Gently

Trouble at School

Two hours later we were still at it. Darkness had descended upon the city outside. Lory went bankrupt early on in the game and now it was just Zane, Ronald and me. Things weren't looking so good for me. I was starting to see why Zane was the undefeated champion of Monopoly. He played smart, bought property aggressively and created a housing shortage.

By the end of the train wreck, rather the bloody massacre, Ronald was crying and I was angrily folding up the game board. Ron sat beside his brother, his face streaked with tears and nose red. "You can be on my team next time, little man," Zane said as he leaned back to look Ron in the eye. "How does that sound?"

"No, I want to be on Sarah's team," he mumbled in response.

Some of the fury I felt at losing fizzled away. "We will team up and take your brother down next time, Ron." Before he could reply, there was a knock at the door and I went to open it. Outside stood a voluptuous woman in a red dress.

"I'm here to pick up the kids," the woman said. Zane came up behind me.

"Hey, Jasmine. How are you?" This must be the stepmother. She was drop-dead gorgeous but her eyes lacked the kindness that used to burn bright in Kats' eyes.

"Good, thank you." She turned towards me. "You must be Sarah, Zane's wife. It's nice to meet you." I smiled and nodded.

Lory gathered her stuff and waved goodbye to us. Ron still stood beside me, tugging at my shirt. "You promise you will be my partner next time?" he asked. There were no tears flowing anymore but his eyes were still red. I bent down and ruffled his hair, making him grin.

"I pinky promise to be on your team." I held out my pinky. "Your big brother is going down," I whispered, glancing at Zane who was speaking with Jasmine about work.

"Can we make ice cream next time?" he questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"For sure. We can even try making different flavours." His eyes widened and he threw his arms around me. When Ronald finally let go, he waved a chubby hand at me before running to meet his mom.

After dinner that night, I was in the kitchen attempting the Hawaiian dessert. Zane sauntered out from his office, pulling his glasses off. Leaning against the counter, he asked, "what are you making?"

Tapping the recipe, I replied, "a Hawaiian dish. I found it in one of your cooking books. Do you want to try it?" He nodded and I handed him a spoon.

After taking a bite, he took another one, chewing thoughtfully. "I think it needs more salt," he stated with a smirk.

I stood back, placing a hand on my hip, and frowned at him. "Ha. Ha. Very funny." He gave me a wink, setting the spoon down and taking a seat on the barstool. For a minute, he watched me as I mixed the fruits around in the bowl. After the kids left, the apartment fell silent again. We had ordered something for dinner but Zane ate in his office because of work.

Before Kat got sick, she would come over to my house and we would eat dinner together. Sometimes, I would have dinner with the maid that my mother hired after her makeup business started to take off. Other times, Hannah would invite me over to her house. These days, Netflix kept me company during dinner.

He cleared his throat and folded his hands in front of him. "Thanks for hanging out with the kids today."

I waved my hand. "It's no problem at all. Your siblings are great."

"Ron has been having some trouble at school. Today was good for him," he said, rubbing at his neck. Something told me that this wasn't something he shared with everyone.

"What kind of trouble?" I asked.

"Some kids have been picking on him about his size," he said quietly. My jaw tightened. Ron was such a sweet kid with a big heart. He cared so much about his big brother and sister. How dare someone pick on him?

"What school does he go to?" I asked coolly before picking up a spoon.

Zane gave me an odd look. "Why do you want to know?"

I didn't respond right away, keeping the spoon in my mouth. "No reason." Zane squinted his eyes but didn't ask any further questions.

"Innis Public School," he said as he pushed away from the counter. "My dad and I are going to talk to the principal tomorrow morning." I simply wanted to know the name of the school as a precautionary measure. You know, in case Zane and his dad couldn't deal with the matter appropriately.

In elementary school, I had a bit of a reputation for standing up to bullies. According to my principal, that technically meant that I was also a bully. That was some fucked up logic right there. When I told her that, I got detention for a week.

"Let me know how it goes," I said. He nodded. An awkward silence ensued. Wanting to fill it, I added, "I would love it if both Ron and Lory went with us to Ireland." Up his eyebrows went at my words.

"That would be great. I'll talk to their mom about that," he said, meeting my gaze. Hazel eyes, so damn similar to Kat's, stared at me. Tugging his ear, he turned to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sarah. I have some work to finish up on."

|| Author's Note ||   

A short and uneventful chapter. I just wanted to flesh out the characters a bit more in this one. Let me know what you guys think about it so far.