Silver

Chapter Sixteen: A Broken Doll

"Did you or did you not tell me that both of you will return home at exactly three in the afternoon?" My dad asked Ayden and me in a soft sound that I knew was a facade.

We were in trouble and dad was not happy with us at all. If not for his clenched hands, the fact that Adrian was shaking his head behind him was all the proof I needed to know that we were going to get the grounding of our lifetime.

"You did," Ayden started, chewing his lips and looking anywhere but into my dad's eyes. "But the thing is, uh, there was someone who was asking us for help. Right, Ariel?"

"Yup," I agreed, bobbing my head up and down like a bobble head. "Someone asked us for directions, and us being the good children you raised us to be, helped the person out."

I smiled widely up at my dad, hoping that my grin wouldn't look fake. Dad arched an eyebrow up, while his lips twitched upward before letting it flat again.

"So what you're telling me, Ariel," Dad said, letting his voice sound solemn again. "Is that you and your brother were two hours late because you were helping someone out."

Well, that worked out better than I thought.

"Yes, daddy," I said, letting out another bright smile. "You're abchoutely correct."

Adrian let out a laugh, and I glared at him wondering what was so funny. I didn't appreciate his laughter. He was the reason why we were in this mess to begin with.

"Alright," dad said, turning towards Ayden. "Is what your sister is saying, true?"

Ayden coughed, before smiling weakly. "Yup. Completely true. We were just being good citizens and helping those in need."

"What was the person's name that you were helping?" My dad asked us and I blurted the first name that came to my mind.

"Hannah."

"Raphael."

Ayden and I spoke out at the same time before turning to glare at one another. If only he can keep his mouth shut, we wouldn't get into so much trouble all the time.

Behind my dad, Adrian looked amused and I could tell that he was trying to cover his laughter with his one hand.

"Ayden, Ariel," my dad said, raising an eyebrow towards us. "Was it Hannah or was it Raphael?"

"Um, it was Hannah Ann Raphael. You know, her first name was Hannah and her last name was Raphael?" my brother blurted out, making it seem like he was asking a question instead of stating a fact. Why can't he just keep his mouth shut?

"Or was it all a lie?" my dad calmly asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest and ignoring Ayden's blunder. "This Hannah, Ariel, won't happen to be the same Hannah from the show you always watch, can it? What was it called again?"

"Hannah Montana," Adrian supplied helpfully to my dad and I groaned in embarrassment and anger. Leave it to Adrian to take my dad's side on this.

"The same goes for you, Ayden," dad said turning his gaze towards Ayden who looked like he was going to pee on himself. "Is this "Raphael" the same one that can be found in the popular turtle fighting show?"

Ayden turned a few shades of red and I knew then that we were caught.

"It was his fault," I said abruptly, changing my defence position to offence. I'm not going to get grounded again. I would rather let Ayden take the blame. "I wanted to go home, daddy, but Ayden said that we have to play one more game of hide and seek or he won't share his cookies with me."