Layla peeked through the crack of the door into the room while I looked out for any unforeseen people. While I was viewing the paintings in the hallway out of boredom I suddenly heard our names being called. I tapped on Layla's shoulder and motioned that we were being called by mom, she nodded and led the way back into our rooms. There we saw mom going through our suitcases on our beds while organizing them into the closet. She was about to call our names a second time before noticing us walking into the room. "Girls come here, we're going to get ready for dinner in 30 minutes," she said while pulling out some dresses for us," Kiara, I'm gonna start with you since you always tend to struggle".
"Ummm mom, why do we have to change again, the clothes we are wearing aren't even dirty yet?"
"Because you've been sweating in that thing for the past half-day in the car, now come here, I still need to dress your sister"
I sighed in displeasure and submitted to my mom's pleasure of dressing up miniature versions of herself. After she was done she told us to refrain from goofing around and that she would be back in a few minutes to pick us up for dinner. I heard her grumbling under her breath while leaving about how dad doesn't know how to dress and do a tie. Once she left I turned to Layla and asked what she saw in the room, she wrinkled her nose and responded "I didn't see much, I just saw a boy who looked a few years older than us, and a girl who is around our age too" I looked at her and frowned "that's it? We were there for a good 5 minutes and that's all you saw?"
"Geez Kiara, give me some credit, '' she said while looking at herself in the mirror "they were in the closet or bathroom so I couldn't hear or see anything from the bedroom either".
"Oh ok, my bad," I said walking up to the mirror next to Layla
"Gosh we sure look exactly the same huh" Layla said while grabbing my shoulders.
Looking at the mirror I saw two girls with red hair with white glowy skin. We had the same green eyes as mom, but mom has blond hair with an odd reddish hue but even without the same hair color, the resemblance to her is almost the same. Instead of the red dresses that we wore earlier we now wore white ones with matching white sandals, we looked the same, and the only thing keeping everyone from getting confused from who's who is the red and green colored headband we wore.
Layla and I may look the same but our personalities aren't, to be honest, they're almost the complete opposite. Layla is nerdy, being the smartest in our class, and don't even get me started on how mature she is at her age, for me, I'm pretty average but my physical abilities top hers in a landslide. I hate dressing up, more specifically dresses, I'm only abiding by my mother's wishes to wear them in fear of her wrath, as for Layla she loves dressing up. Even when we have different preferences we still care about each other even though we never told each other we did. We like showing it through our actions like that time I had to pretend I was Layla during our physical activities and when Layla did my homework when I forgot how to do it.
"Layla, Kiara, It's time to go"
I turned towards the voice and saw mom with a nervous dad, both were well dressed in nice and expensive clothing. Dad was wearing a navy suit while mom wore a scooped neck evening dress. Mom walked inside, picked us up in her arms, and began to head towards the front entrance where a car was waiting. A chauffeur opened the door for mom who got in with us both, the chauffeur then went to the opposite side to let dad in. After buckling in, mom passed Layla to dad who made sure to get the seatbelt on top of her as mom did with me on her lap, dad then told the chauffeur the restaurant name.
Mom told us that it would take a while to get there so she suggested we take a nap, she then took out two blankets from under the seat and placed them on top of our heads. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep.
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—(scene change)---
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Sarah waited until both her daughters were asleep before asking Elliot about the phone call he had back in their room. "Hey Elliot, what happened to no business calls or work during our vacation?" Elliot looked at Sarah, he opened his mouth to respond but hesitated by looking at Layla and Kiara. "Their heavy sleepers, but whisper just in case," she said.
"The call was really important I couldn't have it go to voicemail"
"I understand the importance of the call but you need to keep in mind on what we agreed on for this trip, no business only family" a heavy silence fell between them until curiosity got the better of her "so what was it about?"
Elliot smiled at Sarah "It was a call from Mark about the school we opened two years ago".
"Oh, and what did he say? Good news I hope"
"It was, within the two years it was opened it surpassed both of our expectations, apparently the school has now been awarded every single academic and sports award there is" he chuckled "plus we've been getting a lot of investors allowing us to expand much more in the future"
"That doesn't explain why the call was so important," she said coldly, making Elliot shiver.
