FAR AWAY FROM HOME (PAUSED)

𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙴.

"You ready for your first day?" Someone asks behind me as I shut the door of my room.

Feeling nervous, I turn towards the source of the voice to see Riley crossing her arms while leaning on the door of her room.

"No. Yes. Honestly, I don't know," I confess to her while smoothing down my gown with floundering fingers.

Hearing somewhere that yellow is an optimistic color, my outfit for today is a flared knee-length yellow dress combined with black sandals.

She gazes directly into my eyes after briefly scanning me. "You look cute. Be bold, stand straight you will be fine." her eyes momentarily shifts to my head, "I like your hairband by the way, nice touch."

My hand instinctively goes up to my hair, and I touch the ornament I had kept there to keep my hair at bay. "Thanks, was going for the naive look."

She laughs, then grabs my hand and pulls me towards the stairs. I will myself to move and follow her. "Come on, let's go have breakfast, you will be fine."

"I sure hope so," I mutter under my breath as Charlotte's authoritative voice rings out calling for Richard and Riley.

Riley rolls her eyes while Richard scrambles past us on the stairs, his blonde hair flying in all directions. Riley's eyes glint with malice as a wicked smile lights up her face, "If you trip, trust me, I will laugh."

Richard ignores her. The action, for no reason at all, reminds me of his elder brother with blue eyes. Except he's not so little and he is extra grumpy."Riley?" I call out, slowing my steps.

"Yes?" She instantly responds turning to me with a look of anticipation. Her emerald green eyes roam my face and I decide to just spit out before we reach downstairs.

"Does Nathan usually thank people?" I casually ask, as if it is just a question that popped in my head and not one I had been thinking about all morning as I dressed.

"Nope, just my mom." She instantly replies not even pausing to think about it."Doesn't feel anyone deserves it. Why?"

I don't think I am ready to disclose he thanked me. Well, not until I know why. "Nothing, just asking. By the way, in case you were wondering, I left you yesterday because I was tired."

Another way to dissuade people from mulling over what you just said is by changing the topic, which I just did. Even if it's an irrelevant one.

"I figured, no big deal. Let's eat, I'm hungry," Riley replies, taking the bait and changing it with a topic of her own.

With that, the conversation ceases and a moment later we are both in the dining, eating. Nate is absent and as usual, the family doesn't seem to be bothered. Richard eats his food in a hurry eager to get to school.

While I keep on toying with my food.

The disadvantage of me being nervous is that my stomach tends to shut down when I'm about to face something new.

When everyone's through with their food, Maria comes to pack it up and I rush to help her with it. One, cause I have to. The other, so I could stylishly discard my food then wash my plates.

In the kitchen, I wash my plate and then tidy up the area with her. Looking for another chore to busy myself with so time could at least slow down, I decide to help her with washing the other plate but she argues telling me the dishwasher will handle it.

Seeing no point in arguing, I leave it to her. It seems like I have no reason in dawdling in the kitchen any longer.

The moment I'm in the dining, I just know something's happened. Nate is on his feet at the edge of the dining but his face is set in a frightening scowl as he stares at his mother, who on the other edge, is seated comfortably, with a little smile on her face but there is no mistaking the malicious glint in her eyes daring him to argue.