It was the fourth day of the Abellana family's vacation stay in the Green Valley Village in Baguio City. Phoebe couldn't stop wondering what was happening in her school now, it was February so definitely there were classes, but since the two oafs had forced her on taking a leave, she had no choice but to let her ass freeze in this city. Dorothy and Carl were indeed steadfast, though in an undeniably delusional way and Phoebe wished a miracle would happen so her teachers would be considerate enough to let her cope up with everything she'd missed once she returned.
This had been the disarrayed cycle of her life for the past years and believe it or not, Phoebe had already resorted to her trump card just to force herself to adapt to it. If it was only the nagging and the irritating voices of her old folks, it would be fine for the resiliency she'd cultured all those years would handle it for her, but to top it with the cumbersome loads from school which she would be needing to busy herself with as soon as she returned, that would be considered a public execution. It was college, and it was obviously not a matter of staying idle because that could shape one's future.
Phoebe was inside her room and was currently dressing up for today's scheduled plan. Much to her dismay, it turned out that she couldn't escape the strawberry-picking in the end. She'd been told that they would have to go back to Mrs. Anne's place today to harvest the remaining berries. It was not the money her mom and dad were after, but the satisfaction they got from doing the job which made Phoebe wonder if she was really their biological daughter. Since it would be a long day staying in the cold, Phoebe had to wear the thickest hoodie she had. It was colored black and was partnered with a white jeans and a pair of white Niké Air Force shoes.
The Abellana family left their house at 7 am and headed straightly to Mrs. Anne's place. As soon as they arrived, they found the old woman already busy with the gardening; Cutting overgrown stems, cultivating the soil, trimming leaves, etcetera.
"I'm glad you came today too, and Phoebe is here, will she join us this time?", the old woman asked with a delighted smile on her face.
Dorothy took the moment to tell the truth. "Yes Mrs. Anne. We had to force Phoebe to tag along today, however.", she stated with no sense of confidentiality.
Phoebe truly wanted to start remolding herself after being enlightened by the two brothers, and with "remolding" being said, it meant it included changing her attitude towards her lovable parents. However, she hadn't gone midway through it yet, she was already starting to back out. She still did her best not to retort though. Unfortunately, her mom didn't escape the glare.
"Oh I see. I'm sorry for that dear, don't worry I have special treats for you after this.", the old woman said as if Phoebe was a child whom she could bribe with sweets.
Phoebe still put on the facade and faked her words. "Thanks Mrs. Anne."
The Abellana family was ushered to the backyard of Mrs. Anne's house. They were handed one bucket each for the container of the strawberries. Phoebe took hers reluctantly and fidgeted with it for a while. There was no turning back, she was like a cornered mouse without any escape route. She held onto the handle and prepared herself for the oncoming battle.
Dorothy suddenly raised a question. "Mrs. Anne, who are those two over there?"
The old woman gazed at the distance. "Oh they are here to help with the harvesting too. They are actually brothers, the younger one often goes here to run some errands for me like selling my crops to the shops around the area and buying organic fertilizers. Honestly, today is quite different because it's unusual for him to take his older brother with him.", the old woman explained.
Phoebe was amidst preparation of her mind. Struck by curiosity, she turned her head to see the source of topic for herself. She stared in awe as an unbelievable scene played right before her. How on earth could the two be here? Was it some kind of scripted joke? They were even doing strawberry-picking which she was about to do herself. It was the fourth time she was seeing the two, and that was for four consecutive days. How strange, she thought.
She couldn't just stare at them from the distance so she walked towards the area where they were picking strawberries, leaving her bewildered old folks behind. Raine and Ray were crouched down next to each other, clusters of strawberries were hanging in front of them. The older one who was abnormally childish was nagging his brother by sprinkling him with grass on the head. Ray didn't look irritated though, he would just casually brush off the grass from his head everytime his brother put them.
Once again, the boy didn't fail to amuse her for the patience he possessed. She knew he was more composed than herself in all aspects because if it'd been her, she would have shoved the grass to Raine's mouth to make him quit playing the annoying prank. It was really hard to believe that their age gap was five years, and they were even playing the role of each other on top of that.
"Kuya, if you don't take this seriously we won't make it to the fruit shop on time.", Ray said, removing the last pieces of grass on his head.
Raine on the other hand rather showed his arching lips. "Okay, I'm sorry."
The two stood up to move to the next clusters of strawberries but halted when they saw Phoebe standing just one and a half meters away from them.
Phoebe cracked a smile. "Hi there!", she began.
There was a brief pause, and Ray was the first one to speak. "Ate Phoebe? What are you doing here?"
Phoebe couldn't help but laugh at the question of the latter one. "That's what I'd been wanting to ask you two as I stood over there.", she said, pointing at her location just a minute ago. "Running errands again?"
Without changes in his expression, Ray answered. "Yeah, I will bring these to the fruit shop and Mrs. Anne will pay me for that."
Phoebe nodded while pursing her lips. "So, why did you bring him with you?", she asked, tilting her head as she looked at Raine behind him.
The boy sighed. "He was so insistent ate, I told him to just stay at home today but he wouldn't stop asking me to take him with me."
Phoebe eyed Raine warily. "You knew everything that happened yesterday, right?"
Raine didn't hide the smile which was so infuriating given the fact that it was not a smiling matter. "Yeah but it's okay, I've told Ray I will stick with him all day long so if anything bad happens I won't be in danger.", he cheerfully said.
In all honesty, Phoebe really pitied the younger one for having to exert extra effort in taking care of his brother. He couldn't even say "no" to him. Ray would surely become a great father in the future.
"Raine, don't get it wrong, but seriously you're making it harder for Ray.", she said.
Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by Mrs. Anne who had just arrived at the scene with Dorothy and Carl.
"Ray, the fruit shop owner just called. He said he needed the strawberries now, as soon as possible."
"But we haven't reached the quota yet.", Ray answered.
"It's okay, we can bring them later today. For now you have to deliver the ones we've gathered so far because the intended visitor who's also his patronizer has arrived earlier than planned."
"Okay, I get it. Let's go kuya.", Raine commanded as he began to walk away, expecting his brother to follow behind.
Raine remained still, however. When Ray noticed the absence of footsteps, he turned his back and stared at his brother in confusion.
"Can I stay?", he asked.
Ray raised his brow. "What?"
"Phoebe just arrived, I want to spend more time with her while picking strawberries. We still have so much to talk about since yesterday took the chance away."
