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"Where on earth were you yesterday?" Harvey asked me, dragging a chair towards my desk.

"My phone's battery died," I lied.

"Liar," he rolled his eyes, flopping down on the chair. I texted and called, but you had turned off your phone.

"I was angry because..." I started.

"Because you missed your date with Ralph," Harvey finished my sentence.

"I was going to say, because I was grounded," I scowled.

"Yeah, because you were grounded, so you missed your date with Ralph," he smirked.

I glared at him, "it's none of your business."

"I know," Harvey said. "And I'm guessing Ralph didn't reply to your texts."

I couldn't think of a suitable reply.

"Am I right, or am I right?" he gave me a smug look.

"You're wrong, in fact, Ralph rescheduled our date for three weeks later," I replied.

"You got grounded for three weeks only?" asked Harvey.

"Yeah," it was my turn to smirk.

He sighed.

"How come your dad didn't kill you?" I asked.

"Because your aunt only told him that we skipped school for a picnic breakfast. She didn't mention anything about the boatmen or the chief or the jail cell," Harvey said.

"Oh! Jamie got grounded too?" I asked.

"Obviously. He was with us too," Harvey replied.

The tick tick of Miss David's heels on the tiled floor, interrupted our conversation. Harvey dragged his chair back to his desk, and I turned my face towards the classroom door, waiting for her to enter.

***

I had already started eating my lunch in the cafeteria, when Harvey and Jamie showed up.

"Hey," they both called out in unison.

"Hey," I replied.

"We'll just be back with our lunches," said Harvey.

I nodded, my mouth full of spaghetti.

Someone sat on the seat beside me. I turned and saw that it was Ralph. I stopped my annoyance from resurfacing.

"Hey," he said.

I swallowed my spaghetti and replied, "hey."

"Uh..." he scratched the back of his neck. "I was waiting for you last night."

"You were?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied.

"But I texted you that I couldn't come because I was grounded," I told him.

"Oh, right. I should have told you that I lost my phone day before yesterday," he replied.

"Oh," I couldn't think of anything else to say.

I was annoyed at him for ignoring me, without hearing out his side of the story. And he was good enough to ask me why I had ditched him, again.

"So, why did you get grounded?" he asked.

"I..." I hesitated, "skipped school."

"Wow," he said, looking impressed.

He was looking at me like he was seeing me in new light.

"Thanks," I said, blushing a bit.

"So, we'll have to reschedule," he said.

I nodded, "three weeks."

"We'll decided then. Okay?" he asked.

"Sure," I nodded.

He was gone before Harvey and Jamie got back with their lunches.

"Why do you even like the dude?" asked Harvey.

"I never said I liked him," I replied. "I don't even know him."

"But you go out with him," said Jamie.

"I've never gone out with him," I scowled.

Jamie snickered.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to my food.

"Don't you get bad vibes from him?" asked Harvey.

"No, I don't," I replied. "And neither do you."

Harvey shook his head and tutted.

"Did you fall for him when he put that tulip in your locker?" asked Harvey.

"No," I replied, reflecting what Lily and Hilda had said about the choice of the flower.

"Good. Because that wasn't him," he said.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"It was me," he replied.

"You?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Yes, me," he said, point to himself. "I put the tulip."

"Why?" I rolled my eyes.

"The white tulip represented peace and friendship," he replied. "If you get what I mean."

"Why did you want to make peace, all of a sudden?" I asked.

"Tell you later," he smiled sadly.

"Sure," I replied, trying to not let the curiosity show in my voice.

***

"Mary, get the door," aunt yelled from upstairs.

Reluctantly, I got up from the sofa where I was sprawled, watching the television.

I unbolted the door before pulling it open.

"Yes?" I asked the little girl with blonde pigtails, standing on the door step. She looked like a girl scout.

"Hi," she smiled sweetly, straightening her sash. "Would you like to buy some cookies?"

"I..."

"I'm from the girl scouts' camp," she held up the cardboard she was holding.

"I don't..."

"We're selling, Thanks-A-Lot cookies, Cranberry Citrus Crisps, Lemonades and Shortbread with an original light buttery falovour," she named the cookies one by one, pointing them out on the cardboard. "We also have Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties, you will not regret buying these, Caramel deLites and Peanut Butter Sandwiches."

"What's going on?" asked my aunt, coming down the stairs, followed by Caroline.

The girl scout repeated her speech.

I looked at my aunt. She didn't look interested.

"Well, we don't exactly... you know..." I didn't have the heart to say no to the little girl.

"Don't worry. This happens quite a lot. Most of the people don't exactly know which ones to buy. There are so many to choose from. But I'll help you narrow down the choices," she said with a beaming smile.

Before I or aunt could interrupt again, she rambled on, looking at my aunt now.

"Cranberry Citrus Chips and Lemonades are bursting with flavour. You have got to try these. If you are a fan of peanut butter, we have Peanut Butter Patties, which are my personal favourite. And we also have Peanut Butter Sandwiches, which are actually oatmeal cookies sandwiching a thick layer of peanut butter."

"We actually don't want to buy the cookies," aunt said.

Her beaming smile slid off her face.

"But these are for charity," she said, widening her eyes. "Wouldn't you want to help poor people who stay hungry all day and all night? Disabled people who are in need of therapists? People who have no money to buy medicines and are in need of help from fellow human beings? Would you bare to live with the thought that a little girl, apple of her parents' eyes, died of pneumonia because you refused to buy cookies from me," the girl scout looked pointedly at Caroline who was now standing holding her mother's hand.

