All For What!

7

After the family members had left for work, Nafisa gave herself a tour around the house. First the living rooms, balconies, garden and bedrooms; except for Saeed and Maryam's room for it was locked. She rolled her eyes - It was the only room in the house that was securely locked. "I wonder why they locked it up," she mumbled and went back to her room. The instant her head hit the pillow, she drifted off to sleep; totally forgetting she had unfinished chores to do.

She slept for a very long time and awoke by 2:00pm. She realized she had not washed the dishes, swept or even cooked for Manal and she would be back any minute from then.

"Oh no!" She exclaimed and got out of bed. She raced to the kitchen in anxiety.

Approximately forty minutes later, she had finished with the dishes, swept the living room, dusted everywhere and was preparing to make lunch for Manal. She wanted to make rice, but later decided otherwise after she had brought out all of the ingredients she would be needing to prepare the meal from the pantry. Noodles would be much easier and faster for her. She brought out few packs of the noodles from the pantry.

She was just about to mix the ingredients into the pot, when she heard the doorbell ring.

"Oh no! If that's Manal's mom, she would definitely be angry I didn't cook lunch for her daughter earlier." She muttered to herself in panic. She feared she would be fired. She didn't want that to happen.

The doorbell rang again, making her run towards the door. She breathed deeply before unlocking the door. She released the breath she didn't even realise she had been withholding when she saw it was just Manal and the driver..

"Good afternoon." she greeted him.

"Good afternoon to you too." he greeted back, handling Manal's school bag and lunch box to her.

She collected them from him and he walked away.

Walking into the house, Manal ran straight to her room.

Nafisa sighed and followed her - the little devil was back to give her a migraine.

Arriving in her room, she met her playing game on her iPad, with her school uniform still on."What a spoilt brat!" She muttered, through gritted teeth.

"Manal!" She boomed. "Change out of your uniform right now, before continuing with that game." she commanded and surprisingly, she obeyed immediately without complaining.

"Are you hungry?" Nafisa questioned.

"Yes." She replied nonchalantly. She quickly went to her closet and changed into a simple dress. After she was done, she went back to playing temple run on her iPad.

Nafisa snatched it from her and set it down on the table. She couldn't believe the nerve of the scamp.

Manal glared at her, but didn't say a word.

"Come downstairs NOW! The food will be ready in five minutes." She ordered and sauntered out of the room.

Entering into the kitchen, Nafisa smelt the food already burning - she gasped. She had forgotten to turn off the gas cooker and almost the entire content of the pot were burnt. She quickly turned off the gas and fetched more than half of the noodles into a plate for herself and the remaining burnt part in another plate for Manal.