"Hey, why aren't you saying anything?" Noami asked me after some beat, probably tired of waiting for my answer.
True, because I had just spaced out, my mind reeling with a lot of information and imagination.
The topmost thought was that as much as her request was beautiful to my ears, I still wondered why. Why would she want to be friends with a wolfless girl?
Friends? I haven't heard that term in a long time.
"I'm sorry. It's just that your request took me by surprise. I hadn't seen it coming. I thought you had some kind of awful request like making me your personal slave or something…" I say, releasing a dry chuckle when she intercepted my words with a light punch on my shoulder.
"Hey..What do you take me for eh? A snot like Claire or Cassey, or my brother and his friends?" She asked, and I shook my head.
"That's all changed now. You are not the same with them obviously. And yes, we can be friends." I say, stamping down the negative thought that seemed to point out that being friends with Noami might not lighten my punishments at all, if anything, it will increase them.
The action of Timothy today in the cafeteria was enough proof of how it was going to go down. I wonder if her parents will treat me like shit too.
I yelped in surprise when she hugged me like an over excited ten year old. What the hell!
"That's great, Maya." She said, stopping mid sentence , turning sharply toward the entrance of my house when a loud bang and clash echoed past us from the house. And not just that. I was beginning to hear shoutings.
My parents were having a row with each other. That was rare, like very rare. It was almost impossible.
What was going in there? I wondered, already taking steps toward the front porch, Noami hot on my heels.
I wanted to tell her to back off and that this was a complicated family matter, but I clamped my mouth shut, remembering that we were friends now. It wouldn't do good to her ego if I shut her out now.
Whilst on my short trip to the front porch which would lead me straight to the living room, I paused my walking motion, choosing to ruminate on a second thought that popped up in my head at that moment.
"What is the matter, Maya? Why are you stopping?" Noami asked me. Her voice barely above a whisper. Was this the right octave for communication? She was right beside me.
"There's not a problem. I just think we should follow the backyard." I suggested, and she nodded, giving me a thumbs up before we scurried past the front yard to the backyard in a beat, heaving in deeply when we got to the back door.
I heard Naomi sigh first, and turning aside to look at her, I noticed the creases on her forehead. She looked at me guiltily like I had caught her stealing. But I shook my head, a bland smile on my lips, knowing that she couldn't help her super hearing abilities. I knew she must have picked up something already.
"What is happening? What is the matter?" I asked her, refusing to dwell and languish in the feeling that I couldn't superhear like she could.
"They are having an argument…and it's about you." She said, stuttering a bit, a flash of concern on her face which only served to make me more curious about what my parents could be talking about that centered on me.
Was my father campaigning to have me thrown away or sold? I wondered, not pushing the act past him at all. He had made it clear since I was sixteen that I was of no use at all to him.
Opening the back door, I tiptoed into the house, into the kitchen directly, Noami right behind me.
Getting out of the kitchen and going to the hallways, I could hear them clearly now. They were in the sitting room, and again I thanked God that I hadn't followed through on my first plan to walk into the house through the front door.
"We have to let her go! She is of no use to us. Why are you so hell bent on keeping her with us incurring unnecessary expenses? She isn't ours, she is not yours. She was dumped at the edge of the pack, and you had to be a Good Samaritan to bring her in here, and now she keeps causing trouble everywhere she goes. I never want to fall under the king's radar and now he is calling for us for her sake? We need to be ready to oust her!" That was my father, or rather the man that had raised me.
If what he said was anywhere near the truth, which I believe was the truth since my mother didn't contradict him, then I shouldn't even be here.
That explains why he doesn't see me as family. That explains why Lilian and Lent don't see me as family. It was because I wasn't, and they knew it! I was just the only one in the dark playing the dutiful daughter.
"Are you listening to yourself, Peter? She was bullied in school, and this is all you can say?? Day by day, you make me wonder if the goddess had made a mistake pairing us both together. She is not our daughter, so? Couldn't you be less callous around her? Now, you want to kick her out. If you want to do so, you better kick me out first." My mother stated vehemently, causing a tear to slip down my eye.