Stella washes dishes... Or is washing dishes but the dishes isn't the dishes anymore but her hands.Lost in thought, she's dropped the plate she's been holding for minutes and has started to scrub her own palms, turning them an angry red but she still doesn't notice.She sighs over and over again.Lily still hasn't come home, Reese has become a ghost that goes to work and comes back a shell of himself. He'll stay up all night and then begin to dress up for work when it's six am and then leave without having dinner.He came back home about an half hour ago and went straight up to the bedroom where she can hear his footsteps pacing around, even more unusual and faster than usual.She finally snaps out of it and washes off the soap suds in her hands and goes upstairs. She opens the door and sees him dressed in a formerly casual dressing. "Didn't you just come back? Where are you going now?"His face is sharp and gaunt, large eye bags under his eyes and his eyes itself is red and puffy. H
Reese, after passing both security check points, arrives at the Woods and parks his car out front.He looks at the building and steels his resolves, tucking a brown envelope under his arms, he walks through the low gates and goes to the front door.He knocks twice before a lady opens the door for him.She's dressed in an apron so obviously she's just a staff in the house. "Good afternoon sir. Can I help you?"Reese nods. "Good afternoon, my name is Reese Anderson and I'm here to meet the Woods.""Oh, I'm sorry sir. Please come inside."She recognizes his because of his last name and she lets him in. "Please have a seat here, I'll let them know you're here."He nods and walks towards the couch while she leaves to let them be aware of his presence. A frame catches his eye and he pauses and walks towards it. It's a picture of Price at some celebration of sorts.He's dressed formerly and is laughing casually. It's a picture of him in his earlier years so he still had his boyish and handso
Dean Lawney paces around looking at both boys with red faces, one bigger than the other. She shakes her head disappointed."I didn't expect this of you two. I'll send a note to your parents and they must be here tomorrow."One of them's head is bowed while the other just looks on defiantly, knowing that he's done nothing wrong except trying to protect his sister...What actually happened?That same time, the next day, the bell rings at Glades Middle School and it's time for recess, time for lunch.All the kids, young ones and the slightly elder ones all troop out of their classes all on the way to the school cafeteria where they all eat lunch, whether school made or home brought, its all ate in the cafeteria.The class of five years olds all enter at the same time, their voices chattering as they all walk together, talking to their friends. Maya and Miles walk alongside one another both of them holding their lunch packs in their hands.Although Mika and Lucas has got busy schedules, a
At dinner that same night, Mikayla looks at her children, her food untouched and her hands folded across her chest. She watches them with her eyes, not saying anything at first.She had received a call from Dean Lawney at around three pm before telling her that her son had gotten into a fight with another student and that both parents are required to be in the school the next day to settle their scores.Both of them are nice and gentle, most especially Miles. If she had been expecting such a call, she'd have half expected it to be Maya who got into a fight but Miles? Sounds unbelievable but it did happen as the Dean had told her.Why though? Why will Miles get into a fight?She looks at Maya and Miles who are sitting beside one another, both of them are pretending to eat but she can tell they are quite fidgety, waiting for the bomb to drop. It doesn't take time."So, who will tell me what happened? And why we are being invited to your school for bad behavior?"Miles sinks into the cha
Lily rubbed the sleep from her eyes, waking up from the heavily blanketed bed she had slept in with Price before his unfortunate death.She's been living the life of a zombie these past week. She hasn't gone out of the house and the most outside thing she's had is the sunlight that permeates into the house in the late mornings and afternoons.Every single time she passes by the staircase, she zones off, basically seeing in her head how he had fallen and how she had been too chicken to save him or call him the ambulance because if she had, he might have survived. She could have easily lied that he fell down the stairs in the dark and he'll be treated in the hospital...The image of him wording help at her up the stairs that day is something she'll never be able to let go of or get erased from her head and she's resigned to her fate. Beside her, she picks up her phone as she pushes herself away from the bed into a sitting position.She clicks it on and she sees that she has a couple of
Dean Lawney takes a seat at the head of the table while her secretary drops a file in front of her, two files held as one.She lays it there and exits, leaving the parents and their children to sit down. Lucas and his family walks to the right side of the table while the Woods take the left side, although Lily seats beside the Dean directly, Victoria and Andrew puts some space beside them, about two chairs before they sit down, with Connor in their middle.The boy keeps glancing at his mother but being in between his grandparents, there's nothing much he can do but stare.Dean Lawney clears her throat and leans into the table. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen. And good morning to you too, children. So, I'm sure we all are aware of the reason why we are here."Lily shakes her head. "I think I'm a bit unaware. Could you please reiterate what happened yesterday? How did my son get into a fight?"Dean Lawney looks around and sighs. "With what I heard, they had a scuffle in the cafeteri
“I told you so, my children don’t lie.” Mika voices out as soon as the video shows Connor pushing Miles and how he had stumbled to the ground.Lily mumbles something. “He had said something to Connor there that warranted him getting pushed down. We can’t hear the audio feedback?” She directs her question at Dean Lawney but the older woman only shakes her head, signifying the negative. Lily stands up straight as well. “Maybe your son has a potty mouth.”Lucas immediately gives her a look, the dirtiest amongst all the other looks of disappointment and disgust. “I won’t listen to you talk dirty about my son like that. I didn’t want to say it before but now we have the fact that your son lied. Left to me, ill say its as a result of bad parenting, because if the mother can say such to another child, imagine what the child can say to other people who doesn’t deserve such terrible treatment.”The dean clears her throat loudly, interrupting the words that Lily was about to say which is in no
"All of my properties go to Lucas Santinello and my other two children, Logan and Lusia are to find their own ways in life, I babied them enough."In that moment, it was so silent that blood pumping in four people's heartbeats were loud and beating."Wait... What?!" Lucas yells just a second after the announcement. "Who is that again? Can you read it again?"The lawyer hides a smile and looks down into the documents in his hands again. "The name here says expressly Lucas Santinello."Lusia and Logan share a look of shock. "Check very well, he didn't mention our names?" Lusia asks, at the edge of her chair already."He did."Her face lights up immediately. "Now that's it. What did he say about us?""He said and I quote, my other two children Lusia and Logan are to find their own ways in life. I've babied them enough."The smile slowly drops from their faces.The lawyer packs his documents into one bag but he doesn't stand up. "As the will has been read, Mr Lucas, you'll need to come a