Life is abrupt and sometimes slightly irritating to endure. She learned this the hard way a few days later; Wednesday truly was the worst day of the week. Her eyes were well adjusted to the dark so when someone stormed into her bedroom and turned all of her lights on she was a little dazed. Antonia was fuming, chest rising and falling at a quick rate, hands balled into fists, and she looked like a cat that had just fallen into a tub of cold water. "Why are you doing this at," she turned to look at the clock on the bedside table, "- six in the morning?" she asked.

     Her best friend began pulling at her messy brown hair as she paced back and forth at the foot of the bed. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is it that my brother is cooking in my kitchen - my kitchen!" she screamed.

     It was a well-known fact by now that Antonia despised her brother, Mar'i's boyfriend. Why he was in the kitchen or even in Gotham eluded her entirely. He hadn't said anything to her about coming back from his business trip early. Mar'i propped herself up on her elbows, eyes squinted as she tried to make sense of all of this new information. "Leo's here?" she asked. Antonia nodded. "In the kitchen?" she continued. Yet again Antonia's head was bobbing up and down like a toy doll.

     He was in the kitchen, she saw for herself a few minutes later. Leo was sitting at the counter in his blue tailored suit sipping a cup of tea. "You look well darling." he smiled, placed the cup on the counter and stood up. She watched him stride over before enveloping her in a hug and pressing a fleeting kiss to her temple. He then rested his chin on top of her head, smirking at Antonia who stood near the sofa. It was definitely a surprise to see him here, how he got in was what puzzled the two women. "How'd you get in?" Mar'i asked, staring up at him.

"I gave him a key!" Toni blurted. "Just in case something was to happen of course." she continued.

     Mar'i raised an eyebrow but shrugged it off as Toni being, well Toni. "What are you doing back from your trip so early?" she asked, he never came back early from a business trip. He smiled and leaned down pressing another kiss against her tanned skin. "I wanted to surprise you." he mumbled against her forehead. She rolled her eyes and playfully pushed him away from her. They spent most of the morning talking; he told her all about his trip to Germany. She had never been and one day she hoped to go there to vacation. "It was absolutely marvellous you should've seen it love." he smiled circling his thumb across the palm of her hand.

     Toni was hiding up in the loft in her bedroom. The last thing she wanted was to see her obnoxious serpent of a brother in her own home. Just then her cell phone began to buzz on the counter next to her. The number was unknown; she had never seen it before. "Hello?"

"Mar'i good morning! How are ya?" Melody asked.

"How did you get my number?" she asked.

"I called Damian Sunday morning; he said you were at his place so I asked him to ask you for your number for me." Melody was cheery as ever today.

"He never asked - he went through my phone!" she yelled frustrated.

     Just when she thought there was a speck of kindness in him after he made her breakfast. "Sorry about that, he's a little paranoid sometimes." Melody apologized. The next time she saw Damian he was going to get it. She was furious that he would invade her privacy like that. "So anyway, I called to ask to see if you wanted to go grab a coffee later today?" Mar'i sat there for a moment and mulled it over. Her boyfriend came to surprise her but this was also a chance to help patch things up with an old friend of hers. "Is three o'clock okay?" Mar'i asked, Leo immediately shot her an inquisitive look.

     The quirky woman agreed and they spent another few minutes on the phone. She was finally able to hang up when Melody confessed that she had to go run some errands. "Who was that?" Leo asked as soon as she put her phone down. He and Damian were alike in some ways; they both stuck their noses in other people's business. "If you must know it was a friend, we're grabbing a coffee at three o'clock." she stood up and swept into the kitchen to grab a snack. He came up behind her, hands loosely holding her hips. "As long as it isn't another man I'm fine with it." he whispered into her ear.

     The time past agonizingly slow, Leo wasn't around for long after the phone call. Just because he was in Gotham didn't mean he didn't have work to do. He wouldn't say where he was going other than that he had a meeting with the head of a large company. They met at a local cafe in the heart of Founder's island. The blonde wasn't hard to spot; she was wearing a fluffy pink dress. "Do you always dress like you're going to a big party?" she asked sliding into the booth with a coffee in hand. Melody scoffed and took a sip of her hot drink. "You never know when an invite could be given to me." Melody winked.

     They small talked for awhile avoiding anything too deep that could possibly damage their quickly blooming friendship. It was like they were a dormant flower only for the sun to return and help the blossom bloom again - that was their friendship. "Okay seriously, I heard Leonardo Huxley is back in town, why?" she asked. Mar'i raised an eyebrow putting her cup of now warm coffee down on the table. "He came to surprise me." Mar'i stated. It was fact and what he said was the truth.

     She did find it quite meaningful that he came here to surprise her. Of course, his parents gave him things to do once he got here but nonetheless, she was happy that he thought of her. "Well you didn't hear this from me but I heard from a guy that he's here doing business with Oswald Cobblepot." she leaned in and whispered. Mar'i didn't know who that was; clearly, he must be another businessman.

     Melody never lied; Mar'i could see that by the way she spoke and acted. She sat back in the booth, sipping sourly at her lukewarm coffee. She was going to have to ask Leo about this later. "What did you do after I left?" Mar'i asked changing the subject. The last thing she wanted to talk about was her boyfriend who may or may not be dealing with dangerous people.

     After she left for school again she left for good and only came back for holidays. The last year before she graduated she hardly left England; she spent her Christmas with Antonia and her family. "I mean once you left you stopped calling and it got kind of lonely. Damian and I were reckless and we even got in trouble with the police once or twice. My parents scared me straight so I expanded my friendship circle to try and be friends with people other than Damian."

"Did you make any?"

"Yeah; Colin, Jon, and Mia. Damian was a little harder to convince to trust them but he warmed up eventually, he always did."

