Chapter 2: MEET THE ROBERTSES

Closing the door and dropping her keys on the counter, Amelia lazily dragged herself up the stairs to her room.

"Hey, Mom," Amelia said to her mother, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner for the family.

"Hello, dear, welcome back," her mother replied.

"Just go freshen up and come down for dinner; I'm sure you must be tired from the day's shift," her mother added.

"Yes, Mom, I'm really tired. I'll be down when dinner is ready," Amie replied, already halfway up the stairs.

Entering her room and closing the door behind her, she flung her bag onto the bed and headed straight for the bathroom to take a very hot bath. Amelia had always been the kind of girl who loved silence and music; she also loved reading novels, and her escape was always her bathroom. She loved to sing too, and this is why she took so long in the bathroom; it made her feel safe and noticed. Putting on her bathrobe and her bathroom slippers, she headed for the bathroom when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in, Bridget, I know it's you," Amie answered lazily, waiting for her sister to walk through the door.

"Hey, sis, I heard you walk in, and I decided to come say hi," Bridget said as soon as she entered the room.

"I'm okay, Brie, I just got back in, and I'd like to have a hot, long, and quiet bath," Amie replied.

"Alright, then, let me not disturb your beautiful plans for the night. Just remember to come down for dinner soon," Bridget said, laughing at her joke.

"Yes, ma'am, I'll remember to come down for dinner right after my shower," Amie replied, returning the smile before closing the door behind her sister whose room is just opposite her room.

Amelia was finally left alone. She walked to her closet to pick up her Bluetooth speaker before walking into the bathroom. She dropped the speaker on the toothbrush counter and played her favorite song, "No Tears Left To Cry" by Ariana Grande. She had always loved this song since she was in high school, and it still helped her relax and reflect on her day. She sank into the bathtub, letting out a deep breath before burying herself under the water. She stayed comfortably in the bathtub for thirty minutes, listening to her favorite tune, which she had put on repeat before getting into the tub. After feeling relaxed enough, she emerged from the bathtub, got dressed, and went downstairs to join her family for dinner.

"Hey, Dad," Amie greeted her dad, pecking him on the cheek, as she always did.

"Hey, daughter, how are you doing this evening?" her father replied.

"I'm doing okay, Dad. I'm just really tired; I need to sleep," Amie replied, taking a seat next to her younger brother, Samuel.

"Mom, how was sales at the shop?" she asked her mom.

"We thank God; I actually sold quite a lot of groceries today. It was surprising," her mom replied.

"That's nice, Mom. To think you didn't actually want to go to the shop today. I had to talk you into going this morning," Amie said to her mom, flashing her a faint smile.

"Well, I guess I owe you a massive thank you for that," Mrs. Roberts replied to her daughter, making the whole family burst into laughter.

The dinner table was silent for a while, with everyone stuffing food into their mouths, especially Amie, who was already starving even before she ended her shift. After finishing what was left on her plate, she broke the silence.

"I've resigned from my job at the coffee shop," she announced to her family.

"What? Why? What happened?" Bridget asked, speaking for every member of the family, as this announcement left them all in shock.

"Wait, relax," Amie said to ease the tension. "I resigned because I have already found a much better job at a very big and famous company."

"Phew, you should have said so first instead of scaring us with the resignation," her father stated loudly, finally deciding to breathe as he had unconsciously held his breath after hearing that news.

"Well, I'm so happy for you, my daughter, but why look for another job? I thought you were satisfied with your work at the coffee shop?" her mother asked out of curiosity.

"Yes, Mom, I was satisfied, but let's face reality. With Brie graduating from high school and gaining admission into the University of Toronto to study Medicine, it's not going to be easy paying the bills. My work at the coffee shop is not going to be enough to pay every damn bill in the house, and that's why I decided to quit my job at the coffee shop after getting a much better job at a big company," Amie explained.

The Roberts have always had to struggle to put food on the table. Aside from the grocery shop Mrs. Roberts runs and the fish pond that her husband owns as he usually sells fish at the fish market, Amelia has had to start taking on little jobs such as cleaning jobs, or waiting jobs since she was twelve years old. This has been the little way the family has been able to keep each other going. Despite all of this, there was love and unity between all of them and they would always look out for each other. Amelia, being the eldest, has always showered her siblings with utmost love and affection and she didn’t mind sacrificing her time and efforts for her family. This has been one feature that people around her always envy, which is why she never had real friends, until she met Dianna.

When she was in junior secondary school three, she had a friend named Maria. They were best friends and they often visited each other in their different homes. One fateful day, Amelia went over for a sleepover at Maria’s house and something unfortunate happened.

“Hey Maria” Amelia greeted.

“Hey, Cherry” Maria answered. Cherry was a nickname that was given to Amelia by Maria the day they became best friends. And since then, it became the regular name that she would always call Amelia.

“You’re here so early, the other girls haven’t arrived yet.” Maria added.

“Well yes, my dad had to drop me off earlier than expected because he is going for one urgent meeting at the fish market and it could take a while before he gets back” Amelia replied.

“Well then, come on in Cherry. We can get ready together” Maria replied, flashing Amelia a scornful smile which Amelia mistook for an innocent smile.

“Alright, thank you” Amelia said, walking through the door into the sitting area.

“While we wait for the other girls to arrive, let’s play a game” Maria said to Amie.

