Chapter 36

*Flashback*

I woke up very early that day, 06:17 am to be exact. As I slowly pried my tired, crusty eyes open, I was met with a dark, blurry poster of a car that was mounted on one of the four walls in my room.

Yawning, I rubbed my eyes again, teleporting me to the stars in the galaxy for a couple of seconds before, once again, bringing me back to the comfort of my single bed.

" Ahhhh... " I sighed. " That's better. " I commented while looking at the now clearer version of my dad holding his first trophy. But then I remembered. " Today's mommy's birthday! " I squealed before jumping out of bed and running all the way into my parents' room across the hall from mine.

" Wake up! Happy Birthday, MOMMY. " I earned two groans from two exhausted bodies. Who belonged to the two people who raised me.

" MOM! DAD! WAKE UP! " Still no response. So I decided to do what I do best, annoying them. With that, I climbed up on the bed and started screaming and jumping. I wasn't even 5 seconds into my performance when my older brother came to join me. But instead of jumping on the bed, he stayed at the side and shook our parents viciously.

" OKAY, OKay... I'm up, I'm up. Calm down. " The deep, croaky voice of my father echoed around the room along with a few giggles. " It's twenty past six, in the morning. Go back to bed and I'll wake you up later when it's time to get ready for school. "

" But- " " No buts, bed, go, I'll wake you up when I'm ready. " I got up off them and walked out of the room in front of my brother. He went to his room while I, to mine both closing our doors behind us. " But we always take the day off on our birthday to celebrate, why are we going to school? "

I should have realized then and there that something was off but being young and naive, I let it slip past my mind and carried on with the day.

Hearing that we had to go to school that day, I was quite bummed but nevertheless, I needed to kill some time by getting ready. I knew I wasn't able to go back to sleep but also, I didn't want to leave my room and risk being in trouble. It was mother's birthday after all and I didn't want to ruin the day for her by putting her into a bad mood.

After about two hours of painfully trying to entertain myself, my father came in through the door of my room. " Hey, Sugarcube, time to go to school. Come on let's get breakfast! " He opened the door and moved to the side letting me rush past him down, the wooden stairs and into the kitchen. My brother was already having his breakfast, while mine was on the opposite of the table.

" Pancakes! " I squealed. On the plate, two golden pancakes, drizzled in honey with summer fruits scattered along the side. It looked very appetizing. And by god, was it delicious

" Where's Mother? " My brother asked once he cleared his plate into his stomach. " Your mother is not feeling great at the moment but I told her that there are some amazing presents waiting for her in the sitting room. " Father sat down beside us with a wink and a mental maths school book in his hands. " Now, homework. " He announced. " But Dad I got to go to school early for practice. Can you just write me a note for the teachers and say that I was sick or something? " I smirked at my older brother's suggestion. " Absolutely not, Kylo. Homework is given to you for a reason. It will help you in the long run, son. "

I got up and laughed at my brothers' fate. This was obviously not part of his master plan. But I couldn't help but feel sorry for him as I look at all the books he had brought home from school yesterday to do for homework. Still, he sighed and resumed chewing the mush of breakfast in his mouth. I on the other hand had only three subjects for homework that day. Math, English, and Geography. I was good at two of the subjects geography, on the other hand, was not my strongest point in studies but mother and father always told me that it wasn't an important subject and not to stress over it too much. Which I never did.

Stress. It was never a word of feeling I could understand until later in life. My life was stress-free. I didn't have to pay any bills, work, run any errands. All I had to think about was pleasing my family and paparazzi. Although Paparazzi did kind of scare me a bit back then. They would randomly pop up outside of our house waiting for hours even days on end. My brother and I wouldn't be able to go to school for those days and miss out on a load of work. Surprisingly we never fell behind and were top of the class in most subjects. That was what our parents wanted. If we didn't get in the top three highest scores of the subject we would get punished. Not badly but it would be something like having to do all the chores of the house that week or not being able to watch tv in the mornings before school. Little things like this would be huge back then but now that I think of it we were just young and dumb.

I carried on washing my breakfast dishes with my father getting aggravated at a maths question on my brother's homework in the background. " This is not how we were taught back in the days, This is how you do it, look..." A typical morning in our house, except that mother was in bed rather than having breakfast at the table and telling her husband that he doesn't know everything to just let Kylo's teacher explain the question to him when he got to school that day.

When finished drying my dishes I headed back upstairs to get my school bag to put my lunch box in. My bag was in the study library which was at the very end of the hall on the second floor. What felt like forever to get there was really only about five minutes of walking with my little, short legs. I opened the door to the study room and shuffled straight to my desk past the wall of shelves, full of books that no one would ever read, and the relaxing corner with colorful pillows and blankets and bean bags where my mother would read bedtime stories to my brother and me before going to bed.

As I was checking my bag to double-check that I had all of my books in it, I heard the sound of breaking glass, and my mother screaming out of frustration. I flinched and ran to the bedroom to see if she was alright.

*Knock, Knock, Knock*

" Mother, are you okay? I heard you yell and you seemed angry, can I help?" She opened the door after a few seconds and kneeled down to me. Her eyes were red and glossy, her hair looked like a bird's nest and her hands were shaking when she went to hold me. " Yes sugarcube, everything is fine, don't worry. Mother is just not feeling too good and dropped the glass on the floor. " Her eyes were shaking as she looked me up and down before pulling me into a suffocating grasp. " You, know mother loves you very dearly honey, right? " Her voice was also shaking as she spoke as if she was trying to hold herself from wailing. " Of course mother, I know! " I answered in hopes that that would make everything go away and make my beloved mother feel better. "Okay, honey. Well, you should go downstairs to father and get ready to go to school, You wouldn't want to be late now, would you? " She gave me one final hug and stood back up. I ran back downstairs to my father who was waiting for me at the front door with my packed lunch in hand.

A distant 'I love you' could be heard echoing down the hallway which I and my brother answered in unison.

" I Love You Too, Mother. "