QUARANTINED

Day Twelve

Cordelia had been staring at the younger girl, studying every part of her as if she would win an award for memorising every inch of her while the girl licked the last sugar sprinkle on her thumb. Cordelia often wondered how she landed a woman as beautiful as Aaliyah, she felt undeserving of her grace and beauty although Aaliyah didn't know that. She had never seen herself as someone beautiful but intelligent. It wasn't a bad quality as people enjoyed intelligent people but sometimes she would wonder how her life would have turned out if she had realised her beauty.

Aaliyah was a late bloomer, while every teenager was growing breasts and pubic hair, she was still stuck in a poor frame. Her curves were stuck inside, her breast were only small little dots and her periods were nowhere to be seen while her sister, Tania, looked like a goddess in her fully grown body. Tania had beautiful round breasts that attracted all sorts of men and boys, Curves that swayed left and right whenever she moved and her periods would leave her in pain, monthly. Everyone had deemed Tania to be the most beautiful sibling and she revelled in the compliment.

She too was smart but also knew that she was beautiful. She had listened to everyone tell her that she was beautiful and she would break hearts, at a very young age, so by the time she was in middle school, she started betting her eyes to teachers whenever she wanted something. She would flirt with strangers because they loved the attention and she would make girls love her because they wanted to be her. She truly had a gift that Aaliyah sometimes wished for. Everything that she did would result in her getting flowers and nothing more. She never really gave the men and boys anything as she was smart, very smart. She knew the power she had with only her beauty and she used it to her advantage.

Her younger sister on the other hand was only smart and timid, everyone knew her as Tania's little sister. People would talk to Aaliyah just so they could get a conversation with Tania, it was horrid for Aaliyah but she never really cared much for her appearance as she believed that people only needed to be intelligent to survive. She believed it for some time, she believed that she wasn't the best looking sibling as the only compliment she would receive was "You are so brilliant" or "I wish your sister was as smart as you" it truly irritated her but she never showed it.

In her sister's shadow, she would hide and not cause any trouble and her sister wouldn't want her reputation to be ruin. "Little boy" some older kids would call her and she would throw a middle finger at them while they laugh like fools. Tania didn't care much for Aaliyah and it was because they were too different.

"If we weren't siblings, we wouldn't have crossed paths" Tania would say. It was the truth and Aaliyah knew it too. She would've never even said hi to a woman like Tania. It wasn't because she cared more about her outside appearance but because she could do better as a person.

When she turned Sixteen, Aaliyah had fallen sick. She didn't know what was happening to her as she wasn't the type to get sick. She had never gotten so sick in her entire life and when she got to the bathroom, she found blood coming out of her vagina. She was expecting it when she was only thirteen but when they never came, she forgot about them and lived a menstruation free life, a life that most woman prayed for.

"Gran, my periods are finally here" she had told her grandmother nonchalantly.

"Oh dear, no more silly boys" her grandmother had said although she already knew that Aaliyah didn't care much for boys.

"Oh really?" Tania had said while eating a granny smith apple.

"Please don't pollute her mind" grandma pleaded with Tania as she knew that she was an audacious girl. Old people always know when their children are no longer little girls but young women as they have been in the same situation.