Ingrid got downstairs and headed to the dining table leaving the suitcase by the front door. She found her parents already dressed and seated in the dining room gulping down juices and eating fruits. There was toasted bread by one end of the table and bacon and milk on another. The food on the table this morning wasn't that surplus, but just enough. It seemed like they were eating sparingly. Ingrid knew the reason why. The Purcell's house was going to be empty for the weekend and the lesser the food they cooked the better. She was going back to school as a boarder finally after a long wait, and what a way to do it than to start your first day as a boarder by coming from a suspension! Her parents were going down south to the State Of Arizona to visit Ethan for the weekend. She sat down, prayed by herself, took an orange from a bowl, and gulped down its juices. She poured some milk and grabbed a piece of bacon and ate all simultaneously. There was a way in which her mother prepared food, and that had its own secrets that her brother had found himself in the kitchen too often to try and emulate her mother's cooking. She ate nonstop feeding the two mouths she ought to without speaking to her parents, not a single word. Paul and Layla gazed at her longingly as they questioned themselves with the sudden appetite of the girl.
"Um Ingrid, if you wanted a lot you would have said... I would have prepared more myself." Layla called out to her as she tried to hide her laughter.
"No, mom... this ish good." Ingrid said with her mouth full of food. She immediately recognized the mistake. "Shorry," she added. Layla and Paul laughed out together. Ingrid laughed too when the food was down her gut. She licked her fingers playfully and took a sip of milk. She then turned her attention to her old folks.
"Ingrid," Paul began, "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes. I am. I want to reside in school. It seems like the best thing for me right now." She nodded after she wiped her mouth with a serviette. "Besides, even if I didn't want to, it's compulsory that all students returning from suspensions have to reside in the school for a week under what is called probation... I thought you knew that?" She smiled boldly.
"Careful child..." Paul hissed. "Don't think we are proud of what you did!"
"I know dad. And I'm sorry... again." Ingrid told him softly. "I just tried to defend our family name."
Paul smiled at her, his fatherly love clouding all over her. "But that girl Hannah got what she asked for." He chuckled. "Try to avoid such an episode another time though." Ingrid nodded and blushed away.
"I will dad. I promise I'm going to be a good girl!" She cried out. "I won't repeat the same mistakes again. I'm going to study, and I'm going to get good grades! I swear!"
"Wow..." Layla commented. "I love this new Ingrid. In fact..." She dug her hand inside her handbag just next to her on the floor by the table. "I believe this is yours." She handed Ingrid a smartphone. Her phone! Ingrid grabbed it as if she was calculating her mother's move like it was a chess game they were playing. She couldn't believe this was happening.
"Why, I'm humbled..." Ingrid stressed out smiling so boldly. She took her phone and looked at it all over. "Thank you, mom. Thank you dad!"
"We just want you to know that you're forgiven and we accept the new you. We love you." Layla shrugged smiling in the end.
Ingrid squeaked immediately, "Even with the suspension?"
"Even with the suspension." Paul cohered. "You played nice with the girl and she came back at you. It wasn't right for you to hit her but it taught everyone what the Purcells are. We defend our own at all cost." Paul said in that father and husband voice. His warm voice cut through the cold room. "Come on, you two have to go... you're running late." He told them as he checked his watch.
Layla got up from her seat immediately after realizing she was running out of time. Ingrid rose up too and headed over to her father and gave him a goodbye hug. He kissed her on her forehead, just like she always liked and wanted. Layla went and pecked his lips goodbye as Ingrid watched. They were happy. She pictured herself with Ayden... that could work too. She followed her mother to her car that had already been veered out of the garage, carrying her bag on her back and dragging the suitcase behind her. The Purcells had a large underground garage that could house five cars, six at most. They had four in total though. Paul's black Dodge Durango SRT, Layla's white 2016 Chevrolet Malibu, the red family car Audi RS 6, and Ethan's 2016 BMW silver sports car. His motorbike stood on the furthest end in the garage since it was never used after Ethan was locked away. She got in after she put the suitcase in the trunk of the vehicle and put on her safety belt. Layla turned on the engine and they were off.
St. Luis' Girls Washington was forty minutes away from their home on a clear trafficked day, but the traffic was busy today meaning that they would reach the school late if not later. Ingrid was on the passenger seat, next to her mother, and she watched the outside filling her mind with thoughts that drove her away from where she was. Layla would look at her on separate occasions, trying to study her. She looked sweet, neat, and presentable, incapable of hurting a fly let alone a girl bigger than her. Ingrid's eyes were still, as mother saw, hands always on her lap, and head leant on the window of the car. She brought her back to the car with an absurd question, from Ingrid's perception at least.
"Ingrid..." Layla called out to her. Ingrid turned and faced her mom, hands still on her laps closer to her stomach.
"Yes?" She asked warmly.
Layla took a look at her again, after finally stopping in a traffic jam. "Do you have a boyfriend?"
Ingrid choked on her saliva. She coughed out softly and breathed out. "What? No." She shrieked. Layla chuckled.
"You are a big girl now, Ingrid. Don't fear telling mommy such things. Don't you know I was once your age? I didn't hide my relationship with your father from my mother. I don't see why you should."
"Mom... really, now?" Ingrid asked.
"I figured that maybe you might have been scared to tell me in front of your father so I wanted to ask you when we were alone." Layla told her, smiling wildly.
"Stop smiling mom. I'm not lying. I don't have a boyfriend." She shrugged as she avoided eye contact with a weight of laughter in her voice.
"You mean to tell me, of all these boys in these blocks, none of them has ever shown you, my daughter, and a hot piece as she is, any interest... at all?" Her eyebrows shot up.
Ingrid burst out laughing covering her face in the process. "A hot piece you say?" She asked.
Layla tried to speak in that cool teenage girl style, "Girl, you're on fire!" She squeaked. Ingrid laughed out again and arched her body forward. She laughed for a long time.
She rose up to find her mother smiling. Ingrid bit her lip and shook her head. "I don't have a boyfriend mom." She told her softly and sincerely. She was a good liar after all.
"Okay. I won't nag you on that. Let me believe that." Layla answered her as she began to drive again. The traffic was moving at least for now.
"Good. Because you should." Ingrid muttered after a long silence.
Layla turned to her again after a minute drive and looked at her longingly. "Are you a lesbian?" She sounded serious this time.