I couldn't sleep the whole night. All I had on my mind was about grandma's health and exactly how many people are living in this mansion. She never mentioned having a maid but it all makes sense now when I heard that woman's voice.
She's definitely a maid here, that would make more sense how grandma's mansion remained clean despite not having any more family members living with her.
I took a shower and changed into the dress grandma gave. I used a hair accessory that was in the drawer to tie my hair into a neat bun.
As soon as I was done dressing up, I opened the door when my sister came in.
"Oh, you're done? Just wanted to wake you."
"You don't have to wake me up if we're in grandma's mansion because I can wake up on my own."
I don't feel any difference though. In fact, I felt like I could sleep in longer here than in our place.
We went for breakfast together in the dining room and met up with grandma. She was already there with the food readied on the table. As I expected, it wasn't pancakes. My sister even told me this before we came.
It was some luxurious food that I don't really like since my taste has always been loyal to pancakes. Each of us were served with a portion of waffles with flax and almond butter alongside with a scrambled egg.
Grandma left the table to make us some drinks in the kitchen. It took quite a while so I thought of going to check on her just in case if anything happened.
My sister insisted we should wait for grandma to come back but I couldn't hold myself back when I heard grandma coughing very badly in the kitchen.
"Grandma!"
I rushed into the kitchen only to find her standing still in front of the cups. She seemed frightened when she saw me and quickly hid something in her palms, gripping it firmly. I didn't care much about it since it looked like something trivial.
"Why are you here? Didn't I tell you to wait?"
"I was just worried since I heard you coughing..."
"I'm fine, don't worry. It's just a normal cough. Even young people cough one in a while too, right?"
Well true but I don't think it's as serious as hers?
I decided to lend her a hand since I was there and she was fine with it too. I brought the drinks to the dining table when grandma had to pick up a phone call.
"Hello? ….Yes, they're fine here. …..really? …..What is it? …..Okay, I'll let them know. ….You take vcare too, bye."
I couldn't hear the caller but I figured it may be either father or mother if I assumed the 'they' grandma was referring to is us.
Grandma came back to the table and told us it was a call from our mother. She said that we were able to attend school but in one condition.
"Amana will have to stay in your school's dormitory while Andrea rents a place nearby your college to stay."
…..Huh?!
Never have I ever imagined mother letting us stay by ourselves. We could've just returned home and that makes things a lot easier. Especially for my sister, I hope she doesn't sleep in and misses her class.
My sister and I returned to our rooms after breakfast and talked about what grandma had told us earlier.
"Well, at least we can return to school, that's already good enough."
"Amanda, you have no idea how uncomfortable your school's dormitory is. You share one room with another three students and you have to fight who gets the top or bottom bunk of the bed."
I don't think I see any harm in that as long as there's a bed for us to sleep on?
"The worst thing is when you want to sleep and someone else doesn't, that one person will make everyone awake by just leaving the lights on. There's this case my friend once experienced when she was trying to do her homework, her roommate was already snoring and it's literally only seven o'clock!"
Sigh.
What's the point in her telling me all these? Whether or not I like it, I still have to stay there.
My sister shook her head left and right. "I doubt it'll affect you since you never cared about your surroundings, not even yourself."
I do care but just not as much as others. It's a pain knowing every single thing that's happening in the world.
"I bet you don't even realize the Bluetooth on your phone is on, did you?" She added.
Wait, what?
I quickly turned on my phone to check. It's true! The Bluetooth button was on. What's worse? It's connected to the mother's device! Jeez. Why didn't I realize this sooner? I just assumed mother wouldn't use such an obvious method to track me but who knows it was the other way round.
"Learn to know your surroundings, Amanda."
Does that mean hers was turned on too?
"But it's not like I turned it off either. I can't afford to do that."
"Who knows what mother would do to us, right?"
"Glad you know it. You better not turn it off or she'll put the blame on me."
"Why is that?" She lifted the corner of her lips, forming a smirk while looking at me. "Because mother knows you aren't that smart enough to realize that."
I don't really get why she'll take on the blame but okay.
Just because of that single Bluetooth button, I didn't use my phone for the whole day. No matter what message came in, I didn't read it. I had to control myself not to or else mother would know about my activities.
'Maybe I should just shut it down instead.'
I long-pressed the power button and clicked the power off button. At first, I hesitated but after I've given some thought I decided I had to do this in order to protect my privacy.
For the first time, I was defeated by something smaller than me, something that no one would be defeated to: a Bluetooth button.
"Argh!! Can't I turn it off secretly? I need some stealth skills."