1 Fall From Grace

They were living in the same high-class hotel but only met in kindergarten. A boy and a girl. Reagan Landsdale and Roseanne Craftford. A short ink black haired boy with green forest eyes and a naturally tanned skin and on the other side, a cute chocolate hair girl with adorable brown eyes. He was the only son of the chain restaurant's Landsdale owner, Karine Landsdale and she was the daughter of the one and only fashion creator Craftford, Leanna Craftford. They were two of the most notorious heir children, living on the best side of B country. Haughty and spoiled they were, accustomed to having others bend to their every will. Before long, she became the chief of the girls, and he was the leader of the boys. Wanting each one to impose their views on the whole class, it wasn't long before the two children started a fight, a divergence of opinion more often between them than any form of cooperation –not that children's fights really mattered anyway, more so when it was mostly verbal and when frustrated, tears were used. Surprisingly, he was more of a crybaby than she would ever be. The moment she started to tear up, it was like a dam was released from his eyes and in the end, instead of her, it would be him the crying mess. They gave quite the headaches to their caretakers.

Forced to share the same rooms, activities and more so, pushed by the adults to befriend each other, they ended up accepting each other's presence. Anyway, no matter how much they whined to their mothers, the latter was unwilling to do something about the other, they could only be resigned and learned to curb their own pride to compromise.

That said, it wasn't too long though before they became real friends, and when they learned that they shared the same living place, they were often meeting at their hotel. The class wasn't all that peaceful, however, for, now that they understood each other to the point of finishing each one's sentence, they became small little tyrants for their caretakers. The days of headaches for the latter had long to continue again.

Those days, however, hadn't lasted more than two years. His mother, who was in the middle of a legal case, had finally been sentenced to thirty-five years of imprisonment, all her assets taken, her credit cards frozen, forced to repay the debts and returned the money. From a rich heir, he became a little nobody without a penny to his name. Or rather not, he became the destitute heir, the criminal's child, the target of bullies for years to come whenever his mother's family name was pronounced.

*

His father had long disappeared in nature and never had he known the man. Without the person's photos, he would actually be unable to know what the man looked like. Nevertheless, while waiting in one of the offices of social services where he was, it was still his father's family that had been called. A kind woman, presenting herself as his father's little sister came to him, telling him that they would be together from now on. Reagan had been unwilling, trashing and shouting for his mother and when the stranger-turned-family promised him to bring him to her, he calmed down enough to listen.

Aunt Philomena indeed brought him to see his mother sometime later in the day.

Karin Landsdale was behind a transparent glass and he had to hold a phone to talk to her. His usually beautiful mother didn't have her lips red as she used to, her nails had been cut short. From the two weeks he hadn't seen her, her cheekbones were more pronounced and her tears were unwilling to stop. Reagan cried harder looking at her like that, pleading with her to come out, to let them go back to their house in the hotel, let him play with Michel, Kito, and Roseanne. He didn't want to stay with strangers anymore. Tears ran down his cheeks and ran down hers too, but no matter what, she was telling him to be a good boy and follow aunt Phil, she couldn't come back for now. When he asked if she was abandoning him, a strangle voiced came out of her, and she had to turn around a bit, hiding her bleeding heart as she wiped as she could her face, trying to regain a semblance of countenance. When she turned back, a forced smile that she wanted reassuring was on her lips, assuring him that no, he hasn't been abandoned. When the guard came to signal the end of the time, Reagan had to be brought out shouting, kicking and crying, unwilling to separate from his mother.

After that, he was quite quiet, refusing to answer when talked to... no words came from his mouth all through the road from the prison to his new home.

Aunt Philomena was living far, far away from his old home, they had to sit in her car for a long time before arriving at the destination. They traveled for one night and two mornings before arriving.

Her home was small, smaller than his bedroom. There weren't any of his toys, he couldn't have his favorite foods and he couldn't meet with his friends anymore. No matter how much he cried or threw a tantrum, his aunt refused to let him go back. Many nights, he slept while crying his eyes out.

Eventually, he had to do as he was told... he was no longer his mother's most favorite person... for obviously, like those people she dismissed, he too, had been dismissed.

For a time, the young boy thought his mother 'fired' him from her life because he hadn't been good enough and since he never shared such preoccupation with others, no one could correct him. It was only after he grew a bit more than he understood what exactly happened... quite brutally.

Reagan started primary school in this new city. It was nothing like his mother used to promise him. Many times, instead of been driven home immediately after school, he had to wait for his aunt who was most of the times late to take him home. Previously, if something interested him, he just had to take it and someone who followed behind him would pay but now he was told that he couldn't do that anymore: there wasn't enough money to pay for whatever he wanted. There actually wasn't enough money to replace his clothes whenever he didn't like them anymore. Worse than that, there were days when he would go hungry the whole time at school and when coming back his aunt would have yet to cook and he had to sit and wait. The previously spoiled little prince dearly missed the ready made cakes always available, the cook his mother paid for who would always cook his favorites, he was even missing the nagging Ben, his mother's chauffeur.

*

Meanwhile, one day, Roseanne woke to never see her friend again. She asked left and right, her mother and her father, but besides saying that he left, they were unwilling to say where, or rather they always said he went back to his family. What family, wasn't his mother living here too? How could he go like that, without so much as a goodbye. Roseanne threw a tantrum, kicked and fussed up, but in the end, she never saw her friend again and as years passed, she forgot even his existence.