⬆️Reese Witherspoon as Carolina (Natalia's mum). Enjoy!

Might be a shorter chapter because I had limited time to write this. But the chapters will definitely be longer as I go along, unless stated otherwise!

A lot of pictures are in this chapter but normally they won't be. I can't even say it will be a one off. It might not be.

"This isn't fair, mum. You can't force me to go to some random girl's house I don't even know!"

"For the last time, Natalia Neveah Delores, the girls's mum is having an anniversary for her son. He died five years ago today."

Natalia and her mother Carolina were in the car, on the way to some random people's house.

The random people were known as Maitreyi, Avantika and Khadijah Ramakrishnan. Khadijah was their mother- Avantika was the older sister of Maitreyi by approximately two years now.

The girls had a brother and father too who weren't in at the moment. The brother had a weekly school trip, with the father accompanying him.

They weren't random people for Carolina however they were for Natalia considering how she had never actually met them before in her life.

Carolina and Khadijah had been very close friends for a long time, even before their children were born. Some childhood friends would have stopped speaking to each other after a while, but not these two.

Khadijah had told Carolina about her first son's death, he had gotten shot because of gun violence half a decade ago due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carolina was even the person that had suggested having an anniversary party for him every day of the year he died.

Khadijah would have never thought of that.

Today was the 17th of January, and they were in the UK. Christmas break had just ended, with the girls just starting sixth form, or college.

As Natalia and Carolina were fighting, to prevent them fighting in the car, Natalia had sat at the back, texting her friends on her phone.

"And if you don't behave yourself during this anniversary then you're definitely going to have that phone taken away from you."

The song that Natalia had listened to on her phone had oftentimes reflected her mood, but she wasn't listening to anything right now.

Just talking to her friends from school.

Some people in school were popular because they were nice. Natalia was the opposite and she didn't care.

Her main friends from school were know as Syeda, Cynthia and Zafira, all talking to each other on Whatsapp.

Can't believe I have to go to some stupid death anniversary of some kid I didn't even know when he was still alive. 🙄

I'm sure it can't be that bad, Zafira had texted back almost straight away.

Her positivity ticked Natalia off.

So much so that she didn't even know why she was in the group to begin with. Although they didn't dislike her enough to be rude to her.

Plus, if Zafira had left, she would have had no one. They weren't ready to be responsible for her having no friends yet.

Sounds boring. But don't be disrespectful to the dead, was Syeda's reply.

Having enough already, as her friends didn't really understand how she felt right now, Natalia had turned off her phone, groaning to herself silently.

Complaining in her head had soon more or less turned into sleeping, and thirty minutes later, they were there.

Their house was way cooler than Natalia had thought it would be. But she wasn't amused by this, more so infuriated that she couldn't have lived like this.

Natalia had become the jealous type pretty quickly.

Not too quickly, although it was a flaw that she really needed to work on at the moment.

She had said she would but she never really did.

She was a heavy procrastinator and it really showed.

Carolina was the one that had told her that she was there because Natalia had been sleeping the whole way through, without even realising it.

"This place is beautiful!"

Irritatingly oversized, Natalia had muttered to herself after her mother had practically exclaimed that.

Carolina didn't say anything, she had just grimaced complacently to himself as she had knocked on the door.

Before she had done that though, she wanted to know if Natalia had remembered the rules for being here, which they had discussed like once or twice in the car.

"Of course I remember the rules."

"What are they?"

There were three.

Don't be someone you're not
Don't ask any personal questions
Don't chew loudly

Definitely don't chew loudly! Huge turn off.

Grinning, Carolina had then knocked on the door for real, waiting for one of them to open the door.

She had known Khadijah for almost her whole life now and therefore knew what annoyed her when visitors were around and vice versa.

To their surprise, Khadijah didn't answer the door, as youngest daughter Maitreyi had done so instead.

Natalia was already resentful of the house, even more resentful when she had seen Maitreyi herself though.

She inevitably wasn't perfect though she did seem that way.

"Oh my gosh, Aunty Carolina! It's so lovely to see you! You're not supposed to be here for another half hour!"

Maitreyi had hugged her regardless, and vice versa, Natalia just watching her the whole time because Maitreyi had seemed to be everything she wasn't.

Even seemingly under pressure was Maitreyi flawlessly put together.

Not just that but she was...

Pretty.

Stunning.

She had a nice family and house.

She didn't even need make up.

"We couldn't have afforded to be late," Carolina had explained to her, eventually introducing her to Natalia who had tried to avoid judging her.

As Carolina had gone inside because she had already known her way, Natalia in the meantime was left with stuck up Maitreyi.

She wasn't stuck up at all though.

She was a very sweet girl, Natalia was just envious of her lifestyle.

She had cared that her brother had died five years ago, which was why they were all really here. But even then, she couldn't have seen this girl and her life any as less than perfect.

"Hi! I'm Maitreyi. Please pronounce it right. A lot of people don't. It's my-tray-yee." She had then stretched out her hand for Natalia to shake it. "My mum and my sister Avantika told me a lot about you. It's so nice to meet you! I've always wanted to meet you since they told me about you earlier on today!"

Natalia couldn't stop staring at her hand.

The perfume she was wearing and her henna tattoo were meticulous.

Was everything about this girl perfect?

Rolling her eyes in her head, Natalia had forced a fake smile at this girl, saying her name correctly.

As Maitreyi had given her a tour of the house, Natalia couldn't have stopped mimicking in her mind what she had just said.

I'm Maitreyi.

Please pronounce it right.

A lot of people don't. It's my-tray-yee

She had mimicked it countless times, wondering why she had said that.

There was nothing wrong with it. She had just wanted people to pronounce her name right. It genuinely wasn't that big of a deal, Natalia was just internally making it seem that way.

The tour of the house had taken about twenty or so minutes, with Natalia hating this girl more each time for some that wasn't not within her control.

Even more so when she had seen her older sister, who was just as stunning as her.

She was hoovering in her room, singing a Bollywood song at the same time.

When Maitreyi had gone to her room for the tour, she had called her name, making her jump.

Then she had seen Natalia.

"Girl, you ain't supposed to be here for another half hour!"

"Chill, A. They came early. No crime in that," Maitreyi had deadpanned, turning to Natalia. "That's my sister Avantika. She's lovely."

Natalia didn't ask or care.

She just wanted to go home.

When the tour was over, Maitreyi had asked her what she had thought of the house.

It was such a beautiful house and anyone in there would have been blessed to stay there.

Despite the fact that Natalia was actually thinking this, she didn't dare say that.

She had just kept thinking about how much she didn't want to be here right now.

Syeda, Zafira and Cynthia were having a sleepover and Syeda's house at the moment, which Natalia couldn't have gone to because of this.

Natalia may have disliked Maitreyi because she was becoming jealous of her, however just because she was jealous of someone didn't necessarily mean that she was bad at hiding it.

"It's wonderful," she had muttered through gritted teeth, Maitreyi not hinting her jealousy. "And I'm truly glad to be here at the moment."

What a joke.

In the next chapter, I'll do a picture of what her house looks like. Not every room but the main ones.