Chapter Five: A Penny For Your Thoughts

The chatter and clatter at the restaurant did nothing to calm my nerves as I thought about the words in the note. I had tried to downplay it, hoping that it was a mistake that the note ended up in my possession but the details in the note were too coincidental to be ignored.

Anyone who read the note would think it was just a riddle that could be easily found in a Chinese cookie but I knew it wasn't. No Chinese cookie knew where I worked and my name. That was impossible.

"Flexibility and perfection is the motto of the San Production, but a part of you knows that that isn't your heart's passion, right Aria?"

Whoever the stranger was, knew who I was and what I did. Since I couldn't see the stranger's face, I figured it could be anyone and maybe someone I knew. It would be better if it was someone I didn't know, It could be downplayed as a prank.

Rather than having to deal with the thought that a stranger is watching me through the window or cameras. Their eyes on me eagerly even when I slept peacefully. What if my life was in danger? What if someone wanted to kidnap me?

Sigh, I was just looking forward to spending some time with my mother before I travelled back, instead I'm stuck wondering if a stranger wanted to kill me and the little that I cherished.

The one being my mother. Forty-two years of age with only me as her next of kin, her sister passed on four years ago in an accident and her mom ten years ago. I remember how my mom resembled her, both of them with long hair and young skin. Deep blue eyes and a petite body.

The man I was supposed to refer to as father, left when I was three and remarried rich, moving. Luckily they relocated because if they stayed, a very angry teenager would have burst down their windows and slit their tires.

Had it not been for being occupied in dancing school I would have probably found them. Well, that and my mother forcing a tracker on me for at least three years of my life, until she trusted me enough to remove it.

I felt a hand on me and I let out a loud yelp as I turned around. Holding a butter knife in my hand as my weapon, I looked up only to see my mom look at me like I was crazy. Raising her hands, she blinked rapidly at me waiting for me to drop the knife.

"Oh no, please don't butter me to death," she said sarcastically mimicking a child's voice, "I'm too young to die of cholesterol." She joked.

"Sorry mom, I got scared for a second, I was too deep in my thoughts for a while there," I said as I placed the knife down and shifted for her to take a seat next to me.

"Oh, I noticed, I was watching you for a good minute before I tried to snap you out of your daze. A penny for your thoughts, Aria?"

Looking at her I wondered if it would be smart to tell an overprotective mother that someone was watching me and following my every move or if it would be smarter to shut my mouth.

I knew that if I told her, she would insist on returning with me to San Diego and stay with me for a while or even put a tracker on me permanently. Worst-case scenario calling the cops and having them watch me when it could just be a stupid prank.

I didn't need drama, not when my career was starting to take off, if the public got hold of this… my name would be in the spotlight as the crazy dancer and not the talented one.

"Aria," she called, a look of concern beginning to settle on her features. I wondered what the stranger would do if I told my mother. What if they would kill her for just having knowledge about this?

So, I did the next best thing I could do for the both of us.

"Just thinking about a man called Reo and how you should have let me find him so that I could wreck his home." I lied.

"Oh him. Pathetic excuse of a man." She started, seemingly buying my story.

I figured it was best I lied, that I kept her away from the issue and kept me distracted from the chills that someone could possibly be watching me.

"So, when do you return this time? Is it still a month or more?" she asked after she placed an order for both of us.

Shit here goes nothing

"Actually mom, I'll be leaving in a week," I said

"What?" she coughed, putting down her drink as she began to cough from being choked a bit by it.

"Sorry," I said as I patted her back a bit until she seemed okay.

"What do you mean a week?" she asked, slightly outraged that she wouldn't get as much time with her daughter as she hoped, Maria was always fond of her daughter and always pushed her to achieve her dreams but sometimes she desired to spend more time with her.

More time to see her grow in her arms in front of her and more time to nurture her as she used to. Yet as time went on it seemed as though life found her desires to be a joke. There were things she needed to tell her daughter, things she believed she had finally come of age to learn and know.

Yet every time when she came close to it, her daughter was whisked away by her job. And honestly, it was starting to piss her off more and more each time.

"Yes. Due to the show that will need to be aired live in a month we've all been asked to return earlier than before. We hoped they would at least give us two weeks but we were told that we would only receive a proper break after the shows." I said

"Here's my thought on this… no. You won't be returning."