First Day: P3 (II)

Aurora watched Alex's expression and rolled her eyes inwardly.

Like Alex, Aurora had also noted that despite their father being so young and upbeat, he would often say the most ridiculous and outdated phrases. However, it didn't really bother Aurora as much as it did Alex.

And Aurora knew that Alex's disdain also stemmed from the fact that their younger sister often imitated their father.

Alex was a typical sis-con … no, Aurora corrected herself. He wasn't a typical sis con because he was just so cold-faced most of the time and didn't overly pamper or praise Ariel.

But he was a sis-con nonetheless.

Aurora even suspected that Alex's sister complex was partly due to Ariel being overly – and obviously - attached to their father. Whether Alex realised it or not, he was always competing with their father.

Aurora wanted to snort but that would only make the food go up the wrong way, so she chewed her waffles more vigorously than they deserved. She peeked at Alex, who was still having this sour face on as he pierced the egg yolk and watch it run all over his plate.

Well, at least Alex was a source of entertainment.

Aurora's lips curled into a smile as she thought of one particular Energizer Bunny* that would certainly be the catalyst of such sources of entertainment.

Ah, being in the Accelerated Class was truly fun.

✿ Author posts on WN and neovel ✿

At that moment, the object of Aurora's thoughts was in the kitchen, alone.

Her parents had to go and open the shop earlier today, but unlike before, Isaura didn't mind.

It didn't matter that she would have had to wake up by herself, get ready, and go down to eat breakfast by herself.

Isaura was busy making an omelette, and her toast had just popped up from the toaster. She took one slice, placed it on the chopping board, and buttered it. Taking the pan with the omelette, she tilted it and carefully placed the omelette on the toast.

Taking some tomatoes she had sliced earlier, she placed them nicely and evenly on the omelette before squeezing out some mayonnaise onto it and placed the other buttered toast on top.

Finally, she cut the sandwich in half, by cutting diagonally from one corner to another. Satisfied, Isaura took the two pieces and placed them on a plate, and sat down at the breakfast table.

Isaura glanced at the iron-meshed dome** that covered the breakfast her mother had left for her with a purse of her lips. She did appreciate her mother's thoughts but really, the 'breakfast' of thawed out waffle cakes was not appetizing at all.

It was because of such breakfasts that Isaura had learned to cook. Zue had given her this suggestion and egged her on, and Isaura was grateful for it. Just by looking at cooking videos, she found that she had a knack for it and simply made her own food whenever her parents were too busy.

However, Isaura never told her parents that she could make some basic dishes. She liked the effort her parents made in preparing food for her, and it alleviated the loneliness a bit whenever her parents were just too busy at the shop.

Which happens a lot nowadays, more so during the school holidays.

Isaura was not too bothered as she had Zue, but she couldn't deny the missing her parents and their care.

So she kept her secret, to enjoy their warmth and at the same time, Isaura also found that she enjoyed cooking.

She followed a lot of kids chefs, with Fleur being one of them – but although she admired Fleur's skill, Fleur tended to focus more on desserts than dishes as a meal. Her first favorite was May Thu Moe Myint, an 8-year-old girl from Myanmar who had started cooking videos and was now selling the dishes she makes.

May had been her first inspiration and helped her on her journey of cooking, so May would always have a special place in her heart. If May could do it, so could she.

She could only make simple meals though, as she couldn't get the ingredients to make any other meals. She could only use what was in the fridge, and her mother didn't quite stock up that much on certain things.

Isaura wasn't too bothered though.

At least, she could do this. She'd take the breakfast her mother had done and feed it to the birds later.

For now, the usually depressing mood she would be in was not there as it was the first day of school! Just the thought of being able to go back to school and be with her friends made her all excited.

She missed all of them.

All of her classmates.

Especially Alex.

During the school break, she couldn't contact him at all as she didn't have a phone and Alex didn't even have an online profile. But at least she was able to still contact Zue, so it wasn't so bad.

But it seems Zue may not like Alex, because every time she talked about Alex, Zue would not sound so enthusiastic about it.

It made Isaura sad a bit, but she didn't take it to heart. She was sure that Zue would warm up to Alex sooner or later, as Alex was really nice.

She wanted the two people who were important to her, to get along.

It goes without saying that Zue is the most important person to her, apart from her parents – and though she didn't realise it herself, Alex was also someone extremely important to her.

Why, she couldn't say.

She was the type that simply acted upon what she felt and she felt very good about Alex.

The only bright side was that, at least, her parents were very happy about Alex.

Or rather, how much she tended to talk about Alex.

Her mother encouraged her to talk about him while her father simply nodded.

Isaura finished up her breakfast, washed up, and packed up the food her mother had prepared. Carefully locking up the door and slipping the housekey (that was on a simple necklace) into her school uniform, Isaura hummed happily and was practically skipping towards the bus that had just arrived.

She joined the line that was basically people lining up to enter the bus and greeted all the adults who were there to send off their children.

"Morning Mrs. Ye, Mrs. Yun, Auntie Kelly," Isaura shouted out with a smile.

The first two were the mothers of the girls in front while the other was the housekeeper of the boy who had just entered the bus.

"Morning, Isaura. Your mother isn't sending you off?" one asked.

Isaura shook her head with a big smile, "No, Mrs. Yun. I am a big girl now!"

Mrs Yun didn't answer and simply nodded.

She liked this energetic and bubbly girl, and honestly felt that her parents were just not caring enough. Then again, it's not her business and it's someone else's household affairs. She raised her children differently and would never imagine letting her own child go to school alone. Even taking the bus had been a big issue for her, but her husband had convinced her and more importantly, her own daughter wanted to.

Plus, Isaura was clearly not abused in any way, and she wasn't unhappy, so who was she to judge?

Even Mrs Patridge didn't send their son to the bus.

Still, Mrs Yun sighed and watched as the children all entered the bus. She waved to Isaura as well, feeling that it was the least she could do since there was no one here to send her off.

Isaura, in the meantime, completely unaware of the sympathetic gaze Mrs Yun gave her, sat down happily. She was practically jumping on the chair, just thinking about reaching school and seeing Alex again.

THIS time, she won't miss.

She had been practising!

As she entered, she greeted Ms Candy the bus driver, and waved happily at Shane and Shirley. It was nice that these two that she had gotten to know last year as Alex's first classmates, were still taking the bus.

She found Shirley to be rather jovial and nice, while Shane was rather quiet and withdrawn. Even after a year of having lunch together, Shane never really did talk.

Isaura didn't mind, though.

She didn't take it personally and just felt that Shane was shy.

Very, very shy.

It was enough for her to have Alex.

Isaura sat down and was happy she managed to get a window seat this time.

Sitting there while hugging her schoolbag, she smiled as she thought of finally seeing Alex again.