There was an earthquake inducing scream from the second floor of the house before Rachel ran down at full speed.
"Guess wha—" She was about to ask her parents when she saw two boys standing in the living room. They were her brother and his best friend, Noah.
"Jesus Rachel, can you keep it down? You scared all of us!" Peter complained before taking a closer look at her up and down.
"Are you wearing my clothes?" He asked in shock. She was wearing one of his teeshirts and joggers, which were quite big on her. Her hair was literally everywhere. It looked like she hadn't combed it for days.
"What are you guys doing here anyway? And by this time of the night?" She asked the two boys.
Noah snickered at her lame attempt to avoid Peter's question.
"We can come here anytime. This is my house, remember? So back to my question, you are going through my things?"
"Honey, what's wrong? You gave us a scare." Their mother asked Rachel, interrupting Peter.
"Did something happen?" Her father asked.
"You know I told you the admission list is coming out in a week? It's today!" She said loudly.
"I just received a text message but could only read the first part which popped up, saying the results were out. I can't bring myself to open the message. What do I do?" She asked, almost on the verge of tears.
"Your result is out?" Her parents asked at the same time.
"Just calm down and open it." Noah chipped in.
"Yea, I didn't think about such a wonderful solution." She said while rolling her eyes at him.
"Just open it. I'm hoping you don't get admitted into my school. I can't deal with having my younger sister share the same space as me."
"Don't be mean to your sister, Peter!" Their mother chastised him while their father sent him a warning glare.
"Honey, go ahead and open it. It doesn't matter what the outcome is, we all know you are talented and can get into better schools if this doesn't work out." Their father encouraged her.
Rachel held the phone in her hand and stared at the message notification on the screen. She couldn't bring herself to open it and read the remaining part which would let her know whether she had been accepted or not.
What if they didn't take her?
That wasn't only going to be embarrassing for her, but she was going to let her entire family down. Even though Peter said mean things to her, she knew he loved her and wished she would be admitted into his school since it was her dream.
Why did Peter and Noah have to be around tonight?
She was lost in her thoughts and didn't notice what was going on around her until she felt a hot breath on her neck and, next thing, a finger was on her screen, tapping open the message.
"HEY!" She turned around and yelled at the person who happened to be Noah.
"Now go ahead and check it, we know you'll get in." He shrugged.
"Why did you do that? I wasn't ready yet!"
"JUST CHECK!" Her parents and Peter yelled at the same time.
"FINE! You all aren't helping." She huffed and looked at the screen.
The others watched impatiently and waited for her to give them an update.
"Oh my God!" She gasped.
"WHAT?" The four people asked at the same time.
"I GOT IN!" She announced, still looking at her phone in disbelief. "I GOT IN!!" She repeated and her voice sounded like she was still in doubt.
"I GOT IN!!!" She repeated louder, finally looking up to all their proud faces.
She ignored their congratulatory messages and began to hug them one after the other.
The first was her mother and then her father and then Peter. She hugged Noah, who froze in surprise, but she quickly pushed him away when she remembered he was the same bully she disliked.
That didn't stop her excitement anyway. She was too excited that she began to dance even though there was no music playing. She wiggled her butt from one side to the other while she raised her two hands in the air with one hand securely holding her phone.
She could hear them laughing, but she didn't care.
"So finally, I get to move out into my own apartment and live—"
"Honey?" Her mother interrupted but she was still blabbering.
".... and I will have my own stuff without—"
"Rachael." Her father interrupted.
She finally stopped talking to look at her parents.
"Uhm darling," her mother started.
"We already talked about this." She looked at her husband for moral support and he nodded.
"Talked about what?" She asked them curiously, not liking their tone.
"Well, with the high rate of assault and crime in the town lately, especially against young women, we thought..." She looked at her husband again and he nodded for her to go on.
"We thought it would be best if you didn't stay alone."
"You... are joking right?" Rachel asked in disbelief. When her parents remained quiet, she shook her head. "You want me to have a roommate?" She asked, still in disbelief.
"No. Well... technically yes..." Her father began to speak this time. "We want to be sure you are in safe hands."
"And who is this 'safe hand'? For goodness sake, I can stay alone! I'll be 18 next month, so there's nothing wrong with me staying alone and I'll be careful!" She cried.
"Just for your first year of school, darling. We thought about having you stay in the school dorms in case you got admitted, but we knew you wouldn't like that, so we thought about a better option."
She scoffed. "And that is?"
"Honey," Her mother looked at her and then at Peter and Noah, who had been quiet.
"They have a spare room."
It took Rachel three seconds to process it, and when she did, she shook her head vigorously.
"No. No. No no no no."
"Hell No!" Peter echoed in horror.
"This has been decided." Their father said to the two. "It's either the school dorms or you stay with your brother."
"DAD!" Rachel cried out.
"I know it's wrong to have decided this first before asking you, but you should understand we are trying to make sure Rachel is safe. Is this okay by you?" Their mother asked Noah.
Both Rachel and Peter's eyes were asking him to say the same thing. They wanted him to tell them that he wasn't okay with the plan.
"Oh, there is no problem, Mrs. Black. I will look after Rachel like my own sister." He answered with a convincing smile.
********
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hey guys! This is going to be my last steady update here in the meantime.
I have a series of tests and presentations coming up this week and my exam is starting on the 11th of October so I need to study.
This story is precious to me, therefore, I do not want to rush it and risk ruining the story. As you must have noticed, it's about the lives of different people and I have introduced them all to you.
For my other stories, Because It's You! is going to be locked soon, which means I'll need to keep updating it regularly. There would be an everyday update starting from the 30th of September, 2021.
Not sure when Miss_Behaviour and I would start THE CURSED PRINCES' BRIDE, since we'll be using it to join the new contest on werewolves, but we'll keep you updated and I hope you will all support us because we are going to do our best to give you a really nice and enjoyable fantasy story.
If you have questions or anything at all, leave them in the comment section, I'll answer when I am free.
Thank You!