Enthralled

He Came Calling

Hazelnut,

Your father is coming back tonight. There’s pork roast in the refrigerator. Heat it up. But make pasta too for safety measures. I called your boss to tell him you’re taking the day off, so you have plenty of time to prepare dinner. I’ll come home as soon as I can.

Love Mom.

PS: Get your sister to clean up her room. It’s a mess.

She crumpled the note up with a sigh. Get her sister to clean up the room. Getting a baby to feed itself seemed like an easier task.

"RORYYYYYY!!!!!" Hazel screamed up the stairs.

"WHAT?!"

"CLEAN UP YOUR ROOM!"

A door slammed. How could this day be any worse?!

First, Haydn was no where in sight when Hazel searched for him after school. It was weird but she’d just assume something urgent came up. Second, her mom just called Mr Smith without informing her beforehand. This was a guarantee for an earful from him. (Partly she was relieved. She didn’t know how to face that icky person.)

Third included an anti social grump who enjoyed living in a dumpster. Fourth, her father was coming home tonight.

Don’t get her wrong. She loved her dad. It was just…he’s as strict as a nun and it was a lot of pressure being in his presence. Where are you going, what are you doing, why are you late. Questions were being asked at every minute.

He was a sales person and travel often. He’d be home for a week then gone for the next. Hazel suspected her father felt guilty for not spending enough time with them.

Thinking both Rory and her might run astray without his presence, he was a prison guard when he was home. Ordering and interrogating all three of them, her mother was not excluded.

Mrs Lorely worked in a preschool. She was always working overtime to generate more income and Hazel’s father wasn’t please with that fact.

His thinking was a tad old fashioned and his ego was wounded.

A man was supposed to provide for the family, not the woman. This was his favorite line every time they get into a row over the same issue. However, Mr Lorely and his wife were loyal to each other despite the circumstances.

It was a fact Hazel was thankful to acknowledge. She didn’t want to go through what Arianna went through. It was horrible.

"RORRYYY!!!" Hazel flew up the stairs and pounded the door. When it was obvious the door wasn’t going to open by itself, Hazel stormed off to find the key and with a click she unlocked the door.

"Hey! Don’t you know the meaning of privacy? GET OUT!"

"Privacy is only granted to people who don’t turn their room into a pig sty,"

Really the room was a total mess. The bed wasn’t made and the sheets were tangled in a heap along with clothes – Hazel didn’t know if the clothes were clean or otherwise. Books, shoes and underwear were lying everywhere. There were plates and glasses with soaked, molding cookies in them and – Holy cow, was that a piece of green chicken?

If one didn’t know better, they would have thought this room belonged to a boy. Instead of a 15 year old girl.

Without another word, Hazel began scooping up all the clutter and threw them out Rory’s room and down the stairs.

"Stop it! Go away you nosy woman!." Rory was tugging the stuff out from her hands but Hazel just wrenched them away and made it rain clothes.

Rory knew if the house’s a mess, their father would be mad. So she’d have no choice but to clean up her room or else Hazel wouldn’t stop shoveling everything out. This was the only way to get her to listen. She was so stubborn Hazel was tired of her. She assumed her sister was just going through puberty but damn, she didn’t remember being such a handful when she went through that phase.