16 Nights of Jingle

CHAPTER 5

"It's the beauty within that matters."

01:30AM

I had never seen a house exceptionally beautiful on the outside and the inside, in my whole entire life, until this moment.
"What the actual popcorn!" Amarie excitedly exclaims,
"I know right!" The driver exclaims, hyping us all up. "It's fully furnished, and remember what I said about the windows... well you can set them however you want, meaning they can be normal windows or..."
He carried on speaking in an indistinct manner as I sniffed the marble kitchen counter.
"The house itself is magnificent, all the things you need for survival are somewhere in here, you just need to find them." He explained, taking us through a surprisingly, very informative tour.
"Oh, one more thing." He turns around, looking away from us and fuzzily whispers, "I'll be..."
"Come again." My mother exclaims,
"I said, I'll also be your roommate, bunkmate, you know. Yay!" He awkwardly repeated,
"Ok, cool." My mother blurted,
"Cool." He lubberly agrees.
I join the rest, who are now upstairs.
"So driver. Don't you think if you're going to be living with us, we should at least know your name?" I casually ask,
"Oh right, I forgot about that." He agreed before fixing himself up and straightening his posture, "Hello, my name is Terrence, but you can call me Terry." He sophisticatedly recited, shaking our hands one by one,
"Nice to meet you Terry, but we need to go to bed right now." My mother exclaimed.

14 DECEMBER
07:30AM

Waking up in my comfortable new bed, I grab my sapphire silk bathrobe and throw it over my shoulders.
-Oh my gosh, my sleeping patterns have been messed up, lately- I peacefully think.
I finally have my own room -which I guess isn't something that big to celebrate- but what can I say, I haven't felt happiness since-- forever.
I walk downstairs to the kitchen to make some food and find,
"Terry?" I ask, "What are you doing?"
He turns around holding four breakfast plates, which he carefully places on the marble table's countertop,
"Makin' breakfast." He softly replies,
"Shirtless?" I ask,
"I didn't want to ruin my new tank top." He answers pointing at the white tank top lying on his left arm,
"I'm not complaining. You may proceed." I say, placing myself on the high maroon-cushioned bar stool.
As he prepared breakfast, his bulging muscles coruscated and glistened in the sunlight, with every motion he did resulting in his arms' veins popping out. His chocolate skin shined even brighter as he--
"Nubia?" My mother interrupted, nearing us and hand in hand with Amarie.
"Yeah mom!" My voice broke a little as I shifted my gaze toward her,
"What are you doing up so early?" My mother asked, giving me a hug and kiss on the forehead,
"Oh I woke up very early." I reply,
"Okay. What are you making over there Terry?" My mother asks,
"Food!" Terry playfully replies, finishing off what he had been frying.
He carefully places the toasted baguettes on the four plates, before adding scrambled eggs, a tomato salad on each plate, bacon, deep fried onion rings and a barbecued sausage, served with orange juice, and positions the plates and juice in front of us.
Amarie covers her eyes and screams, "Euw!", while pointing at Terry's bear chest, in which he replies,
"Okay, fine. I'll put my top back on."
"Hey Amarie, aren't you supposed to go to school today?" Terry deliberately asks,
"Nope." I reply, keeping it short and simple,
"She's going tomorrow." My mother blurts out, "And remember, you go to sleep at eight on the dot, no later!"
"Yeah, yeah. I know. Which is why I'm going to reinvent myself today." I proudly state, "New town, new school and a positive attitude."
"I'm happy for you, pumpkin." My mother replies, "I'm happy for you both, my two daughters, Noobie and my Riri."
"What is Amarie doing tomorrow?" Terry asks, taking a sip of his juice,
"Oh you didn't hear?" Amarie confidently replies, "I'm trying out for my new school's dance team!"
"Look at you working!" I happily reply, snapping my fingers at her.
"Y'all know what styles I'm going to dance?" Amarie asks us,
I excitingly reply, "Your two specialties?!"
"Uh-huh! Freestyle and Vogue! Inspired by my sister's favourite show!" Amarie answers, showing us what she's got.
Terry and I join Amarie on the 'dance floor', just as him and I begin sweating.
"Don't break yourselves now!" My mother exclaims, laughing at Terry and I.
I sit back down and adjust the windows' positions, using the remote controller, to make more natural light reach us.
"Oh, that's bright!" Amarie exclaims covering her eyes,
"Yep, she's right!" My mother agrees,
"That's the thing about natural light." Terry adds,
"Anyway, you still on for the drive?" My mother asks Terry,
"Wouldn't miss it, for the world." He replies,
"Miss what?" I frantically ask,
"We're going out." My mother answers with a huge smile on her face,
"Like... on a date?" I ask, retching,
"No, it's nothing like that!" My mother argues,
"I'm taking your mom on a neighborhood tour, to get to know the town a little bit better." Terry interrupts, correcting us,
"Then you're going on a date?" Amarie teases, trying to blink,
"Great one!" I add as she and I begin laughing.
We all finish breakfast, and help clean up before I follow Terry out into the large balcony.
"Can we talk?"
"Depends. About?" He replies,
"You know when I first met you I thought you were strange." I exclaim as I sit down on one of the chairs,
"Really, and I thought you were complex until I realized you were just-- oh wait." He sarcastically disses me,
"Okay, ouch!" I jokingly acclaim hiding the pain I just felt.
He lies on the wrought iron balustrade and takes in a deep whiff of fresh air. For a while, he stands still, taking it all in, the birds chirping, the trees whistling, the flowers dancing, the clear skies---
He then stands near me and places his arm on my shoulder, and says,
"Leslie and I had a long chat last night and--"
"Terry! It's time to go!" My mother exclaims just as Terry gets up.

12:15PM

"I can't believe mom and dad aren't back yet." Amarie loudly vocalizes her thoughts,
I pause what I'm doing and ask, "Did you just call Terry... dad?"
"No I didn't. You did!" Amarie defends herself,
"Okay, fine."
Amarie grabs her colouring book and pencils, opens page 13 and begins filling colour to the fiery dragon.
"Girl. Haven't you ever felt we're being watched?" I hastily ask Amarie,
"Yes actually. Ever since we've gotten here." Amarie replies,
"Because, ever since we saw that goat, weird things have been happening."
Amarie drops her pencils and straightforwardly replies, "It's probably nothing.", trying to calm me,
"Yeah, it's probably nothing." I conclude, "Anyway, gotta go. Bye bitch."
Without missing a beat, Amarie largely opens her mouth,
"No, I meant beach." I quckly corrected my previous statement, and ran up the stairs, into my bedroom, before grabbing the new clothing, accessories, hair products... we bought yesterday afternoon.
It was time to reinvent myself.
I scoured the internet for some do-it-yourself videos and--
I started off with my curly hair -I don't want anything too extreme, so how about I straighten it out and use a little bit of hair dye-
Next thing, clothing -Actually nevermind-
Make-up -How about looking fierce and boss, like I don't give a-
Let's move on. Last thing my walk and posture -both of which took me hours to perfect-
At the end of it all, I looked--