A/N: Enjoy the chapter, listen to the song!
"I know she'd never leave me and I hate to see her cry
So I wrote this verse to tell her that I'm always by her side"
I was exhausted. This week really drained me out. It was literally 10 pm on a Friday night, and I was already headed for bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I sighed, cuddling into my comforter and closing my eyes. Sleep was seconds from overcoming me when I heard my door creak open.
What shameless creature dare interrupt my sleep.
You weren't asleep yet, though.
Shut up. I reprimanded my brain.
I peeked from under my creature to see Addie standing there, tears in her eyes, and clutching her teddy bear that she's had for years now. The thunder boomed, and she jumped letting out a small scream and then a whimper as she ran to me. She jumped into my open arms and I held her as she cried and whimpered.
Addie's terrified of thunderstorms, I don't know if its a little kid thing or what, because I had always loved thunderstorms, and always found it interesting when someone was scared of them. Addie usually went to Charlotte or Maddie during these, but I'm guessing that they're both busy at the moment.
"Hey, baby." I said soothingly, kissing her forehead and bringing her closer to me.
"Hi. I-I tried going to Cha-charlotte but she was still working, and Maddie w-was watching a movie in her room. So, I-I came here. Can I stay f-for the night?" She asked me her big eyes filled with tears and a sense of hopelessness, her voice was still shaking. I looked at her and held her face in my hands,
"You can always come to me. No matter what. I need you to know that, okay baby girl? It's okay to be scared, I'm right here. I love you." I explained, she gave me a hesitant smile, and hugged me, burying her face inside my chest. I switched our position so I was now spooning my little girl, I then felt sleep overcome me with the comforting sound of thunder to the little tiny snores of Addie once in a while.
No! No!
"Mamma mamma! Let me go daddy I wanna see her." I yelled at my father through my sobs.
I watched the fire. It burned and it was horrible. My mother was in there. I wanted her. I watched as I heard her scream from inside the house.
"NO! Mamma!" I screamed trying to get out of my father's grasp. But he held me tight.
The flame rose higher and now we could see the smoke and the firefighters. I tried again but my dad had a death grip on my waist. I struggled. My mom. No this can't be happening.
Finally his grip loosened and I ran. I ran into the burning house and saw the fire and looked at my mother's body fainted on the kitchen floor. The house was burning. I screamed shaking my mother's shoulders.
"Mamma wake up please. Mamma fight for me. Please. Mamma." I leaned my head on her's and I sobbed. I don't know how long I stayed there. But I felt the fire touch me and I could feel the new burn marks that would take their place in me but I didn't care.
"Mamma!" I screamed. "Come back. Please. I love you. Mamma!" I screamed and cried and trashed trying to wake her up but it was useless she was gone.
The flame rose higher on the stove and I screamed terrified when I felt the burns on my arms. I was burning. The pain. Oh gods. I screamed and screamed until all I saw was black and the ashes of my mother as she lay there lifeless.
Covered in ash and fire she still looked beautiful. I want her back. No please. What did I do?
I felt two arms come around me and I looked at the man. I did not know him but he held me like I was made of glass.
"No. Put me down. I want to stay with my mamma. The gods can take me instead of her. Put me down!" I screamed and trashed in his arms but he held on tight. In a few moments the pain of the burns kicked in and I gasped in pain my eyes burning with tears. The fire burned my eyes, arms, nose. But worst of all it took over my heart by taking my mother.
"Mamma!"
I jolted awake and touched my face to feel the wetness of my tears. I was clutching the sheets so hard my knuckles turned white, I let out a shaky sigh careful not to wake Addie, I released the sheets and brought my knees up to my head. I put my head in between my knees, and I cried. I cried for my mother who deserved none of that, I cried for me because I was now alone in this world, I cried for my father who decided I wasn't worth it for him. I cried for everything.
A few minutes later, once I had calmed down, I checked the time: 3:42 am.
I got off my bed, and tip toed, towards the door. Once I was out, I went downstairs for some water. I sat down on the dining room chair and laid my head on the table. Not five minutes later I was out like a light.
The next time I woke up was to a screaming match occurring in the living room. I groaned as I picked my head up and dragged myself into the living room. Plopping down onto the couch I examined the scene happening. Addie was playing peacefully with the other girls and Maddie was having an argument with Charlotte, though last time I checked an argument did not involve this much shouting at 11 in the morning on a Saturday morning.
I got up off the couch and trudged over to Maddie, I placed my hand over her mouth,
"Shh. State your cause." I murmured yawning. She glared at Charlotte before turning to me, I removed my hand from her mouth,
"She wants to send me to school, like a public school, starting Monday. I'm saying no, like the reasonable person I am."
