Tesla was sitting in Lilia’s kitchen. They were having waffles with fresh strawberries from the backyard. She looked around the kitchen as she ate. There was a shelf that contained a lot of different cookbooks. A container filled with sugar was acting as a book holder. The kitchen was small and cozy, with the polished wooden table right next to the marbled counter that acted as an island. There was a door on each end of the kitchen. One door led into the den while the other door led to the front door. The doors were the wooden swinging type. There was a baby proof gate on both ends of the island so that Timothy and Gabby wouldn’t hurt themselves.
Everything was polished, cleaned and put away neatly. Even after the whole fiasco of making the waffles. That was the thing about Lilia’s mom. She was the kind of mom that cared for their children and kept everything clean as much as possible. Sometimes Tesla wished that she lived here instead of being with her family. Lilia even offered to let her stay in the guest room. But there was that one person that kept her from packing her Lucy along with some clothes.
“Thanks for the breakfast, Marcella.,” said Tesla as she got up and placed the empty dish by the sink. “Oh, it’s no problem. You know you’re always family to us. Now, you and Lily go check on the twins for me, will you?” Both of the girls nodded and went into the room across the hall from Lilia’s. As they opened the door, they could hear the twins cooing. They were both standing up in their cribs with their arms reaching out over the sides. Gabby, like Lilia, inherited the blonde hair from their father while Timothy got the black hair from their mother. “Num!” Gabby shouted. “Num! Num!” Timothy giggled and shouted too.
“Lilia, when do you think they will start talking like everybody else?” Tesla asked.
“Mom said that I started to talk regularly when I was about five so I guess we have to wait a couple more years.”
“Mhm…”
“Tesla, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing..”
“Is it your family? Is Nolan ok?”
“Yeah, he’s fine..”
“Lilia, can I tell you a secret? But you got to promise not to say anything to anybody. Pinky promise?”
“Pinky promise.” The girls performed the ritual and sat down against Gabby’s crib as they began to change their diapers. Tesla couldn’t wait until the twins were in pull-ups just like her brother. “I don’t know where to begin..”
“Come on, you can tell me. I’m your best friend.” Tesla smiled to that and just picked up the clean clothes for the day and started to wrestle Timothy in them.
“Ok, you see this?” She held out her fore-arm and showed the faint pink line and Lilia gasped. She was used to seeing the bumps and bruises but this was a new one. “Yeah, it’s still healing…”
As Lilia opened her mouth, everything began to fade to black. Tesla opened her eyes and found Margie and Penny looking down at her. “Oh! You’re ok! Margie, go tell Mrs. Mclarden that she’s fine.” Margie ran out as Tesla sat up. Her head was spinning and Penny gently pushed her back down. “That’s one major goose-egg you’ve got there. Just sit back and we will help you. Sorry about not getting you earlier. The boys from the other housing came to visit and played in the front yard so we were all outside. When Katie disappeared, I thought she just had to use the bathroom but then I heard you crying…”
Tesla looked down while mumbling, “I wasn’t crying…”
“Tesla, tell me. Tell me why you’re not saying anything about the injuries?”
“No, my best friend betrayed me.”
“But I heard that her mom was listening. Doesn’t a mom always do that to make sure their kids are safe?”
Tesla curled up on her side and faced the cushions. Her right arm moved around blindly looking for a throw cushion, found one and grabbed it close to her chest. She buried her face into it while she screamed, “I don’t want to tell you! I love my family and they love me! You can’t make me turn them in!” She got up and despite her leg screaming in pain, she stood on the couch and continued yelling at Penny. “Where’s my baby brother? I haven’t seen him in three days! Where is he? I want to see Nolan!! I want to see him!!! I want to go home! I want to be with my friends! Just get me out of here!!” She let out an even louder scream and shouted, “He needs me! My parents didn’t care for him. I cared for him! Where is he?”
Penny took a few steps back as Tesla continued to scream and cry. She sat back down in the wooden chair She took a calming deep breath and stared at Tesla. Eventually, she slumped back into the couch and glared at Penny.
“I still don’t know what’s going on with you,” said Penny. “I’ve heard that once the adults know what’s happening, you can go to a better place than here. This is just temporary. Just tell them. Tell them why you get hurt. I don’t know who Nolan is. The only people I saw that’s arrived in the past few days are just you and Katie. The boys that came to visit us were all ages including the toddlers. You know that we’ve got baby girls here. Don’t you th-“
“No! Nolan is fine! He only got knocked out just like me! He’s fine!”
“Tesla, please, just tell us!”
“It was all a mistake! We always have mistakes! They never mean any harm. I’m telling you, my family isn’t violent!”
“Nobody ever said they were..”
Then Tesla realized that Penny was part of the plan. To weasel out information that would keep her separated from her family, the people in the suits sent her as a disguise. That’s when she really got mad.
“Just get me back home. Let me pack the things I need instead of dragging me to a dump like this without giving me any time to pack even Lucy. I can find my own place to stay. I’m old enough.”
“Tesl-“
“Leave me alone.”
Tesla turned around and faced the cushions again with the throw pillow clutched tightly in her arms. She doesn’t belong here… She fell asleep again… Penny just stared at her body, somehow more fragile than ever as Margie came back in. “I heard scre-“
“Shh. She’s still messed up. I think we should let her sleep..”
“But isn’t that bad if somebody’s got a head injury?”
“I don’t know… I’m not a doctor…”
Tesla was sitting on her bed, dressing Lucy up in a cute pink nightgown for bed. As she laid her in the shoebox that she’s made at school, she heard Nolan crying. She got up and checked on him. She walked down the hall and entered expecting to find Nolan huddled under his blankets because her dad forgot to turn on the nightlight again. Instead she found the lights on and a scene that made her scream so loudly that she woke herself up.
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