“In this game, I’ll ask you your deepest secret and you’ll tell me, while you ask me for mine and I’ll tell you too, but we must promise not to leak it out to anybody asides ourselves” Maria continued.

“So what do you say? Are you in? She asked Cherry.

“ Yes I’m in, as long as we both promise not to tell any other person any of the secrets we’d be telling each other. Said Amie innocently.

        An hour before Amie arrived at Maria’s house, Maria’s parents had left for their night shifts; Maria’s dad is a doctor while her mum is a nurse. Immediately after her parents left the house, Maria called her two real best friends, Mia and Naomi, to tell them that the plan to humiliate Amie was already in motion. Naomi and Maria had planned that since Amie always acted like a nice person and everyone was always in her favor, they should use her secret against her. That's why they came up with a fake game to lure Amie into divulging her secrets without suspecting any foul play. The main reason for the sleepover was to be able to video Amie while she was asleep, dressed up as a slut. All of these plans made Maria, Mia, and Naomi very happy, and so they all agreed to cooperate.

“My biggest secret is the fact that I was adopted by my parents. I was the child of my current mother’s younger sister. One day, we all traveled to see my uncle and aunt, who are now standing in as my parents, and on our way back, we had an accident which claimed the lives of both my dad and my mum. I, on the other hand, was severely injured, and after three weeks of intensive care and loads of drips, I finally regained consciousness. It was then I found out that my parents had passed away, and the hospital had even already called my aunt and uncle to come stay with me. Two weeks later, I was discharged, and that was when I moved to Toronto to stay with my aunt and uncle, and I became their first child, because at that time, my aunt had not given birth to any child,” Amelia said in a sad tone as she became sad remembering the death of her parents.

“Wow, this is very deep. I’m so sorry for your loss, Cherry,” Maria said, showing fake sympathy.

“It’s fine, I’ve moved past it already, and besides, my parents are taking good care of me, so I don’t usually feel it,” Amelia replied.

“You’re a brave girl, and I commend you for that,” Maria said, feeling good that her fake game plan had worked

“Thank you Maria, now it’s your turn. What’s your biggest secret ?” Amelia asked.

Well, well, well, my biggest secret issssss” Maria said trying to form a big lie in her head because she had planned that she would never tell Amie of her secret.

“My biggest secret is, the fact that my parents are way richer than they seem but because we are trying to be humble, we decided to build a small house and buy a small car” Maria lied.

“Oh wow, are you for real?” Amie asked in surprise.

“Of course Cherry, very soon we’d be moving to a bigger house and we’d be buying a bigger car than the one we are currently using” Maria continued to lie.

“Wow!!! That is very nice, I’m so happy for you” Amie said in excitement.

    Twenty minutes after they were done playing the game, Mia and Naomi knocked on the front door.

“Hey Mia, Hey Naomi, come on in” Maria said as she opened the door for her friends to come in.

“Hey Best friend, great to see you” Mia and Naomi chorused as though they had already rehearsed that before coming over, walking through the door into the sitting area where they saw Amie.

“Hey Amie, great to see you” Naomi greeted.

“Hi Amie, how are you doing?” Mia said.

“Hey Mia, Hi Naomi” I’m doing okay. Replied Amie.

“ Alright girls, let’s get this sleepover started” Mia said in excitement as she was happy that they would finally get to carry our their evil plan.

        For the next three hours, the girls spent it watching a movie, and playing games. It was now time for the dress-up part, Maria led all the girls into her room where she had already arranged a couple of dresses in which she picked a slutty dress for Amie to wear. She lied to Amie that it was just a dress up game and the videos would be take for memories which Amie believed so blindly and agreed to wear the clothes and use the make-up as directed by Maria. Meanwhile the other girls dressed up as a nun and after the dress up was over, they took pictures and vidoes of each person. Unknwn to Amie, the girls had already recorded her when she was undressing and had uploaded it on the school’s website. Everyone was watching Amie live as she was undressing and when she eventually dressed up as a slut. After all of these, the girls went to sleep feeling fulfilled that they had successfully humiliated Smie and everyone in the school will now start to hate her.

    The following morning, Amie’s dad came to pick her up at five am sharp so she could get ready for school in time. After taking her bath and dressing up for school she came down to have breakfast with her family before going to join her parents in the car. Her dad started the engine and drove her and her brothers to school. Upon getting to school, they all got out of the car and walked into the school premises. As they got to the hallway, Amie noticed that everyone was looking at her and whispering gossips to each other and she wondered what exactly could be goimng on. She walked to her locker when she met with her so called best-friend, Maria.

“Good morning Maria” She greeted beaming with smiles as she was happy to see her best friend.

“Sorry to burst your bubble Cherry but our friendship is over and you’re no longer part of our circle” Maria said to Amie in utmost disgust.

“In case you haven’t heard, the whole school has seen your stripping video and your dress up video and that’s all thanks to I, Mia, and Naomi who set you up last night to teach you a lesson” Maria added.

“In utter shock, Amie couldn’t say anything, instead she bursted into tears as everyone in the hallway was laughing at her.

Because of this tragic incident, Amie had to withdraw from the school to another school because that video became the talk of the town. Ever since then, Amelia swore to never ever have friends again, not until she met Dianna three years ago at her work place and they eventually became friends after so much effort put in by Dianna. Dianna was aware of the reason why Amelia didn’t want to become friends with her initially and this was what strengthened their bond as their friendship was genuine.