Aunt shuddered at the thought and said, "I'll go get my purse."

"Don't you want to buy any cookies?" she asked me.

"I'm sorry, no. I'm saving up for something," I apologised, feeling guilty.

"Just one box?" she beamed.

"Okay," I said and ran upstairs to get my money.

I inserted my hand under my mattress and groped for a bit before my hand touched the wad of bills. I extracted the cash from beneath, and separated a five dollar bill before replacing the wad under the mattress.

I hopped down the stairs two at a time, and saw that the front door was closed.

"Where is she?" I asked my aunt, surprised.

"She left. Did you want to buy a box too?" she asked, glancing at the single five dollar bill in my hand.

"Yeah," I said.

"Don't worry. I ordered one box of each type. 20% off thay way. They'll arrive within two weeks. You can eat then," she said.

"The little girl kinda forced me to buy them, with her smile. So I thought that I should, you know... For charity", I said lamely.

Aunt shrugged, "she seemed eager to leave as soon as I gave her the money. Maybe she was in a hurry."

"Okay," I said and went upstairs to my room.

I put the five dollar bill in my drawer instead of under the mattress. I was saving money to pay Hilda back for the phone. Although she hadn't asked for any money, but I knew she didn't because she wanted me to remain in her debt for ever.

I could easily have given the phone back as soon as she had exposed that photo of mine, but as I slid my hand into my pocket and my fingers wrapped around the phone, a sudden image of Hilda saying, "I knew you wouldn't be able to afford this phone if you weren't my slave." popped into my mind.

So I wanted to prove it to her, that I could actually afford the very phone she thought I couldn't. Even if I had to save every penny of my pocket money to pay her back.

The little girl scout had interupted me while I was watching the television. I was trying, without success, to get rid of the thoughts about my father. But after being interrupted once, I didn't feel like watching the television anymore. Also, my aunt had come downstairs, and I didn't want her to see me slumped on the sofa, looking defeated.

I picked up a book and shuffled through the pages to locate the line I had last read. I never used any book marks. And it irked me when people folded the corner of a book to mark the page where they were taking a break.

As I located the line I was looking for, I settled comfortably into my blanket and read on.

'After eight years he finally had, not one, but two suspects. Dorothy and Ramsay. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at Dorothy talking to a guy he didn't know. Maybe he was about to add a third suspect to his list.'

My mind didn't comprehend what I had read, because it got stuck on the words,'eight years'. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and read again.

'After eight years...'

This time I couldn't even read past the three words.

'I lived like an orphan for eight years.' I thought, feeling a new wave of pain and misery wash over me.

'Aunt was right. I shouldn't have nosed into my past. It brought me nothing but misery.' I thought gloomily.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, unnoticed.

'I was his flesh and blood and he chose to hide the love he had for me, for his selfish wife.'

One thought came after another and soon I was a wreck. I suddenly screamed into my pillow, wishing more than anything for someone to come to me. I needed someone to comfort me. Even if it were any of my annoying siblings. After all, they were my family.

I wanted my aunt to come look at me. I wanted to see the guilt showing on her face when she realised that it was because of her that I was breaking.

I had mastered the art of controlling my tear glands ever since I was little. Ever since I knew I was an orphan. Ever since I realised that I had no true family.

I used to push my tears to the back of my eyes whenever they wanted to leak, but I couldn't make them disappear. And so, whenever the pool of tears became too much for my tear glands to handle, they were pushed back out.

People said that I was a good actress. They were right. I was excelled in hiding my tears and faking smiles and laughter. I was so good, that I even fooled myself.

Since the past month, it was getting more and more difficult to act. Either there was no more space in my tear glands to store more tears, or no more will power in myself to want to store them. And now a days, it felt like I had the world's biggest tear producing factory in my eyes.

I was slowly breaking, and I was too exhausted to keep myself together. I dwelled on all the unpleasant thoughts that came to my mind.

Even books were not enough to distract me.

Turns out, you do need people, who can actually comfort you with their presence, and cheer you up with their words.

I thought about Harvey and Jamie, and sighed. I was grounded so I couldn't meet them. They would easily have taken my mind off of my misery.

I wiped the tears off of my cheeks and untied my hair. I tried focusing my mind on books, on school, on homework. Nothing worked.

'What is the reason behind Harvey making peace with me?' I thought, trying to distract myself again.

'Maybe there's no actual reason.'

'But there must be an incentive.' I reasoned.

'And why was he being so secretive about the flower?'

'He's not as secretive as your dad was.'

I couldn't run away from my father's thoughts. They popped up into my mind, irrespective of what I was thinking or doing.

I got up from my bed and switched off the light. I snuggled into my bed, ready to cry myself to sleep.

Author's note:

Picture of the girl scout's cardboard attached above/ to the side.

A crappy chapter, I know. It's been three days since I've been trying to correct the ending. But I couldn't take it anymore, so I decided to publish it as it was.

Feel free to comment on the crappiness. And maybe give me some ideas as how to make it less crappy.

Don't forget to vote, comment and share, if you like, and if you can get over the crappiness :3

Tell me in the comments section if you were girl/ boy scout any time in your life.

I was. I had a great time being one. And I still have my uniform. :D

Toodles!