I rang the doorbell and the door opened to reveal Camile.

"Meggy!" She exclaimed. "I missed you!" She threw herself at me. I caught her, laughing as I hugged her. "I missed you too, my love." I replied.

I closed the door behind me and carried her into the house, chatting and giggling. "Not even a minute and Camile's become a parrot. How do you do it?" Mr Iginio asked.

"Because she's my lil'baby. Like mother like daughter, right Mili?" I said. She nodded in agreement.

"Ohh very good. Since she's your daughter, then what does that make me?" Stella asked, coming into the living room.

"The original mother. I'm the artificial mom." I replied.

"Wow, you look stunning, ma'am." I wiggled my eyebrows at her. Mr and Mrs Iginio are a good looking couple and they passed the genes to their kids, Camile and Carlos.

Speaking of Carlos, I haven't seen him around. "Where Cally?"

"He's with his brother upstairs." Mr Iginio replied.

"Brother, which brother?" I asked, confusion coating my face.

"Andy is back. Our big brother." Camile answered.

My confused self looked at both husband and wife. "You haven't met our eldest son because he was staying in Italy." Stella explained.

"Andrew! Come down, someone wants to meet you. Carlos! Meganer's here." She called out.

"So, we'll be back later by 11pm or so?" She turned to Mr Iginio for an affirmation.

"Yeah, sure." Mr Iginio answered.

"Okayyyy, so we're gonna have a blast then." I highfived Camile, grinning widely. Quick footsteps came down the steps.

"Megan!" Carlos shouted excitedly while running down the stairs. I put Camile down and turned to face him fully while spreading out my hands, with a full blown smile on my face. I hugged him.

" How's it going, young lad?" I asked. "All good. We haven't seen you around for a while." He said. Carlos is Camile's twin brother, the older of the two.

"Yeah, been a little busy." I answered.

"Oh, Andrew, meet Megan, our babysitter/ employee." Mr Iginio said. I looked up to see a boy looking like he's in his teens. I waved at him with a slight smile on my face.

"It's you." He said. "Me?" I pointed at myself.

"You don't remember my face, do you?"

"Uh, no, sorry. I have a weak signal for picking up facial records. Do you know me?" I asked.

"Yes and no. I was the one who talked to you about zoning out in class but you ignored me and walked out of class like I was invisible." He said.

I smiled sheepishly "Sorry. I'm not really keen on befriending people."

"You know each other?" Stella asked. "We are in the same literature class." He said.

"Oh good. There's no need for introductions then. We need to get going." Mr Iginio said.

We all said our byes and they left. "So how is it that you're just coming into the picture now?" I asked Andrew.

"I don't understand." He said. "I mean, what made you come back to stay now?"

"I decided that I've stayed in Italy enough and I need to come back to my family, bond with my siblings."

"That's good. So what's your major?" I asked.

"Studio art. Focusing more on painting and photography. You?"

"Cool! Well mine's kinda boring. Journalism. Nothing exciting to see here." I answered.

He laughed and said journalism will put me out there. I hummed in agreement.

"So what do you do for fun, dear Andy?" He raised his eyebrows at me.

"Uhh, alot but I don't think the kids will find as much fun as I would." He responded.

"We could watch movies." Camile suggested.

"No, I want to play games in the game room." Carlos objected.

"Alright, no worries my dear. We adults will just split ourselves to spend time with you two. How about I watch movies with Mili and you play games with Cally." I suggested, looking at Andrew.

"Milli and Cally?? What sorta nicknames are those?" Andrew asked in bewilderment.

"Cool nicknames wonderfully crafted by me." I declared with pride.

"Cool? Those nicknames are weird!" He exclaimed.

"No they're not! And besides, they like it. Don't you?" I turned to Carlos and Camile in question.

"Of course!" "I love it." They chorused their responses. I turned to Andrew and stuck out my tongue at him.

"What!! You can't actually like those ridiculous names." He said.

"We do like it." Camile replied. I stuck out my tongue at him and he laughed at my childish behavior.

I learnt that they've had dinner so Camile and I consumed a large tub of chocolate ice cream and popcorn while watching through movies in the movie room.

The movie room is like a mini living room with sofas in it and a table at the middle to place drinks or snacks on, with a very large flat screen to watch whatsoever movie you wanted.

At some point, Camile fell asleep and I cleaned up the mess we made in the movie room, carried her to her room and laid her to sleep. I went to go check on Carlos and Andrew in the game room.

The game room was also sized like a mini living room, with sofas for relaxing and then filled with various games. It's just like a mini arcade.

I couldn't find them there so I went to Carlo's room to see if he's there. I saw him sleeping in bed so I left to go to the living room and scrolled through my phone to keep me busy until Mr and Mrs Iginio came back home.

"Camile's asleep?" I looked away from my phone and saw Andrew coming towards me.

"Yeah," I put away my phone. He sat beside me. "How long have you known my parents?" He asked.

"Two years. I thought you'd be asleep." I said to him.

"If you've got a stranger in your house, would you fall asleep?" He retorted.