I nodded, Charlotte had talked to me about this, and I had agreed with her. I mean it was time, I was back, so she should be too. But there was no way I was letting Maddie know that I was siding with Charlotte. No way, I didn't want to die today.
I turned to Letty,
"What is your reason for sentencing the little girl to school?" I questioned. She looked at me rolling her eyes at my dramatic demeanor. I smirked.
"She's fifteen for God's sake, if she's not gonna learn to be social now, when will she learn? She runs from the Pizza delivery man, V! Plus, she's bright, she'll catch up. She's a likable person. Sometimes. She'll make friends. I think, I hope." Charlotte explained, I praised her for not mentioning the fact that I agreed with her on this topic already. Maddie groaned,
"No that's not fair, V runs t-"
"Shh. No. V is not involved. Do not involve V." I said.
"Now, what is your argument for not wanting to go to school." I asked her. She glared at me, and then her expression softened,
"Look. It sounds like prison. Plus, I know I'm gonna be a loner, no one ever wanted to be friends with me, so why would they want to now? I don't know anyone from our town, besides the old people who I go to help every week. It just wouldn't work. " She argued.
I looked at her and sighed,
"Listen. I was scared too. Afraid I wouldn't make friends. I know what you're gonna say, I know I had Lilly, but there was always a fear of losing her to her new better friends. You're beautiful Mads, you can do it. I'm always here for you if you ever need anything at all. I'm just a staircase away even in school." I comforted her. She frowned but stayed silent. I smiled,
"There we go. Case closed. Maddie will begin school from Monday, and I'll help you prepare for it. See? So easy. No point at all in screaming at 11 in the morning on a Saturday and interrupting my beauty sleep."
Maddie laughed,
"Please, we all know that your beauty sleep isn't working. You sleep too much and I'm still now seeing a difference." She teased, I gave her a sarcastic smile, before checking my phone to see six new messages from Lilly. The room cleared out to go eat breakfast leaving just me and Maddie.
Lilly: Good morning Sunshine!
Lilly: We have a plan today, and you're coming.
Lilly: I want you to meet two of our friends, Kay and Jay are coming too.
Lilly: V
Lilly: Valeria Grace
Lilly: Whatever, just be ready by 12 young lady.
12!? Oh hell no. It was 11:15 right now. I looked up to see Maddie grinning at me.
"What are you grinning about Ursula? Planning my death?" I sneered. She just let out a laugh, before gesturing me to follow her as she trudged up the stairs and into her room.
There lying on her bed was an outfit complete with shoes and a purse. I looked at her confused,
"Are you going out today?" She rolled her eyes and smacked her forehead with her hand.
"No you idiot. You are. I saw the messages already so I went ahead and picked out your outfit for you." She smiled sheepishly.
I looked at the outfit. She had chose a white polo shirt and a red sweater on top paired with a white skirt, socks, and black combat boots. I raised my eyebrows at her, quite impressed by her fashion sense. She did a dramatic hair flip and grinned like the cheshire cat. I rolled my eyes at her before picking up the skirt.
"No. You have to wear it. I'm not hearing this Valeria. I don't have time for this my food is waiting for me downstairs. And no, I don't care if you like your legs or not." She said hurriedly in one breath.
I wanted to argue but I was running out of time so I just took the clothes and stepped into the shower. I washed my hair as it had been like 2 days since I last did that. Yes, I know, but I'm lazy can you blame me?
I stepped out of the shower and looked at myself in the mirror and quickly blow dried my hair. I decided to leave it out since tying it would take too much of my energy.
I ran downstairs to see that breakfast was already cleared.
No! But I'm hungry. Fooooood.
My stomach grumbled on cue but then Lilly walked in. She took one look at me and nodded her head in approval before reaching over to high-five Maddie. I rolled my eyes at them and made my puppy dog eyes at Lilly so she would let me eat breakfast.
"We're going out to get brunch anyway so stop being annoying." She said sighing in annoyance.
I nodded my head walking out the door behind her and closing it. The walk to the cafe was short yet filled with Lilly's mindless chatter, last time I was listening I remember she was talking about her time with Jayden yesterday.
I walked in behind her when we reached. The cafe was beautiful. It was filled with fairy lights hanging on the corners of the walls, and lamps hanging from the ceiling, with quiet soothing melodies playing in the back. It wasn't crowded, it had about ten people in it, and I looked around looking for our friends. I spotted Jayden and walked towards them, there were two boys sitting in front of Jayden and Kayden, but I wasn't paying attention to them as I took a moment to silently admire Kayden today.
He was wearing a hoodie with a jean jacket over it, and ripped black jeans. His hoodie was green with nothing on the front, but I'm sure there was some type of design on the back. His hair looked so soft, it took all my willpower not to reach out and run my fingers through it.
Oh my God. What's wrong with me? Snap out of it V, it's just Kayden. Chill. Be cool.
