Chapter 11

"Ok, deep breaths, calm down. Mum and dad have gone out on a date. There are only you, big bro and sis in the house. What could possibly go wrong?" thought Maria to herself as she unlocked her front door and swung it open.

On her front yard stood a girl her age. She had long blonde hair and her eyes were bright blue. She was wearing a blue sundress and in her hands, she was holding a big blue bag filled to the brim with various books.

"Wow, she's just like an angel-"

"Good afternoon Maria!" the blonde girl greeted with a smile.

"H-Hello!" responded Maria, just managing to snap herself back to reality.

"Ok Maria, focus! Don't screw this up!"

"Here, let me get those books for you," said Maria as she reached for the green bag.

"Oh, why thank you. How very kind of you," thanked Angelica and gave Maria the bag, who carried the heavy bag with ease.

"Are we alone?" she asked, stepping inside the house taking off her shoes as she inspected the house.

"Mum and dad have gone on a date, but my brother and sister are here, so we aren't completely alone."

"It's noon. Why would they go on a date?"

"They always do this. They leave in the morning and come home at night," answered Maria with a smile.

"It really is amazing how after so many years they still love each other-" their attention was shifted to the stairway as they saw Laura walking down them.

"Don't mind me. Just grabbing some refreshments," said Laura as she walked into the kitchen and began to stack snacks onto the kitchen island.

"Oh, you must be the older sister. Pleased to meet you, my name is Angelica Deforest," greeted Angelica politely and formally, topped off with an elegantly extended hand.

Laura looked out from an opened cupboard, holding a small bag of cookies in her mouth.

She placed the bag down and gave her a handshake.

"Laura Riverman, how's it hanging?" Angelica looked puzzled.

"Riverman? You mean, your last name is not Caglione?" Laura shook her head.

"Nope. But I've known Maria since she was born. Besides, I knew her brother when we were both in diapers," she answered before returning back to scourging for food.

Angelica looked as if she was about to ask farther but decided to merely shrug and follow Maria up the stairs.

They walked past an open door and inside they found Arnaldo sitting on the window sill, with his back leaning on the wall and book in hand. His gaze shifted from the contents of the book to the two girls, who interrupted his reading.

"Oh right, I should probably introduce you two," said Maria as she walked into the room. "Angelica, meet my brother Arnaldo. Big bro, this is Angie."

"A pleasure to meet your acquaintance," greeted Angelica with that same elegantly extended hand that she presented mere moments ago to Laura.

"The pleasure is all mine," said Arnaldo as he kissed her palm, which caused Angelica to laugh nervously and Maria to, almost literally, glare daggers at him.

"Why does it smell funny in here?" asked Angelica, sniffing the air around her and Maria's eyes quickly widened in panic.

"Oh no! Disaster inbound! Iceberg dead ahead! Quick, think of some-"

"My apologies," spoke Arnaldo as he bowed apologetically "I was doing some chores for one of the neighbours and have not yet had the time to change. They like to burn incense at their home, you see. I hope it does not bother you too much."

"Oh! No, it's fine. It's just weird to smell them in here. No need to make a wardrobe change because of me," and with that, Maria exhaled air that she didn't know she was holding in.

"Phew. Crisis averted- for now at least."

"So, Maria told me that you two have a history project to work on?"

"Yeah. It's about the history of nobility in France," replied Maria flatly.

"Sounds dull and lifeless."

"Oh, you have no idea," they shared a quick laugh and the two girls bid farewell to Arnaldo. Just as they were about to reach Maria's room, they saw Laura walking up the stairs, holding a giant box of snacks. She entered Arnaldo's room and closed the door with her foot.

Maria's room was the same size as Arnaldo's. The walls were left pure white and around the room ran a long shelf. On it were various trophies of the different sports that Maria attended and practiced. There was a trophy for soccer, swimming, running, various martial arts-etc. In the middle was a small bed with a white cover and black pillows. Left of the bed were a desk and a laptop and right of it was a wardrobe.

"Well-it's definitely white," joked Angelica.

"H-Heh, yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Not a whole lot you can do if your favourite colours are black and white-" said Maria as she nervously scratched the back of her head, to which Angelica chuckled slightly.

"No need to apologise for being yourself," she said as she placed her hand on Maria's shoulder and offered her a warm and sincere smile.

Maria stiffened and she could feel the heat rising to her face in an instant.

"Oh God, she's touching me! Angelica's hand is on my shoulder! Why does it feel like my heart is about to burst out my chest?! She's smiling! Why is she smiling?! Oh, she smells so nice-"

"Besides," says Angelica as she removed her hand from her shoulder, "it has its own certain charm," she walked over to the shelf with the trophies while Maria tried to regain her composure.

"Wow-Maria, I knew you were good at sports-but I didn't think you were this good."

"I guess. I mean I have a lot of trophies and medals and other stuff. But I don't play sports to win or to compete. I just do what I do best," said Maria as she placed down the bag of books and shrugged.

"Anyway, I think we should begin with the assignment."

"Ugh. Fine!" groaned Maria as she walked over to her laptop.

"But where should we begin though?"

"Well why not at the very beginning?" suggested Angelica as she grabbed a giant book and dropped it in front of Maria, which caused the young Italian girl to groan again.

They worked for a good hour, typing, researching and talking to one another about various topics, not growing tired of the other's presence or finding difficulty in finding a topic to discuss with one another.

"You didn't!" gasped Angelica in shock.

"You bet I did!" laughed Maria.

"Maria Caglione, you're telling me you tried to make napalm?! How did you even know how to do that?!"

