Mistakenly Fallen

2. "Wohooo ! Scored 2.4!"

Camila breathed in and out, at once, trying to get a grasp over her shaky hands, that couldn’t seem to be in control due to the increasing anxiety and pressure on her mind and body that she felt sitting in front of the laptop.

Her school’s laptop number laid rested in front of her and the school’s official website was also opened on her laptop’s main screen.

She knew that she had obviously passed her examination and she must have scored a good number as well, as she was always on top of her class but what really ticked her off was to know whether she will be able to get in to Stanford with her scores or not.

She heard a loud scream, go off in her home, next to her bedroom and she rolled her eyes, knowing that it was definitely Lucas, who screamed after he had definitely passed the results.

The next scream came from her brother Nicholas, “Wohooo! Scored 2.4!”

He rejoiced, as if he had conquered the world, after barely getting a single point more than his other brother.

“Well, who cares we are already in Harvard.”

He shrugged his shoulders off and Camila gulped a heavy lump of anxiety down her throat, as she was trying her best to swallow down her guilt.

“Hey what about Camila?” Nicholas rose the question and Lucas, hit him on his shoulder.

“What do you think, she already came on top of our entire year, will be our valedictorian and is already getting ready to become every teacher’s favorite student Harvard.”

Her brothers had already decided on their future and probably already held up an idea of their own about what and how they were going to stick together in Harvard as well, whilst Camila had plans of her own.

She opened up the drawer of her study table and picked out her acceptance letter from Stanford and her admittance letter to Kappa Nu Lamba.

She swiped through the envelopes simultaneously and felt not just guilty but agitated as well.

She had previously decided to wait till the results came out to talk to her family, please them with her good results and then apply for late admissions but she got eager and applied only as a trial that led her to actually getting accepted.

She held her interviews via Online Video Conference, going to her cousin’s house, who was also her partner in crime and her only true friend in her entire life.

Her cousins did some pretty questionable stuff, like drugs, alcohol and s*x that Camila was completely aware of.

So, they had made a pact that Camila never told on Ariana and Ariana would never tell on Camila in return. It was a simple one on one deal.

But even after she got in, she still didn’t feel completely happy.

Her father had gone beyond his means to have his children admitted to Harvard by slashing a good amount of money to the university in the name of funds and he wanted his daughter to stay with his son, whom he knew would keep her protected.

But she had plans of her own.

She needed the space to step out of her brother’s shades and live a life of her own.

She did feel frustrated but at the same time, she also felt guilty of hiding the truth of her little desire from her parents.

Her parents had been blatantly and constantly holding it out on her that they would send all the three kids to Harvard and her witless brothers were just happy that they would get to go to a college, despite of not even studying a single word in their whole damned life.

She heard her mother gasping in joy and thanking God that her sons had been able to pass through the examinations.

Camila scoffed at how much worried her mother was about her brothers but at the same time she didn’t complained much about it because she knew that her mother had complete trust on her and knew that Camila was good enough to pass through the examination stage. The only circle of worry laid rested with her brothers, who were slow, dim witted and obviously a pain in the ass when it came to them following their curriculum.

A knock on her door startled Camila, who immediately threw down her acceptance letters in her table’s drawer and turned around to see her mother entering inside the room.

She had her hair tied in a bun, captured high by a large hair catcher that rested right behind her head. She had just a slow sign of fine lines appearing around her eyes and lips, still rejuvenating her beauty even if she lived in her early forties. Her green eyes sparkled with pride as she looked at her daughter and her petite figure still stood slim for her age and maturity. She was still wearing her doctor’s coat on top of her formal dress, which showed that she had just came back from her clinic. In fact, looking at the time of the day it was, Rachel had snuck out of her clinic during the lunch hours, just to check up on her children and see what went with their results.

“Mom…”

“What happened? Did my daughter, broke all records, already?”

Camila shook her head and turned back towards her laptop, shrugging at her mother.

“I am about to find out.”

She finally clicked open the result section on her website and punched in her laptop number, that was going to show her record of what she had done in her exams.

Taking in a deep breath, she pressed enter and closed her eyes, as her exam loaded.

Rachel rushed towards her daughter and stood by her side and Lucas and Nicholas also entered inside the room and stood on either side of their mother.

As the results finally loaded on the school’s website, Rachel, Lucas and Nicholas were the first ones to see the result, whilst Camila’s eyes were still closed.

