Twinkle || BTS

Playing House

Ophelia was awoken by the sound of a slamming door, followed by her mother's aggravated groan. Ophelia rolled over and checked her phone; it was five in the morning, one hour before her alarm went off. She closed her eyes and willed herself to get that extra hour of sleep in, but the sounds of her mother's rage downstairs kept her awake. With a groan, she got out of bed, put on her slippers, and pocketed her phone.

Her mom looked like a mess; most likely hungover and wanting to get drunk again. As soon as she noticed her daughter coming down the stairs, she headed towards the front door.

"I'm going out. Watch Rose."

"But I have to go to school-"

"What did I just say?" Her mom yelled, turning around and walking towards the girl. She violently poked Ophelia's chest before going on. "Watch Rose. I don't care where the fuck you go but take her with. Or don't. Go to school and leave her to die, I don't care."

Ophelia watched wide-eyed as her mother followed her husband's footsteps and violently slammed the front door. Soon after, Rose began crying from the nursery. Ophelia quickly ran towards the baby, trying to quiet her before Henry woke up.

Ophelia picked the crying baby up, rocking and shushing her. The infant immediately quieted once she was in her older sister's arms, cooing instead of crying. Ophelia looked around the nursery and realized Rose's formula was not in the room. Really nothing was in the nursery- only the crib and changing table. Grabbing the small pink pacifier out of the crib, Ophelia placed it in the baby's mouth before heading back downstairs towards the kitchen. She sat Rose down in her highchair before looking for the formula.

The bottle had just been made when Ophelia felt her pocket vibrate. She set the bottle down in front of Rose, who began making grabby hands towards the item just out of reach, and quickly checked her phone. It was just a text from Ian, nothing too important, so Ophelia began feeding Rose before picking up her phone with her free hand.

'What are you up to?'

'not school. shit went down but im sure you dont want to hear about it' Ophelia sent back. She didn't want to burden him with her problems.

'Why aren't you going to school? What happened?'

Ophelia didn't feel like typing everything out while also trying to keep the formula going into Rose's mouth, so she sat the phone down on the high chair table and used the talk-to-text feature.

"My mom and dad got into a fight this morning," Rose's eyes lit up at hearing her older sister's voice, making Ophelia smile. "My dad left and then my mom told me to stay home to watch the baby and then she left. I don't know when they'll be coming back but I'm taking Henry to school in a few hours." Ophelia looked over the text, verifying its correctness since she did have a small accent that caused distorted transcripts. After fixing small mistakes, she sent the text.

She didn't get an immediate reply, so she turned her attention back to Rose. She had finished the bottle and was laughing and gurgling in the high chair. Ophelia smiled and put the bottle on the edge of the sink to be cleaned. Picking Rose back up, she burped her as she walked into the living room. She dragged the baby bouncer into the kitchen, humming a song to soothe the restless baby. Ophelia placed Rose into her bouncer, turning on the little musical toy that had been in there with her.

"Wanna watch sissy burn Henry's breakfast?" Rose squealed in response.

For not knowing how to cook a perfect 4-star breakfast, Ophelia felt she did well. She had burnt the first batch of toast but scraped the burnt pieces into the trash. Her brother was the pickiest eater, but what he doesn't know wouldn't hurt him. It had been 6:30 now, and Ophelia figured she should wake Henry up now so he'd have time to eat breakfast. She picked Rose back up- she had major issues leaving the baby alone even for a minute, unlike the baby's actual mother- and headed towards the boy's room.

"Henry, wake up, it's time for school," The older girl shook him awake with her free hand. The eleven-year-old didn't budge. Ophelia sighed and bounced Rose in her arms. "I made you food." Henry immediately sat up and walked out, not even saying 'Good morning.'

"Your big brother's a piece of shit," Ophelia cooed to Rose.

By the time Ophelia re-entered the kitchen (she had to change Rose, taking extra time to treat the rash the baby had developed), Henry had already helped himself to the food.

"Where's mom and dad?" He asked with a mouthful of food.

"Where do you think?" Ophelia responded, sitting Rose on her lap. Henry rolled his eyes, figuring out what had happened by himself.

After a moment of silence, Henry spoke up again. "Do I have to go to school? You don't have to so-"

"Do you want to watch Rose instead?" Henry shook his head. "Thought so."

Ophelia's phone buzzed, and Henry grabbed it before Ophelia had a chance.

"'Poor baby,'? Awh, is this your boyfriend?" Henry teased. Ophelia's face turned red as she reached across the table to snatch the phone away.

"You're a shit."

"You didn't say he isn't, so..."

Ophelia was beyond thankful that she had Rose's car seat in her own car. She tried to use that small positive to outweigh all the negatives of taking a middle-schooler to school.

"Why do I have to sit in the back?"

"I need someone to watch Rose."

"Can we get McDonald's?"

"You just had breakfast, Henry."

"Walk me to class?"

"Can you walk me to class?"

"I think I need you to walk me to class."

In the end, Ophelia ended up taking the car seat out of the car and walking Henry into the school. It had been years since she was in the Junior High section of the school building, and everything looked different. She looked at the teacher's names above the classroom doors, only recognizing a small portion of them.

"I need you to talk to my teacher," Henry explained once they were standing outside his homeroom classroom. Ophelia blankly stared at the boy, not believing what he was saying.

"Henry. I go to school here. Do you seriously think your teacher is going to believe I'm your mother?" Ophelia asked, dumbfounded.

"I mean, you have a baby with you. Plus you look old enough..." Ophelia was about to yell at the younger boy when the classroom door opened.

"Oh, hello Henry. And you must be Henry's mother?" The woman asked. Henry pleadingly looked at his sister, and Ophelia took pity on him. If their mother actually took time for her children, Ophelia wouldn't have put herself in this position. But after realizing she was the closest thing Henry- and Rose- had to a real mother, she decided to do the middle child a favor.

"Yes, I am."

The 'parent'-teacher meeting had gone well, Ophelia thought. It mainly consisted of Henry's teacher cooing over Rose, who absolutely soaked up the attention. Ophelia knew the only reason why Henry hadn't gotten in any major trouble was due to the six-month-old.

It had been 7:30 when Ophelia got back into her car. She sat there for a moment, just processing everything that had happened in the past half hour. Did she really look old enough to be Henry's mom? She never thought so, being almost the same size as him. Also, did she look like she just gave birth six months ago? She decided that the teacher was easily tricked or Ophelia thought too highly of herself.

Ophelia pulled out her phone and sent Ian a text.

'you will not believe what just happened.'