Hey, Angel. (Ashton's missing twin)

Chapter Two. [edited!]

|Angel (Angela)|

Alex and I have just gotten home from cheer practice, home being my house. My mum asked what happened to my finger today which Alex was more than happy to tell her about, thinking it was the funniest thing in the world that I flinched and caused this myself. Bitch.

"Wait, why were you taking each others blood? Why was I not notified of this?" My mother becomes frantic, her eyes widening as she looks to me for an answer.

"Uh, there was a slip we were given. Sort of like a permission slip stating we were okay with the experiment, I'm 18 so I was able to sign it myself. I figured you'd be fine with it, you always say how signing permission slips for every little thing is a pain." I pull at my sleeves while she takes in what I've said. A few seconds later she sighs and addresses me.

"Angela, this is different! This is too personal for a school experiment! Drawing blood is very serious!" She raises he voice, making me wary since she never yells at me.

"Mum," I chuckle nervously, "It really isn't a big deal. Everyone in the class except like, what four people?" I look to Alex and she nods. "Everybody but like four people did it, most of them had their parents signatures." I reasons.

"My dad was fine with it." Alex says and shrugs, Mum furrows her eyebrows.

"Angela Marie! You could have at least told me about this! What if I wasn't okay with it? What then?" She shouts again.

"You tell me, you're the one that seems pretty upset about it." I respond shyly, still unsure why my mother would be so upset over a school project.

"Go to your room, I'm going to call your teacher and see what we can do about this." My mum tuns to grab the house phone from the kitchen and I glance to Alex, she raises an eyebrow. She's just as confused about my mum's behavior as I am.

"Mum, what do you mean?" I touch my hand to her shoulder, stopping her in the entry way to the kitchen.  "There's nothing we need to do about it. It's not like it needs handling, it's just some stupid experiment about DNA." Her eyes widen for a split second before she seems to realize something and makes herself calm down. She takes a deep breath before smiling at us.

"Right, of course honey. Did you girls want me to get you any snacks when I pick up dinner? You having a movie night?" She asks sweetly, acting much more normal.

"Uhm..." At a loss for words, I look to Alex for an answer and she speaks up.

"Could we just have some chocolate?" She asks.

"Yes, of course! Do you want your usual flavors of ice cream pints as well?" Mum asks.

"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks Ms. Jewell."

"Again, call me Amy."

"I'm good, all these 'A' names freak me out." She states, making a face. I face palm before grabbing Alex's wrist and going up to my room.

"Thanks mom!" I yell down behind me.

"You're welcome sweetie! I'll text you when I'm on my way back home!" She yells back, and a few minutes later we hear the front door shut and her car leave the driveway. Alex and I sit on my bed facing each other and I reach into my bedside drawer for the gummy worms, handing her a handful of them.

"What the hell was your moms deal? She completely freaked out!" She started, chuckling a bit and shoving a gummy worm in her mouth.

"I have no idea, Al. Like, how did your dad react to it? It wasn't a big deal was it?" I ask, also eating a few. Granted her dad is really cool most of the time, but I have a hard time believing any average parent would have the kind of reaction that my mom did.

"Nah, he said it was a pretty cool experiment to do, teach us where our traits come from and how to see the different cells in blood. All that jazz."

"See? It's somewhat cool to parents, it's a nerdy learning experience. It's not the end of the world, what the heck happened to her? She never acts like that."

"Yeah, seriously. She's the nicest woman I've ever met, and she has a seriously amazing sense of humor," I raise an eyebrow. "For a mom I mean," she adds and I roll my eyes.

"This is just too weird, do you think there's a reason she didn't want me to do it? Maybe I have diseased blood or something."

"I think that's something you actually tell your kid just in case they injure themselves around other people. Plus if you had a disease in your blood, you'd probably be in some airtight bubble at a top notch hospital. Something that's not really found in the Northeast United States."

"That's true." I look down in thought, what could possibly make her react that way? It couldn't be nothing.

"How about we just start our marathon before you give yourself an ulcer from over thinking this." She rolls her eyes, standing to get the controller that's sitting on my desk.

"Not possible, but okay." I sigh, sitting back to lean against the wall my bed is against. "We'll come back to it after the weekend, I wonder if my mum will actually call the school about it.".

"Doubt it. The samples have already been sent anyway, it's not like she can stop it from happening." She says as she sits next to me, handing me the controller.

I agree as I open up Hulu, selecting the new episode of our favorite show before setting the controller on the bedside table, but I can't help but continue to wonder why my mom is acting so strange about this project.