Like I said, I said I'd mention the important rooms
So the top left is the dining room
Top right is Avantika's room
Bottom right is the sitting room
And bottom left is Maitreyi's room

Happy reading!

It's a little bit dark at first but it will get better. Don't worry.

As if things couldn't have gotten worse for Natalia today, they already did.

She just couldn't have found any flaws with Maitreyi. Although she may have just been blind or something as there were many.

She just either overlooked them or she genuinely didn't see them.

After the tour of her house, it was time for the anniversary to start. Maitreyi and Avantika's mother Khadijah had gone in the middle of the living room, with about twenty people in the room right now.

"Before we begin, I just want to thank all of you guys today for taking your time out of your day to make it here," she had announced.

Everybody had clapped except from Natalia who had just silently rolled her eyes and groaned when no one else was looking at her.

"As we all know, my older son Dominic had gotten killed five years ago today, and if it wasn't for my best friend Carolina, then I would never have suggested having a mini memorial service for him every year, the day he died."

When she had said Natalia's mum's name, Carolina had smiled as everyone had cheered for her even louder than before.

Today was just a day of saying eulogies about Dominic, as well as doing things in remembrance of him and thankfully not everybody had to say one as Khadijah knew not everybody here knew him.

They may have just been here as their parents were here, like Carolina more or less dragging Natalia into this.

The first three people to say a eulogy about Dominic, who was revealed to be adopted, hence why he didn't have an Indian name were all Hispanic and they had gone to the middle of the stage.

Their names were Trevor, Tremaine and Tyrone, with the three of them being light skinned triplets.

They were really close to Dominic when he was still alive, blaming such a cruel world for him being shot and gone way too soon.

Trevor had told Tyrone to hit it, where a very funky hip hop song had blasted through the speakers almost at full volume.

He was such a G
And Dominic was his name
With him being gone
It just ain't the same

Can't believe it's been 5 years
Time flies
But we all know that he's in a better place now
Above the skies

This had sounded more of a concert song than a eulogy, with Khadijah stopping them halfway through their song.

The lyrics may have been meaningful although the sound track definitely wasn't, with her covering her ears at the middle of everything.

"This is a memorial service. Not a concert."

"If we don't play the song it won't sound the same. Plus it was instrumental anyway so it's not really a big deal I guess," Tremaine had pointed out, frowning whilst gradually folding his arms at the same time.

Then Carolina had suggested that they had done it without the music, or they should have sat down with the poem unfinished and they did it later.

People were still kind enough to have clapped for them even though they didn't finish, and next was Maitreyi and Avantika.

This had really gotten Natalia's attention, as she had eyed Maitreyi and her sister with absolute jealousy as the two of them had gone to the room.

Maitreyi and Avantika knew that they couldn't have messed any of this up. It just wouldn't have done them any justice.

Dominic was their brother after all.

Hello everyone. I'm Maitreyi and this is my sister Avantika. I know things are difficult right now but don't worry. We'll do more some enjoyable activities later on.

Funeral music had played in the background, with Natalia wanting to shout that they already knew who they were but she wasn't disrespectful enough to do that.

Whilst Avantika had broken down into tears, Maitreyi didn't, with people comforting her.

I know that he died five years ago today but Maitreyi and I will never forget Dominic, Avantika had started, crying. He was such a wonderful brother and- and-

And he didn't deserve to die so soon.

But it's okay. We know that Allah is taking care of him for us. Maitreyi had continued, trying hard not to cry like Avantika was doing right now. It's better to live a short and beautiful life than a long but meaningless one as our mother always tells us.

Dominic and I inevitably had our ups and downs. Not just with me, with our other brother Santito and with Maitreyi as well, Avantika had continued. I'd be lying if I said that our relationship was good all the time. Because it wasn't. Far from it. We weren't perfect.

Then why did she seem that way?

The eulogy was beautiful, Natalia had to admit, not just that but today wasn't exactly a waste of time. She just acted like it was.

