Chapter 7: Back Home

The cab pulled up at Lyia residence. Her parents were long dead, Her mother owned a boutique and her dad used to work in a factory. This was the base line of their relationship as friends, they both had one thing in common; both their were dead. They both learn to understand each other beacause they both had been through the same horror of loosing both parents. And they both found comfort in themselves.

After removing her bag, Lyia added,

"Hey, feel at home, I will just go to the kitchen to see what we can have to eat, what we ate at the cafeteria didn't seem to do the trick for lunch."

Jennifer sat back on the sofa and sunk into it. Despite the fact that the first semester had just begun, she was tired. There was undoubtly far too much that needed to be passsed. She wished it could be a sweet potato every now and then.

Despite the stress of being in college and struggling to pass classes, she knew giving up was not an option. As she aspired to take over and run her father's business . . . . her father's legacy. It remain just a little over a few years before she could finally graduate.

Lyia called out from the kitchen, "Jenn, come on let's eat!".

"I am coming!". Jennifer yelled back, she walked to the kitchen while singing "let it go, let it go" from the animated movie "FROZEN".

"I know your voice is good, Anna," Lyia said smiling. "let us eat."

"All right, Elsa," Jennifer responded, holding back her laughter.

"By the way . . . ." Jennifer began earnestly.

"Lyia, have you seen Olaf? I am concerned he will melt since it's still too hot," she added with a huge grin on her face. They both stare at each other for a few seconds and burst out in laughter.

"You should probably take your prescription hourly, or better yet, contact a psychiatrist, beacause your brian damge is growing worse,". Lyia jokingly remarked.

Jennifer stayed at Lyia's place for a few hours, tying to annoy her as much as possible. She decided to head home once she was completely satisfied with her crumbled and unhappy face, which was created by her corny jokes. Its's was about four o'clock in the afternoon, and she scheduled to be at school around five o'clock.

She immediately called for a cab to take her home. Lyia insisted on sending her home with her family personal driver, but she refused. "I'll just make the driver tired, and I'll be fine going home alone. Plus your driver is also fairly old." Jennifer' excuse.

"Mister, could you please drop me off near this restaurant as soon as possible? I just want to buy something," she requested to the taxi driver, pointing to the name of her father's restaurant name on the map. She wanted to get Auntie Mirabel some of her favourite foods and snacks. Because, she was going back home to see her folks, it only made sense to her to bring back something nice.

"Good day, ma'am," a staff said as soon as she walked into the restaurant door.

Nearly all the restraunt's staff knew her since she hung out there when she usually did not have anything to do at home. She also took it as a habit to assist with things around the restraunt like serving guest and so on. This therefore gave the employees a good perspective of her as a humble and a person of humility. And since she was going to take over all her father's assets one day, it woundnt hurt to learn a thing or two.

"Can you please tell Andres to prepare everything in this list?" She politely inquired of her employee.

"Madam, do you want to sit in your office while waiting for your packages to arrive?" Gina the restaurant manager, approached her and asked. The actually had many chains of restaurants. Since her uncle Donald handled the business, the profit had sky roketted to high percentages that allowed them to open more than one branch of fast food center throughout the city, each of those branches having a manager that oversees the day to day affairs of their sector.

"No, thanks." She replied, "I just stopped by Gina." She nodded konwly to her. "Hmmmmm . . . shouldn't be in school by this hour, maam. Did you by any chance, skip your meal again and Miss Lyia pulled you out for you to have lunch?" she smiled widely at jennifer, that was returned by a sidealong glance.

"Are you a fortune teller now, Gina? Jennifer inquired with chuckles.

"Hey actually, I was thinking about changing careers; you know my wage here at your restaurant isn't really enough for my performance; you could, you know, at least raise my salary pay. . . please," she remarked, attempting to sway Jennifer.

"All right, I'll tell Uncle what you said, and am sure he'll take care of it," she responded with a smile.

Gina's wrinkled eyes twinkled as she asked,"Really?". She seemed to have been looking forward to this moment for a long time. "you, you know we always want what's best for our employees, so I think I'll advise to Uncle that he dismiss you. That way, you'll be able to find another job compensation that's appropriate for your work performance. What do you think? I'm cool, right?" Jennifer asked trying to scare her. She became pale when she heard what Jennifer had said. She seemed to be completely convinced by her bullshit.

Jenn almost burst out laughing at her reaction, but she restrain herself. She was really in the mood to make fun of people that day.

"You know , I'm joking right, I wasn't serious when I said what I said. I was teasind, you look like you havent laughed in a while. Jeeez cant anyone take a joke today. First Lyia now you." Jennifer explained.

"Tss. Anyway, maam, I've known you for a number years now. You always purchase your Aunt's favourite treats everytime you do something that irritates her," Gina remarked, winking at Jenn.

"Tss. Yeah, yeah. Not this time around, I just taught I'd do something nice for her. What are you doing here, anyway? You should be w orking right now, not chi chatting with your damn boss; do you want ne to fire you, right?" Jenn said. " And don't worry I'll uncle about your salary problem okay?". She finished.

"Aww, you're really cute, boss. Thanks a lot," she said as she drew closer to her and squeezed both her cheeks before walking away down the hall.

"Maam,Chef says hello," one of her said smiling.

"OK, just let him know I'm in a rush and wont be able to hang out much longer," She replied.

Jenn strooled outside the restraunt to get a txi, luckily one was just outside.

When she got home, she promptly went inside. Her aim was to hide in her bedroom after placing the desserts she bought back at the restaunt in the refigerator. She slowly opened the front door, like as if she were a ninja. She took great care not to make a sound. She was about to walk inside when she heard a voice from the living room behind her. A baritone voice and a loud laughter, her entire body stiffened. She turned quickly and was about to fall as four handsome, masculine men, including Tyler, appeared before her.

She felt humiliated for whatever reason. What brought them here?, she thought. I wish I'd stayed in the restraurant a bit longer. I'm hoping they didn't see me in such a humiliating position but who am I kidding?. She thought. Few seconds earlier she was in ninja mood now she was in tiny little rat at the corner mood.

"Hey, young lady, don't be shy. Calm down, its just us. My name is Elliot, by the way. You can call me Ell, or even better, baby." He said, winking at her. He reached for her and grabbed her right hand and was about to kiss when another man shook him.

"Don't mind the ugly junk my lady." The second guy murmured, hugging her. "I am Mario, the most handsome and hottest of us all".

She couldn't keep up with the pace of things. She just noticed Mario stroking the back of his head, and the two next him were holding back their laughter. Tyler on the other hand, was just sitting there eating grapes, peacefully.

"Keep your distance, man. The tiger is fierce, and you might wanna be butcher in no time. Roar!" said the third guy, smiling. His statement made no sense to Jenn at all. "my name is Joshua, you can call me josh, and I'm at your service. I wont come any closer, or I might get hit by the grapes as well."

"What?" she inquired, perplexed. They couldn't stop laughing at her.

Tyler abruptly said; "Tss, go up to your room, mom willdiscipline you."

" yeah, sure thing" she replied.

Embarrassed, she turned to his pals and mutterd, "Bye."

"Awwww, so sweet baby," said the crazy guy named Mario, " hmmmm… is that cake I smell you carrying or is it just you?, cause amma like to eat both of you". The other guys laughed hard including tyler but his was a bit more subtile .

She got the refrigarator and dropped the desserts inside before going to her room. She let out a sigh of relief. She was lucky that she didn't run into aunt Mirabel on her way to her room.