Chapter 9 WE WELCOME OTHERS-the frustrated artists

Robert looked at Angela. Aside from the short hair that reaches to her chin, she doesn't seem to be any different. She still looked as menacing as she does when they were walking alone together and she still kept her distance, but the scene that took place in the classroom was really surprising.

"Um, if you're looking for my cousin, he left this morning..." said he, thinking of a reason why she decided to go home with him.

"I know." Angela replied blankly. "He told me about it yesterday."

"Then... why are you going home with me?" he asked.

"Like I said, kuya Glenn asked me to do it."

"What about your secret?"

"Someone's bound to find out anyways..." Angela turned around to face him, "Better I show them myself than let some stupid wimp like you ruin my image."

"Oh, so that's it?" said Robert smiling, "That's a relief..." he added in a whisper.

They were just past the mango tree when a car honked behind them. They turned around and saw an old pick-up truck coming round the bend. It was Robert's mom, waving at them.

"Robert! On your way home?" she asked as she passed them.

"Mom," Robert called back, "you just got back from the airport?"

"Yeah, the traffic's awful!" she replied, "So, who's your little friend?" she looked at Angela and smiled.

"This is Angela," said Robert as he introduced Angela to his mom, "she lives next door, Angela, this is my mom."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Cordero." said Angela returning the smile.

"Nice to meet you too!" replied the other, "And please, just call me tita Glo." she reached at the back seat and unlocked the door, "C'mon, I'll give you a ride."

The two climbed the truck, the back seat was a little crammed due to some packages containing different colors of cloth and fashion books so the two had to sit close together. Robert looked at the passenger seat in front and saw that it was filled with bags as well.

"What's all this stuff mom?" asked Robert.

"Just some stuff I picked up on my way home." she replied, "I'm gonna use in on a new design I've been working on."

"You're a designer?" asked Angela.

"Yeah, she designs houses," said Robert, "and every once in a while, she designs clothes too."

"Wow, that's really cool, I've always wanted to decorate my own room, but my father wouldn't let me." said Angela, "It must be real nice to turn something in your head into something more tangible."

"Yes, I am mighty proud of my profession," replied Mrs. Cordero, "What about your parents?" Robert looked at Angela, a little uneasy. His mother didn't know about Angela's mother.

"My father's a lawyer, we have our own firm," Angela replied, "My mom was a housewife, but she was a doctor before that. She died when I was born."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know..." she said in a sympathetic voice.

"It's ok, tita," replied Angela smiling, "I was very young when she passed away."

"Ah, here we are," said Robert, trying to change the mood, "mom, where do you want me to place these packages?"

"Oh, just take them in the parlor, I'll see to them later," she looked at Angela and grinned, "So, how would you like to design your own room?"

"Eh?" asked Angela.

"Eh?!" exclaimed Robert, he kinda have a feeling what that means.

"This house is pretty big for just the two of us, you know." explained his mother, "There are two bedrooms on the ground floor, 5 on the second and a little attic up stairs." she placed an arm around Angela and led her in the house, "How would you like to design a room right here?"

"But... tita, I just couldn't..." said Angela, though she sounded a little exited about the idea, "I mean, my father would never let me...and besides, this isn't my house!"

"Oh, non-sense!" replied Mrs. Cordero making a face, "I did ask you, right? Besides," she added with a mischievous grin, "your father doesn't need to know."

"Um, mom, you're going off-board again..." said Robert, but the two were not listening to him.

"C'mon, I'll give you a quick tour around the house!" said his mother. She turned around and faced his son, "Ei, Obet, take the stuff in the house, 'kay? We'll just go look around!"

Robert sighed. His mother went inside the house with Angela. Both were getting along pretty well with each other. His mother did wanted a daughter after all, and it seems she just found one in Angela. He took the packages in the front seat first and took it in the house. He found Angela by the phone calling her sisters. He placed the packages down and was about to fetch the others when his mother called him.

"Hey, Robert..." she whispered, "That's the girl Glenn told us about, isn't she?"

"Yeah, turns out we were classmates." he replied with a grin.

"She's so cute! Did you see her eyes?" said his mother excitedly, "She probably has Spanish lineage! She'd be the perfect model for this new line I'm working on..."

"Mom, I don't think she'd agree to that."

"Oh, I'll just ask her anyway. Besides, It's not like I can work on you anymore... hehe..." his mother rubbed her hands together as she went to the other room to talk with Angela.

"Heh, that's mom alright" said Robert, stifling a laugh. He went back to the car to get the rest of the packages.

"I'll just be here for a while, is that okay, ate Pia?" Angela asked her sister.

"Oh, of course! You can even stay the night if you like! We'll cover up for you!" replied the receiver.

"Yeah, Dad's not home anyway!" said Ria in the background.

"I said it's just for a little while!" she said hotly, "Really, you two are so much!"

"Okay then, have a good time with Robert now..."

'click'

Angela placed the receiver down. "I can't believe it, my own sisters!" she hissed.

"Is everything okay, dear?" said Mrs. Cordero as she came in the room.

"Yes tita," she replied smiling, "My sisters said I could stay for a while!"

"Well, then, on with the tour!"

The two went around the ground floor, entering first, the huge living room, the library, the dining room and kitchen, plus the two small rooms that serve as servant's quarters. Both were filled with boxes. Then they went upstairs to the master's bedroom.

"This is my room." said her host, "I apologize though, it's a little messy in here, we haven't actually fixed everything you know, we've both been busy, Robert with his new school, and I with my work."