“Oh my God! 3.99!”

“Oh my God!”

“What a nerd!”

Her family exclaimed simultaneously, making Camila, open her eyes up and see her results on the laptop screen.

“Oh my God!”

She jumped up in joy and her mother and brothers hugged her.

“Good thing you are not Mom and Dad’s favorite. Or else, they would’ve nagged us about how good you are at studies.” Lucas sighed in relief, congratulating his sister in his own envious manner.

“They just don’t nag you because they don’t have the time and also they don’t expect much from you two, who are complete losers.”

“Losers, just graduated from high school.”

“Did Dad pay anyone to pass them out?”

Camila inquired from Rachel, who kept her hold tight on her daughter.

“I am not sure but there is a possibility.”

She stated and the mother and daughter duo burst in to laughter.

“You two are extra mean when you are together.” Nicholas grunted in agony. “Yo, Luke! Now that we have passed. Let’s go to Dad’s lodge in Atlanta and take…”

“Wait! Have you guys forgotten. You Dad will be throwing a graduation party for you guys.”

“Have you forgetten that we will not be interested in your lame graduation party and we will throw our own, on the lodge and…”

“Did I ask what you will be doing regarding the party or not? I am telling you that none of you is leaving the house tonight.”

Rachel always held a firm hand with her boys.

Seeing the blood that her husband had transferred in to her sons, Rachel was pretty sure that she would always have to keep a firm hand on the boys, if she were ever to make them listen to her and it surely did work. They weren’t much obedient to their father. They were afraid of the old man, as he had a dark and domineering personality but he was also their mentor. He had thought them a lot of things from his split business world to teaching his sons how to be sneaky. He did make sure that they never went behind his back but it was ironical. The duo of brothers was always sneaking around their father’s back. But they never dared to go against their mother, who somehow, was extremely scary to them and they never dared to disobey her.

Hence, one order from Rachel was enough to put them down and make them attend the party that their father was throwing, even if they would be attending it against their good wills.

As the sons and the mother stood arguing in the middle of Camila’s room, she felt annoyed by their quite regular debates happening in her room.

“So you will be attending the party, without any further arguments!”

“This is not fair. We do not want to attend.”

“How is this fair?”

Lucas and Nicholas protested against their mother’s oppressive commands but Rachel was far from being bothered by her son’s whining behavior.

“I am not even listening you guys! La La La La!”

Pressing her fingers over her ears, Rachel decided to shove her sons’ confidence in the worst possible manner.

“Hey! We are talking to you here!” Nicholas protested once again in front of his mother but Rachel kept on chanting loudly, ignoring her sons in the worst possible manner.

“Okay! Guys… my room! Not a debate hall!”

She reminded them but obviously, she was blatantly ignored.

Grunting in aggression, she turned around towards her laptop and saw that an email notification had popped up on her screen and she clicked it open as she saw that she received an email from her school’s principal.

Opening up the email, she read it thoroughly, which made her jump on top of her feet.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!”

Suddenly, Rachel and her sons stopped fighting and turned towards the jumping jack, that had gone berserk with excitement.

“What happened?”

Rachel asked.

“I am going to be the valedictorian of this year’s graduation ceremony.”

“I am so proud of you!”

Rachel hugged her daughter and whirled her around, pointing out towards her sons, with her eyes to come and hug their sister.

They both rolled their eyes and jumped in the little hug circle.

“Congratulations.”

They weren’t much enthusiastic with their tones but both held a smile of pride for their sister and her accomplishments.

“We should get you ready for tonight’s party. Let’s take you to your aunt’s salon! They will know exactly what to put on you. They will also give you the entire spa treatment to prepare your mind and your make your body and face glow for your upcoming speech.”

With that Rachel urged Camila to get ready to leave for the salon and Camila nodded, rushing inside her closet.

“You and Dad are throwing the party for her, aren’t you? You and Dad both know that she doesn’t have any friends and she might not get to go to any other graduation party. So, you are doing it for her to make her feel better.”

Lucas squinted his eyes at his mother, as he lowly whispered at her, trying to act smart that he had caught up on her little conspiracy.

Rachel shrugged away, Lucas’s attempt of trying to out smarting her.

“Glad that you caught on to that! Now that I know, that you are aware for whom we are throwing this for Camila and now that you both would complain or dare to not to attend it, I am going to slice your throats off! Understood?”

