It All Started At 6 a.m.

Chapter 5

Leah

Entering into the house with annoyance seeped deep within me, I chucked my backpack onto the coffee table in the living room and went to the kitchen to fetch myself a glass of water.

I saw my mom working with a red coloured cake batter, no doubt making her infamous red velvet cupcakes. For a moment, thinking about those red, sugary goodness slathered with frosting made me forget what had happened earlier today.

Seeing my mom come home early was not a daily thing for me. She was a lawyer and sometimes she arrived at home post-dinner time. So seeing her home in the late afternoon was really unexpected.

"Hey honey, how was your day?" She asked me as she started folding the flour along with some other ingredients into the wet ingredients.

"It was alright until that neighbour of ours pulled up a stunt on my car at the end of the day," I answered as I filled my glass with water and took a huge gulp. I didn't even realise I was that thirsty until I emptied the entire glass and went for the second one. The cool liquid helped with my parched throat and calmed me down further.

"What did he do now?" Mom laughed at the face that I made as I recalled the efforts that I had to make to get those two hundred and sixty-three sticky notes off my car along with that giant note that he had put on my windshield. Yes, I had counted how many of them were there.

Mom was chuckling by the time I was done with narrating the entire situation to her.

"Just imagine how much of a trouble-maker your kid would be."

"Excuse me?" I gave her a confused look.

"I meant Ethan and your's kid."

Say what...

My confused face turned into a shade of red at her reply.

"Mom!" I shrieked just as her phone rang. She went to grab her phone all the while laughing.

That was twice in a day. Her insinuating my future with Ethan, I meant. Yeah, my parents were cool like that. But it could be troublesome at times like this.

I grabbed an apple from the fruit basket while I started texting Lydia. She was in Bali enjoying her vacation with her family. I asked her when she was going to return. Remembering the time difference between Bali and California, I knew I wouldn't be getting a reply anytime soon.

Mom entered the kitchen just when I was throwing the apple core into the trash. She looked a bit worried and not her bubbly self when she left the kitchen to answer her phone.

"Everything alright mom? You look worried. Whose call was that?" I queried.

"That was your uncle Jeremy." Uncle Jeremy was my maternal uncle who lived with his wife, his two kids, and my grandma in Eugene.

"What did he say?"

"It wasn't what he said. It's what I heard."

"What did you hear? What's wrong mom? You're scaring me now." I asked her hoping my voice came out calmer than my inner turmoil.

"While I was talking to Jeremy, I heard a loud coughing in the background. Jeremy had mentioned that Lisa and the kids weren't home, it was just mom and him. And that coughing was so severe, Jeremy abruptly had to hang up. It had to be mom's. Leah, I'm so worried right now. I just hope mom's okay." Tears welled her eyes, ready to escape down her cheeks.

"Don't worry ma. Maybe nana has caught the flu. You're just stressing yourself. God forbid if it's anything serious, I'm sure uncle Jeremy would have told us." I walked over to where she was standing and hugged her in order to calm her. "Everything must be alright mom," I added further consoling her.

"I hope it is." She wiped the wetness off her cheek.

"You go get some rest. I'll finish this up." I said referring to the cupcakes batter.

"Thank you, honey." She gave a half-hearted smile and turned around, ready to leave.

I walked over to where the batter bowl was placed and started working on it.

"Oh, and Leah, I forgot to tell you to give some of these cupcakes to the Adams' when they're baked and iced. You know how much Ethan loves red velvet cupcakes." She walked out of the kitchen to head to her room.

Oh yeah, red velvet cupcakes are Ethan's absolute favorite.

I was about to pour them into the moulds when an evil idea popped up in my head.

I scooped some of the batter into another mixing bowl, mixed some chilli powder into that batter, poured those separately into the moulds, and chucked them into the oven.

In the meantime, I started doing my homework. It hasn't been a day since school started and we were given a ton of homework.

The oven pinged indicating that the cupcakes were done. I left them on the counter to let them cool down a bit and returned back to my homework. By the time I was done with the homework, the cakes had cooled down to the desired temperature. Taking out the cream cheese icing from the fridge, I started icing the normal ones.

When it was time to ice the "special" ones, I mixed another ingredient- white pepper powder in the icing for that extra heat and iced the ones I had prepared for Ethan.

I picked up a normal cupcake for myself and took a huge bite out of it. If mom had seen me eating like this, she surely would have lectured me on my unlady-like manners. But she wasn't not there so I could eat without worrying about my manners. Plus, the cupcakes were so delicious, I had to refrain from moaning out loud. There's something different about freshly baked goodies.

Once I was done eating, I packed some for the Adams' and put the remaining ones in the fridge. The ones that I made for Ethan were packed in a different container. He's surely in for a treat.

Picking up both the containers, I balanced them in my arms and started walking towards the door. Just imagining Ethan's face after he eats the cupcakes had me cackling like an evil witch.

Ethan Adams watch your back.

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