Before Liona could leave campus, Jeffery tried to approach her again.
"Wait, Liona! Please, can't we talk this out?" Jeffery called out to her in the parking lot.
"What is there to talk about? You made a decision and now you have to live with it. Why should I talk to you when you couldn't respect me? I don't see the need to further waste my time with you. Have a nice life, Jeffery. I hope you find happiness with Brenda or whomever you decide to cheat on her with." Liona threw out.
"Wait, I said!" Jeffery grabbed her arm, which he should know was one of the absolute worst decisions he could have made.
"Jeffery Peterson! Unhand me this instant! If you again fail to respect me and the boundaries I have laid out, I will be forced to inform my father…" Liona said with a steely glint to her eye and a not so subtle back the fuck off message in her pheromones.
Jeffery recoiled and let her go. After he did so, Liona hurried to her car. She felt the need to escape this suffocating school even more after that confrontation. She had no idea why Jeffery was so determined to talk to her, but she didn't feel like he deserved that after witnessing him plain as day sucking face with Brenda in broad daylight in front of her and her friends.
Badly needing to destress, Liona headed for her favorite lakeside park that had once upon a time, been her mother's favorite spot to unwind when she had been her age. She loved that her mom had shared this special place with her once she had gotten her car for her 16th birthday. Her mom was awesome. She may be really busy now, but when she was younger, she had been home a lot more for her and her siblings.
She had a lot of fond memories of spending time with her mom. Whether it was shopping or just spending a day talking, her mom had been there for her when she really needed it as a little girl. Although she was closer to her dad now, it didn't overshadow her love for her mom. She didn't resent her for choosing her career over being a stay-at-home mom and going back to work after her youngest siblings were a year old. Although she had gone back to work, she had still been home a lot more than she was currently, which had allowed her to spend time with her as she grew up.
Her dad, though, had chosen to work-from-home for most of her childhood and had been her go-to person when she needed comfort or to just talk as she had gotten older, and Mom had been busier at work. She felt closer to her dad in this sense because she could always come to him and talk to him about her problems, and he would help her find a solution that worked. At least she had when she was a kid. Now, though, she kept more to herself. She would just bother her dad with her petty worries when he needed to focus on work issues instead of her useless thoughts.
She didn't like to flaunt that her dad was the head of the Epsilon Enforcement Agency's Pacific Northwest, US branch, only under her grandfather, Kaito. Grandpa Kaito was in charge of the Entire US branch, so he held a very important position that was passed down in the family. Even though her Grandpa Kaito and Grandpa Darrol were technically her grandmothers, she respected that they liked to be referred to as grandpas more and had dubbed them that since she was old enough to understand their preferred pronouns and titles.
Liona wondered if one day her siblings would take over for their dad, when her dad took over for Grandpa Kaito. She didn't want anything to do with the EEA and found the politics of the agency boring and dull. Her brothers were brilliant and grasped politics way better than she, and her sisters were really good at science and mathematics, which seemed to be talents that skipped over her. In fact, in general her siblings were good at everything, while she was just plain and ugly with no talents to speak of. She was the black sheep of a brilliant and beautiful family.
Sighing and once again feeling depressed over what to do with her future, Liona arrived at the lakeside park and walked aimlessly by the shore. She watched the water and the few boaters that were out on the reservoir as they enjoyed the early spring day. As she walked, she observed the people enjoying the sunny day as they played, picnicked, or just watched over their children playing. It soothed her to people watch and see how everyone else lived their lives. Life for others was so different than her own and it was fascinating to see how average families spent their time together.
Although as she got closer to the playground, she noticed quite a few school-aged kids were there, even though school had gotten out less than a half-hour ago. In fact, there were quite a few girls and some of them looked familiar. Finding a bench nearby, Liona sat down and just observed the kids as they played. She noticed a trend as she watched. They all avoided the other kids and especially seemed to shy away from any that approached them. It made her think of Erik, and that was when it hit her, these were Erik's sisters. She had met them the day that she had met Erik for the first time when she was babysitting her cousin.
As she sat and observed the kids and how they played, she wondered where their mom was, or if the oldest girl was with them. It didn't seem like either were here, so by her count, the oldest of Erik's siblings was around like twelve to thirteen years old and since she wasn't here, that left the really young ones to be left alone with the next oldest, that couldn't be more than ten or eleven, or so. That concerned her a little bit. Erik worked three jobs and went to school. So, did that mean that their mom worked that much too? Or was she a stay-at-home mom? What about their dad? It left her with a lot of questions as she tried to puzzle things out.
While she was lost in thought, the youngest of Erik's sisters toddled up to her without her realizing it. She was roused from her thoughts by the cutest little brunette toddler looking up at her with grass green eyes that reminded her of Erik's peridot and demanding, "Up!"
She smiled down at the little girl, but otherwise didn't make a move to pick up the small child. Her mom and Dad had always told her that it wasn't okay to just pick-up a stranger's child without permission from the parent or the child. It was something that had scared her mom as a little girl, and she had said that she never wanted someone else to feel like that too.
"Up!" The little girl demanded again with a grabbing motion with her hands outstretched toward her.
"Sorry, Little One. Why don't you ask your big sister?" Liona continued to smile at the toddler. She didn't look more than a year old; she was so tiny. Although she kept trying to encourage the little girl to find her big sister, the toddler stubbornly seemed attached to her. When she again mentioned her big sister, the toddler repeated, "Sis!" Which made her laugh. Did the toddler think she was her big sister?
"Sorry, but I'm not your sister, Little One." Liona again tried to get this across. However, this time instead of demanding again, the little girl burst into tears and stamped her foot before throwing herself to the ground and screaming, "Sis!" This startled Liona who looked around, trying to pick out the little girl's older sisters. After a moment of the crying toddler throwing a fit, one of Erik's little sisters rushed over.
"Emily! Stop that! That's not our sister!" This sister couldn't be more than six or seven, but she spoke with the authority of one much older.
"Sis! Up! Now!" Screamed the small child.
"No! If you keep throwing a fit, Nikki is gonna get on my case!" The older child said sternly, making no move to pick up the toddler or to comfort her.
"Um, where is your mom or big sister?" Liona tried to ask, but she was ignored. She didn't quite know how to feel about this, but she didn't give up. "Do you perhaps not remember me? I played with you a couple of weeks ago here at this park with your big brother and your other sisters. We played soccer with my cousin, Ethan?"
"Oh! I'm sorry, my little sister is bothering you! I'll get her out of your way soon!" The little girl finally acknowledged her. She was acting just like Erik had when she had first met him. What was with this penchant to apologize for everything? She didn't really understand this. It almost seemed like it was an ingrained or automatic response to apologize first, even if they didn't do anything wrong.