Lucas immediately nodded at his mother’s vile threat, whereas, Nicholas decided to argue with his mother one last time, thinking that he might have a chance through dialogues.

“But it is still not fair. We two should not have to attend it! You can send her with us to the lodge. She will be there with the people of her own age and she might actually enjoy.”

Lucas smacked his brother for trying to give such absurd ideas.

The lodge party wasn’t going to be some normal party, like they usually threw at home, where they would ask everyone to keep a little low on the drugs and alcohol. At the lodge party, they were going to go let loose on every peak. Besides, they were adult high school graduates. They had ought to take advantage of that situation, one way or the other.

Nicholas might had been the little easy going brother but not Lucas. He was surely the over protective one and due to his carnal violent behavior, he had already burst open the lips and cheeks of many boys at the school, who tried to pass comments on his sister, in the boys’ locker room.

That fear was also the reason why no boy ever dared to ask Camila out as well.

“Huh! Well sending Camila with you guys wouldn’t be a bad idea either! She can keep tabs on you for me. Thanks for the idea Nick!”

With that Rachel walked out of the room, making Lucas groan in anger and hit his brother in the middle of his guts.

“You f*****g i***t!”

The two brother argued, making their way out of the room and fighting amongst one another when in real, what had truly pissed them off was the fact that they will have to attend a boring party thrown at home, when they could have been enjoying in their father’s lodge.

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

As the night finally arrived, the entire Santiago mansion was glittered with lights and decorations, congratulating the triplets on graduating the high school.

Lucas and Nicholas stood in a corner, surrounded by their cousins, who were just as frustrated as them that they had to attend a boring and a lame party with adults mingling around for most of the part.

“Hey! Where is she?”

Ariana complained, groaning in annoyance, as she laid rested on the semi circular couch.

She wore her hair in a short pixie cut, piercing surrounding her entire body, with thick eyeliner running in between the lines of her eyes, as a sharp piercing rested right on top of her right eyebrow, along with in studded in between her nose and another fixed at the corner of her lips, showing that the girl was completing living in her emo phase.

“Hey! Go and find out what is taking Camila so long to come?”

She kicked her brother, Vincent off the couch, where he was sitting by her feet. The poor lad only wore a simple tuxedo without a tie, matching the events of the night perfectly.

“b***h!”

He yelled at her, grabbing her by her ankle boots and pulling her down as well.

“Ah!”

She screamed, with her face hitting the ground and her midi skirt running up till the middle of her thighs, pulling up her crop top slightly as well but luckily she had her denim jacket on top of the goth black attire that kept her in a decent manner.

Moving through the frilled curtains that were set up in one corner of the hall, as part of creating a teenager’s corner, an effortless effort carried out by the event managers, Lucas and Nick walked in, seeing the brother and sister duo fighting just like they always did even while they were at home.

Both Ariana and Vincent were also twins, both having quite the very same squared faces, along with a very peculiarly pale skin that even though burned under the slightest sun, still suited them well. They had their face structures passed on to them by their father Luca – Rachel’s older brother and their pale skin contrasted well with their mother, Aurora’s.

“Will you two stop now!” Lucas yelled at Vincent, holding him back from fighting with his sister.

“She started it first.”

Vincent complained, getting up and dusting off his clothes that had gotten dirty by being thrown down on the floor.

“Stop being so overdramatic, I just pushed you down.” Ariana coerced back.

As Lucas held the two siblings back from tearing one another apart, Nick only stood back and watched in disgust at how violently horrifying those two were and thereof, were perfect friends for Luke.

The thin small marble beaded frills clicked once again, as this time, Nicholas’s favorite cousin Salvador walked in to the little cousin’s circle.

He was going through a long hair phase, so he had grown his hair out and held them behind his head in a man, what he liked to pronounce as his ‘man bun’.

“Hello losers.”

He cheesed his way inside the little corner, that had the circulating spot lights from the ball room, right in front of them, reflect inside that corner every now and then.

“What the hell are you wearing?”

Luke shook his head looking at Salvador’s attire, whereby he wore a mauve oversized silk shirt over leather pants.

“It is a classic Italian pairing! A fashion illiterate like you wouldn’t understand.”

He pushed back to Luke and joined Nicholas.

Luke smirked to his own self, watching Salva and Nick collude with one another.

