The next day.
Unlike Alexa's usual morning where the maids were standing in her room waiting for her with bacon an bread on the tray, today she woke up in an empty room. The smell of fried bacon and hot chocolate was not lingering in her room, and that was enough to ruin her day.
She was about to get up on her circle shaped bed when she realized that her monkey was not in the bed with her. She looked around but there was no sign of the apes, not even her hair.
She suddenly felt scared, she rushed downstairs like a mother with a lost child. When she reached the living room, she found her monkey inside the cage and a man was pushing it out of the house.
Anger rushed over her body, she grabbed the home slipper and gestured to throw it at the man.
"Thief! Mommy! Daddy! Someone is stealing my monkey!" she screamed on top of her lungs but the man was not even a bit startled, instead, he continued in pushing the cage out of the house.
Since the man had decided to ignore her, Alexa tossed her slippers at him but one thing she was not good at was her aiming, so the slippers flew in the direction of the couch.
Alexa's eyes swelled when she noticed the figure that was sitting on the couch, she didn't notice it earlier since she was too focused on her monkey but, seeing the slipper slowly landing on the center table, her brain started praying, her slipper was about to hit the conical flask Ethan was using to mix chemicals.
When the slipper has finally hit the flask, Alexa watched it as it slowly fell to the ground and when she thought it will only spill the liquid inside, it didn't, instead a vast of blue smoke filled the living room after a deafening sound of explosion sounded in the villa followed by the shattered flask flying into different direction.
The monkey inside the cage started to get wild, she screamed and started shaking the cage.
Since the steel was not thick enough, the ape was able to escape and when she did, she ran around the house and smashed whatever blocks her path.
In just a minute the living room had become a mess. Shattered vases and flowers were on the floor, the picture on the walls has been torn apart while the blue smoke was making everyone's eyes to itch.
Out of nowhere, Leo's voice bounced around the living room.
"Whoa! This is the first time I won't get punished," his energetic voice made Alexa's face to wrinkled. She stomped her feet and was about to go back upstairs when she suddenly bump into someone. And based on the height and the vanilla scent she smelled, she's pretty sure it wasn't her monkey but her mother.
"Is this the reason why you won't enroll me to archery mom?" her voice was slightly shaky as she said those words.
"Gather your sibling to the study room and Selena too," her mother voice was calm, the tone she had was the same thing she was using every time she needs to explain why she will be gone for some months. The voice was soft and calm, so melodic that it could make anyone's mind to shut off.
"Are you leaving us?" her voice stumbled as she said it.
To her surprise, her mother's hand lay on her head, followed by her soft lips, giving her a small kiss on top of her head.
"No honey. I know I have been away so much that you thought I didn't care about or your sibling but, I missed you all as much as you missed me. So, I am going to give you a different birthday present. Gather your siblings and Selena in the study room. Your father and I will be there shortly." Her calm and soft smile was enough to make her heart to pound like crazy.
She swallowed hard while her forehead sweat in big pieces, she was excited about the gift but knowing her mother, and by the gift they had received from her, the new gift will surely be not a pretty dress or a car, it will be something dangerous.
Alexa's eyes narrowed as she tried to think of her mother's gift. But she could not read her expression and she's not like her mother that can literally read anyone's mind.
"Does this gift is somehow related to a mountain or a jungle?" she suspiciously asked.
Unfortunately, her mother has a different version of celebrating their birthdays. On their 12th birthday, she and her brother woke up in the middle of the jungle. Louisa and her father were also there to celebrate with them. But the experience they had was like the show 'Naked and Afraid' though the difference was they were not naked, only afraid.
They had lived there for a month, their food was whatever they see in the jungle as long as it's not poisonous.
At first, Alexa thought her mother hated her so much to let her experience that kind of hardship but, later she realized that her mother only wanted to show them how the people in the tribe were living. Regardless of what she saw and experience, she did not learn anything.
And now staring at her mother slowly shaking her head in response to her question while her round blue eyes showed nothing but happiness, her heart pounded even harder.
"Are you getting me a car?" she knew it was dumb of her to ask that question, but still, she did.
"Sweety, I am giving you a cafe and a house," those words were enough to stop her heart from beating.
She looked at her mother with her lips parted in surprise.
(Cafe?)
(House?)
Shocked jolted her body.
But then she thought, she has a house to live in and her father has a lot of business which she can handle later.
Therefore she thought of a solution on how she can get herself a car.
With that, her hands reached for her mother's hand and smiled at her genuinely.
"Since its a gift. Can I sell it and buy myself a car?" just the thought of her sitting in the driver seat and her hands on the steering wheels of her dream car was enough to make her heart explode.
Her mother pulled her hands from her grip and gently placed it on her shoulder, Alexa waited for her reply while the smile remains on her lips.
"Honey. We won't be able to live if you sell the cafe and the house, is the car you wanted to buy is big enough for us to live in?" her mother repeatedly clicked her tongue while disappointment flashed over her face.
Alexa was dumbfounded, it took some time before her mother's words sunk in her head.
"Mommy, I kind of lost here, I think the smoke around was somehow blocking my brain to understand you, so can you please say that again?" a muddled expression crossed her face as she asked that question.
"Oh! Did I not make myself clear in the basement? I said none of us will have access to your father's money so we are gonna get our budget by running this small cafe. Also, we won't be able to afford a helper so you and your brother are gonna have to work and serve that coffee but, don't worry you will get paid but your salary will be transferred to Louisa's account since you stole her money. So darling, next time you do a crime make sure you don't leave traces," and her brain processed that information in a slow and painful way.
Her mother's voice echoed in her ears even though she had been long gone. Alexa stayed in the same position she was as if her body had grown some roots.
When the smoke around has finally faded and she saw the mess around the house, her lips parted in shock.
(This must be the reason why!) She said to herself.
In one side, two men were trying to fight her monkey to get back in the cage. Leo and Ethan were cleaning all the broken vases on the floor while Louisa was sitting on the couch next to the window and drying the skull of her mannequin.
Despite the mess around, the picture of her serving a coffee to someone flashed in her mind.
"No!" she absently said. Her eyes were staring in the space.
"No, No, No"
Her body had frost, she wished to move but she could not.
"My father is rich which makes me rich so why do I need to serve coffee?" her eyes which has been opened widely in shock looked at her father.
"Dad, please I don't know how to make my coffee how could I possibly serve it?" a loud gasp let out from her throat as she imagined herself struggling to make a coffee.
"Don't worry Alexa, if you accept this I will allow you to have a boyfriend."
And just like that, the images from earlier had suddenly disappeared.
"Really?" she asked in excitement. Since she was a kid, her father had told her that she's not allowed to date or get married and now that she's sixteen, maybe she can finally experience a date.
"Yes, you can start dating after I die."
Alexa's face went poker, she thought her father was serious that she has started imagining herself with a cute boy in the cinema but it turns out her father was only fooling her.
She let out a loud sigh and said, "Daddy, is it rude if I asked when will it be?"
"Yes, it is honey. Now, before you pray for someone to take my soul. Will you gather your sibling in the study room? I will get your mother before she donates this villa to someone."
Alexa did what her father had asked her to do. As they waited for their parents, Louisa showed them her pad with words written, "Triplets what did you do now!"