"You should go rest in your room," Kion spoke from the side. 

"Not before dinner" Auntie Helen takes my hand in hers with a deep longing in her eyes.

 "Mother, the poor girl is probably suffering from jet lag. You know how easy it is for her to get"

 "But!" Helen continues.

"You can do all that female gossip tomorrow over a cup of tea and gingerbread" Kion rolls his eyes at his mother. As Auntie Helen leads me by my arm to my new bedroom all I think of is the fact that Kion could tell how tired I was and how easily I would get dizzy after carnival train rides. He still remembers my favourite snack, gingerbread!

"You should go get some rest in your room" She pats my shoulders and she leads us up the stairs to a brightly-light pink room. Pink frills and pink bows adorn my abode. It was all so..pink. So fulfilling. Absolutely complete.

"Erm, if you want to change the wrapping, we could always do that" She states from behind as I drop my bag onto the pink rug in the middle of the room. I walk to a pink closet to find it empty except two boxes placed at the bottom of it.

"Those are new shoes for you to wear...not like your current ones wouldn't be enough but I just thought...um" She stutters from behind me, I can already imagine her screwed up nervous face. Why does Auntie still get anxious over little things? I bend down to pick up the box and of course, it's a pair of pink and white sneakers in the first one. I don't mind checking the second one.

When I turn back around to face her, Kion is standing at the door, his lean posture taking up the post. Auntie is nowhere to be found but I quickly turn away to further inspect my new room. Not because I find the trash bin interesting. "She got too emotional and started crying so she left" Kion rasps from the entrance. I barely nod my head yes.

"You used to be a lot louder" He stiffly states but I turn around with an incredulous expression. My eyebrows are arching and my lips are showing a slight smile, like I'm saying. "I don't know what that means" I want to portray him with the facial that would answer all his questions but at the same time stop him from asking me more.

But everyone is a liar. I do know what he meant. And I think he knows I know but he doesn't push. "Take a nap quickly then come down for dinner, before Miranda murders you in your dream" Kion snickers to himself like he knows more than I do. Is this an inside joke now? "What about Miranda?" I ask before he turns around to leave. Don't go. Although I am tired, I could talk to him for hours on end.

"This used to be her room but now, she shares with Daisy" He briefly states and his face falls as he looks down at his feet when his grey eyes look up at me, they hold more emotion than they did a second ago. What have I done wrong again?

"Tell her I'm sorry" I twist my fingers in between the spaghetti noodles of the white scarf as I look through my lashes in pleading.

"Tell her yourself" He shuts the door with that but I can't see his facial tell if he meant it jokingly or not. I huff out a sigh of mild annoyance. Don't get me wrong, I was very grateful for all this but there was shame, there was embarrassment and there was pride. But pride was a very deadly emotion. I wanted to be present with my parents as we try to figure out all these matters instead of suddenly waking up in the morning and being shipped thousands of miles away from home. I was an adult too.

I throw my white scarf across the room and flop onto the big queen bed, pink-tinted net encases me. The bed is squishy and delectable, I don't think I have spent a proper night's sleep on a bed in a hot month. Golden glitter springs up out of the void, dancing and twirling with imaginary strings. I take a quick swipe of them but they stay still, just gliterring and lingering around my nose. I feel my earlier fatigue come back again. Blinking slowly to clear the sleep out of my eyes turns to me struggling to stop my eyes from closing. 

"Just one minute" I hear my murmur and a slight snore. Just. One second.

****

The sun rises above the horizon, staining my bedroom with a golden afterglow. Splashes of purple, yellow, red and orange highlight blend in the cloudless sky. It was beautiful. Not the type of beauty you'd see every day in Queen's Land. Our weather sucked so bad that seeing the sun felt like a bad omen. However, the sun right now...

It was the epitome of beauty and I relished in the feeling of witnessing it. I bow my head in reverence and something deeper. My palms clasp together, tucked under my chin and I whisper my morning prayer. I sincerely hope today will be as bright as the sun. The pinks of the room have a resplendent glow to it making everywhere seem like the inside of a kaleidoscope. I smile back at my haven. Cuddly bunnies and cosy sheets. My stomach grumbles inside me, totally ruining this moment. Okay, gotta feed my queen.  Stomach duties were always a top priority.

I stand up from my kneeling position and quickly perform my morning duties. I open my closed luggage that I ahdn't gotten the time to organise ye. I had even missed dinner and only woke up less than 20 minutes ago. How long had I slept? I rummage through the bag to find Irish bath soap. Mathair-no.. Mother. Taking a slight breath, I bound for the bathroom and quickly take a shower getting rid of that airport air smell off of me. A pair of black leggings, a white coat and a blue scarf are what I sport today. I don't plan on going anywhere today but my cousins still have their Air con on even when it's freezing outside. I wonder what to eat for breakfast as I bound down their long stairs. Pictures of family members are sparsely hung around and a hint of chocolate and mushrooms linger in the air. What to eat...I don't think anyone would be awake since it's still 6am but I also find it rude of myself to barge into their kitchen when no one is in there and yet at the same time come down only after they have served breakfast.