"W-well mark told me about some company wanting to get some of their members on the school district board to have some more sway in the decisions, I was informed because of the money they've been moving around to persuade us, I was given the decision to allow them into the board or not which I decided not to anoint them"
"Hmmm all right, just try not to have too much business intervention for the rest of our stay here, ok?"
"Understood"
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—(scene change)---
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The blanket was pulled off my head revealing me to the light coming off from the roof of the car, I grumbled In displeasure as I was woken up because of it. "You need to get up, where here," mom said. I rubbed my eyes and felt her getting out of the car with me in her arms before placing me down on the ground, she then held my hand and started walking towards the restaurant with dad and Layla in tow. As we walked in we were greeted by a waitress who directed us toward a part of the restaurant closed off for important guests. The restaurant was sweet looking, it screamed well-cooked food, it was obvious how popular it is from the number of people present with smiles on their faces while eating.
We headed past a couple of opened doored rooms with families eating until stopping on the final door which was closed. The waitress knocked on the door and waited until it was opened by a butler inside. "Ah welcome, you are the last to arrive, please come in and make yourselves comfortable" welcomed Stewart, he opened the door wider to allow us in, revealing a table with at least 3 other families around it. At the head of the table was Grandma Liz with an elderly man who I can guess was her husband whose smile widened at the sight of us. On their right sat the family of four, who was staying in the rooms on the left side of the house. At the other end of the table which was closer to the doors was a young couple with a child who I'm assuming is theirs. "Welcome, welcome, it's been so long," said Grandma Liz "I'm so happy that you came at such short notice"
"It's nothing at all mom, we're all so famished so why don't we begin," mom said as she placed Layla and me on some chairs between her and dad.
On cue, waiters began to enter the room with food on silver platters, they placed the platters at the center of the table before lifting the silver cover revealing the food. The smell wafted around the room making my stomach grumble, mom heard my stomach and giggled as she placed food on my plate. I was about to dig into my spaghetti when Layla placed a hand on mine. I looked at her in confusion while she shook her head pointing at the head of the table. I looked at where she was pointing at, noticing the elderly man right next to Grandma Liz lifting a cup of wine, "thank you for joining us today for our family reunion, and to our special guests this evening" he said, raising his cup towards the family at the opposite side of the table. "For the youngsters that were not present at the last reunion you may call me grandpa" he chuckled, eyeing the children on either side of him "now with that said shall we begin? Cheers!"
"Cheers" everyone echoed
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—(scene change)---
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While I was eating I tried to find out who the other family members were including the special guests. What my father has told me when I asked was that in every family reunion that takes place every 5 years the head of the house invites a special guest and his or her family to dinner. He also explained that the family of four sitting in front of us was mom's older brother's family, his name was uncle Ben and aunt Pam with my cousins Edward and Eve. When our family characteristics were red hair and jade-like eyes they had black hair and blue eyes except for aunt Pam who had blond hair and black eyes, they gave off an aura of superiority which I didn't like.
On the other end of the table was the Blakes family, they were invited because their son Alexander was supposedly a sports genius that rivaled me in my last life. From what I've heard in the conversations that the grown ups were having they've been calling him the new Suyama. I scoffed in amusement, I knew better than anyone that if anybody ever had the same skill I had I would have known by now no less proved that they were below me. I looked at the kid and decided to test him myself. I knew it was going to be a waste of time since I could foresee the outcome already. "Hey dad is there any place we can play, I'm bored"
"There's a play area behind the restaurant if I'm not mistaken, go ask the others if they would want to join you"
"Ok, will do!"
Dad picked me up and gently placed me on the floor before doing the same to Layla, we then walked around the table to our cousins asking them if they would like to join us. Edward said no, saying that he was too old to play with kids even though he was only two years older then us. Eve on the other hand said she would gladly join us, I was gonna ask the Alexander kid but he saved me the trouble by coming to us first. We left as a group after Grandpa ordered some security to follow us at a distance so we don't get in any danger.