They were perfectly alike.

Whilst Lucas was closer to Vincent and Ariana the two violent siblings, Nick found friendship with Salva, the son of Rachel’s second brother, younger to Luca – Stephano and Greta.

Whilst Lucas, Vincent and Ariana were assure that they would be inheriting the mafia business of the family given to their violent behavior, Salva and Nick, were going to be blessed with the fortune of legal businesses.

The Santiago family ran under these two branches, mixed or usually taken care of synonymously but Alejandro Santiago – Rachel’s husband and the triplet’s father was going to making sure that the generation next to him was going to divide and take of these businesses separately and handle them to perfection, as he had proposed the two families – the Santiago family and the Francesco family (Rachel’s father’s family) merge their businesses together so that their children, who were already close would get closer and he further on purposed that the children shall be sent to institutes with big names only, so that no one would judge the credibility of their child’s abilities to pull off their businesses well.

Alessandro was a man of great wits.

He had made sure that he did every illegal thing, under masks of his legal businesses but with growing dives of cryptocurrency and bans on many of the trades that he carried out through his legal businesses, he needed to have a much more modernized technique to carry out his mafia business and separate it entirely from his legal businesses that ran under the Santiago enterprise.

With the Francesco company merging with his, he needed to train his children even more hard for the purpose that he wanted to serve.

“You do know that the party today is to announce the merger of Francesco and the Santiago family, right?” Salva told Nick, who nodded in excitement.

“Also, to make sure that your loser sister doesn’t feel sad about her not having any friends and not being invited to any real graduation party.”

Nick bit his tongue back from lashing out on Ariana, whom his sister actually assumed to be a good friend but the reality was struck deep in his and his brother’s heart.

Ariana was only good towards Camila because she was scared that if she didn’t keep good terms with Camila, she might tell on her to her parents, about all the drugs, alcohol and s*x she has.

“I think she should tell your parents about your girl friend.”

Luke stated being bitter for sure.

“She knows, she will die as well, if she does so.”

Ariana subtly warned him back and he only held an eyebrow up in challenge.

Vincent always felt annoyed by his sister’s sharp and intolerable behavior that always made her insufferable to other human beings.

He made sure to keep her on good terms with everyone else but Ariana always made it difficult for other to tolerate her, with her toxic and highly notorious behavior.

Seeing the possible merger coming ahead of them, Vincent was smart enough to know that if Ariana didn’t end up on Luke’s good side who was going to take up the family’s mafia business, she might lose her chance of being a part of the business. So, he decided to laugh the entire situation off.

“Come on guys! Let’s just relax and not waste a lot of our energy for tonight! We should preserve our energy for the real graduation party that Salva is throwing, right?”

He turned the attention towards the starlight, who was always good at getting things under control.

“Oh Yes! Don’t worry guys. I will throw the party of a life time. No one in our high school’s history will ever throw such an iconic party. I will have mom and dad’s pool filled with champagne and…”

As Salva stood enumerating his plans for a party, the marble frills clicked again, making Salva jump in fear that someone adult might have walked inside their little circle and heard him up.

“It wasn’t me. It was Nicholas.”

He stated out his fear and habit.

Nick slapped his shoulder and noticed that it was Selena, who had walked in.

She didn’t fit the circle’s appropriate age, as she was only thirteen years old and daughter to Alejandro’s best friend – Anthony and Martha, who was like a sister to Alejandro.

She wore a small dress, that went well with her short height and her curly brown hair. Her big blue eyes, definitely went after her father but her pressed button nose, was a character she had developed from her mother.

“Oh! It is just you.”

Salva snorted, rubbing the top of Selena’s head, who pushed his hand away.

“I still heard your plans of filling your parent’s pool with champagne. Do you want me to go and tell this your parents?”

She threatened him and Ariana snorted out loud at her little warning, earning a glare from everyone else.

“What are you doing here? You know you don’t fit the age group here.” Nick told Selena, who felt tired, listening to the same comment told to her, each time she tried to hang out with the group of people.

She actually liked only one person in that age group circle and hence, she asked for her.

“I came here looking for Cami! Where is she? Even aunty Rachel is asking for her.”

“Yeah, where is she?” Ariana also inquired wondering where Camila could really be.

As everyone wondered where the star of the night was, Camila stood inside her room, looking at the wall mirror in front of her, holding out her acceptance letter in her hands and pretending that the person she was talking to was her father.