"It's okay, really." replied Angela.

They entered the room. It was very spacey, but there were boxes everywhere and piles of magazines scattered on the floor. There was a big window at the far end where a door led outside to a balcony.

"C'mon, this way to the other rooms..." Said Mrs. Cordero. She led Angela to a hall with two doors on each side. At the end was a fork, one on the left the other on the right. Both led to separate doors.

"These two rooms are filled with stuff my sister used to have," said Mrs. Cordero, "We haven't had time to sort them out yet," she opened one door after the other, the rooms were filled with furniture and boxes, they could hardly get in. Dust flew up just by walking in it.

"I don't think moving these would be an easy job." said Angela, covering her nose.

"Yeah, we haven't even decided where to put them yet." replied the other, "But then again, we may not be needing the room anyway..." she closed the door and went to the end of the hall. She turned to the right and opened it.

It was a large room too, but smaller compared to the master's bedroom. There were fewer boxes scattered around, the windows covered with thick curtains that reach to the floor. On one side was a PC and a drawing table filled with school stuff, on the other was a walk in closet and the bathroom door. In the middle of the room was a bed. There were clothes scattered all over it, in the middle of which slept a black kitten.

"Let me guess," said Angela as she approached the bed and picked the kitten up. "Robert's room right?" the kitten woke up and purred when he saw her.

"Yup, there's a balcony out back too," she said pointing at the sliding door at the back. "This is actually one of the best rooms in the house, with the view of the backyard and that huge mango tree..." she moved the curtains aside and looked out. There was the small balcony overlooking the backyard. There was a pool on the left side and an old rickety looking shed beside it. On the other end stood an old mango tree with a tree house on top.

"I remember that tree." said Angela, smiling, "Kuya Glenn and I used to play there a lot when we were younger."

"Hehe..." laughed her host, "My Robert fell from that tree once." she said, "I think that's when he started to act like that..."

"Excuse me?" asked Angela.

"Oh, nothing..." the other replied, "C'mon, I'll show you your room.

Mrs. Cordero led Angela to the left fork. The room looked like the mirror image of Robert's, from the wide window seats that reach to the ceiling to the sliding glass doors. There were lots of boxes in the room, though, and the dust was thick enough to grow potatoes! Yang jumped around, playing with the rising dust as the two looked at the room.

"The toilet connects the two rooms, and a staircase leads down to the pool from the balcony." Mrs. Cordero said, "The pool still needs a lot of cleaning though, Robert said he saw a snake swimming in it once."

"Really?" said Angela, "Cool!" the other looked at her, surprised.

"That's exactly what Robert said!" she said with a laugh. "Well, there are still a lot of work to be done in this room, you don't have to worry about the boxes though, we could ask Robert to move them for us." she took a look at Angela. She was scanning the room attentively; making plans for her very own 'design'. "So," she asked, "you think you can handle this?"

"It's great tita!" replied Angela absolutely beaming. "I'll do my best!" she went to the window and touched the dusty glass, tracing a letter 'A' with her index finger. "From this day forth, this will be my very own room."

"So this is the plan..." said Mrs. Cordero. She took a pencil and some paper to the study and sat with the two children. "First, to clean the room up, we'll start on Saturday, then we can paint the room - the wall paper's pealing you know, Robert only had time to paint his room before school started. That would take about... let's say 2 weeks..." she wrote everything down on the paper and nibbled on the eraser every now and then.

"Well, if we can move all the stuff on Saturday morning, perhaps the room can be ready for painting by the afternoon!" said Angela. She was just as excited as Robert's mother. "It's a good thing too that we have no CAT this coming Saturday to make way for the teacher's faculty meeting."

"That's right! We can all help out in moving the boxes, that way, we can work faster." said the mother.

"And start painting after lunch!" added the other.

Robert stared at the stuff his mother wrote down. He was beginning to feel a little out of place with the two women around.

"Um..." he said after a while. The two looked at him. "I'm just wondering, what happens after Angela finishes the room?"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Angela, a little irritated by the disturbance.

"Well, it's not like you can stay here, you know," he pointed out, "It's not like your father would let you stay in someone else's house, especially if there's a boy living in it."

"Is that a problem?" replied Angela, "We can send you away!" she looked at Mrs. Cordero with a sweet smile. "Right tita?"

"Hmm... that's not a bad idea!" she replied rubbing her chin.

"Mom!" said Robert.

"Hehe, no seriously now..." she placed the pencil down and looked at the two kids before her. "When you finish the room... furnishings and all... I will go talk to your dad and show him your work." Angela held her breath, she looked at Mrs. Cordero, not believing that this person would do this much for someone she hardly knew. "Then," she continued, "I will persuade him to let you design your own room." she grinned as the two looked at her. "So," she said, handing the pencil to Angela, "How about coming up with that design?"

That night, as Robert lay in bed, he thought back to all the things that happened that day. Such a long day... how things happened so fast. Angela got to stay for dinner and went home at around 9. They were busy making plans for the room and the furniture they would be using (mother said she would take care of everything for her 'underling'). He sighed and turned on his side. The curtains were moved aside, showing a piece of the starry night sky outside.

"Belle..." he sighed, "was she the one you told me about?"

No answer. The only sound he hears is the ticking of the clock and the gentle purr of the kitten by his pillow. He watched as the moon rose in the horizon, his eyelids becoming heavier by the minute. Soon he was fast asleep.