"Hmmm." I nodded in agreement. We started chatting and a while after, we heard his parents arrive.

"We're back." Stella announced in a sing-song manner.

"Mamma e papà" Andrew said.

"Benvenuti" I greeted. Andrew sharply looked at me, "you speak Italian?"

"Err, a little bit. I'm still learning though." I replied.

"Wow." "The kids are asleep in their room and now I'll be on my way." I said to them.

"La ringrazio." Mr Iginio said. I smiled in response, said my byes and left.

"I am sooo tired." I groaned. "Sorry little baby." Andrew consoled, grinning. I gave him a stink eye look and walked away from him.

"Oh, come on, what did I do?" He asked, feigning a surprised look on his face. Ignoring him, I continue to walk away from him.

He walked faster to catch up to me, "okay I'm sorry, Meggy." He applogized with an insincere look. I raised an eyebrow at him to let him know that I wasn't moved. He let out a snort while trying not to laugh.

I turned around and we continued walkin towards the cafeteria to get something to eat. "I need to go to the library later to work on my assignment. I'm slacking off because it's too bulky and I'm lazy." I complained.

"Wow! Did you just realize that you're such a lazy student when it comes to school work?" Drew questioned me.

I pouted in annoyance, "you didn't need to point it out, young man."

He smirked in response. Drew and I hung out a lot more after the babysitting incident and over the time, we became close friends which surprised me because I never expected us to hit it off that fast. I guess I'm a likeable person.

After getting our snacks from the cafeteria, we parted ways. Drew had another class to go to and I have to visit the library to finish my assignment.

A couple of hours later, the librarian came to me and said he was closing up. I had to leave and decided to finish up at home. I called Amber to know if she was still in school so she could give me a ride home.

"Hey, yeah are you still on campus?" I asked.

"Yeah but I'll be leaving in 30. Why?"

"I need a ride, if you don't mind."

"Sure, I can do that." She replied. "Okay, I'll wait for you by the library, thanks!"

" What! No! The lib-" I ended the call quickly with a grin on my face. I knew she would protest about me staying back at the library because it's a whole different route from the road she'll take when going home and I'm feeling too exhausted to go to her.

My phone rang and I saw Amber on the caller's ID but I refused to answer. She called a couple of times before she stopped calling. I'm pretty sure she'd be cussing me out right now.

I sat by the pavement to wait for her while scrolling through Instagram reels.

A car's horn honked and I looked up. Seeing that it was Amber, I smiled at her and got up from the pavement, walking towards the car.

"You my dear, are a lifesaver." I said to her with a sweet smile on my face on getting into the car.

"Don't even start with your flattery. Why didn't you answer my calls? And don't you dare say you weren't aware because I saw you on your phone." She looked annoyed.

"Well... I was tired. I didn't have the strength to answer calls." I told her.

"Oh but you had the strength to watch TikTok videos right?"

"Wrong! So wrong my love. It was Instagram not TikTok. See, there's a difference." I countered.

She gave an exasperated sign, "how do I even get the strength to tolerate you?"

"Because you love me. Now drive, we're running late." I said and rested my back to make it look like I want to relax and sleep and closed my eyes.

"What were you doing by the library?" She asked, starting the car' and drove on home.

"Finishing an assignment." I answered drowsily.

On getting home, I took a nap before my night shift at the restaurant as a waitress.

******************

The alarm woke me up and I took a quick wash of my body and wore a long sleeved shirt and a combat short. I tied my hair backwards, put shoes on and informed Amber that I was headed to work. I left and took the bus and got to work few minutes to six. My shift starts at six pm and ends by eleven. It's a high end restaurant owned by Mr Iginio.

I went to the locker room to change into my work uniform and headed out to start my duty.

"Hi Sam." I greeted my fellow co-worker who just finished her shift and I was to take over from her.

"Hiya, Megan." She replied and told me the tables assigned to me.

"Alright, bye!"

She waved back at me and headed to the locker room.

I saw a group of people getting seated at one of my assigned tables and I took some menus and went to them.

"Good evening, welcome to The Food House. I'll be your waitress for tonight, what can I get you?" I greeted, handing over the menus to them. They were four in number, two boys and two girls. I brought out my jotter and pen from my pocket, ready to write down their order.

As I was writing down their orders, one of the girls spoke up, "shouldn't we order for Harry?"

"How'd you know what he wants to eat?" One of the boys asked her.

"I'll call him." She said and typed on her phone and then placed it on her ears.

"Should I wait?" I asked to know if I should proceed with their orders.

"Please hold on a bit." She said politely. It's good to know that some rich kids still have manners. I smiled and nodded.

" Hey Harry, we were thinking we should order for you. What would you want to eat?" She asked. She picked up the menu and started listing out the dishes for the person to choose from.

"Add the Beef Wellington and white wine to the order." She said after ending the call.

"Okay. Your meal will be ready shortly." I responded and wrote it down and went to the kitchen to give the chef their orders. I served them the drinks they ordered while they waited for their meal to be ready.

A boy came and sat down while I was serving the drinks.

"Kathy had placed your order." One of the boys informed him.

