It was just another Saturday morning in the Sawyer residence and Lila's dad wasn't home as usual because of his late-night partying habit that he started since he made new friends in Hillwood leaving Lila with Veronica Rogers, her teenage cousin and one of her only relatives in Hillwood.
Lila woke up at six in the morning and she went down to have some breakfast that her cousin prepared for her. When Lila entered the dining room, she found her cousin, who had dark brown hair and appeared to be 5 foot 5 tall, cooking their breakfast. Lila took a seat on their dining table while she waited for Veronica to finish cooking.
"Hey Lila! Good Morning! I made you some breakfast. Today's breakfast special is Sunny Side-up eggs with bacon." Veronica said in a cheerful voice.
"Thank you ever so much for cooking this!" Lila replied in a cheerful voice like she usually did.
Lila and Veronica ate their breakfast and they had conversations in between. The kind of breakfast that would have happened between Lila and her father...only that, Lila and her father don't talk that much, Lila's dad is always in a hurry...he works so much during the day and he parties hard at night, and when he's not partying at night, he's at the couch doing nothing, leaving Lila to fend for herself. Veronica is the only person other than her friends who are able to fill in the gaps between Lila and her father.
"Lila, how do you like my cooking." Veronica asked Lila
"Veronica, your cooking is ever so good, like mom used to." Lila said to Veronica
"I'm happy that you liked my cooking." Veronica said cheerfuly
Right after Lila and her cousin had their breakfast, they decided to watch cartoons. For a teenager like Veronica, it may sound unusual to find her watching cartoons with a kid but she doesn't give a damn about what people say to her about it. Nobody can tell her when to stop watching cartoons. A few hours later, Veronica decided to ask Lila if it's okay if she switches the channel to MTV.
"Uh...Lila, mind if I ask you something?" Veronica asked
"Sure Ronnie, what is it?" Lila replied
"Lila...mind if we change the channel to MTV, TRL's coming on in a few minutes" Veronica said
"Sure Ronnie, no problem." Lila answered
Veronica switched the channel to MTV and TRL already came on when she switched it. She just switched it at the right time.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to MTV's Total Request Live! This is your host, Carson Daly." the host said to the viewers, "and today is May 17 which means Britney Spears will be our guest for today" the host added
"May 17..." Lila said to herself. "that's the day mom left." she added
"Is everything okay there, Lila?" Veronica asked
"I'm okay." Lila said.
Veronica's POV
I know what's making Lila feel a bit down today...you see, May 17 was the day her mother left her and her dad behind...the only thing that Lila knows is that her mother told her that she'd come back for her but she never did. I actually witnessed what happened that day, you see, my mom is the sister of Lila's mom and well, Lila's mom had a problem with her husband and that made her decide to leave her husband behind...and to make it clear, Lila wasn't really left behind, she was just sent to live with her grandmother back in Pleasantville but for some reason, Lila's dad was still able to get Lila to go with him to Hillwood. All of this started three years ago and I was just in 7th grade back then.
*start of flashback*
We were in Los Angeles, California that rainy night, I know, rain is not a usual sight in LA but this night was different, the rain was so damn heavy. We were outside the Sunset Boulevard Apartments waiting for Lila and her mother, Lynne to come out of the building.
"There's Lynne and her daughter...I have to get out of the car and help them, Veronica, stay in here and look after the car." My mom ordered me
"Okay mom." I replied
I could hear the raindrops hitting the car windows and it was real loud, one raindrop came rapidly after another, like buckets of water were being blasted to our car. Even with the help of the wipers, the heavy raindrops still kept on coming. I could hear Aunt Lynne and my mother talking in the background, they were talking about something about Aunt Lynne's husband. My mom opened the back door of the car and she asked me to let Lila sit with me and I just had to say yes because we're really in a tough situation right now. Mom helped Lila into the car and then she closed the back door of the car. I could notice that Lila was shivering and it seems that she must have gotten herself into a tough situation. I wasn't really close to Lila at that time but something just told me that I should help that girl out.
"Uh...Lila, I'm Veronica. I'm your cousin. Is everything alright?" I asked
"Uh...I'm just okay Veronica." Lila said while she was shivering
"I got a blanket here, would you like to use it?" -Me
'S...s...sure." -Lila
I wrapped the blanket around Lila and I let her lean to my shoulders...man...that kid must have gone through a tough challenge...I wonder what happened in that apartment unit. I popped in my earphones and listened to Britney's album on my Discman. I later heard a loud thud at the back, mom has finished placing Aunt Lynne's stuff in the trunk and mom led Aunt Lynne to the front seat and mom went to the driver's seat and we drove off of the apartment.
*end of flashback*