"So, were they sweet?" Jade gushed, holding out a plate for Lysandra to take.
It was after an hour or so after Laurent had left and Lysandra was left by herself to push the raging fire within her down for the moment and compose herself to face her family.
"They were pretty nice," Lysandra nodded, more to herself and then scowled as she remembered a particular imagery of the night unfold in front of her eyes. "Except for one guy who was a total scoundrel."
"I sense something interesting," William added, wiggling his eyebrows at her while Jade slapped the back of his head.
"Interesting, my ass," Lysandra remarked, wincing when Jade gave her a death glare for cussing. "He put his hands all over me and I taught him a lesson."
"Where was your Laurent all this time?" Adrianna laughed as Jade gasped. "Finally realised how utterly boring you were and ran to some other bimbo?"
"Shut up," Lysandra rolled her eyes, turning back to Jade and William. "Putting Laurent aside for the time being, I can assure you that I can take care of myself."
"What did you do, Lee?" Jade inquired, narrowing her eyes at the hazel-eyed teen twiddling her thumbs nervously.
"I kicked him in the balls."
Nobody had heard her except William, who burst out laughing, slapping his hands against his knees. When Jade demanded for an explanation, Lysandra repeated her sentence again, making her voice a little louder.
"Oh, my God!" Adrianna snickered. "I never would've seen myself saying this but, Lyss, you are such a rockstar."
"That is so not acceptable! You could've dealt with him in a subtle manner, Lysandra. His whole family was there for God's sake!" Jade scolded before Lysandra assured her that nobody had seen them or paid the least bit of attention to the whole fiasco.
"Even so, violent behaviour is not okay," Jade pointed out as William chuckled and wrapped his arms around her in a light embrace.
"Leave her be, Jay. Let the kid have some fun and let her learn how to handle douchebags as such while she's at it," he said.
Adrianna sent Lysandra an appreciative glance, surprising her and skipped out of the room hollering something about having an early class at school. Just as her voice died down, Jeremy came barreling into the room, holding a Nerf gun in his hands. His brown hair was a tousled mess resting atop his head and his clothes were a pair of crumpled and mismatched pajamas. At his arrival, Jade smacked her head and rushed up to him, combing his hair with her bare hands and lifting him up onto the counter.
"Why are you not ready yet, young man?"
"Mama, I have a fever," he uttered, turning his head to wink at his father and averted his attention back to his mother again.
William played along, encouraging Lysandra to do the same.
"Oh, poor guy. You want to rest up at home, today?"
"Lee is right, Jer. You need rest," William said, pulling Jade out of the kitchen despite her protests, making Jeremy jump down from the counter and cheer excitedly.
"Lee, can we watch a movie after you get home today?"
"Of course, kiddo," Lysandra promised, ruffling his hair and making her way out, passing through an arguing couple. The man soothed his wife as she scolded him for being so laid back regarding their child's education and he placed a kiss atop her head, making her smile and give in.
Lysandra was walking to her class when a pair of arms wrapped around her midriff, pulling her back to collide into a solid chest as a mop of raven hair appeared in her peripheral vision.
"I missed you, baby," a voice rasped in her ear, as the warm breath made Lysandra feel things that she had never experienced in her life.
She grunted, "Laurent."
"Didn't know I'd see you here," he chuckled as she pushed him away, walking ahead.
"Cut it out, dude. We go to the same school and you would run into me one time or the other."
"Way to fuck shit up, Lysa," he grimaced. "I was having fun."
"And I was not," she bit back. "You are never to talk to anybody about last night, you hear?"
"Last night? What about it?" he mused, trying hard to hide his grin.
She smirked, comprehending his trick and patted him on his shoulder, arranging her bag strap properly onto her shoulder.
"Clever move, Cirillo. Until next time," she said before disappearing into one of the classrooms.
"Oi, new girl," Theon barked, running towards Lysandra as she straddled her bike in the school parking lot. "You are a biker chick, aye?"
"Did you just combust your lungs and ran all the way here to ask me that, Theon?" Lysandra chortled.
"No," he panted and showed her his finger, composing himself meanwhile. "I just wanted to invite you to accompany us to the annual Vancouver fair tomorrow."
"I think I'll pass," Lysandra said, waving her hand before her eyes widened. "Wait. Did you say Vancouver?"
"Yeah. Interested?"
"I'm debating. Who else is going?" she asked.
"Basically, the whole school goes," he sighed, "but, Laurent wanted to make it a group trip instead of just Kenna and I going together."
"Oh, so the master ordered his hound to get his word around," snorted she.
"Don't be a bitch, Lysandra. Are you in or not?"
"Grown a backbone now, have you?" Lysandra scoffed, dismissing his glare. "Consider me in."
"Good. Kenna is really excited to have another girl on board," Theon smiled.
"We are so gonna kick your asses."
"Don't be so confident, missy. We're the leaders of a fight club, just in case you've forgotten."
"Has it stopped me from beating you up before?" Lysandra questioned, making Theon gulp and look away. "That's what I thought."
With that one last jibe, she rode away, leaving a gaping Theon behind.
"Jeremy boy, I'm home," Lysandra called out, leaving her bag on the sofa and heading to the kitchen.
Having received no reply, she padded further and pushed the bedroom doors on her way open to find nothing. Sighing, she walked to the kitchen to see Jeremy sitting atop the counter with a grim expression adorning his otherwise bubbly face. Lysandra furrowed her eyebrows, tapping Jeremy on his shoulder.
"What's got you in a mood, Jer?"
