TNS Piper's Problems

Chapter 21: That's suspicious

Piper's POV:

"Angela? As in Angela, Lily's mum, that Angela?" James asked me in disbelief.

"Well, I don't know for sure but I guess it would kinda make sense. The insults, the mean comments, the yelling, keeping me behind at every rehearsal to practice my aerial though I already know how to do it now and also the snide remarks about dad." I listed on my fingers as I remembered the things that Angela would say to me.

"What kind of things would she say?" James asked as I thought back to the last rehearsal I had, just over two months ago.

》》》

"And where do you think you're going, Piper?" Miss Angela called out to me as I took my bag from the cubby.

"Uh, home?" I replied but it came out as a question. "No, I don't think so. You need to practice your aerial, it still requires a lot of work." She answered as I groaned internally.

"But I can already do one!" I said defensively, but she gave me an angry look and I groaned tiredly as I walked back into the centre of the room.

"I'll stay too, I need to work on some acro as well." Amy said as I smiled gratefully at her. I thought she had already left but I guess now I won't be left alone with Angela.

"No. Your acro is fine, you can go home." Angela replied. Amy opened her mouth to protest but Angela pushed her out.

After 15 minutes of useless tips on how to do the same move, I decided that I had had enough of it; telling a little white lie wouldn't be so bad. Right?

"Um, I've  really gotta go home now because-" I started trying to come up with a believable excuse but she interrupted me.

"Let me guess, you wanna go home to your mummy and your good for nothing dad?" She asked as I took a small step back at her cold words.

"Um no, my mum passed away when I was a baby; I was just going to say that I needed to go home because I had a lot of homework to do." I answered, hoping she'd buy it.

"I already know that." She muttered, looking off to the side as if forgetting that I was still there, as I looked at her, confused. "You already knew what?" I asked, still pretty puzzled.

"I already know that you've got a lot of homework to do. I've been keeping you behind a lot but you can go now. See you bright and early tomorrow. Don't be late." She replied quickly and briskly before walking off, leaving me standing there, skeptical yet still confused.

》》》

"Hmm, that's suspicious." James said as I nodded my head, agreeing with him. "So what do you wanna do now?" He asked me as I thought for a bit.

"Well I think we should tell dad that we know what he did. Maybe we can find out what really went down all those years ago." I suggested. "But what if he freaks out? Remember, we don't even know what our own dad is capable of." James warned.

"Yes but we need to find out what really happened to our mother. Don't you want to know?" I reasoned as he paused before nodding and agreeing with me. "Wait but we still don't know if Angela really is dad's accomplice." James reminded.

"Okay well what if you take dad's phone tomorrow and send her an aggravating message? When she gets it, she'll most likely take her anger out on me and then we'll have our answer if she does." I suggested, ending it with a small shrug.

"Seriously? That's your plan?" James asked me with a smirk as I rolled my eyes. "Okay, you come up with a better one then!" I answered defensively, crossing my arms as he held up his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay. So I just send some type of message to her and see if she randomly gets annoyed after checking her phone?" James summarised, skeptically as I nodded and explained it again.

Tomorrow we are going to find out once and for all if Angela really did have a hand in this.

The next day:

"Okay, I'm still waiting for her to show up." I whispered to James on the phone. I was at the studio, standing by the cubbies and fiddling with my bag.

"I hope she gets there fast, 'cus dad's gonna be looking for his phone soon." He responded as I sighed and looked around, sending a smile to Amy who glanced and waved at me.

Just then, I saw Angela sauntering into the office. "You guys can start warming up!" Lily shouted over the noise and chatter before following after her mother.

"Okay, she's in the office, send it!" I whispered loudly. "Okay, I've done it. I'm gonna go put dad's phone back so I'll see you later, Pipes." James replied, about to hang up. "Wait! You didn't tell me what you said in the message." I said frantically.

"Oh, I just said something along the lines of 'this is all your fault and I'm gonna make sure you get sued and taken to jail, you worthless piece of trash.' Yeah, nothing too extra." He replied casually as my mouth fell open. She's going to be livid!

"What?! Why would you say something like that? Do you want her to kill me next?!" I asked harshly down the phone, trying to keep my voice down.

"You'll be fine, Pipes, but I gotta go before dad realises his phone's missing." He said as I sighed and said goodbye.

Maybe Angela won't get too angry, or maybe she won't take out her anger on any of us. We still don't know yet if she's actually dad's accomplice.

"EVERYBODY, GET INTO YOUR POSITIONS!" Miss Angela shouted angrily as she stormed out of the office, her daughter trailing behind her, confused as everyone else.

I guess I was right about her. But maybe she'll calm down lat-

"I SAID GET IN POSITION!" She screamed out, as everyone scrambled to get into their positions.

She was really tough on us that day. She made everyone repeat several moves multiple times and cut down our water breaks.

She made me practice my turns, though I'm really good at them, she made me spin for minutes on end, making me dizzy. She was extremely hard on all of us and made degrading comments to us all but especially me and Lily.

I just had to remember that this would all be worth it tomorrow when James and I finally find out what really happened to my mum, all those years ago.