Sweet Tears of Revenge

Chapter 1: Eli

I stare at the ceiling, bored. Even though it's the last day of summer, and tomorrow I start school, I decided to spend this last day rotting in my bed while listening Radiohead.
It's very hot outside; cheers and children voices are hearable through the windows as they happily come or return from a walk, or a playground... the air smells like wet grass, which is surprising cause it didn't rain in a while. The sun was getting ready to set as it was 7 PM.
Suddenly my mom came in without knocking. "Eli, sweetie, are you okay?" she asked, as she approached me and sat on the other corner of my bed.
I stopped my music, took off my headphone and lifted my head up. "Hm? Oh yeah, I'm good."
"Me and Nellie decided to go on a walk to enjoy this last day of summer." She said, looking around the room. "You haven't cleaned your room yet?"
I sighed. "No mom, I was busy with... uh... my comic..." (funny thing is, I wasn't working for any comic, nor did I have any ideas for one)
"Ah, forget it. Want to come with us?"
"No, thanks."
"But why? Today's the last chance you have to enjoy yourself, tomorrow all the 9 months cycle begins again and you will have little to no time to spend for you..."
"I'd rather spend that potential time listening music though..."
"Earlier you said you were working for a comic."
"She's impossible." Eli thought. "Well, yeah but..."
"I told you all summer that 10th grade will be hard..."
"You've always told me that with every grade I went in."
Finally, she sighed and got up. "Don't you want to join your family on a walk? Once in a while? We promise we'll leave you alone to listen music..."
We both looked outside the window. A sun ray was lighting my tired, sleepy face, and coincidence is, as soon as it touched my face it immediately faded away, as if it was scared of my paleness and eyebags. I yawned. "Well... I could just go on the patio, sit on a chair and listen music as well, then..."
"C'mon, Eli..."
I sighed. She wasn't going to leave me alone until I don't approve with what she says. "Fine."
Glad she reached her goal mom sketched a smile on her face. "Get ready, me and your sister will be waiting for you downstairs." And she left the room.

While walking around the park, I was listening to music as my mom and sister were talking. I wasn't wrong regarding the view: lots of families and couples were still in the park, balloons were sold everywhere and children were laughing and having fun.
Out of curiosity, I stopped my music for a while, curious to hear what my mom and sister were talking about.
"... so what job will you choose? You will have to pay for your faculty, you know?" mom asked Nellie, my 19-year-old sister.
"Well, you see, I want to join the AEVDC, just like you... this stuff might get a wee bit more serious since The Misery Bringers are spreading more and more by year..."
"AEVDC...? The Misery Bringers?... what were they speaking about that I didn't know of?" I asked myself. They never spoke of this kind of stuff before. What was it?
"Ah, but Nellie, that's a lot of work! In fact, you'll have to abandon your studies in order to help us execute TMB..." mom said.
Nellie scoffed. "Absurd. I can keep an eye on a suspect and eventually, if they're proven to be a Missile I will send the data to the base and eventually the guys will kill it!" she said, filled with confidence.
"Hold up... execute?" I though, as shivers were going down my spine.
It probably wasn't the best moment, but I took off my headphones and put them in my pocket. "What were you girls talking about?" I asked dumbly, interrupting their conversation.
They both flinched. "Ah, nothing! Do you want to get ice cream?" Nellie asked. She was genuinely way nicer to me now. There was something rotten in the middle...
"Why are you genuinely acting nice towards me now..." I asked Nellie. "Did you get some extra drugs doses?"
Her smile was forced now. "Be grateful I didn't call you a worthless piece of crap in front of everyone."
"Nellie-" mom tried to interfere, but she was interrupted by me. I chuckled "Well you already did..."
She rolled her eyes. "You're basically impossible, Elijah."
"That ain't my fault..." I said, then opened my phone in hope to make them understand I wanted to be left alone.
I could see Nellie sigh, then she began speaking again with mom. I had to find out what they were talking about though... maybe I shouldn't know about this, but speaking about this in public isn't the best either.

When we finally got home, Nellie and mom went to the kitchen, so I sneaked in mom's room.
"AEVDC... TMB... I have to find out what they mean by that." I mumbled, looking through mom's CVs and documents, even though I shouldn't. It's strictly forbidden to enter in her room, but I could go back to my room using the balcony.
No matter how much I tried looking through her documents, I couldn't find anything. Then I decided to take a look at her CV; there must be a clue of what they were talking about in it. It seemed as if they were speaking about a job, so I took the CV and looked at it.

