Donna Forte

Chapter 6

The look on her face was almost comical. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as soon as she registered the face of the person sitting on her favorite couch. She threw her bags on the floor and ran to the person sitting peacefully, tackling her with the biggest hug know to the mankind.

Althea Fernandez was not a hugger but when it came to her favorite aunt she seemed to have switched personalities with a big bubbly ball of excitement. Albert had six brothers and sisters excluding himself. He was fourth in line after his three elder brothers and preceding his three younger sisters. Martha Fernandez was the youngest of the siblings and adored Althea more than anyone. She was soon about to hit her forties but did not look a day above her late twenties. She lived in France with her husband Cole.

“You seem to have forgotten about me aunt Marty! You do not visit at all!” Althea whined like a little kid making the rest of the family laugh at her expense. Miles was cutely tucked into his aunts’ side as soon as Althea released her.

“you must know that I am getting older day by day young lady, soon I will be in no condition to visit you anymore.” The lady joked

“Don’t worry aunt, I will visit you then. Did you bring my parcel?” she asked excitedly and waited for Martha to take out the box. Martha chuckled at her tactics and rummaged through her stuff and looked around for a while before taking out a medium sized box. The very box that held her new hiking shoes.

“Oh my god Aunty! They are so beautiful! Thank you so much! I love you!” another tackled followed the squealing almost crushing poor miles. Soon she was ordered by Georgia to freshen up and come back down for some snacks. Althea admired her new black and red hiking shoes for a few more minutes before carefully placing them in her closet. She had asked for the new shoes when aunt martyr had last called, they were for the trip her school was taking to a village in a couple weeks. It was mandatory for the seniors as they had to make a report on it and submit before their finals. It held a weightage of their percentage so it was not wise to skip.

A warm shower was all she needed to feel refreshed. It was as if the whole day’s stress did not torture her mentally. In the next thirty minutes she was comfortably dressed in a pair of loose sweats and her hair in messy bun as usual. She eagerly joined her family in the living room, ready to listen all the stories her aunt has to say. This was probably one of the best things about aunt Marty’s visit, but then again everything was better when she came home. 

This time she narrated the story of when she and her husband had gone to South Korea for their anniversary, they had also attended a few band concerts there and were left amazed by their culture. Althea absorbed everything her aunt was saying while munching on a few chips. She felt as if she was listening to her grandma telling her stories about their time, which she unfortunately never experienced.

After two hours of non-stop talking and squealing over hot Asian boys it was time for aunt Marty to rest. Althea admitted she was also tired after the long day and retired to her room. There was still time for dinner so she decided to complete her school work by then. Nearly an hour later she was gazing out of her window, books sprawled everywhere on the bed. She had long ago given up the devils creation called homework and resorted to observing the changing colors of the sky. There was orange, a bit yellow, some grey and a hint of pink. It was getting darker with every passing moment and the sun appeared like a small dot on the endless sky. She could faintly see the stars and the outline of moon from her window. She was tempted to climb on the roof and lay down, stargazing till she was dragged down for dinner by her father, like she did in the past. But she knew it was not possible now, it was too cold at night for some reason even though it was almost summer.

She sighed and diverted her attention back to her damned notebooks and clutched the pen tightly in her palms. Her phone pinged indicating an incoming message. It was from Raina, she had send her a few pictures of a very good looking boy, and she recognized him as a classmate from PE class. He was undeniably good looking but she did not see the reason why Raina thought it would be a good idea to send her his pics.

‘Who is this and why the heck did you send me his pictures?’

Her reply came instantly.

‘His name is Ryan! And this guy is in our PE class if you don’t remember, for the past two years!’ 

Althea was still confused, it was true she did not pay much attention to boys, she never saw them as a big part of her teenage life. Yes in the future she will have a man in her life but as of now she was better off without a male character. And as far as she knew Raina was aware of her thoughts.

‘I still don’t see the point’

This time she did not reply instantly, instead her phone rang. It was Raina’s call so she picked up immediately.

“Ryan asked me out!” Raina squealed as soon as althea picked up the call, she had to pull the phone away from her ear to avoid any fatal damage and only brought it back once she was sure it was safe to do so.

“When? How?” she inquired. Althea was also excited for her friend but she had to make sure that the guy was genuine, she had seen girls heartbroken over useless boys and she did not want her friend to join the list.

“After school today, at the lockers. He was waiting there when I reached and asked me to be his girlfriend. Apparently he liked me for almost a year not but never had the guts to ask me out, he was scared of you.” this amused her to no end. Ryan was scared of her? It was almost unbelievable that a guy with such a big body would be scare3d of her.

“I know right. But he seemed genuine so I agreed for a date this weekend. Oh my god althea! I need your help! We need to go shopping for a nice outfit, you know I own nothing but baggy clothes! We will need other stuff too. When are you coming over?!” Althea face palmed, there we go.