As evening turned to night, Kyle used the cover of darkness to slink back into Hillside Villa.
“Juan,” he called out softly while rapping on his room’s window.
The other boy quickly opened the window. “You’re finally back! Did you enjoy yourself today?”
Kyle found himself mulling over the question carefully. In truth, he did not know whether he had enjoyed himself or not. However, he had to admit that his heart had been pounding in excitement when he and Nicole had started beating up that bad guy. That probably counted as having fun, right?
At long last, he replied, “A little. How did things go on your end?”
“Smoothly. I met Grandpa and Grandma today and I’d even had a huge lunch! I even brought back some and was hoping to share it with our sisters. Is that okay?” Pausing, Juan handed the card that their grandmother had given him to Kyle. “By the way, Grandma gave me this card. It’s your allowance for this month. Here, take it.”
“I don’t want it.”
“They thought that I was you, so this is supposed to be for you. C’mon, keep it!”
“I don’t want it. Why don’t you take it?”
Kyle did not even bother to cast a glance at the card.
Hesitating, Juan wondered what to do. Technically, Kyle’s Grandma is my Grandma too. A grandmother giving money to her grandchildren is not anything new. Since he doesn’t want it, it would still be fine if I take it, right? Hehehe.
Pleased at his own reasoning, he tucked the card into a pocket for safekeeping.
“I’ll be leaving now!” he told his brother.
At Kyle’s nod, he headed into the kitchen to grab the bag with the take-out containers, lugging it out of there. Even though the bag was quite heavy as Juan was sagged with the weight, he was not deterred as he snuck out of Hillside Villa with some considerable effort.
When he finally returned to their house at Parkland Garden, he yelled out happily, “Come and have a feast!”
Maya, who was in the midst of drawing, tossed her color pencils aside and zoomed towards the living room.
“I knew that you would be the first one here, Maya,” he teased his sister.
Ignoring him, the little girl’s eyes were glued to the food on the table. “Juan, what is that?”
“Delicacies that you’ve never even seen before! Where is Mommy and Nina?”
“Mommy’s in her room. Nina isn’t eating!”
Right on cue, Nina entered the living room and glared at her sister. She soon demanded, “Who had said that I wasn’t eating?”
Maya tilted her head to look at her. “I thought you’d said that you’d wanted to be a fairy? Fairies only drink flower nectar!”
“Oh yeah? Well, you’re more than welcome to only drink flower nectar. In fact, you probably should!”
“I’m not the one who wants to be a fairy. What a greedy fairy! Shame on you!”
“Why you-! You’re a… a fat pig! Shame on you!”
Flushing red in anger, Nina could not believe her ears. She was usually the one who had the upper hands in these arguments. Yet, somehow, Maya was getting increasingly good at retorting these days. How annoying!
Juan was quick to step in before a physical fight broke out. “Alright, that’s enough. The both of you, stop arguing. There’s more than enough here for everyone! Go tell Mommy to come out and eat.” With that said, he turned to grab some plates from the kitchen.
“Juan, I’ll get the plates while you go and see Mommy. She’s hurt.”
Mommy’s hurt?
He twisted around to look at Nina. “What? How?”
Nina pointed at Nicole’s room, clearly indicating that she had wanted Juan to ask her himself. After that, she headed for the kitchen.
He went inside the room and hurried to his mother’s side. She was currently sitting up in bed, leaning back against some pillows. He fussed over her, the concern on his face obvious.
When he found out how she had gotten hurt, he sighed.
“I was gone for merely a day! Why can’t you take better care of yourself? Aren’t you supposed to be the adult here?”
“It was an emergency and the situation was dire…”
“And that’s why your only thought was to save Kyle at all cost,” he mumbled to himself while staring at her bandaged feet. “Are you still in pain?”
“Nope. I’m fine now!”
The bedroom door opened once more and Maya entered with a huge crab. “Mommy, this is for you!”
“Where did you get that!” Nicole exclaimed in surprise.
“Juan brought it back.”
That’s from Evan?
Still angered by the mere thought of the man, she replied almost instantly, saying that she was not hungry as she refused to eat it.
“Mommy, I thought you’d loved crabs?” Juan blinked his huge eyes at her innocently.
I do! But I’m not going to touch a crab that’s been through that jerk’s house!
“I don’t feel like eating crab today. You guys enjoy.”
Despite uttering such words, Nicole found that her grumbling stomach had soon woken her up in the middle of the night. Hence, she grudgingly dug out the leftover food to eat.
The next day.
Nicole got out of bed, only to realize that every step she took sent sharp spikes of agony coursing through her. This was rather strange, as her feet should have felt a lot better after a night of rest.
Nina made breakfast for all of them. After the meal, Juan suggested that he accompany Nicole to Hillside Villa.
“You can’t! What if Evan finds out…”
“Don’t worry, Mommy. I promise I’ll keep out of sight!”
