Amidst The Stars

Four Cinderellas

   For all of two years, things were well again.

  The first summer without their mother passed by in a blur. Vicente spent nearly every morning in the kitchen, trying out recipe after recipe. Some of his attempts went successfully, some not so much — his first time making coconut buns had ended in Ling getting food poisoning. But everything was fine apart from that.

  He and Yao took turns cooking, and though it was still tiring, it was nothing near the amount of stress they'd had cooking before. Sometimes, when their father couldn't make it home in time in the evening, Vicente would turn to their mother's recipes and the four of them would have dessert for dinner.

  Middle school started for him. It wasn't all that bad, or at least not as bad as Yao had made it out to be. He still couldn't pluck up the courage to talk to his classmates, but his English began to improve. Though French was a particularly annoying challenge for him like it was in elementary school, but he was getting better at it.

  With Yao in high school and occupied even more than before with schoolwork and revision, Vicente took on the role of helping Leon with his homework. This usually meant him shouting out tips as he tried to saute vegetables, steam eggs and keep the rice from overcooking at the same time.

  And Ling grew, sometimes bringing friends home and chattering away in one small cluster in the living room while her brothers worked. There were days when she ignored them completely, spending much of the day talking with her friends online. Sometimes Vicente passed her while she was using the computer, and caught glimpses of music videos or shows that she enjoyed.

  In his second-to-last year of middle school, Vicente received his first cell phone. It was a small touchscreen phone, unlike the one Yao had. He didn't have anyone to call or send messages to, but he managed to download some games on it and had something else to kill time with apart from reading and cooking.

  Things were different, but it wasn't enough to shake him, not yet. His siblings were a constant in his life, something he was sure would never, ever change. That was until he started seventh grade and, two years after their parents had divorced, their father remarried.

  At first, the siblings were all ecstatic — there'd be someone to cook for them again, someone who could help with their homework and bring them out to the park and care about them. But the moment their stepmother walked through the door, it was made clear that their dreams of a complete family couldn't ever come true.

  Their father told them that she'd moved from Kyoto three years ago, and, like him, had divorced two years ago. Along with their stepmother, their father also welcomed their stepmother's daughter to their family.

  Their new stepsister Kiku, who was fourteen and two years older than Vicente, was aloof and quiet from the start. She was given her own room, one that the siblings were always told was off-limits for them to enter before she moved in, and barely ever talked. When she did talk, it was to her mother, in quiet, rushed Japanese that none of them understood.

  It was clear what their stepmother thought of them. She looked at the siblings with distaste every time she crossed them, though she was careful to never voice what she felt out loud. Vicente once saw her pass by Ling while his little sister was drawing something on the computer, only for her expression to turn sour. She muttered something under her breath as she walked away, and though he had absolutely no idea what she said, he was sure it couldn't have been something nice.

  Once, before his test the next day, Leon asked their stepmother to help him figure out some questions that he didn't get. What was meant to be a harmless study session ended up quite the painful ordeal, with remarks dripping with condescension, insults slung left and right and quiet insults that rose to shouts. The abuse persisted until Vicente, who was studying next to him, began to flinch at words that weren't targeted at him. Then their stepmother left, leaving Leon to continue to struggle with his work. It took Vicente fifteen minutes to stop his hands from shaking. All the while, he blinked his tears away,