Jewels of Nature

CHAPTER 13

"... right I think just this one exercise more, and we should be done Ms. Christen." Adria's teacher was nodding into her notebook, his focus elsewhere.

Adria looked out the nearby window, thoroughly bored. She looked at the birds chirping and the gorgeous flowers blooming on the front lawn. Yes, this is so a movie scene, she thought Felix would have said if  he were there. He would have also rolled his eyes. Carl would have just smirked and said sweetly, now darling, which movie would have YOU as the main character? 

Adria smiled. She hadn't seen either of them all day. It was their birthday today, Fe and she were 11... Their first birthday without their parents... Adria had wanted to sneak into the boys' room to wish Felix before her classes would begin, but she was worried Uncle Albert wouldn't want her to make her tutor wait. So she got ready quickly, and hoped she saw Fe, or even Carl before she entered her study room. Carl at least would pass on her wish, in any form at least. 

She didn't see anyone.

Sighing, she took the notebook her tutor pushed in front of her, and started solving the complicated problems. She wasn't sure if these were even problems a 11 year old should be doing, and she didn't see the practical use of what she was learning either, but she knew she had to work hard enough for both Fe and herself. 

Fe still sought any chance to piss Uncle Albert off, and Uncle leapt at every chance to start screaming at him for every tiny mistake. Adria was tired of the both of them, and tried to make it so they wouldn't see each other at all... Sometimes it would be unsuccessful, and she would have to sit down on the couch, and hear her brother scream at Uncle, and Uncle shout at Felix. One such night, she felt a weight on her hands, and opened her tightly closed eyes too see Carl's hands on top of her white knuckled ones. She had been twisting a corner of her dress so tightly, that marks has started to form on her fingers. Once Carl saw that Ade had relaxed, he got up and started calmly soothing his father. When Felix almost started screaming again, Carl clapped his friend's mouth shut, and pulled him away to their room. Albert closed his eyes and on opening them, he saw Adria looking down, again worrying her dress. Albert felt immediate regret. He lifted a hand to pat Ade's head, but stopped himself, and walked out of the room.

Adria was snapped out of her reverie by the sound of a brisk knock. 

"Come in," the tutor said, composing himself. 

He was surprised to see the young Martinez there, with an assumed confident air about him. "I've come to cut your lesson short. Ms. Christen and I have some errands to attend to" Carlos said, hiding a smug smile. He glanced at Ade and was surprised and confused to see her glaring at him.

"All right then. I'll see you next week Ms.Christen. Take care to finish the exercise, and complete the other work I have marked for you." The tutor said, a little bristled, and left.

"You could have said it a little more politely and respectfully. You acted like those other rich brats, the sons of your father's friends." Adria murmured, while loosening her messy bun.

Golden brown locks fell down her shoulders.

Carl smiled at her, and smirked. "Happy birthday princess..."

Adria grinned, with light dancing in her alight eyes.

She sighed, and closed her eyes as she drowned in fatigue.

She opened them, startled, when she was suddenly enveloped in a huge, warm hug. Flushing a little, she murmured a thanks, and pulled away.

She caught a hurt look on Carl's face for a second, before it morphed into an easy smile.

"No more classes or studying for the both of you. We're gonna celebrate. It's not everyday you turn 11." Carl grinned.

"The whole day?" Adria asked, raising her eyebrows. That was unlikely.

"Yep, we'll run and swim and have great fun! It.will.be.EPIC.!!" Carl replied, and smirked, with a mischeavous gleam in his eyes. 

As much as she tried, she couldn't fight a smile. Classic Carl. She should've known.

"I'll change into something more casual then," Adria said while walking towards the door. 

"Bring a swimsuit!" She heard while closing the door.

Shaking her head with varying degrees of amusement and exsperation, she started to wander the hallway leading to her room.

The whole week she'd been there, she had never explored the place, not even once. It seemed like they'd been living there for ages, even though the 'incident' seemed like it happened just yesterday.

It was huge. And open. And extraordinary.

And boring.

Their house was also huge and majestic, the only difference was that, well, their's was lively. There always seemed to be some action going on somewhere. This place just looked plain and dead. And that too, with three kids living here now. Home, was beautiful... There were dozens of paintings, some by her parents, some by actual artists. There were pictures of her, of Felix, of her parents... There was this one corridor, fully dedicated to pictures of her family. She remembered her favorite picture there, a laughing portrait of them... Mama and Papa both looked so young and free. It was taken soon after their honeymoon. A year later, the twins were born.

Tears glistened at the corner of her eyes.

She imagined what her birthday would have been like if it weren't for the awful 'incident'. Mama would have woken her up with a kiss. She would have walked hand-in-hand with her daughter into the dining room. Adria would have looked up from her stacked up birthday pancakes with a grin when Papa would have walked in with Fe on his shoulders. Fe might've been too old to be carried like that, but Papa refused to admit it. Papa would have taken leave from work that day, and that would have spent the whole day together, just the four of them, like old times... Mama had even promised, the night before the 'incident', that the both of them would go and buy a necklace for her, a mother-daughter outing. It was supposed to be perfect. 

Adria couldn't hold back the tears any longer. She ran to her oom, and locked herself in, locking herself from all the memories that threatened to erupt from the wall she'd built to stop them from devouring her.

She slid down to the floor, her back to the door.

She choked back tears as the memories engulfed her.

Reliving memories was once her greatest joy.

Now.

It was her greatest fear.