Chapter 3
Chapter 3
2009
A knock on the door distracted Carmilla’s reverie at the window, she ignored it. When it happened again she called for her brother, “Will! WILLIAM! SOMONE’S AT THE DOOR!”
“THEN OPEN IT!” a shout coming from the kitchen.
Another series of knocking followed, “YOU OPEN IT!” Carmilla shouted back.
“Will you children stop shouting?!” a power suited middle aged glamazon spoke as she was sauntering down the stairs, “I did not pay for all those classes for nothing, you were ought to learn a thing or two.” She sent a glare towards Carmilla who seemed unfazed about it and just returned to her position before the knocking, and William at the entrance of the kitchen who looked scared. The woman turned towards the door, plastered a smile then opened it, “Good morning, how may I help you?”
“Hello. Good morning!” came a chirpy voice, “My name is Sarah Hollis, and this is my daughter Laura.” Laura was carrying a tray of what seemed like lasagna, bowed her head and sent a sweet smile, “We just moved across the street.”
“O’ hi! I’m Lilita Morgan, I didn’t notice you moved in. I should have prepared something. Would you like to come in? ” Lilita opened the door wider and moved aside for the mother and daughter to enter.
“N-no, there’s no need for that. We actually just came here to give you some lasagna.” Sarah motioned for Laura to give the Lasagna, which Lilita accepted immediately.
“Thank you, you shouldn’t have bothered we should be the one who are welcoming you.” Lilita replied, “Excuse me for a second, hmmn?” Lilita looked behind her and called out for William who rushed to her almost immediately. “This is my son William,” William just waved her hand and took the tray from his mother’s hand, “William this is Sarah Hollis and her daughter Laura, they live across the street.”
“Hello William.” Sarah greeted, Laura just awkwardly waved her hand.
“Nice meeting you, Mrs. Hollis” William shook Sarah’s hand and sent a gentle smile.
“It was a pleasure meeting you too.” Sarah checked her wristwatch, “We need to go now though, the rest of our stuffs are arriving today and we need to unpack. You can return the tray whenever you’re done”
“Thank you again, when you’re all settled down how about we have dinner together? Laura here could meet my daughter, they seem like they’re the same age, they’d get along really well.” Lilita offered.
“That would be really nice. Thank you.”
A few more words were exchanged, numbers were swapped and a promise to have dinner was made.
----
Laura Hollis could have easily been a “Regina George”, hell she checked out the list for the part.
- Good Looking
- Smart
- Can easily make people succumb to anything she wants
- From a well-offed family
- Has a father who have connections
- Has a father who will do anything at all for her
But then again Laura Hollis is also just a 14yo who had Mickey Mouse playhouse theme song as an alarm this morning. Who ate pancake with whip cream and fruits before attending class. Whose greatest motivation today was a promise of freshly baked cookies when she get home.
Laura Hollis was a lot of thing, but impolite was not one of them. So when she found herself standing in front of a sleeping thin, raven haired girl, occupying the only table with available seats in the brimming cafeteria of her new school, imagine her existential crisis.
“Excuse me?” Laura tried waking the raven haired girl, “Excuse me? Miss? Excuse me?” the girl didn’t even badge. It must be the blasting punk rock from the other girl’s headphone. Laura took a look at her wristwatch only to realize lunch was almost over. As much as she didn’t wanted to share anyone’s table without their approval, she was also gonna be late for her next class.
“I’m so sorry I’d be sharing your table without consent. I promise to be quiet and not disturb you at all. I will just eat and leave as soon as I’m done.” She directed to the sleeping figure, not like the other was listening. So she slowly put her tray on the table and slid into the chair quietly. She chewed and swallowed without a noise afraid that the smallest noise would wake the girl up, and she’d be thrown out of the table before she even finished her lunch.
When she was just about done, Laura realizes the absence of food tray, aside from hers, on the table. Putting two and two together she realized that the girl wasn’t even able to eat. She felt bad for the sleeping figure, thinking of reasons why she was just sleeping instead of eating.
“Maybe she doesn’t have any money for food.” Laura sighed, and then her eyes widened after thinking of another scenario, “What if she’s being beaten at home and she can’t sleep properly there cause she doesn’t feel safe.” Laura gasp, “What if she doesn’t get to eat anything or they don’t give her enough money, and that’s why she’s so lanky.”
Laura’s heart broke after thinking everything through; looking down at her tray she saw her unopened milk. Without second thought she took out a sticky note scribbled something and stick it on the milk carton, placing it on the table just above the girl’s head. Smiling towards the other girl, Laura stood up slowly leaving the raven haired girl to rest some more.
