"This is what she had become."
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Cleopatra Banks' last week in the small town of New Chelsea is nothing like she would have imagined it, but nothing could have prepared her for the stinging betrayal she's faced with and suddenly the prospect of...
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"Max! Go get the rest of the bags in the car, Lord knows how hard I work and all you ever do is laze around and p-"
Mrs. Benson halted her speech the minute she laid eyes on her son and some girl leaning in way too close to each other over her dining table which she would set for dinner that evening.
The two teenagers broke apart immediately and nearly fell off their chairs at the sound of her voice.
"Busted!" An amused voice spoke up from behind his mother. It was his younger sister Zoe. "Again," she chuckled under her breath before skipping away into the kitchen.
Cleopatra had failed to register her last word.
Maxwell was up from his seat immediately and went to stand in front of his mother, donning an impassive look.
"Mom! You're home, this is Cleo we're lab partners in Chemistry and we're working on a project. You remember...the one I told you about the other day?" He asked his mom. His voice betrayed the cool and calm demeanor he was going for.
Mrs. Benson lifted up an eyebrow, a brown paper bag full of food still in her arms.
"Partner you say?" She asked her son in a sarcastic tone.
Cleopatra was freaking out and she had no idea what to do in that moment. Her crush's mom had walked in on them about to kiss in her dining room.
She was suddenly finding it hard to breathe.
"Yeah, she had something in her eye and I was helping her remove it," Maxwell informed his mother, fighting the blush that was already spreading across his cheeks. He didn't want his mom embarrassing him in front of Cleopatra.
He turned around quickly and cocked his head to his lab partner whose eyes were already the size of saucers. He wanted her to play along.
"Oh, uhm..." she looked between Maxwell and his mother. Maxwell's eyes bulged out and his lips tightened.
"Yeah...ouch!" Cleopatra squinted one eye and started rubbing it vigorously. At this point Maxwell had already placed his head in the palms of his hands and was shaking his head. Cleopatra was hopeless.
"Oh, look it was an eyelash," she quickly plucked an eyelash out and showed it to Maxwell's mother, smiling awkwardly.
Mrs. Benson stifled a laugh by biting onto her bottom lip.
Maxwell's cheeks were already the color of a ripe tomato. He knew his mom and sister would have the time of their lives grilling him about all of this later on.
"Well sorry for your predicament dear, eyelashes always seem to have a life of their own," she humored the girl, smiling at her.
Cleopatra grinned awkwardly. She knew the woman was mocking her.