Gah! Don't overthink it.

My eyes linger on old family photos. The picture of a woman with greying hair is hung on a wall but unlike this one, the frame is dusty and slightly cracked at the end almost as if it's lost in time. Her eyes hold secrets. Secrets of things I would never know like why I sometimes heard someone call my name. I stop to inspect it. On her right is a vase of probably Grandpa and a man below her...an uncle? He is seated with his back to her while her old wrinkly fingers come over his stiff shoulders. There is no warmth about this photo and as I walk away I swear I see their eyes follow me.

"Looks like someone's up " Auntie Helen's voice speaks up before I even see her. I enter the well-lighted kitchen. All equipment is spic and span, the silverware clearly reflects objects and there on 4 different plates are steaming pancakes. My cousins and uncle all turn around to stare at me as I walk down the stairs and across the kitchen. 

Are they looking at someone behind me? Nah. I'm pretty sure it's me.

"Good morning" So I guess I still came last to breakfast. I respectfully greet all of them in a clockwise manner. Uncle Mike and Auntie Helen give me a smile. Daisy replies me back in a mumble because her cute cheeks are stuffed like a squirrels, Kion simply grumbles as he rubs his eyes and I receive nothing from Miranda. 

"Take a seat, dear, I made you pancakes" I sit down to salivate at the chocolate pancakes with whipped cream and a handful of raspberries neatly tucked into the side. Strawberry maple syrup imported from Canada is drizzled all over the pancakes.

Too bad I like waffles more.

"Oops, I'll have that. You take this" My pancakes are swiped from under my nose and replaced with waffles.Oh...No...Control. Must not give in. I feel my saliva glands burst. The dam is broken as I take in the overload of sensory information. Yes. Toasted waffles with cream cheese spread right in the centre and butter maple syrup drizzled over it in a circular motion starting from the centre to the outer edges. The perfect blend of crispy, sour and sweet.

"Oh, I think she's broken" I hear a voice beside me but I feel my vision start to blur at the edges as all I can see is the waffles.Oh...Oh...this is delicious. Magnificent. 

Scrumppptious. I haven't tasted it yet but just looking at it. No, this has to be stored in a museum for glorious artefacts.I think I'm ascending the heavens. Hm...yes. I think I moan out loud but I don't care. My waffles are snatched from under my nose. When I find the hands that snatched it from me, you'll wish your parents never met-

I turn around to see Auntie Helen staring at me with an amused shock. When I'm at the climax, my heavens come crashing down on me.

"Did you just foodgasm from the sight of waffles?" Kion's stifled laughter reverberates in the silent kitchen. Um...there's no way to beat the allegations, they have CCTV footage. Damn.

"Kion. Language" HIs dad smacks his head from behind but Kion is fast to react and evades the attack.

****

"What lovely weather outside" Mr. Helen puts her half-finished crocheted art down. This is the eighth time she's mentioned it. She looks outside longingly and then suddenly turns to me with a less-than-innocent smile. Uh-oh. No, this isn't happening. "It would be a waste to let all this sun go to waste" She starts with a quirk on her brow. No, Not now.

"Yes, indeed darling. I agree" Mike strides into the room and places a kiss on his wife's cheek. She keeps staring at me as her husband plops down on the couch beside her. Not you too.

"Mom, we're headed out" Miranda calls out from the house's door. Great timing. "So why not follow your cousins anywhere they are going. Let them take you around town" Helen states with a smile.

"Eh? No, We can't babysit today" Miranda calls back out.

"Oh come one. She's your cousin. You guys used to do everything together back then" Helen smiles in bitter recollection. Why was she bitter. That didn't look good for her.

"Fine." Miranda huffs and I hear a bang. She's gone off somewhere.

I didn't feel like following them. School's still ongoing and although it is Saturday and the sun is out there I didn't want to do anything that involved melanin. I loved staying at home. But Miranda's attitude was way too off-putting. I wanted to tag along simply to spite her.

"Yes, Auntie" I walk into their waiting lobby. Kion is standing there with a twisted pout. You too Kion...

"Have fun Aisling and tell me all about it" I hear Auntie Helen call out to me. I change from the indoor shoes to my white boots. These were for special occasions and even after all the hours of scrubbing, they still held permanent years of dirt and grime.

Kion holds out the door for me and we both walk out to meet a fuming Miranda. The huge pile of balloons in their front lawn is up high in the sky. I have made a mistake. It's a huge inflatable pumpkin with a black spiky mouth smiling at me. "I don't want you to come and I'm sure you don't want to come either so all I'm asking is for you not to snitch" Miranda eyes me with derision and flips her hair over her shoulder while she saunters out the gates of their house.