I sat in my room amidst my pile of clothes, thinking of what to wear. I didn't know why it was so hard to choose, I mean, I was just going to watch a game, but something told me that the comment Clover made earlier on had something to do with it.

I finally settled for black jeans, a yellow crop top and a black denim jacket to match. I then paired it off with my favourite converse all stars. I wanted to look as school spirity as possible and a black and yellow theme was the perfect way to do that.

I picked up my bag and just as I was about to leave my room, a call came in through my phone. I picked it up to see that it was Clover.

"Hey Clo, what's up?" I said as soon as I picked it.

"Hey! Are you all set?" She asked.

"Well, yeah, kinda" I replied, sitting back down on my bed "Are you on your way already?" I asked the last part looking at the wall clock in my room. It was still quite early to leave.

"Not yet, I'm going to the hospital to meet my mom right now. She's there to collect the result of the test she did the other day, hopefully it's good news" she said.

"Don't worry, it will" I replied.

"Thanks, I'll text you when I leave okay?"

"Yeah sure" I replied and she hung up. I fell back onto my bed, heaving a sigh. I was so bored so I dressed up a bit early and now, I had lots of time to kill before she arrived. What to do? I thought and then as if on cue, another call came through. It was a private number, it must be dad.

"Hey Princess!" my dad's voice boomed through the phone, confirming my suspicion.

"Hi dad!" I replied, excited. It felt good to finally hear his voice after some time.

"How are you?" He asked "Heard your voicemail. Still as clever as I remember"

"That's me" I replied, wishing he could see the smug smile on my face.

"Alright" he said, chuckling "So what's up? Why did you call?"

"I wanted to ask you something. The other day at school, something happened which led to my locket bursting open and then a tiny chip fell out" I explained "You gave me the locket, so any idea what it could be?"

He didn't reply to that and I almost thought he had dropped the call before I heard him breathe. Some minutes later and still nothing.

"Dad? Are you there?" I asked, concerned now.

"Yeah, yeah" he replied.

"Well, is everything okay? Why aren't you responding?"

"Reina, I have something to tell you" he sighed. The tone of his voice had morphed from his usual playful one to a really serious one.

"Um, okay, what is it?"

"Remember when I told you that I had lost that Viper drive.....well, that was only half the truth" He said and paused a bit before continuing "I did lose it, but before then, I had copied its contents onto another drive just incase we were found and that one was taken away. I took out the chip of the drive and put it into your locket when we were going our separate ways, because I knew it'd be safer with you"

"What?!" I exclaimed, sitting up straight now "Why would you do that? What do you even need the drive for? Why can't you just give it back to them and let us move on with our lives?" I asked. I voiced only three, but I had many more questions to ask, cause I was confused as to why he still wanted to keep the one thing that had caused a massive change in our lives.

"I'm really sorry Dani, I don't have the answer to all your questions right now but I promise you that it's for our own good" he replied "I know that now that you know, you'll feel like a heavy responsibility has been put on you, but I want you to know that I trust you and that's why I kept it with you. Besides, the Vipers would never guess that I'd keep such an important thing with my teenage daughter, so if they were to come for anyone first, they'd surely come for me or your mother"

"You should have at least told me" I said, a bit calmer now "I don't want to keep this, I don't want any of this" at this point, I could feel my eyes tear up as my heart best faster. I was scared shitless because even though he said that they'd never come for me, I still felt like I was the number one target now.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry" he apologized "I'm sorry for putting such a heavy responsibility on you, I just thought it'd be better if you didn't know, but I also didn't want to lie to you anymore. Please try to pretend that things are the way they were before I told you what I just did, while I try my very best to get us out of this mess. Please trust me Dani"

"Okay dad" I sniffed and replied after some time "I trust you and I want to believe that whatever reason you may have had for putting this all on me, is a very good one and that it's in the best interest of our family"

"Thanks a lot Princess" he said and I could hear the relief in his voice. He already felt way worse for putting us in this mess, so I decided that rather than getting angry at him, I'd be strong and accept the responsibility that had been placed on me. That would surely help relieve some of his stress and even though I knew that after this, my level of paranoia would be increased, I was ready.

"It's fine. How are things over there?" I asked, changing the topic.

"Everything's good so far, I haven't heard from Rob in a week now, but he's probably just busy steering clear of those animals" he replied and I heaved a sigh. At least that was good news.

"Okay dad, I have to go now" I informed him.

"Alright honey, hopefully, the next time we talk would be face to face" he said.

"Yeah, I hope so too. Bye!" I replied and I hung up. I heaved a sigh, stood up from my bed and made my way down the stairs. Just as I sat on the couch, the door opened and in walked Marie along with Tyler.

"Hey, what are you guys doing back so early?" I asked, standing up just as Tyler ran to hug me.

"Dani!" He exclaimed.

"How are you big guy?" I greeted, picking him up.

"I'm not really fine" he replied, pouting.

"Why what happened?" I asked, concerned now as I glanced at Marie who was still standing there.

"His teacher called me to come pick him up 'cause he was having an allergy attack and she didn't know what to do?" She informed me. You see, my younger brother was allergic to nuts, hence the absence of peanut butter and any other nutty thing in my house.

"An allergy attack?" I asked "We don't give him anything with nuts in it, so how did that happen? Tyler?" I directed the last part at him.

"Sorry Dani. My friend, Sammy brought a box of Snickers to school and he gave me some of it. I did not remember that i couldn't have nuts so I ate them and then my body started to itch and then the itchy parts became red and my teacher was scared because she didn't know what to do" he rambled on. He stopped, took a deep breathe and then continued "I tried to tell her that it would stop soon but she wouldn't listen to me and then she called Aunt Marie and Aunt Marie brought me home and here I am and please don't be mad" When he was done, he put his arm around my neck as if he was scared. I looked to Marie for confirmation and she nodded.

"Tyler, you shouldn't forget important stuff like that" I scolded, putting him down and crouching so my face could be levelled with his "What if something horrid happened?"

"Horrid?" He asked, a confused look on his face.

"I mean bad, really bad" I further explained.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I promise not to forget again and please don't tell mommy. Pleaseeee" he pleaded, giving me his puppy dog eyes, which he knew I couldn't resist. Trust me, you also won't be able to.

"Alright fine" I gave in, hugged him and stood up "Come on, go to your room and rest"

"Okay" he said and ran off.

"I'd have to go now Daniella" Marie said as soon as he left "I took a break from work to go pick him up so I have to return now"

"Oh okay then. Bye" I replied and she left. Some minutes later, Tyler came running into the living room. He took the remote, sat next to me on the couch and changed the channel from Mnet to Nickelodeon.

"Hey, I was watching that!" I complained, looking at him. He had a cheeky smile on his face and then he winked at me, at least he tried to. I then laughed and shook my head at his innocence.

"Where are you going?" He asked, noticing that I was dressed up, hair packed neatly and all.

"Uh, I have a basketball game to watch at school today, so I'm going to school" I informed him.

"Really? Can I come?" He asked an expectant look in his eyes.

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