Of course it was a hard to imagine situation, given her father wouldn’t wear the knee length frock styled, off shoulder dress, that she wore but she still had to improvise.

She had to make sure that her facial expressions were to the purest par so that he father wouldn’t be able to see through her and she would be able to fight for her case that she should be allowed to go to Stanford and live her dream of living a college life on her own terms.

“Dad! Imagine this! So many people, from all around the world apply to Stanford yet, here I am! I got in! I am amongst those kids who…”

She clicked her tongue in disagreement of her own statement.

“It wouldn’t impress him!”

She told herself.

She needed to bring out the best of herself, if she was going to argue with her father.

She knew it wasn’t going to be easy to fight with her father on this matter.

He loved her and always gave her whatever she had asked for but there was only thing that he had told her ever since she was little that he wouldn’t let her go anywhere without her brothers.

It was an annoying nuisance that Camila always had to carry with herself.

She wasn’t even allowed to visit any female friends house, so the concept of having a male friend was far fetched.

Her father was extremely paranoid when it came to her.

He always thought that his enemies would come after his family and in his family, his heart obviously beat the most for his daughter.

When his wife was pregnant, he secretly used to pray that he had a little girl, because he was sure within his heart that he would give a girl all the love and happiness in the world.

When the triplets were born, he was beyond ecstatic that the world had gifted upon him a little girl along with two sons.

Camila was very well aware of how much strict his father was in the matters of allowing her to go anywhere, so the concept of her trying to get away from the family’s reach and going to not just an entire different college but an entirely different city, sounded like Camile had a death wish.

While trying to rehearse on how she will make Alejandro agree to letting her go to Stanford, she stumbled upon the memory of how once she was at their father’s private island and she wanted to explore further in to the island and asked Nick and Luke to take her to see what lied beyond the dark forests.

When both Nick and Luke refused to do so, she went ahead on her own and lost her way in the forest.

Alejandro felt like his life was tears apart.

He had started assuming the worst.

His mind felt out of control, as he thought that someone took Camila.

It took Rachel a lot of courage to hold herself together and to tell her husband to grasp a grip on his mind as well.

At first afraid that their father would give them a scolding of leaving Camila alone, Nick and Luke remained silent about where Camila could possibly be but also seeing how their father was hyperventilating about Camila going missing, they finally told him that she might have gone in to the forest, as she was adamant about going through it at least once.

Anthony found Camila, through a drone place and located her position. Alejandro ran on his own, once he knew where Camila was. He was gone crazy, trying to rip apart the large palm leaves of the forests, until he finally found his daughter, scared and hurt on her ankle, as she sat by a tree, crying for her parents to come and get her.

At first Alejandro hugged her and thanked God that he had found his daughter in one peace. He then treated her ankle and then did the final step in parenting which was to give her an earful and her brothers as well for leaving her alone.

Ever since that day, Luke and Nick, never left her alone on her own.

But today, she was standing in front of the mirror, practicing to come up with a way to finally ask her family to leave her on her own.

“Dad! Please… this is my dream…”

She looked in her own eyes, as she looked very keenly at her reflection, seeing how helpless she looked and sounded as she was practically begging to get only a few years of freedom, away from her family so that she could write only a part of her life on her own terms.

She never despised her family for anything and looking at her reflection in the mirror, she began questioning, whether this would be a changing moment of her life, that could make her turn against her family or not.

A knock on the door startled her, as she then heard the door of her room open up and she realized that someone was soon going to walk inside the closet searching for her.

She wasn’t ready yet to open up the secret of her wanting to go to Stanford. Under a panicking situation, she threw her letter down and under a box of her old notes that she had gathered as the student body president.

Standing up straight, she looked at the door of the closet, clearing out any crease from her dress and smiled, as the door to the closet slid open and Selena walked in.

“What are you doing here? Everybody is waiting for you downstairs…”

Before Selena could have said another word, Camila grabbed her arm and walked her out of the closet, afraid to death that she might she her letter from Stanford, even though it was invisible to Selena.

“Oh1 I was just coming downstairs. I just got ready. Come on, let’s go…”

With that Camila pulled Selena out of the closet and finally out of the room, making her way down in to the party and joining everyone else.

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Finally an update for this story.

Thank you and enjoy :)