A Real Family

At the end of the day, the bell rang and the students rushed out of school. Teachers bustled around and cliques swarmed the halls. Just as it was her luck, all the papers Cindy was carrying flew out of her hands. No one helped her pick them up, leaving her alone in the hallway, picking up papers. Then, she went to her locker once she had all her papers with her. 

From her locker, Catherine and Mia enjoyed the show.

Mia scoffed, "She's such a loser. She hasn't even made a single friend yet!" She flipped her hair obnoxiously and glanced at Catherine for approval of bashing the new student. "Isn't she, Cathy?" Catherine nodded and folded her arms, watching as Cindy struggled with her lock. Finally, she got it open and she neatly placed some textbooks and notebooks in her backpack, organizing what was left in her locker.

Bored now that Cindy's struggles were over, Catherine lead Mia out of the school with her carrying two backpacks: hers and Catherine's.

The hallway was almost empty by the time Cindy left the school. 

Cindy walked out of the school and walked home, stopping by the convenience store on the way to buy milk. Her mom had recently said something about running out of milk. With her own money, Cindy brought the milk up to the cashier and paid. She looked into her wallet and sighed. It was pretty evident that she was low on money. It was also true that she needed money, but she didn't want to ask her parents for a couple of dollars either. They worked hard for what they earned, so shouldn't Cindy work for what she wanted too? That's what she thought. 

Gallon of milk in hand, Cindy made her way back home. Digging through textbooks, she finally found her key. She stuck it in the keyhole and twisted. The lock clicked open and she stepped into her house. Almost immediately, she smelled the sweet aroma of Chinese food cooking. 

"I'm home!" She yelled over the noise coming from the kitchen. She went further into the house and dropped her backpack onto the couch. Her sister was watching a child's TV show even though she was already in middle school. "Hey, kiddo." Cindy greeted.

"Hmm." Crystal replied. Her eyes were glued to the TV. She grabbed a handful of popcorn and stuffed it into her mouth, munching on it. 

Catching on to the fact that Crystal didn't really want to talk at that moment, Cindy went to the kitchen to help out. She washed her hands and picked up a knife, cutting the vegetables that her mom had lain out into equal pieces. She scooped them into a bowl and handed it over to her mom. "Here." Her mom dumped everything into the pan and dunked some soy sauce in too. "When's Dad coming home?" Cindy asked.

"He's on a business trip. He'll be back by the end of the month. In the meantime, it's just us three." Her mom informed. 

"Oh. Where to?" CIndy asked.

"China." Her mom pulled out another pan and dumped some rice in, moving the grains of rice around until they acquired the gold-ish yellow color she wanted it.

Done with cooking, her mom scooped the fried rice into three bowls. "Cindy, get Crystal. Dinner's ready."

Cindy nodded, "Crystal!" She screamed across the house. "Dinner!"

Now that the noise had died down in the kitchen, footsteps could be heard going to the dining room. 

The three of them sat down and ate quietly. "So girls, how was school?" Mrs. Wang asked.

"Fine." The two daughters replied at the same time. 

"I'm doing good. The teachers already like me. My Social Studies teacher is a bit crabby though. He's old." Crystal mentioned with her mouth full.

"Crystal, that's not nice." Cindy pointed out.

The younger pouted, "It's true."

CIndy and her mom laughed, "You're too cute."

Soon dinner was finished and the two daughters of the Wang family went upstairs to do their homework.

-----------------

Meanwhile, in the Bloom household, Catherine lay on the couch, stuffing her face with potato chips in the dark. Her parents had gone to the mall. Again. 

The door bell rang and Catherine jumped up to open it. Her father stumbled in with loads of bags and her mother followed with the same amount of shopping bags in her hands. They passed them all to Catherine. "Here. We got you something." Catherine's mother looked in her purse and threw a water bottle bought from a vending machine at her. "And those go upstairs in the master bedroom." She motioned towards the bags.

Catherine sighed and lugged all the bags upstairs to her parents' bedroom. How much money did they spend this time? More exactly, how much money did her mother spend?

Catherine walked down the stairs, hoping for dinner to be prepared. Even a micrwaved meal would have warmed her heart. But no. There was a sticky-note left on the dining table. 

Bye.

Catherine gaped at the note. Seriously? A simple "bye"? They didn't even mention where they were going or when they were coming back.

Catherine rolled her eyes and read the rest of the note.

Get dinner yourself. Better yet, save money and don't eat at all.

She should have saw it coming, but she was still surprised as to how her parents treated her. Then a question popped into her mind, Does Cindy have an actual family?

With new curiosoty and that question in mind, Catherine turned off the TV, cleaned up, washed, and went to bed, not even bothering about dinner. 

If even her parents didn't care about her, why should she?