The Hard Knock Life

Part 13

"Well," Celia said, placing her keys in a cute little bucket on a desk by the door. "Here we are."

I was the first out of all my siblings to enter the house and it was b-eautiful! It was a mix of elegant and professional and everything matched perfectly, with a beautiful mix of earth tones everywhere. There were even vine looking plants on the walls and beautiful nature pictures hung up everywhere. It was a lot, but it wasn't too much; and even though it wasn't as big as our old house, it was comfortable...perfect actually.

"I hope you guys like it. I put my life into it for over seven years." Celia continued as she walked through the lobby into a different room; we followed.

"You like the pictures on the wall? I took them myself. I recently went into photography and it's blowing up - really successful."

The room we walked into seemed to be a living room. It was the same as the previous room except there was a television and, well, the things the average living room had.

"You have a Wii?" August said, sounding amused.

"Oh, yea, I have game nights sometimes, so my girl friends come over and we play a bunch of dance games. It's super fun, you'll love it."

I felt at home already. I turned around to see the look on my siblings' faces and saw August smirking. I could tell he was enjoying this place already. Asia seemed comfortable too, but when she looked at me, her smile faded so I turned back around.
We went upstairs and she showed us our rooms. No surprise, they were all beautiful but they weren't filled with plants or pictures, although, above each bed was a large picture of something nature-based. The bed colors were all earth tones as well as the dressers, but everything else in the room seemed to be plain and almost empty; as if she was making space for us to make each room our own. She had enough rooms for everyone to have their own plus an extra. I couldn't understand why she had so much space for someone who lives alone, but hey, I'm not complaining.

We put our things in our room. It was pretty clear who's room was who's. August's bed was a navy blue with a starry accent on the wall boarder, Asia's bed was her favourite colour, green, and mine was my favourite colour, mahogany.
I wasn't really sure what do since it was morning and we had already slept on the train, so...

"I guess I have to register you guys into a new school, seeing how neither of you are eighteen yet." Celia said to me, leaning on my door frame as I placed clothes in drawers.

I looked up at her.
Well, that took a load off of my shoulders, I thought.

"Do you mind?" I asked.

"No, no, it's okay. I have nothing to do, so its my pleasure."

I sighed, "ok."
After a while, I said, "so what's for breakfast?"

"You live here now, you can help yourself. My fridge is full." she replied before walking away.

I caught her speaking under her breath, "mi casa es su casa" as she walked down the stairs.

I was beginning to make my way out of my room, deciding to finish unpacking later, when I saw August in the motion of passing my doorway. When he saw me, he stopped, looking guilty and nervous.

I stopped walking and looked at him waiting to hear if he had anything to say.

"I'm not really good at apologizing." He said after a while.

"What's done is done, August. You got what you want. ...Well, not entirely. " I shrugged.

"What do you mean?"

"We can't get the money from the bank unless we're at least eighteen."

"Celia can do it."

"Celia doesn't know they're dead."

"We won't tell her."

"We will have to eventually."

"Not if we play our cards right."

"I don't think it's something we should blow over. I think she needs to know."

"When did you get so goody two shoes? You used to be a rebel and loved to be daring and didn't care what anyone thought."

"Someone had to take Eli's place."

"You will never replace Eli!!" He interrupted. "No one will. Ever." He began to mumble as he walked away. "I liked you better before."