'Name: Jasmine E. Stardrone
Date of birth: 29/5/1972
*information*'

I read everything carefully, when suddenly my eyes stopped at something.

'Attended: Faculty of Laws and Crimes Solving'

She never told me she attended any faculty, but that she quitted studies to marry my dad. Was she hiding something?
I stared at the paper for a while, when I suddenly got up. "I'll speak to her about this again. I'm confused."
Right in that moment I heard someone walking up the stairs. I remember I thought of going back to my room using the balcony, but I doubted it would help me.
The steps were approaching rapidly. I ran towards the balcony door and opened it, then sneaked in and got ready to jump on my side of balcony. Right then I heard mom's door opening.
"Fuck! I forgot I didn't put those documents back... and I have her CV in my hand..." I thought.
I climbed on the edge of the balcony, then got ready to jump on the other side. I jumped and fell on the cold tiled floor of the balcony. I felt like my back bones shattered for a few seconds from the impact they had with the floor.
To avoid being seen, I hid behind my balcony's small wall. Somehow, I could still hear what was going on in the other room, and I wouldn't say it was so pleasing; someone was looking through the mess I've made, surprisingly without saying anything. Everything was in deep silence.
Suddenly the person got up and left. I went to my room and hid the CV under my pillow.
"Holy crap, what the fuck was that!?" I said. My heart was raging in my chest. What if mom or Nellie, whoever that person was, were going to talk with me about the mess?
I waited a few minutes. Nothing happened, nobody came in to my surprise.
I waited five more minutes.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
Nobody came in.
Glad to see they didn't care about the mess, I took my headphones and played some music. Right then my mom came in, which surprised me because there passed 15 whole minutes without any of them coming in.
"Eli, dinner's ready." She spoke. She didn't seem affected by earlier. Was it Nellie who came in then? Was she looking for some contracts of mom's too for applying to her new job?
"Coming, wait for me." I said, getting up of my bed and rushing to the kitchen. Mom followed me.
When I got down, I was expecting to see an angry Nellie. Instead, she was minding her business while pouring some curry with rice in our plates.
"Is it hot?" I asked her. She looked at me with that one disgusted look. "No, bitch, it's been in Siberia for 14 days and now has the shape of a deformed ice cube with lots of small holes and will threaten you to go in it to trigger your trypophobia and claustrophobia."
I sighed. "I meant if it's spicy."
Nellie rolled her eyes. "You could've just said if it's spicy as well."
I ignored her and took some forks and knives and placed them near everyone's plates, then I sat down. "Has anyone fed Buster yet?" I asked.
Buster was our dog, and he was a big white labrador. I found him on the streets seven years ago, and we all decided to adopt him.
"He's your dog. You're the one responsible for him." Nellie said.
"Ignore her, Eli. I gave him his food, don't worry." Mom said, as she sat down in front of me. Buster jumped near her and we all chuckled. Nellie sat down finally, and we all began eating.
The sun faded away, and the city lights were taking over the sky now. Everyone was heading to their homes, and the roads were becoming more and more empty.
When I saw nobody was saying anything, I spoke:
"So... mom... did you attend any faculty or did you abandon studies to marry dad?" I asked.
They both threw me a suspicious view.
"I mean..." mom spoke "I've attended some faculty classes for two years, at law."
"Why are you asking?" Nellie said.
"Well..." I said. I couldn't tell them I heard a bit of their conversation and then went through mom's documents and stole her CV, otherwise I'd be dead. "... I just forgot. Sorry. And what job did you get after attending faculty?"
"I got hired into a spying agency. Related with FBI stuff." She said, meeting Nellies furious look. It was clear she didn't want to talk about this, as if I wasn't supposed to know. "But let's not talk about this now..."
I nodded, then continued my food, but I felt like I wasn't wanted there anymore at that moment, so I got up. "I'm full now. Thanks."
"You barely ate anything." Nellie said, but I already went up the stairs.
I locked myself in my room and went straight to my bed. I jumped in it, exhausted. "If they're not going to tell me anything, I can as well just go to sleep." I said. Tomorrow was a busy day anyway. There was no point in me staying awake.