Toddy was Sunday and tomorrow was school, which was another reason as to why Natalia didn't really want to follow Carolina today.

After the memorial service was over and the two of them had gone back home, Natalia and Carolina didn't really speak to each other.

Carolina had felt quite abysmal for dragging her daughter into an event that she didn't want to go to, most especially about a dead person she didn't even know when they were still alive.

Maybe if it was a birthday party, then Natalia would have liked it more. But no, it was a funeral service, to an extent.

An hour or so after they had gone back home and they had settled inside, just as Natalia was about to go to bed, Carolina had knocked on her door to enter her room.

Natalia was browsing Maitreyi's Instagram, which she had given her even though she didn't exactly want it, not saying anything, even when her mother had come inside.

She couldn't even have yelled at her for knocking because she did.

"Hey, N. Can we talk?"

Not replying, Natalia had sighed, rolling her eyes and nodding reluctantly.

It was approaching 10:30PM, which was the time she had normally slept on a Sunday if she had school the next day.

"I was just about to sleep actually. Can it wait?"

"Not really. It's pretty short actually." She didn't even sit on her bed, she had just taken a deep breath, saying everything she wanted to say standing up.

Long story short, she was sorry for dragging her into this.

It wasn't fair on her. She didn't know Maitreyi or anyone else in her family so dragging her to the memorial service today wasn't exactly the best of ideas.

"It's fine. I actually had a pretty good time. Maitreyi, Aunty Khadijah and Avantika are very sweet people. They said I can go back to their house anytime."

She beamed.

"You had a good time? Really? You seemed cross you were there."

She was, she was lying.

She hated it. Worst day of her life.

Natalia didn't say anything like this though, faking a smile at her and nodding.

Anything to get what she wanted, more so to get Carolina out of there to do what she needed to do.

Carolina had hugged her tightly, kissing her on the forehead until Natalia had told her that it was getting too much now.

Apologising for that, she had left the scene, leaving her daughter to get ready for school tomorrow by going to bed first.

Little did she know that she was lying, because as soon as Carolina had left her room, Natalia had texted her main girls from school.

Y'all up? We need to talk. Pretty urgently x

She had sent that on the group chat - Zafira wasn't up but Syeda and Cynthia were thankfully.

Syeda:
Yeah babe. What's up?

Cynthia:
Wanna FaceTime?

Natalia actually wasn't thinking of FaceTiming them although that didn't sound like such a bad idea anymore.

She just had to double check that Carolina was actually downstairs first and she was, talking to her husband and her son.

They had gone out somewhere together (it was take your son to work day for some reason) and they were coming back tomorrow.

When Natalia knew that her mum was downstairs, she had FaceTimed her friends.

Natalia: Zafira sleeping right now?

Syeda: Yeah. What's up? We gotta sleep soon too so make it quick, Nats.

Cynthia: How was today? I could barely sleep for some reason. I think my parents are arguing again, but they've resolved it.

Natalia had groaned to herself, complaining how it was the worst day of her life after wishing things had ended up well with Cynthia's parents.

Syeda had wished for the exact same thing.

She had kept thinking if today could have gotten any worse for the whole day. Maitreyi was really getting on her nerves with her perfection.

She didn't even do anything wrong.

That was what jealousy had done to people. Maitreyi was honestly just being herself.

Cynthia: Dang. Maitreyi sounds like a downright pain in the derrière. And I don't even know her yet. So that's really saying something.

Syeda: She's not perfect. No one is. You just think she is. You're probably just blowing this whole thing out of proportion. You and Cynthia.

Natalia had screamed at her asking her whose side she was on but Syeda was genuinely just trying to state facts.

Either way, Natalia was just glad that she was never going to see Maitreyi again.

Or so she thought.

A week down the line and she had joined the private school they had all gone to (as in Syeda, Natalia, Zafira and Cynthia) - Natalia was just yet to find this out.

And when she did?

She wasn't very happy.

Her life was just about to go downhill again.

Hers and Maitreyi's at the same time- she was going to make sure of it.