"Well, I saw this article online about it. It said to boil gasoline. So, while I was boiling gasoline, my mum walks in and she is super angry and- "

a knock on the door interrupted her storytelling. Maria walked over and opened the door and on the other side was Arnaldo, wearing a peculiar pink apron.

"Hey. Lunch is ready. Thought you girls would enjoy some food. Surely you must be starving."

"Thanks! We'll be down in a minute," thanked Maria to which Arnaldo gave her a small wink and headed back downstairs.

"I didn't know your brother could cook," chimed in Angelica.

"Everyone in my family can cook. Well, everyone except Laura. But mum and bro cook the best. They're always competing for the head chef in the family."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that," said Angelica as she walked over to Maria.

"How come you say that Laura is your sister when she has a different last name than you?"

"It's-complicated-" answered Maria vaguely as a sad frown formed on her pale face. Angelica sighed and walked downstairs to the kitchen with Maria, seemingly contempt with the answer.

There they saw Laura sitting at the edge of the table, her head planted firmly into the wood and her arms wrapped around her stomach. Arnaldo was sitting at the other end of the table, no longer wearing the apron and eating a noodle soup with eyes closed.

The table was completely covered in different assortments of dishes, the smells mixing and invading their nostrils.

"What's wrong with her?" asked Angelica.

"She ate too many of my snacks and is now suffering the consequences," stated Arnaldo flatly as he took another sip of his soup.

"Ungh-" groaned Laura, her voice muffled by the table.

"Well maybe if you weren't such a fat bastard, maybe you wouldn't be-"

He was cut off as Laura threw a knife at him. He swerved to his right, eyes still closed as the knife flew past him and embedded into the wall behind him as Angelica gasped and Maria just laughed.

"Careful. That one nearly hit me this time."

"I hate you," groaned Laura.

"Oh, you love and you know it," mocked Arnaldo. Maria sat down next to her brother and Angelica sat down next to her.

"Now, Angelica, I don't know what you eat, so I just made a wide selection of foods to choose from," said Arnaldo, as he started to count on his fingers. "There is, of course, the noodle soup. The noodles are home made. If you enjoy meat, then we have the roasted lamb. I made this because, even if you don't eat it, then Maria will. If you prefer seafood, then I made some tomato shrimp pasta. I also went ahead and deep fried some cauliflowers, artichokes, broccolis and mushrooms. The salad is Greek; in case you were wondering."

"That-is quite a lot. I'm flattered really, but you didn't have to cook so much," said Angelica.

"Nonsense. You must experience the full Caglione hospitality. And my famous cooking of course!" bragged Arnaldo.

Angelica laughed and grabbed herself some soup and Maria followed suit, humming approvingly as she ate her soup.

Suddenly, there was a loud clanking sound. Maria and Laura turned to Angelica, who was currently frozen in place, eyes and mouth wide open and her spoon in her bowl.

Arnaldo smirked as he finished his bowl. He looked at the grandfather clock and began to countdown.

"Three-two-one-" as soon as he stopped counting, Angelica unfroze, grabbed her spoon, tiled her bowl and began to devour her soup ferociously, slurping her noodles and completely disregarding any form or mention of manners possible.

Maria just looked at her in shock as she turned to her brother.

"What did you do?!" she asked.

"Who, me? Nothing. My cooking is just that good," he stated with a proud smirk.

After about ten minutes Angelica finally finished her soup and leant back in her chair as she let out a sigh of content.

"I-have-never eaten-anything-. quite so delicious before-.in my life-" spoke Angelica through heavy breaths.

"Well, I sure do hope you saved some room for the main course. Please, eat to your heart's content," said Arnaldo, gesturing to the rest of the food. Angelica nodded and grabbed some pasta and deep fried cauliflowers.

"Not going to try the lamb?"

"No, I'm a vegetarian. I'm sorry if this is a bother."

"None at all. Just going to need to remember that for the future," he asked with a devious wink, earning himself another glare form his sister.

After she finished her vegetables and pasta she nearly passed out.

"I think we'll pass on dessert. Thanks for the meal!" she thanked as she wiped off some bits and pieces of lamb on her face.

She tried to help Angelica to her feet, but halfway through the blonde girl fell asleep. Maria looked puzzled, as she didn't know what to do, so she turned to her brother for help.

"Well-looks like you're going to have to help her up the stairs."

"And how should I do that exactly?"

"Why to carry her of course," he replied flatly and Maria's eyes grew wide and she could feel her heart doing that stupid thing where it feels like it will explode at any minute.

"W-W-What?!" she asks.

"You're strong enough. Just carry her upstairs," Maria began to freak out and her face grew as red as a tomato. She tried to get help from Laura, but she was currently preoccupied with pain to pay attention to her. With a deep sigh she lifted the blonde girl's legs and began to carry her to her bedroom bridal style.

Finally reaching her bedroom, she sat down Angelica's sleeping body on her bed. She looked down at the sleeping girl and drank every detail of her body. Her lithe frame, her golden hair, her delicate hands-she drank in all of it.

"She's even beautiful when she's asleep..." she thought to herself and smiled.

She gazed at her lips, which were curved into a small o shape as she slept peacefully.

She really was just like an angel.

"-maybe just one kiss won't hurt, right?"

She lowered her head to Angelica's and she could feel the blonde's breaths tickling her own lips. She closed her eyes and dove further but before their lips could meet she pulled away.

"Maria Caglione, what the hell is wrong with you?!" She screamed at herself mentally.

"You almost took advantage of a poor defenceless girl! And your friend no less! You're not some creepy pervert that you see on the news! You're a Caglione! You're better than that!"

She slapped herself and the noise echoed through her room as she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"I'd better continue on the project."