When Sage turned 16, she was offered a job under the conditions that she dropped out of high school. Her family was very poor at the time and she had no encouragement to finish school so she agreed, changing her life forever.
I had just finished sewing up the rip in bear when Sandra walked into the kitchen.
"So I see that you have met Sara," she says with a smile as she comes towards us and scoops up Sara into her arms.
"Yes, I have," I say with a smile as I hand the bear to Sara. "There, all better."
"Thank you," Sara says with a giggle and reaches out to me.
"Can I?" I ask as I begin to reach out my arms and Sandra nods.
I grab Sara and begin to rock in place. She begins to move her bear as if it is moving and I laugh.
"Play!" She yells and I laugh.
"I have to finish cleaning but once I'm done, we can play," I say with a smile and Sara puts on a fake pouty face. "Don't worry, I'll be done soon."
"If you want, I can finish cleaning for you," Sandra says and I shake my head.
"You're paying me to clean so clean I shall," I say and Sandra laughs and I transfer Sara into her arms. "I'm almost done with the office and I was wondering if I should clean the bedrooms now or later."
"Can you try to clean Nick's before school ends? I know that he won't get out unless he's hanging out with friends so that would be great. I can help tidy up the nursery and while you're playing with Sara, you can trick her into cleaning her room with you," Sandra says with a smile and Sara pouts.
"I'm not cleaning my room," she says in a fake sad voice.
"Of course not," I say with a smile and I wave goodbye as I head back upstairs to the office.
I finish dusting off the furniture and cleaning everything within the hour so I decide that now is as good of a time as any to head over to Nickolas' room.
I racked my brain, trying to think if I knew a Nickolas but the only one was a jerk that transferred to a private school. I was pretty sure that he wasn't the Nick since this family was so kind.
I open the door to see a surprisingly clean room. The walls were painted a pure white and the rest of the furniture was either all back or white.
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I look around as if I am looking for what secrets the walls will allow to slip out. Knowing people my age, there is no way that his room is this neat or even simple.
I step towards the large windows and sigh. Though it's only a bit past noon, the sun is still hidden behind the clouds, hiding from it's responsibilities in a way.
Soon enough, I finish cleaning the room and head over to the ensuite. The bathroom holds a similar modern style to it except it was practically all white. As I looked it over, it just left like there wasn't any personality and either rooms. No pictures or books that gave me even the smallest hint towards what Nick was like.
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Either way, I push my thoughts aside and quickly but thoroughly clean the bathroom and step out into the hallway to see Sara standing nearby.
"Were you waiting for me?" I ask with a smile as she quickly runs over to me and jumps into my arms.
"You were taking a long time," she says with a frown and I laugh.
"Well, I have to make sure that I clean every room equally. Except yours will get special treatment, okay?" I say as I tickle her a bit in the side.
"Okay," she lets out with a giggle.
"Sounds like a plan. Do you want to show me where your room is?" I ask as I look around to see if there were any outstanding details to the doors but I find none.
"There," she says as she points her hand straight ahead to the door all the way at the end of the hallway. I note in my head that it is across from the master bedroom and I walk over to the door, turn the nob, and enter the pink bedroom.
"Wow," I say with a laugh as I take in all the pink and Sara squirms out of my arms and runs over to the toys spread all around the floor.
"Play!" She shouts with a laugh and I walk over to her.
"We will but we can't play in a messy room, let's clean up the toys and then we can play whatever you want," I say as I pick up a few dolls and place them in a bin.
"No, play," she says with a frown and I smile.
"How about whoever cleans up the most toys gets a special prize," I say as suddenly her eyes light up.
"What is it?" She asks as she comes closer to me.
"I can't tell you, it's a surprise," I say and Sara giggles and runs over to her toys and begins urgently throwing them into their baskets and houses.
"I'm going to win," Sara screams in a sing-song voice.
"Nope, it's going to be me," I say back as I slowly pick up the smallest toys that I can find.
I got to reach for a stuffed panda when Sara grabs it and sticks her tongue out at me.
"Hey," I shout with a fake mad face and Sara just runs away. I quickly grab her and begin to tickle her. Soon enough, we are both on the floor, laughing hysterically.
"Stop," Sara says in between giggles and I laugh. I release my grip on her and she quickly breaks away, going back to cleaning up.
I would say within a few minutes, a majority of the toys were put away and there were one or two dolls that remained on the floor.
"I'm going to win," I say as I reach for the last few dolls but Sara runs over, grabs them, and throws them in the bin before I even get close to them.
"I won," she says as she quickly sits down on the floor and is heavily breathing.
"I can't believe you beat me," I say with a fake defeated tone to my words.
"I can," she says and I laugh.
"Well, you'll get your prize tomorrow," I say with a smile and she frowns.
