The Streetboy (Jelsa)

-Chapter 18- At the cemetery

E L S A

"I'm sorry, what?" I blurted out, Anna gasped next to me. We had just been to our parents' funeral, a lot of people we barely knew showed up. Luckily our friends did too, as well as their families who knew my parents. I didn't pay much attention to what was happening on the funeral, I was too lost in my thoughts. I was devastated about my parents' death but I forced myself to stay strong for Anna.

After the funeral I had made an appointment with my dad's accountant, because I wanted to leave Philadelphia as fast as I possibly could and I had to know about our financial matters. Only his accountant didn't have much positive news.

"Your father's company has been losing money for two years now, he lent money from one of his business partners but he still hasn't paid it back and the company is still losing money. You can free yourself from the dept by giving your company to the business partner but there is however nothing left." he said while he was walking around his office. "I'm sorry, girls. I did everything I could. You two do have the right on a small payment."

"Who will have guidance over us? I'm not 18 yet." I reminded him. "And as far as I know, we don't have any family left."

"You do, infact. A middle aged couple. Thomas and Johanna, Thomas is a brother of your father. They will have full responsibility over you two until Elsa turns 18, then you will have full responsibility over your sister, Elsa."

"Wait, dad never told us he had a brother." Anna mumbled, I was stunned by that fact too, maybe they didn't have a very stable relationship?

"It doesn't matter, Anna. We'll be living in our dorm. It's only for the holidays." I said.

"Where do they live?" Anna blurted out.

"Chicago, I have an adress here somewhere. Let me have a look." he said and he took a small paper out of one of his desk's drawers. He handed it to me and I made sure it was somewhere safe inside my bag.

"I'm terribly sorry I couldn't do more for you two. My advice is to go and find a job you can do after school, because believe me, that payment is barely enough to live from. Or your aunt and uncle are willing to sponsor you?" he suggested.

"Thank you for your time. We must get going." I said and quickly headed for the door, I couldn't possibly handle any more unexpected news. Hey, guess what? You're broke. Oh, and did you know that there is an old married couple somewhere in this country and they claim to be your family. Funny, huh? I groaned.

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After dropping Anna off at the mall, I decided to go back to the cemetery. I wanted to be some place quiet, I wanted to grief but not when Anna is around. Ever since I was a little girl I've had this urge to be strong and protective around Anna. It was because she got hurt once and it was my fault.

We always played together. On one particular morning she woke me up, it was very early. Summer had just started and the mornings started to get brighter and warmer every day. On our land were lots of trees, our father had built a tree house in the biggest one. We would always go there. On that morning, Anna wanted to go play in our tree house. I told her it wouldn't be a good idea, it was still very early and a bit dark outside. But she managed to convince me, I simply couldn't say no to her. We ran out of the house towards our tree house, we quickly climbed up. I went first, which was my terrible mistake. She came after me but when she was almost up, her foot slipped and she lost her grip. She fell out of the tree and she had to get rushed to hospital. If I had done a better job on being the responsible big sister, it wouldn't have happened. Her summer got ruined all because of me, she had broken her leg and she couldn't do fun things all summer.