink.
It was Chemistry. The one subject that almost everyone hated but I adored in the past. And I still did, just was lagging behind a little due to my unresponsiveness to studies four weeks ago. Yes, it had been four weeks since Nolan and I made the deal and so much has happened these weeks. I realized that the bad boy isn't all that bad and that he's actually a little kind hearted, a softie at heart, I made friends, too much of them, I even managed to forgive my bully- Nick- and befriended him, I had a crush for the first time- that didn't seem to be going away- and I kissed my crush. Yes, my face still heated up every time I found myself thinking about my first kiss, the kiss that literally melted me away in a puddle of flesh, and a kiss that managed to almost ruin my friendship with the one guy that mattered to me a lot these days, Nolan himself. Speaking of which, there was no mention of our kiss just like I had asked him to promise me and he had promised me. I just found myself staring at him way too often, though I hoped he didn't know that. Wouldn't want his ego to burst now?
My grades, the real reason for the deal, were going up and up. I was back at As for most of my subjects. Just some of them were slightly weak like Physics. In my recent test, I earned a B, not an A. I was actually very scared about getting my grades up since getting good grades and back in line meant no more tutoring sessions with Nolan. A part of me was carted that once the tutoring ended we would go back to being two strangers. And I didn't want that to happen.
Nolan was also in my Chemistry class. Yes and the class was never boring to me in the past and for now? It managed to be one of my favourite classes of the day because Nolan and I were now partners for the practical performance of the experiments. The teacher thought it was perfectly okay to appoint me and Nolan as partners since he was also helping me with the studies and stuff. And I couldn't have asked for a better partner.
But right now? He was not himself, not at all. He was mixing up the wrong apparatus and was hoping to achieve the right results, which was impossible unless you were some Chemist God, which was not the matter with Nolan.
After rinsing the test tube thoroughly with water, I turned off the tap and looked at him, "Is everything okay?"
He wasn't even looking at me or rather the task at hand, but his eyes were staring out of the window, looking forlorn and distant, which wasn't the normal occurrence with the smirking, jolly Nolan. This wasn't even the Nolan I knew, the jokester, the one who always managed to crack a smile on my face.
My voice snapped him out of it. "Hmm? O-oh yeah, everything's okay. I am fine."
His words might have convinced me but his voice didn't. It even broke at the end.
I set the test tube holder down and turned to him, my eyes searching for his sea-green ones and my hand's itching to hold themselves out and grasp onto his palms, like their lives depended on it. Instead, I grabbed onto his shoulders in a vice grip but not enough to hurt him.
"Nolan, talk to me. Tell me what's wrong," I said.
But he didn't. Instead, he asked, "Brown will you come with me tomorrow somewhere?"
Tomorrow was Wednesday. The day he mysteriously disappeared and returned a day later, all bruised. And he wanted to take me out on that day, the day he got all MIA and sketchy, the day he never wanted to talk about until today.
I wanted to ask so much. I came up with a simple, "Where?"
"Just someplace. I have to tell you some stuff and you have to come. I can't hide this from you anymore. Remember at my place two weeks ago? I told you I'd tell you everything once I am ready. I am," He said, his face stony and unmoving.
"O-okay," I stammered, at a loss for words.
"Please don't freak out," He begged. I nodded, confused till some point and tired of holding onto his shoulders too. Taking note of that, I quickly let go off him.
"So, where were we?" He asked as his expression turned to jovial again and he grabbed the test tube holder from the table.
Damn, was he bipolar?
"Umm," I started off, still not over my little speechlessness, "We're supposed to add the organic compound into the test tube and then add distilled water."
He started doing as told and made the solution.
"Shake it." And shaking he did.
I read the handbook out aloud, "Now add liquor ammonia and check if we get a precipitate."
"Okay," He said as he grabbed the bottle containing liquor ammonia from the shelf and poured it down the test tube. An extremely foul smell erupted in the laboratory and the test tube started heating up, literally, fumes escaping. And the stern Mrs. Novels, our Chemistry teacher, started marching towards our table, a hand on her hip, and her thick rimmed glasses perched on her nose. A lady in her lat forties, she was, quite an extraordinary teacher with sternness and yet a comfort of motherly affection. She was very strict though when it came to studies and that was what separated her from most of the teachers. The other teachers could care less but not her.
"What is this foul smell of?" She asked as she sniffed through her nose and closed her eyes momentarily to examine the source of the stench.
"We just added liquor ammonia and this smell arose," I quickly defended us. Nolan nodded.
"No, my dear," She said, as she sniffed again, "this isn't liquor ammonia but rather I think this is Hydrogen Sulphide dissolved in water commonly called as-"
"Sewer Gas," I finished for her. She looked at me in approval.
"That is correct Ms. Brown," She said. I was half expecting her to say 'ten points to Gryffindor.'
"Who gave you this bottle saying it is liquor ammonia?" She asked sternly.
No one did. It was Nolan's fault. When he was highly distracted, I asked him to fetch me the bottle and he got the wrong one. I was too confused by his behaviour to check the name tag myself, and hence the silly mistake.
"It-" Nolan started off but I jumped in.
"It was my fault Mrs. Novels. I was a little distracted and didn't check what I was fetching," I muttered, looking at the floor in an imitation of what seemed to be shameful. I could feel Nolan giving me what felt like a disbelieving look.
"Not something I had expected from you, Ms. Brown. What if it was something even highly dangerous? What if it was concentrated H2SO4? It could have spilled all over you both and burned you to your bones," She scolded. At that moment she reminded of Professor McGonagall too much.
"Sorry," I muttered.
"It's okay but please be careful next time. We don't want any accidents happening here," She said and I looked up at her and nodded. She walked away.
Nolan looked at me and glared, "Why would you do that?"
"Because if I said the truth, she could have your ass on a plate," I hissed.
"Were- were you, by any chance, worried for me?" He asked, disbelief lacing his tone.
"Let's not switch from the task here Nolan," I said, avoiding eye contact with him as I grabbed the handbook and pretended to read.
"You're crazy, you know that?" I heard his voice from beside me, slight frustration in it.
Yeah, crazy for you, chided my brain.
Damn it! Get a grip, Cadence!
--
So yes I know you all pretty much want to hurl stones at me and completely kill me. I have been MIA for the past two weeks and I am extremely sorry for that. I wanted to update quicker because the quicker I update, the quicker I finish the book and start with the next ones in line. But I unfortunately, as much as I hate the fact, I have a life. And that involves my stupid college. I have to complete assignments, projects and so much more in so many subjects. I have been completely exhausted these days. Yeah, that's about me.
The picture is of Lucy Liu who plays Kimberly Yuen. I love her! ;)
About the book, I hope you guys are liking this book or else there is no use for me to continue it. Just comment if you want me to continue it and yes of course! How did you like the chapter? Happy weekend and happy reading!