     The blonde smiled softly and stared down at her empty coffee cup. They had been here for an hour now and plenty of people had come and gone already. Unfortunately, they both had lives and could only sit and chat for an hour. Mar'i definitely learned more and understood why Damian was so closed off and bitter. High school was obviously so different for the both of them. They were in two different countries and sitting in two different class statuses.

     It was awful to think about it that way but it was true. Her old friends and her new ones were far from similar. "I enjoyed this, really. I missed this but I'm glad we're finally in each other's lives again." Melody smiled, standing up and adjusting her purse on her shoulder. They had places to be and other people to see. Especially Melody who ran a club – no doubt that she had to meet people of higher class for reservations and such.

     After she and Melody bid each other farewell she got a call from her father. Her sister Sindella missed the bus home and was wondering if she could pick her up. Mar'i, of course, agreed in a heartbeat; she needed no - wanted to hang out with her siblings more. She missed out on a lot of things and couldn't help but feel sort of guilty. The school grounds were as quiet as an old-timey town in Europe.

     The front doors were locked so she knew her sister couldn't have been inside still. "Hey Sindella?" she called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice. After not receiving a response she then took out her cell phone and dialed the girl's number. She walked around and heard the faint ringing coming from behind schools loading docks. "Hey Sindi, Dad wanted me to pick you up are you -" she stopped mid-sentence when she heard two voices arguing.

     Mar'i peeked around the corner of the building; Arrow and her sister were in a heated argument. "- you have to tell them!" Arrow yelled, her voice quieting towards the end. Clearly Mar'i arrived at the tail end of the conversation.

"I'm not telling them, not now –" Sindi stopped speaking when Arrow grabbed both of her hands.

     The redhead sighed and gave her a warm smile. Mar'i raised an eyebrow but continued to watch quietly, she felt like a creeper. "Okay, fine. I just hate seeing you beat yourself up over something like this, your parents are cool – I definitely don't see them as the type of people to freak out." Arrow said softly. The shortest of the latter nodded and looked up at her, feeling the light pressure of another pair of lips against hers. Mar'i gasped; she wasn't expecting to see something like this today.

     Her sister and Arrow immediately broke apart when Sindella saw that she was standing there. "What - what are you doing here?" she yelled. Mar'i was still processing the fact that her sister and Arrow were together. Not that she minded she always kind of knew in the back of her mind that the two of them fancied each other. "You can't tell mom and dad!" she yelled pulling away from the redhead. Fresh tears began to form at the corner of the teens blue eyes. Arrow was still stunned and didn't have a lot to say given the situation.

     Both girls were flustered and Sindella was on the brink of a full mental breakdown. Her sister's teary eyes hardened as she stood up and balled her hands into fists. "Why are you even here? Are you spying on me?" Sindella screamed. Then she proceeded to hit Mar'i, luckily she was too tall for the girl to be able to hit her face. "Listen, hey - hey listen to me!" she yelled grabbing her sister by her wrists.

"Listen to me, listen to me Sindella. I don't care, I already figured with how close the two of you were."

"Please Mar'i, don't tell mom and dad."

     Their parents were the most loving human beings she knew. Their family embraced being different, her eyes were naturally a solid green for crying out loud! Sindella had nothing to worry about but if she didn't want to tell them then Mar'i wasn't going to say anything. "Do you want me to drive you home?" she asked Arrow. The redhead was stark white and stunned after all of the yelling. It took a moment but she nodded her head and gave the young woman a nervous smile. The drive to Arrow's house was awkwardly silent.

     Sindella walked her up to the front door and sought that she got inside. Once her sister was back in the car she started up the car again. "Where are we going? The house is that way." Sindella pointed out as they turned right on the main road. She parked the car in a nearby parking lot and got out. "Why are we here?" Sindella asked irritation evident in her voice. The young woman took a deep breath and slipped her hands into her jean pockets. "Let's go for a walk." she decided. Her sister reluctantly followed and joined her on the nearby sidewalk.

     The outskirts of Gotham weren't as bad as the city. There wasn't as much crime and it was a good place for kids to grow up. Albeit expensive and the trips to the city and back were long but it was worth it. Sometimes people could only take so much of that city for one day, having a home away from it was a nice change of scenery. They walked for a good fifteen minutes until either two of them said anything. "I'm sorry for freaking out on you like that. I was just angry and scared that -"

"- that I was going to tell mum and dad." Mar'i finished.

     The girl nodded her face still red and blotchy from the tears she shed earlier. Mar'i understood the importance of secrets and why having someone know them was worrying. She had a lot of secrets, her family and friends didn't know most of them. "I just," she sniffled, "- I don't want them to hate me you know?" Sindella explained. Mar'i sighed and turned to face her sister pulling her in for a comforting hug. "Just because you like girls doesn't mean they're going to hate you. Trust me when I say that they worry more that you'll fail a test than if interested in women." she assured her sister.

     They stood on the sidewalk for a moment hugging. There weren't a lot of people around to see or hear their conversation. "You do know that we are the billboard family of different." Mar'i laughed. It was true, their family was as weird as it could get. She rubbed her sisters back in comforting circles while trying to assure her that their parents would not hate or disown her. "Okay well whatever you choose to do, tell them or not, I'll be there." Mar'i smiled down at her sister.

     Of course, she would be there. If she was in her position she hoped that her family would be there for her as well. Then again she couldn't possibly begin to imagine what was going through the teenagers head at the moment. "Thanks. Again I am sorry for doing that to you."

"It's okay. I've done a few regrettable things in the heat of the moment too."

"Can we get smoothies?"

"Yeah, let's go get some smoothies." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skycrystal23 ;)