I don't know cool. I've only ever been awkward. I panicked. Then his eyes landed on me, and he flashed me one of his smiles, my nerves instantly went away, as I slid into the booth next to him. I was sitting in the middle of Lilly and Kayden, while Jayden was on the opposite side of the booth with the two boys. He grinned at me.
"Valeria. This is Parker and Lucas. They are our best friends, and they attend our school. You haven't seen them, because they were drafted into this Football thing which they went to for the last two months, and did online schooling. But they're back now, and we thought it was only appropriate for them to meet their replacements." He joked before adding, after seeing Lilly's glare at him.
"I'm kidding."
Parker was tall, not as tall as the Jacksons' but tall nonetheless. He had brown eyes, black hair, and a wonderful smile. He was good looking, I'm not gonna lie. So was Lucas. Lucas has deep blue eyes and brown hair, with curls. He was pretty tall as well, around the same height as Parker, both of them were built very well. They both smiled at me, Lilly already knew them, I realized as I recalled her rambling about them last year, though I don't remember much of last year.
"I didn't know our replacement would be this pretty." Lucas said, taking my hand and kissing the back of it, he had a rich British accent, that almost made me swoon. I smiled blushing faintly, and turned to see Kayden looking down at his phone, eyebrows furrowed. As if he sensed me staring at him, he looked up giving me a full blown smile, which did made me swoon.
"So pretty lady, you single?" Parker flirted shamelessly. I let out a laugh at Kayden's frown, and Jayden's concerned expression.
"Yup! Single pringle, never been taken." I answered. This took them all but Lilly by surprise. I grinned.
"Oh, well you got your eye on someone?" Lucas questioned, his eyes hopeful. Hmmmm, I could make this boring or fun. I chose fun.
"Yeah. He's so pretty, and I just wanna hug him. He's so handsome." I responded dreamily.
"What!?" Kayden exclaimed, as Lilly wiggled her eyebrows at me. Chances are she already knows what I'm doing.
"Who?" Jayden asked coming out of shock.
"You really wanna know? He's so amazing, you all know who he is already though." I said, biting my lip to keep from laughing at their faces.
"Who is it Valeria?" Kayden asked, a frown etched upon his face. I giggled. Yup, you heard that right ladies and gentlemen, Valeria Grace just giggled. The things I do to make them laugh.
"Okay, ready? His name is Shawn Mendes, and I'm in love." I whispered. For a second there was silence as they registered the new information. Then a chorus of laughter erupted as Kayden glared at me playfully, showing me that he was mad at me for doing something like that. I laughed with them until I felt a fry hit my face thrown by none other than Jayden. I shook my head at him and smiled at my friends.
"I like her. I mean she's pretty and she has a sense of humor. What more could we ask for?" Parker said, and Lucas agreed nodding.
After about an hour of getting to know Lucas and Parker, as well as just hanging out with everyone. I excused myself to go use the bathroom.
When I finished doing my business and was washing my hands with a smile upon my face, I heard the door open, and saw Ruby enter. Her eyes locked with mine and she sneered at me. I smiled back her. No way was I gonna let her ruin my mood, kill'em with kindness, I reminded myself.
She walked over to me until her face was about half a foot away from mine. I moved back,
"Stay away from Kayden, Veronica." She whispered menacingly. I laughed,
"Or what? You'll get your little cronies to come bully me? You can try, but my friendship with Kayden is worth way more than that. Oh! And the names, Valeria." I answered, and she looked shocked. Once she recovered, she cackled.
Her nose touched mine as she said,
"Or I'll tell everyone your little secret you orphan." While I was still in shock at how she knew my secret, she took her boiling hot coffee and dumped it all over my head. I gasped at the hot liquid touched the burn on the burn scar on my neck. She smirked and walked away out the door.
Shit. What now?
A/N: well, idek what to tell you guys, except that's not the worst of it.
Did you like the chapter?
Opinion on Maddie?
Who wants to strangle Ruby?
Question of the Chapter: Do you have the V and Maddie or the V and Addie type of relationship with any of your siblings or with anyone in general?
Next update: Okay, I'm sorrryyyy. So I have eight religious days coming up starting tomorrow and we can't use any electricity during those days, so won't be updating, I'm very sorry that I have to do this but, that's the reason this chapter is like 3,000 words long, so forgive me? It'll probs be August 23 or 24. Promise.
I'm really sorry that I also left it on a cliffhanger, well not really, gotta keep you guys hooked.
I love you guys and I'm so grateful for every single one of you, even the silent readers. Let's get the story to 300 reads before I come back!
PS. For those who don't follow me and didn't see the announcement, the cast chapter has been updated with Character Aesthetics created by my sister and I. So check it out if you wanna see!
Signing off for now
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