"Ouch, Ma'am Vivian, what did I do again?!" Aria screamed as her aunt slapped and pushed her. She landed on the floor, her lip bleeding from the force of the slap. Her old wounds hadn't even healed yet, and she already had a new one.
She called her aunt "Ma'am Vivian" even though she was her father's sister-in-law because her aunt had ordered her to and didn't treat Aria as family.
Aria was orphaned and alone at a young age. A tragic accident claimed Aria's parents when she was just a child. Her mother passed away during childbirth, and her father, a construction worker, perished in a building collapse. Or so her aunt said. A lingering doubt, a whisper of a different story, sometimes crept into Aria's mind, a seed of uncertainty planted by a forgotten memory.
"You wore Bianca's clothes again! Look at her, she's crying because of you!! You're good for nothing! You're just a burden!" Vivian yelled as she continued to push Aria. "I might kick you out right now! So you can sleep on the streets in the rain!" she added. Aria could only apologize and didn't argue that she and Bianca's clothes looked similar and that Bianca was just complaining to get her in trouble because she was jealous of her.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am Vivian, it won't happen again. You know I don't have any other family except you. I'm sorry." she replied, bowing her head as if she was truly sorry but her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed. Tears rolled down her rosy cheeks, not because of the anger and pain caused by her so-called "family," but because of the fact that no matter what happened, she had to accept that she was alone in this world and had no one to rely on except her uncle, Henry, and her best friend, Ava.
"See, you admit it! You still want to get hurt. Fine, go cook dinner now! We're hungry! Hurry up, don't be slow!" Vivian yelled as Aria struggled to compose herself.
She fixed her long, wavy brown hair and her round face, thick eyebrows, long eyelashes, rosy cheeks, and red lips became visible. Bianca and Serena, her cousins, were very envious of her unique beauty. But Aria was unaware of her beauty; she was just humble and unlike her cousins who spent too much time fixing themselves but to no avail.
Aria went straight to the kitchen and cooked their dinner. No one taught her everything she knew now, including cooking. She grew up being abused by her cousins and aunt. Luckily, her uncle didn't add to her misery and even defended her whenever he saw his wife hurting her. However, her uncle was often away from home because he worked far away and only came home every 2 weeks.
While cooking, she heard a familiar voice, the voice of one of her allies in this world, the voice of her uncle. "Are you okay, anak?" he said. Aria turned around and saw Uncle Henry who looked like he had just come home from work because of his clothes and appearance, which looked very tired.
She hugged him and couldn't help but cry. Many of her father's friends said that her uncle and father looked alike and sounded alike that they were sometimes mistaken for twins.
"I'm fine, Uncle Henry. I'm used to Aunt Vivian..." she said softly, afraid that Vivian might hear her complaining to her uncle.
"Just bear with her, anak. I've been talking to her to treat you right because you're family but she's just like that." he said in a soft voice that sounded sincere but also apologetic because he couldn't leave his wife because of their children. Henry also had nowhere else to go if he and Vivian got divorced.
Before they met, Henry kept moving from place to place and had no permanent job. He lived paycheck to paycheck. So when he met Vivian in a school where Vivian worked as an elementary teacher, he grabbed the chance to marry her because they started to like each other.
It happened that the school had some repairs and Henry was the construction worker assigned to do the repairs. When he saw Vivian, it was as if he fell in love at first sight, plus she was gentle, like she couldn't break a glass, and she seemed kind to the children.
He didn't know why she changed and it seemed like she was a different person.
"Yes, Uncle. I understand... I'll just study hard so I can find a job and leave this house so I won't be a burden on you." Aria said, as she arranged the food she was cooking for dinner.
After they ate, Aria cleaned up. She heard Bianca and Serena talking in the living room. They were talking about what to wear on their first day of school and that they needed to look good because there were many new guys coming to their school.
Aria didn't really care about their first day of school because she wasn't thinking about those things yet since it's always the same stuff but just different school years.
While washing the dishes, Aria couldn't help but eavesdrop on her cousins' conversation. "Oh my gosh! I saw a handsome guy during our enrollment, they said he's a transferee, he just moved here to Blackwood since his parents also transferred their work. His name is Jackson Martin, I think." Serena said, as if she was already imagining him as her boyfriend.
"Oh come on! I saw him too, Serena. He's mine, don't you dare take him from me!! I'm older so I'll have my way!" Bianca said loudly to her sister who just frowned because of what she said. Her older sister always got her way, it was like she was her slave whenever they were at school. Her sister was popular so she couldn't fight back because if she made a mistake, her sister would bully her at school and her classmates would avoid her.
Serena just kept quiet and went to her room. Bianca also went to her room and excitedly started to fix her clothes for tomorrow.
Aria ignored what she heard from her cousins. But she couldn't deny that she was curious about the transferee they were talking about because it was rare for someone to transfer to their school because it was secluded and not very well-known.
Aria wiped her hands and went straight to her small room downstairs. She would sleep early because it was the first day of school tomorrow.