Dulcis Domus

Despite the fact that their father just died, the kids went on with their lives without a single hitch in their daily routine.     It was a pretty big deal within a few hours after the news got out, which was the norm with most things related to Ashford Inc. And when one of the infamous Lionel Ashford’s handpicked drivers was shot dead by an Ashford issued weapon, it tended to make national headlines. It wasn’t exactly murder per say, the accurate term (as Lionel Ashford himself put it) was Experimental miscalculations and failure, which was just a fancy way of saying that her Ex-husband had stood at the wrong end of a gun as one of the Ashford Inc. goons showed off their new weapon at their latest Expo, the gun had misfired and instead of the target the bullet had choose to go for David Martinez’ chest.     So yeah, it was a pretty damn big deal and the media made it their life mission to make sure no one forgot about the once in a lifetime f**k up of a multinational corporations like Ashford Inc., well at least until the next big story came in or a celebrity got married or something, Anyway the point is that the news was splattered everywhere and anywhere and rumors of Ashford Inc getting sued for millions of dollars were spreading like wildfire despite the fact that David Martinez’ prevailing family members wanted nothing to do with him dead or alive, in fact the only worry she currently had was the media tracking Martinez’ family background to her kids and her kids getting abused by the media because of it.     Luckily enough being an emotionless alcoholic asshole had its perks and they couldn’t actually find much about him other than his DUI records and drinking habits, she is pretty sure that had more to do with Ashford’s PR team rather than her husband’s privacy skills. But whatever, she couldn’t care less, she and her kids were safe and away from privy eyes and that’s all that mattered.   The kids had barley blinked an eye when they saw it on the TV; Wendell had muttered something about how it was about time, CJ just rolled his eyes at his older brother’s words but smiled and Luke had blinked and went back to finishing her breakfast still yawning away her sleep. Aisha didn’t know whether to be proud or disappointed at her children, proud because her kids were smart enough to realize how much of a moron her ex-husband was and not waste their emotions on him unlike she did for years and years, disappointed because despite everything he was their father and shouldn’t they have a better emotional range?, in the end she stuck to proud because David was a Giant Asshole (with a capital G and an A) and he did not deserve a drop of her or her children’s sadness.     That had been that and they had quickly left it behind them and moved on with their lives until the suited woman came into her bakery with a sympathetic fake smile and big annoying words that she couldn’t process amidst the afternoon rush in the Bakery, she had introduced herself as Carrie Hinberg, one of Lionel Ashford’s many lawyers. Understandably she had left Wendell in charge (despite her son’s tendency to get on the nerves of costumers) and went with her to talk expecting the very worst.     It had not been the very worst, well in her opinion that is, she was pretty sure CJ and Luke were going to be very much against that statement.     “No” Luke had said simply when she told them about the reason Carrie Hinberg and all her fake cheery self-had graced their ‘hole in the wall’ bakery. CJ had had a date when the Lawyer had come over and Luke had no choice but to drive him as CJ was just 15 and yet to obtain his license to his utter disappointment, Wendell was the only one who knew and he had kept on grinning and laughing knowing that his younger siblings were going to hate the news their mum had for them.     “It’s a really good opportunity, Lou” Aisha had replied to her only daughter with a sigh, they had just finished dinner and she had asked the kids to settle down in the kitchen to break the news.     “Wait, are you actually serious?” CJ asked his eyes open wide as he stared at her in shock; it always sucked to be the messenger of bad news.     “They want the both of you to go to a rich ass private school that the Ashford children attend as consolation for the death of our dear beloved father, what is so hard to grasp about that little bro?” Wendell answered as sarcastic as always, his eyes not leaving the screen of his phone and his fingers typing along with his words, and they said Men couldn’t multitask.     “Ah, the fact that it is half way across the country and full of rich white kids” CJ cried out dramatically, out of the 3 kids she raised, CJ was the only one with the teenage dramatic flair.     “Don’t be racist little bro, Rich people are not always white, rich people comes in all shape and sizes and in the rare occasions colors” Wendell added, Aisha decided to interject before the both of them would be at it again.     “It’s a really good school Hun, the best in the continent according to this pamphlet, its leading in every single aspect of education, sports, arts, science-everything, you could easily find a field you could go into. Kids from all across the world attends there, Colleges scouts for student instead of other way around and they are offering to pay every single penny for your education including a full ride to college of your choice, all you have to do is attend guys. And sure it’s a few miles away; you’ll have to stay in New York and wouldn’t be able to come home until like the winter break, and sure ill miss you and worry about you and it will be like I pushed my children out of the nest way too early, and I’ll be a horrible mum and-Oh s**t” she stops midway once she realizes what having them away would actually mean for her. She had never been away from her kids, not a day since Wendell was born and Wen attended community college that he could easily commute to and fro by staying at home.     “You lost your big pitch there Ma” Luke says breaking her out of her spiraling thoughts, Aisha looks at her daughter to see her smiling like she had already won this argument.   “I-I-It doesn’t matter-Just erase the last part, the point is you guys finally have a chance to get everything that I could not give you, Louie baby you can actually go to college, and a good one at it too and CJ will have a proper education and a good job and won’t ever have to even worry about college-“she starts determined to change her kids mind.   “Ma, not this again, I told you I don’t want to go to college, I am fine with working here in the bakery like Wen” Luke protests and Wendell snorts.     “You suck at working in the bakery; you can’t bake for s**t, your social skills are terrible so you can’t work at the front either, you drive like a crazy person so delivery is not even an option, you once gave a homeless person 5 whole loafs of bread for free so clearly you can’t be in charge of the cash either, in short having you work here bring more loses that profit, So no way in hell are you working at the bakery” Wendell adds and even CJ who has been glowering at everyone since he heard the news manages a low smile at that.     “Hey, I am an amazing taste tester. And that homeless woman had a toddler and a dog, how can you say no to that, I am not heartless. My social etiquettes are wonderful thank you very much, besides the Bakery is family property so you can’t fire me” Luke counters with an indignant pout.     “Yeah, how could we possibly live without your taste buds” Wendell says sarcastically and before Luke can reply she gives both of them a stern stare that has them settling down again.     “You are not wasting your life away in here Luke, you have big things written for you” She tries again.     “And what Wendell has tiny things?-Oh god that sounded terrible-Anyway, it’s my choice mum, and I choose not to go to college” she says defiantly, not quite meeting her eyes because Luke knows that her mother can read right through her and Aisha would be able to read all the lies in her baby’s words. Luke always made her want to cut her chest open and hide her daughter in there and away from the world.     “You choose not to go to college because you know we can’t afford it. I went to college, and I chose to stay here because I knew I could make this place better with mum, because me and mom could afford the best for the both of you to go out to the world, and we couldn’t do that yet no matter how hard we tried. That’s why this opportunity is too damn good for you to just throw it away like that, for both of you” Wendell replies suddenly, in a rare occurrences that makes him sound like the 23 year old adult he is instead of a young teen like the others.     “Fine, then I’ll just directly go to college next year; we can skip the pretentious private school, why can’t I complete my senior year here and take the scholarship or bribery or whatever the hell that is when the time comes?” Luke asks and by the way she gives up too easy in the argument and the hint of hope in her voice Aisha knows that in spite of everything she said, the idea of a full ride to college would mean a lot to her.     “I tried to talk about it, but apparently it’s a package deal, something about needing a cause effective immediately” Aisha says and notes the disappointed sigh that her daughter tries to conceal.     “And we can’t afford college by ourselves” Wendell adds in again.     “It’s not like we are poor, our bakery is doing great, people drive hours to buy our pastries, you told me that Ma, we even had that celebrity come in that one time” CJ adds in hurriedly, his features wilting once he realizes that Aisha was serious.     “Nobody is belittling our shop CJ, we are doing great, great enough to have enough food in our fridge or buy a new car, not great enough to afford college for the both of you, and for once in his lifetime your moron of a father has finally done something good for you, Ashford is going to pay for everything you need, including the chance to study at where he and his kids had went to school and college.  Who could possible give you all that?” Aisha tries.     “We don’t want their charity; he was nothing more than a sperm donor, they don’t owe us anything at all, we didn’t ask for anything Ma, if anything we all are just glad that he is dead” CJ cries out frustrated, his eyes having hardened and lips formed in a thin line which means her baby boy is seething with anger, which tend to happen whenever their dad comes up in a conversation, none of the three were found of their father, but nobody hated David Martinez as much as his youngest son.     “It’s hardly charity baby” she says as she walks over and sits next to her youngest son with an arm on his shoulder to comfort him, he barely reacts.     “They are not doing this out of the goodness of their heart CJ, they need to make a big show in front of the world about how much they have done to David Martinez’ family after their mistake, they want to turn all the bad press they have to good press so that their sales would be higher and their morality would be praised, if they privately settle us with money or just offered scholarships no one would know or it wouldn’t be soon enough to be important to them, so their solution is this big show by putting us in the same school the CEO’s kids go to” Luke explains with a resigned sigh, it always surprised her how smart she was, she had just summed up exactly what the Lawyer lady had tried to tell her subtly under large words and technical terms for more than 4 hours this afternoon, great things were destined for her daughter.     “They could hardly care about us, but hey when a golden opportunity comes knocking at our door- even though it’s intentions are not so good- you can’t just turn it away” Aisha tries explaining to her son whose eyes have hardened into a hateful glare once he realized that Luke was not putting up much of a fight.     “And She means it literally, like legally you can’t, I am pretty sure they will find some way to force us into taking the offer, they want their name cleared more than the both of you don’t want to go to this school” Wendell joins in.     “I miss the good old days when they just gave us money and said that they were sorry as consolation and that was that, this is just annoying” Luke says and mutters something about spending time with rich pretentions asshole surrounding her and how homicide seemed bright in her future.     “There is money, a sum with a large number of zeros, buts it all a mixed deal, I am pretty sure we could finally expand our bakery like 3 times bigger with that kind of money though” Wendell tries knowing that guilt tripping was the easiest way to get Luke to agree, she would do anything if it meant that the rest of them were well off, exhibit A would be pretending to not want to go to college so that CJ could in 3 years.     “Hey, no guilt tripping” she says anyway although Aisha knew that she had actually given in by that point and was actually worrying and muttering about all the horrible situations she would have to deal with, and to be honest she did have a point, they would suffer among people who were so high above the financial ladder to speak off. Aisha wasn’t that dumb and naïve to think that the whole world was loving, peaceful and dandy filled with rainbows and sunshine, her kids would be shunned and hated and made fun of, and they would have to suffer through it without their mom by their side, but besides that she knew that her children would get everything she ever wanted for them, and currently it seemed to trump over the few years of pain they would have to suffer at the said school before going off to college.     “No-Absolutely not” CJ shouts from her side all of a sudden snapping even Luke out of her self-pitying thoughts and internal swearing at rich kids.     “Luke can go if she wants to but there is no way that I am leaving. She only has a year left of school, she only has to suffer a year, I have 3-I am not going to spent my high school years with a bunch of rich stupid assholes, absolutely not!!  And I have friends here, I have a girlfriend, I have a life here Ma! Luke is a total loner so nobody cares about her if she just up and left like that, she hasn’t got anything to lose but I do, I won’t leave, you can’t make me go to the f*****g school alright” CJ shouts standing up from his spot, his eyes fuming.   “Camden James Kaseling” Aisha yells at his despicable behavior, he clearly was not giving in easy unlike his sister.   “I have friends, I have lots of friends-like bucket loads, if I could sell them I would be a millionaire” Luke says not exactly offended by her brother’s words, but somehow feeling the need to clarify it. Her brother doesn’t even pay a mind to her before storming away up the stairs and shutting the door harshly behind him.     “Wow, and I thought girls were meant to be dramatic” Wendell says after a second.     “Stop being sexist Wen, we all know how well you took it when Staci with an I dumped you before prom” Luke points out.   “Like an adult”   “You cried for a whole day not letting mom leave the room and when you did go to prom you ruined her dress by stepping on it, continuously until the poor girl cried” Luke deadpans.   “As I said, like an adult-No wonder you have no friends Luke, you are too busy bitching at everyone, poor CJ got the full name card even though he said the truth”     “I have friends, have you met me, I am amazing” she spluttered again.   “Acquaintances and lab partners does not classify as friends, the last time you brought a friend home was in freshmen year when you had to finish an assignment-“ Wendell countered and it continued as it was always in the home with 3 of them.   Aisha had half the mind to go after CJ, but then decided against it, knowing her boy he would probably be in his room talking to that girlfriend of his, a sweet rational headed girl he had been seeing for a few months, and despite everything else she knew that CJ would come around too despite his antics he knew how much this meant to her even though he was unaware of the importance to himself, and for his mother her sweet boy would do anything.   Aisha Kaseling loved her kids, she just hoped the world outside would show at least a percentage of that kindness towards them..