Suddenly my door bursts open and my mom's face comes into view as she smiles warmly at me.
"Oh good, you're already dressed. Breakfast's ready."
I quickly put on a sore face, "Um mum, I don't feel so good, I think I have a fever. Can't go to school today." I say slowly, putting a cough at the end.
She just gives me a straight look. "Why wouldn't you get a fever when you were out at midnight?" She asks with a hard tone. "For your punishment you have to go to school."
I pout at her.
"Now come down for breakfast."
I make a discontented sound with my lips, "Never mind. I don't have a fever."
Some minutes later, I walk downstairs to meet the nice aroma of breakfast as my eyes sets on the breakfast table.
My eyes immediately widens and my mouth parts open as I run to the table, grabbing my plate but my mum stops me.
She pats my hand rather harshly causing me to wince.
"Kinsley, you know the drill. Prayers first." My mum says.
I set the plate back down. "Oh." I quickly intertwine my fingers on top of the table and close my eyes, "Father in heaven," I begin. "We are seated here as a family to say thank you for your protection, for this day, for giving us the grace to sleep soundly at night without any problems," I pause, opening my eyes to smile at my mum at what I just said. She opens her eyes and shakes her head at me, closing them back up. I quickly go back to my prayers. "We also say thank you for this lovely breakfast and I say thank you that my dad is also having a lovely breakfast. Amen."
I pick up a spoon and put the food in my mouth, chewing as I raise my head up to see my mum smiling at me.
"What?" I ask.
She shakes her head, still smiling. "Nothing. Eat up." She says, facing her head down to eat her food.
I sit there for a moment as I watch my mum eat. I know exactly why she smiled at me, but I don't want to think about that right now. Her brown hair tied up at the back of her head, small– almost nonexistent wrinkles on her forehead, I guess it comes from frowning a lot when she tries to make sense of work papers. People say I look like her that only our hair color differs but I like to think I look more like dad. I continue to watch her as she eats, I want her to be happy no mater what. She deserves that at least.
"Why make vegetables for breakfast?" I ask, finally snapping out of my gaze, staring at the green leaves she calls breakfast.
She smiles at me, "Think of it as punishment."
I make a discontented face once more. Then the doorbell rings.
"Oh that reminds me, I invited someone over for breakfast." My mom says as she stands up from her chair, making her way towards the door.
My face lightens up, "Who? Mr. Scott?"
She stops in her tracks, turning around to give me an amused expression. "No, its Jenny."
"And Mr. Scott?"
She shakes her head once more and continues walking towards the door. "Eat your breakfast," She says and I chuckle turning back to my meal.
Even though it means replacing my dad, I still want my mum to smile the way she used to, giggle and blush once more. She deserves that. And I know my dad will want that. The smile slowly dies off my face as I think about those years my mum and dad shared.
I hear the door open up.
"Good morning, Mrs. Bardot." Jenny's happy voice say and I can tell she's smiling super hard.
"Morning Gold." My mum says with an overly sweet voice.
I inwardly roll my eyes. For some reason my mum calls her Gold.
~~~
I walk out of the house with my backpack slung on both shoulders, a paper bag in the other as I straighten my dark wine top.
"That was one conversation with your mum, now I feel like a bad child." Jenny says with a sore look.
My mind goes back to what had happened a minute ago.
—"Now that you both are here," My mom trails. "What were you both thinking!" She yells at us with her eyes wide, making Jenny squirm in her seat. "You have no idea how shocked I was when Colton called saying Jenny was no where in the house," She turns her furious gaze to me. "And I couldn't breathe when I found out what was laying in your bed was actually a stack of pillows and that entire time I thought it was you asleep!"
I laugh and Jenny taps me to stop while my mum shoots me a dark look.
"You think that's funny?" My mum asks and I bow my head, my laughter seizing immediately. "You girls are so lucky that I covered up for you, or else you'd know how much trouble you'd be in by now," She says to Jenny then turns to me, "And I know how disturbed you'd be if Jenny did get in trouble,"
I shift uncomfortably in my seat.
"So that's why I did it and not that I support whatever you girls did last night." She shakes her head as she frowns the more. "What did you girls do last night anyways? Was it a party?"
"Speaking of last night, Mum can I borrow a lacrosse stick from the store?" I ask her.
"What happened to the other lacrosse stick I gave you? You don't even play lacrosse, why do you need it?" She asks but I keep my mouth shut. She turns to Jenny. "Sneaking out at midnight? This is so unlike you Jenny."
"Hey, its so unlike me too." I interject.
"Kinsley." My mum warns.
"Okay fine. We're sorry. We won't ever sneak out at midnight without your permission." I say, raising my hands up in surrender, glancing at Jenny who has her head down and has been quiet the whole time.
My mum chuckles dryly, then her expression becomes hard again. "What do you mean without my permission? I would never let you sneak out at midnight. So you will never sneak out at night. You're lucky I'm not grounding you."
—"Yeah you're right, I kinda feel bad for putting our parents in a tight position." I say, snapping out of my flashback.
I resume walking towards our ride in silence with Jenny by my side who's dressed in black jeans and a brown flowery top. I'm really glad my mum covered for us, I won't be able to live with myself if Jen gets in trouble with her dad– Colton because of me.
I stop in front of the passenger seat, about to open it up when Jen calls me. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Why ask that?" I frown at her.
"No it's just that you weren't able to put Adrian's birthday present because some guy showed up?" She frowns, "And you really wanted to and next week's camp-"
I quickly cut her off not wanting to talk about the source of my uneasiness. "Can we please not talk about that?" I smile at her, trying to show her that I'm okay.
She smiles sadly at me, "You know, you could always walk up to him and say happy birthday to him." She says.
I lift up the paper bag above the car and toss it towards her, "That's your breakfast." I quickly get into the car.
If only it's that easy to get your crush to like you back.
If I walk up to him to say a happy birthday, I won't be any different from the other girls who did the same and he probably won't remember me. If I want him to notice me and feel something for me, I have to do something big- really big.
Jenny gets into the car, positioning herself in front of the wheel as she looks into the paper bag. "Donuts. Donuts for breakfast?"
"Yes." I answer with a serious face.
"What happened to the vegetables you had?"
"You already eat too healthy, Jenny Gold Scott—" I say and she groans.
"You know that's not my middle name."
"—at least you can have a donut or two. Your dad never lets you eat Junk." I slightly pout. "I'm not your dad. For once you can eat something bad." I smile at her.
She stares at me for a second then smiles. "Okay!" she immediately bites into it, whilst turning on the car.
"Oooh that looks delicious can I have one?" I ask.
"No way. You eat too much junk."
~~~
We both get out of the car, shutting the doors behind us as we gaze upon the building we had broken into some hours ago. Brice Worth High School [BWHS], one of the best schools in California, conducive for learning with equipped laboratories, a big hall and gym; great football players who have won countless trophies, amazing soccer players; very sound in sports aspect talk less of how fantastic the lacrosse players are and excellent in academics.