Chapter 19: Routines

Alice could feel her body trembling with exhaustion as she slowly walked to her house and inserted the key into the keyhole. Before she could turn the key to open it, the locks clicked, and the door swung open from the inside.

"You're being ridiculous! First, you refuse to go to work, and now you're finding ways to slack off on house chores? Do you think you're so great as a law student? Are you that confident you'll succeed as a lawyer? Don't you know how many people graduate from the same course each year?" Alice was bombarded with hurtful words even before stepping into the house.

"Suit yourself! You're already so grown up," Ana added without even glancing at Alice before heading out for work.

Alice was devastated. She felt a numbing sensation all over her body. Again, she didn't refute any of her mother's words. It wasn't good for the neighbors to hear it all. She still had her pride.

Honestly, Alice had wanted to move out of the house many times. But every time she considered it, she was reminded of her mom's pale and sickly face.

She had repeatedly told her mom to go for a checkup but was usually scolded with words such as she had no time, and that she would rest once Alice had earned enough.

Alice was getting tired of hearing about money stuff. Not only that, every time any of the appliances broke, Alice offered to help pay but was always looked down upon by her mother.

In a hurtful tone, Ana often laughed when Alice offered to pay, telling her that the pay was insignificant and that she should save it instead. Or Ana would mockingly say that she would only buy those things when Alice started earning a lot of money.

At the end of the day, Alice chose to brave the situation as a way for her to repay them. Plus, she was saving every bit of money that she could so that she could afford her own place later.

For now, she would make do with the circumstances. She couldn't really run from her parents, nor from anybody else. She kept telling herself to be patient and treat the situation as a learning opportunity.

Alice settled her bag in her room and proceeded to go to the kitchen. She quickly prepared lunch for her parents, as always, before starting to shoot her video.

Today's video was relatively simple as she had already prepped the dough yesterday. She thawed the dough for 10 minutes before transferring it into a bowl of cornmeal.

The cornmeal would help the exterior of the dough to become crunchy. The cornmeal-breaded dough was then pan-fried in a pan.

The filling was only scrambled egg and some veggies. The egg was cooked on high heat so that it stayed fluffy. The dough was separated into two halves and was laced with a layer of mayonnaise. Today's recipe was also a success.

Since the recipe was relatively quick, Alice took some time to prep for her next video. She sliced the chicken breast into cubes and marinated it in soy sauce, tablespoons of paprika, tablespoon of onion and garlic powder, and a heap of plain yogurt.

She then placed the marinated chicken cubes into a container and left them to marinate for later use. After prepping, she went ahead and ate her breakfast.

After eating, Alice went for a nap. She had class after lunch and needed to commute to college in a few hours, so she decided to make her nap time worth it.