While following a waiter leading us to the play area I decided to use it as an opportunity to challenge the kid. "Hey you, Blake was it? I was wondering if it was true that you were good at sports or not?"
I didn't like calling names of people I had just met so I called people by their last names even at school. He gave me an odd look "My name is Alexander but you could call me Alex-"
"Yea no, where not close enough to go by first names so i'm gonna call you Blake"
His eyes widened slightly as he collected himself by glaring at me "My name is Alex not Blake, are you deaf?"
"I think you're confusing me with yourself, I clearly said that i'm calling you Blake"
I smiled at his shocked expression, I could guess that he was used to having it his way "so… are you gonna answer my question or what?" I think even Layla was shocked at how I was acting because she was giving me a shocked expression too.
"Why don't we find out in the play area, maybe you could find out yourself?" he smirked.
This kid just smirked at me and has the audacity to roll his eyes too, oh, its on. "Fine" I huffed "loser gets to do one thing the other says, deal?"
"Not like i'm gonna lose, but sure, and since you challenged me im picking the game, dont worry ill make sure its a game where girls have a chance in winning too" he laughed.
He started walking ahead of me before I could refute what he said, this BRAT, he's got some nerve, he completely wiped the smile off my face. I was too busy thinking about what I was going to make him do when I won that I failed to notice that we were already at the play area. The play area just consisted of an indoor playground with a swing set and a bunch of toys littered everywhere.
"Ok so this is how it's going to go" the brat said "we're going to play a game of tag but you're it, you have to touch me within 5 minutes, If you touch me within that time you win, but if you don't I win. It's honestly easy enough for even a girl to understand, I hope" He laughed, giving me a wink.
At this point I was fuming, if he was trying to get under my skin then props to you, you succeeded. "Layla, Eve, both of you are the judges ok" I said "and you" I pointed at a security guard "put a timer of 5 minutes on your phone, it's on your mark"
"Go"
I immediately ran forward at a sprint heading right towards the brat, he also ran away but not before stepping to the side causing me to fall and have a mouthful of mulch. "Pfft you should see your face" he said, holding his stomach in laughter "does it taste good?". I screamed in frustration as I threw mulch towards his direction as I got up to continue the chase "get back here you brat!"
"You have to catch me to do that" he chuckled as he again evaded me. Honestly this kid is freaking slimy as he weaved and dodged the pillars under the playground, making me lose momentum. There were many times where he was within my grasp but then he just teleported 5 feet away from me. He's fast, I'll give him that.
I was finally able to corner him at one of the walls, and right before I was able to touch him the guard yelled that I ran out of time. I looked at the brat and he was giving me a victorious expression "what happened to all the confidence you had earlier" he mussed.
"I-I was wearing sandals" I stammered "I-I couldn't ran very well with them"
"Oh really" he said, walking around me in circles "well that's not fair was it"
"No, so i'm calling a rematch" I looked at him in a pleading manner.
"Fine, but the winner gets to have the loser do two things this time plus we're only doing one minute this time, deal?"
"Deal!" I said without any hesitation
"All right then, Guard put one minute, on your mark" he said
I sat down and started to unstrap my sandals removing them from my feet, "umm Kiara" Said Layla
"what?"
"Are you okay running on mulch barefoot?"
"Yea ill be fine, the victory is gonna feel much better than a couple of splinters" I grinned as I got up. I glared at him, planning my next move "oh ill get you this time you brat" I muttered.
The guard began the countdown "ready, set, Go!"
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Author:
Holy smokes, another 2.8k, Im gunna die at this rate lmao
I kinda lost track on how long Ive been writting this so when i checked the work count I just knew I had to stop and continue it in the next chap
I had difficulty naming characters because I had to save the good ones for the SL's later.
Welp until next time
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pics for characters I find important:
Alexander-
Kiara/Layla(Twins)-
Eve/Edward(cousins)-
Elliot(FL dad)-
Sarah(FL mom)-