----
Carmilla woke up in a daze (the loud ringing of the school bell tend to do that), when she successfully reoriented herself, she found that she fell asleep on “her” lunch table; it’s not really hers, it just so happens that she’s the regular (and only) occupant of the table ever since she remembered. She hardly had any sleep last night; she got a new book and was too eager to finish it. Scanning her surrounding, she saw there were barely any students left in the cafeteria, checking her wristwatch she noticed she only had 5min before class starts, picking up her backpack beside her she noticed a milk on “her” table with a sticky note on it.
Hey!
You looked tired, here’s some milk to reenergize you! ^_^
Don’t work yourself too much!
Have a nice day!
Thank you for sharing table w/ me.
-L xx
“Unbelievable.” Carmilla whispered, picked up the milk and put it inside her backpack with the note still tucked.
----
“Hello Ms. Karnstein, it is nice of you to grace us with your presence today.” And old man in he’s late 40’s stood in front of the whole class holding a history textbook remarked sarcastically.
“Asshole,” Carmilla breath between her teeth, “Good afternoon Mr. Cochrane, I’m sorry I’m late.” Mr. Cochrane just gestured for Carmilla to enter, and continued whatever he was doing before the interruption.
Carmilla settled near the middle of the classroom, she would have chosen one at the window side, or maybe even the farthest back but it was not her day. She just got her notebook and pen out of her bag when a folded paper dropped at her table from the back.
Dude where were you?
She looked behind her and saw a dark haired guy goofily smiling at her; she sighed and started writing at the paper.
Went out to slay vampires.
“Wilson, I assume you and Carmilla there are passing message about how you’ll divide the project I just gave?” came Mr. Cochrane’s voice.
“O-of course sir!” Kirsch stuttered, while Carmilla just rolled her eyes and started doodling at her notebook.
---
Carmilla stood up as soon as the bell rung, and literally bolted out of the classroom. She was a few feet away from the door, when she heard someone shouting her name.
“Carm! Hey! Carm wait up!”
She had the urge to run even faster, but think better of it and just slowed down. The guy finally caught up with her draping an arm around her, which she swatted immediately.
“What do you need Wilson?” Carmilla sneered, turning right and heading for her locker.
“Low blow man,” Kirsch put her hand on his chest as if offended, “you know I hate it when people call me that.”
“Then don’t call me Carm. You know I hate it when you call me that.” Carmilla directed her attention inside her locker.
“Fine whatever,” Kirsch stuck her tongue “Anyway, mom asks me, to ask you if your family would like to come over this weekend for the yearly barbeque thing.”
“Real mature Kirsch,” Carmilla closed her locker and looked at Kirsch, “I don’t think we’d come, there’s this new family across the street from ours, they just moved in and mom promised them dinner at our house or something.”
“That’s cool; you can just invite them at our barbeque too!” Kirsch said a little too enthusiastically.
“Yeah, I’ll ask mom. Is that all?” Carmilla was sure there was more there, Kirsch could’ve just texted her about this or something, but instead here they were talking in the hallway.
“Uhmm—well. You see.” Kirsch rumbled.
“Use your word Kirsch.” Carmilla said.
“Danny—“ Carmilla understood even before Kirsch finished the sentence, and she just sent a weak smile to her friend.
“You should invite her. I’m sure she’d love to come.” Carmilla patted his arm.
“But she’s a senior now, and she’s—“
“So what if she’s a senior? You’ve known each other since like forever. Plus you always invite her every year, and she always come. What makes this year any different?” Carmilla cut him off.
Kirsch beamed after hearing those words from Carmilla, “Yeah! You’re right! Thank you Carmilla!” He was about to hug Carmilla when she shoved him.
“Now, now, were not gonna start becoming the kind of friends who hug. I’ll just pat you on the shoulder and that’s it.” True to her Carmilla did just pat Kirsch at the shoulder and smiled at the guy.
---
“I’m home!” Carmilla shouted as she entered their house. She was answered by deafening silence, sauntering in; she made a quick trip to the kitchen. Tearing of the sticky note on the fridge she read.
Carmilla,
Be home by 7pm.
I’ll bring dinner.
William will be at Mrs. Lawrence.
Text me when you picked him up.
Mom xo
Carmilla huffed, picking the little punk can wait. She dropped her bag at the kitchen island and opened it, she saw the milk carton with the sticky note attached to it, “What’s with people and sticky notes today?” Detaching the note, she walked back to the fridge and put the milk inside her personal drawer (yes, she have a drawer inside their fridge, she puts mostly chocolate and other snacks she doesn’t want to share there), she took one chocolate bar and a bottle of water, then returned to the kitchen island.
She picked up the sticky note from the mysterious “L” again, giving it a one through. “Who are you?”