Riley

Chapter twelve: The Diaper Trio

Sally Halley was in her room listening to music on her iPod when her mother called to her from the landing. Only her roar brought her back down to earth. In fact, with her face on the floor.

"Alexandra Grace Halley!" screamed her mother furiously. "Come here at once!"

The little girl paused the music and placed it back on her desk, on top of a school book she could not remember. Yes, she would do her homework as soon as she set foot in her den again.

"Coming, Mom!" she announced to her in the same tone.

As she descended the stairs, her anger thinned step by step. She was having a peaceful Wednesday afternoon, but who knows why, her mother decided that this was the right time to ruin her moment of relaxation. She prayed that she would not have to check on her little brothers, which meant she would also have to change their diapers.

Coming down the stairs, she saw her mother talking to someone whose voice she could not help but recognize. She had not heard that woman speak in a kind voice since the twins were born. She was complimenting him on his kindness and his polite and always gentle way of speaking. Boy, was she envious!

"Theo!" exclaimed Sally and ran up to him and hugged him. "Hello! What brings you here?"

Her mother answered for him in her usual harsh and dissatisfied tone. "Your friend came to give you a hand with your homework. If he can, he can help you review for tomorrow's math question, he was telling me that he is good at math."

Sally had given up hope on her. She was not doing one thing right in his eyes, this made her angry and it was useless to rebel and stoop to her level. Didn't she have the twins to look at? She remained composed and nodded without any emotion. This Theo noticed.

"Let's go to my room so we can leave my mother to do her own thing," she told him content to get out of there.

Theo followed her in total silence, perhaps he had been intimidated by the brusque and unfriendly manner of his friend's mother. The only thing he could think of was that he was finally with her and no longer with that witch. He breathed a sigh of relief and told her, "Thank you."

Sally locked the door, she too sighed relieved. "Nice excuse about homework. At least that will keep her away from us for a while."

Theo looked puzzled, should he have told her it wasn't a lie? He scratched his head. "Yeah..."

"What brought you here?" his friend asked.

"So," he began nervously, "one, I wanted to spend time with you and two, do homework."

She huffed and flopped onto her bed on his stomach, using the index finger of her left hand she pointed the chair next to the desk at Theo.

"We don't have who knows what homework to do," he told her. "We only have math."

"I'm even being quizzed tomorrow!"

"I'll give you a hand, you heard your mother just now."

"Who cares about her!" she blurted out. "Even if I get a good grade, she would care little! Did you hear her as she spoke to me? Sally do this, listen to this, act like this and blah blah blah," Sally complained, dropping her head back on the pillow.

Theo frowned interdictedly. Before they left, Mrs. Halley had never uttered those words; he recognized the annoyed voice. "Ignore her."

"I try, but I can't!"

"Try harder!" promptly replied Theo. "Let her say, sooner or later she will finish it. In the meantime, shall we start? So we can talk later without any problems?"