"Okay." He said. After serving them, I turned to leave and I heard a 'wait' directed at me.

I looked at them and said, "yes?"

"It's you, the girl from the club." The boy who joined them said, surprise coating his face.

I looked at him and tried to recall his face but nothing came up. "Uhhhhh sorry?"

"You don't recognize me? Are you joking right now?" He asked.

I gave him a blank stare in response. I have been to a couple of clubs and he doesn't expect me to remember everyone I danced with.

"Soho. You were with your friend who got drunk and you had to leave suddenly." He explained. "Oh! Yeah. Wow, we meet again."

He nodded and smiled, "its great running into you again."

"Uh same here. I had to grace my sight with a reminder of a good looking dude." I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

"Hello! We aren't invisible, you know." One of the males exclaimed.

" And flirting while on the job, what a slut." One of the girls said, giving me a look of disgust.

"Lacy, what the hell? Why'd you have to be rude?" The Soho dude say d to her scoldingly.

I had to literally hold my tongue from spewing out sarcasm that murders self esteem so I smiled sweetly at her.

"Darling, now be nice. You don't address people as such." I spoke to her in a tone as if I were talking to a child.

"Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?!" She fumed at me.

"Megan, your waitress for tonight." I gave a slight bow of my head and walked away from their table.

"I need to see your manager! How dare you talk to me like that?" Her voice echoed behind me in anger as I walked away.

I went to meet another waiter, Jason with a pleading look. " Jason, could you please switch tables with me until the customers at table nine leave?"

"Why? What did you do?" He inquired.

"Hey! Why is it that I'm the one you're suspecting to be at fault?" I frowned at him.

"Because your words lack filter." He shrugged his shoulders.

"No it doesn't!"

"Yes it does. Sharp like the edge of a dagger."

"Okay, fine but I didn't say anything to them so I'll be able to keep my job. There's one extremely rude girl among them. So please switch with me, huh? I pleaded with him.

"Alright." He agreed. "Oh Thanks." I explained their order to him and that was how we switched for the night and I was able to avoid trouble.

*************

I had just finished my last class for the day and a smiled stretched on my face when it came to mind that it's Friday. I get to sleep in tomorrow since my shift doesn't start till 2pm.

My phone began to ring, I checked and saw it was Drew calling. "Hello,"

"Hey Megan, where you at?" He asked.

"I'm at the broadcasting studio. I just finished with class." I replied.

"Great! Let's hangout, I need your help with something. Could you come meet me at the sculpting studio?" He said.

"Sure." "Alright then, see ya." He ended the call and I began my journey to where he was.

"I'm outside." I told him on the phone when I had gotten there.

"Come inside, go straight and enter the second door by your right." Came his response.

I signed and ended the call, following his descriptions, I walked inside the said doorway and saw a group of four boys in the room chatting away.

"Hey," I said, to catch their attention.

"Hey Meggy," Drew smiled at me and got up to meet me. He ushered me to where the rest of the boys were sitting.

"Guys, meet Megan, my friend. Megan, meet my pals, Ryder, Niall, Louis and Harry."

"Fancy seeing you again." Harry said.

"You again?" I recognized him to be the Soho dude.

"You know each other?" Drew asked.

"Yes" "not really". Harry and I said in unison.

"Okayyy, tell me, how did you meet?" Drew asked.

"At a club and then we ran into each other last week when he and his friends came to dine at the restaurant." I explained to him.

"I apologized for how Lacy spoke to you the other day. I tried to find you but I was unable to get to you. We were served by another waiter and I asked him how to reach you but he didn't disclose anything." Harry said.

I shrugged and said, "apology accepted."

"We need to get going. Goodbye guys." Drew bid them farewell, picked up his bag and lead me out of the room.

"How are you friends with Harry?" I asked him.

"His parents and my parents know each other so we've been around each other while growing up, not frequent though." He answered.

"Oh. So what do you need my help with?"

"I'm in need of some inspiration. I was painting a piece some days back and I got a dead end so I need to come alive." He said. We got into his car.

"So my job is to be the muse?"

"Somehow." He replied.

"Okay, let's go. Let me see what you're working on." I said. He nodded in response and started the car, heading to his studio.

"Yeah, and you'd better be inspiring." He said with a threatening look.

"Don't you worry my dear, I give the best" I said, assuredly. He shook his head in self pity while starting up the car and I laughed at him.

"Dai, andiamo amico!" (Come on, let's go friend.) I said, tapping his shoulder.

******************

A couple of hours later, we came a field. It was getting late. "Where's this place?" I asked, both of us coming out of the car.

"I stumbled upon it during a road trip sometime back." He said.

It was a vast field from what I could see. I walked towards it, totally awed by the sight. With is being the time of sunset, it gave a mesmerizing view.

"It gives a calming aura, like everything is at peace here." I said, turning to take a look at what Drew was doing.

"Yeah, kinda." He responded, bringing out supplies from the trunk of the car. I continued to look around while he set up his painting supplies. After a while, I didn't hear anything from him and turned to look for him, only to see him painting with a serious look on his face.