Meet the Williams

SOTC (Song of the Chapter): absolutely (nine days)

The morning began with an abrupt start, more specifically with a wet slap over the face.

Mia Williams took the wet cloth off her face as she scoured the room for the culprit.

A thud of footsteps confirmed her suspicions.

"Harrison!" She screamed, chasing after the demon but not before she made sure her hair looked presentable in the mirror.

She entered the kitchen where she found her mum, dad and brother sitting. She was greeted by a chorus of good mornings, to which she responded with a half-hearted smile. Something hit her nose; the smell of frying bacon.

Sliding onto a seat, piling bacon onto an empty plate, Mia scoffed down everything in sight. Something kicked her leg, immediately followed by Harrison's giggle but she decided she'd deal with the little devil later.

After five minutes of nothing but the sound of clanking forks against plates, Noura Williams broke the silence. "Can you take Harry to school?"

Mia stopped chewing.

Take Harry to school? She was pretty sure that taking your own eight year old child to school fell under the role of a parent.

"I can't, I-I have things on." She prayed that her mum would leave it be. However just when she had thought she'd gotten off easy, Harry butted in.

"That's because Mia's meeting her boyfriend," He mocked, in a cooing tone. That was it. She was going to finally become an only child-

"Is it that boy, Ray?" Noura asked, watching her daughter's face with vested interest. The sight of any life on her face was a foreign feeling. Nostalgic, even.

Mia had not predicted to be outed by her brother, at least, not on this particular morning. Wracking her brain for any possible escape route, she realised all eyes were now trained on her. Even Dad had looked up from his newspaper.

"Actually," She stated after much deliberation, "You haven't met him. He's new."

Another silence filled the room. It seemed as though her parents had run out of the little energy they had for her today. After a quick change of clothes and few cold splashes of water to the face, Mia reentered the dining room with caution. Her parents had left the table.

She took this as her window of opportunity to leave for school, grabbing her various things scattered across the room. Touching up her face and hair would just have to be done on the bus.

However before Mia got to the door, her mum called after her.

"So when can we meet him? We can't let you just go out with any boy."

So now she had a sudden interest in her life. Mia held in her scoff. Now that she had singlehandedly erased any evidence of the family they were a year ago?

She remembered how gradually every conversation they had, had ended up in a heated argument with someone almost always bawling. Mostly Harrison. And herself. Once.

And now they didn't even speak. Not properly anyway. They didn't get along. They hadn't gotten along in a while. Not since Uncle Mark.

A million thoughts ran through her mind, but one question blared repeatedly. Why the sudden interest? To anyone else, it could've been perceived as a sweet attempt to reach out, to show that she really did care. But her mother? There had to be something more to it. And as of now, Mia didn't have the first clue as to what it was.

But her shirt was on the wrong button, her hair was tangled and she was already running late. Mia had no time to risk an argument. So she gave Noura Williams exactly what she wanted to hear.

"Sure." A big fat lie. "I'll invite him over soon." Another lie. Well, unless by soon she meant never. There was no way she would ruin that relationship by introducing him to the wreck that was her parents.

Once at school, it had only taken five minutes into lunch for Constance to finally pop the question she had been dying to ask from the moment the bell rang.

"Devon's asked me to his party this weekend."

"No."

"I haven't even asked the quest-"

"The one where you ask me to come with you so you won't feel so alone?"

Constance gave her friend a guilty smile.

"It's true though! All of his friends will be there, the girls are definitely all from St. Judes...I'm pretty sure they hate me."

"Uhuh. And wherever Devon Huynh is... is where you'll find Julian Preston."

"Are you seriously going to let that prick ruin an entire party for you?"

As if on cue, the two were joined by the loud yells of a group of boys at the end of the hall. Mia didn't even take a second glance before giving her persistent friend an all knowing look.

But Constance was not going to go down without a fight.

"Devon's cool. He thinks you're cool."

Mia resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"He thinks I'm cool because he figures that's how he'll get into your pants."

"Always the pessimist Williams. He did genuinely commend your surfing skills."

After being greeted with silence from Mia, Constance took another breath, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, her lips already pouting.

"Well, I guess I'll go alone then...I sure hope that no one drugs me..."

Mia mentally cursed. She loved Constance, she really did. But beneath that sweet exterior, she was an expert guilt tripper that was for sure.

"We're leaving by one."

"One thirty?"