"Uhm," he pondered wrapping his arms around Lysandra in a brief hug before pulling back and biting his lower lip. "I just baked some cookies for me and mum— "
"I suggest you go back to your room silently without making anymore excuses, Jeremy," interrupted Jade, turning towards Lysandra. "You should've seen the mess he made."
Jeremy jumped down from the counter and waddled out of the room as Lysandra sighed, offering Jade a small smile. "That brat is a little too curious sometimes."
"He left the gas open and was busy trying to get the tray into the oven. Who knows what would've happened if I didn't see it in time!"
"Nothing happened, Jay," Lysandra soothed. "It's okay. Calm down."
After Jade had composed herself, Lysandra ran upstairs to Jeremy's room to find him laying on his bed bundled in the duvet, talking to himself in an incorrigible tone.
"Jeremy."
"Lee, I didn't mean it. I wanted to bake cookies to make mama happy as soon as she woke up but, I didn't know that the stove was turned on— "
"Jer, calm down," Lysandra reassured, sitting beside him and pulling him up into a seating position to stop his balter. "It's okay. Just call me the next time you want to surprise mum, okay?"
He nodded eagerly, smiling and promising that he would surely ask Adrianna or her if he ever needed a helping hand.
"Want to watch a movie?" she offered and he cheered, bouncing up and down on the bed.
Lysandra gestured towards the door with her arm, leading a jumpy Jeremy into her bedroom. Bringing her laptop over to the bed and pulling the blanket over both of them, she placed the device on her outstretched legs, a little tilted towards him. She ruffled his hair as he grinned, deeming that Lysandra was the 'best sister ever'.
"So, what movie shall I play?"
"Ratatouille?" he mused, cocking his head up and thinking as if it was a life or death decision.
Lysandra laughed, bopping his nose. "Cinderella, perhaps? You like dresses and balls, don't you?"
"Ew, no! Annoying girls in my class like those movies. I'm a boy, Lee. I like Cars," he defended, getting worked up.
"Sure, big guy. Take a decision, then. What do you wanna watch?"
"We'll see Aliens in the attic!"
"You've seen that like a hundred times, Jer," Lysandra sighed, rolling her eyes. She, however, played the movie sending a wink directed towards Jeremy.
Just as the titles began rolling in, Jeremy cocooned himself deeper into the blanket and Lysandra held him close, their attention fully dedicated to the screen illuminated in the room darkened as a result of the closed blinds, allowing almost zero lighting in.
Halfway into the movie, Jeremy's soft snores filtered through the air and Lysandra sighed, smiling to herself. Lifting his body and bringing him into her arms, she carried him down to the kitchen to see Jade working on something with her files and laptop set on the counter, glasses perched atop her nose.
"Work calls?"
"Yeah," Jade breathed. "I didn't really have the chance attended my meetings from home today. So, I'm reviewing the slides."
Lysandra hummed, venturing further into the kitchen, over to the cabinets.
"He's asleep?" Jade questioned, arching her brow.
"Yeah. Ended up falling asleep halfway through our movie session," Lysandra explained taking the milk carton out from the refrigerator and balancing Jeremy on her hip, taking support of one of her arm.
Jade handed her a glass from the cabinet and Lysandra placed Jeremy on the countertop as he groaned, opening his eyes wide and squinting at the light.
"Drink this and I'll put you to bed," Lysandra ordered, placing the glass of milk in his hand and he obeyed without a complaint.
Jade smiled to herself seeing the motherly concern shine through the hazel-eyed girl and took her glasses off and rubbing her eyes tiredly.
"I'll take care of him, Jay. Don't worry."
"You can be the best person out there when you want to be, Lysandra," Jade grinned, gratitude clear in her chocolate eyes. "Well, Adrianna has gone out with her friends and William has a work dinner tonight. Shall I order take away for us?"
"Sure," Lysandra nodded. "Let me just tuck him in bed and take a shower."
It was like deja-vu for Lysandra as she wrapped a towel around herself and walked out of the shower, having heard a disturbing noise in her room. Just as the bathroom door opened, the static noise became prominent and she looked around with narrowed eyes. The sound was filtering through the bluetooth speakers connected to her laptop, which was left on the bed with the movie paused in between.
Holding the towel tighter to her chest, she made her way to the bed, her knees hitting the edge and turned the laptop towards herself to see a distorted picture fill her screen. It resembled the staccato signals of an old television and Lysandra pressed on the power button trying to turn it off but, all of her efforts just made the disruption louder and louder.
She placed her palms over her ears as Jade's voice filtered through.
"Lee, the food is here!"
"I'll be there in a minute," she shouted with a great difficulty, her voice cracking due to the assertion for loudness in her tone.
Before she could do anything else to turn the noise off, the screen got blank and the room was brimming with a deadly silence. The only thing resonating was the harsh breaths of Lysandra, coming out as urgent pants. She scrutinised the screen as confusion coloured her features.
The picture of a huge royal palace of stone was playing on it, the slides moving swiftly, showing different parts of probably the same castle. She tapped the power button with a rapid urgency, trying to clear out the image.
"We are coming, Lysandra Mikhael," a group of voices chanted, the sound echoing in the room. With a loud boom through the speakers, the laptop switched off, the screen turning black.
the game begins now. btw, how do you guys like the new cover? it took quite a bit of effort to edit.
i hope i didn't disappoint. show me some love by following my account. just message me either on my board or in my personal chat. i am more than happy to connect with you guys.
would you rather have a brother or a sister?
(i would prefer a brother, i think)
P L E A S E V O T E