Finding Home ~ Chapter 1: The Fight
So, here's my new story. Sequel to Story of Bella Bachelor. I'd recommend reading that first if any parts seem a little confusing to you. I honestly don't know how this will turn out. But hey, at least I thought of a half decent title name :L
Cassandra Goth was busy sat at the kitchen table doing her homework when her baby brother started crying. She sighed.
'Mom! Can you please take Alexander to another room? I'm trying to do my homework!' she pleaded, looking desperately at her mother.
'Alright, Cassie. It's getting near to his bed time anyway.' replied Bella, picking Alexander up from the floor and holding him close.
'Oh yeah, where's dad? He isn't usually this late home.' asked Cassandra, frowning. She was always a daddy's girl and loved being around her father. Bella also frowned.
'In all honesty, I have no idea. If he was stuck in traffic or something then he would have let us know.' she said, looking at the door, as if wishing that Mortimer would walk through it right at that very moment.
Cassandra sighed again and continued with her homework as Bella carried Alexander upstairs.
Alexander Goth was only fifteen months old, yet he looked much smaller. He was born a month premature so naturally he was very small. His parents and sister loved him to the moon and back.
'Night night, my boy. I love you.' whispered Bella, kissing Alexander on the forehead before laying him down in his crib and leaving the room.
Cassandra was clearly starting to get frustrated on her science homework. Where was her dad at? Not only was he a scientist, but he was also very intelligent. He always helped Cassandra with her homework.
Walking back down the stairs, Bella could see how stressed out her thirteen year old daughter was getting.
'Cass, if your homework is bothering you that much, just do it tomorrow morning. Your father can help you with it then.' she suggested.
'Fine. Hey mom, you know how my birthday is in a few months time?'
'Yes?'
'Can I have a party?'
'What sort of party do you have in mind? Not a house party. Your brother will be here.'
'Mom, I'll be fourteen. What harm would a house party at that age do?'
Bella knew alright. When it was her friend Darlene's fourteenth birthday, she'd thrown a house party. Afterwards, the entire place was a mess and it had took Darlene three whole days to clean it up by herself. Bella didn't want a messy house.
'Your father and I will have a talk about it.'
'But mom! Aunt Darlene told me that when she was fourteen, she had a house party!'
'Yes, but she didn't tell you what happened afterwards. Now how about you read a book?'
One thing that Bella disliked about living with her husband was that he refused to own a TV. That made her very bored as there wasn't much else to do around the house during the day.
'Fine. But will you please think about that party?' begged Cassandra.
'I will. But would you not like to go to the Bistro with some of your friends?'
That was Bella's polite way of saying that her daughter didn't actually have that many friends.
'Mom, I don't know. But can you please ring dad to ask where he is?'
Bella nodded and picked up the house phone, dialing Mortimer's number in the process. It rung for a while before going straight to voicemail.
'For crying out loud! He was supposed to be home two hours ago!' moaned Bella, causing Cassandra to sigh for the millionth time that evening.
'Are you serious?! What time even is it? I think I'll just read my book in bed.' muttered Cassandra, clearly starting to get annoyed.
'It's half eight. Think you might want to take a bath too?' suggested Bella.
'Yeah, I think I'll just do that. I'll be down to say goodnight later!' chirped Cassandra, mood slightly lightening.
Bella smiled as her teenage daughter flew up the stairs. To pass some time, she started to do some housework. She couldn't wait until Alexander started school so that she could return to work. When her son was napping during the day, there was literally nothing to do. All of her other friends were at work, her mother was always busy doing some kind of housework. But tomorrow would be different, Jocasta Bachelor was going to look after her grandson for the entire day. Bella smiled to herself. She loved her mom. Having to raise five children in one household after her father died was bad enough. And that wasn't even counting the grandchildren from Bella's two older siblings. Bella had no idea what she'd do without her mother.
The house that Bella, Mortimer, Cassandra and Alexander lived in was right on the outskirts of Sunset Valley. They'd only just moved there a few months before from Bridgeport. It actually didn't take them that long to settle in. It was an L shaped house that was right across the road from Mortimer's Aunt Agnes' house. It was quite old, three bedrooms and Cassandra's room was connected to the extremely large attic by a flight of stairs. There was also an extremely large kitchen as well as a small yard.
Bella had finally finished washing the dishes when Cassandra emerged back downstairs, wearing a bathrobe and having a towel wrapped around her head.
'Still no sign of dad?' she asked. Bella shook her head.
'Damn it.' she muttered under her breath.
'Well anyway mom, I'll say good night now and read for a while. See you in the morning!' she continued, giving her mother a hug.
'Night Cassie, lights out by ten!' smiled Bella as her daughter ran back upstairs. She heard Cassandra's bedroom door close.
By eleven, there was still no sign of Mortimer. Until Bella heard the front door open and then close again, rather quietly. She made her way to the front porch and saw her husband standing there rather sheepishly. She frowned.
'And where have you been?' she demanded, looking him dead in the eye.
'I'm so sorry Bella, I was about to leave for the night when they called me in to do a little bit of overtime.' admitted Mortimer, scratching the back of his neck.
'Four hours of overtime, Mortimer?! What time do you call this?!'
'I'm sorry, I lost track of time and-'
'Your daughter was waiting for you to come home so that she could get help on her science homework! Your son started crying because you weren't home! We were all worried sick! What if you'd been abducted, for crying out loud?! You could've at least rung home to let us know!' Bella interrupted, getting angrier and angrier.
'I totally forgot to, I didn't realize that the overtime was going to be that long...'
'What the hell were you even doing?! Unless you'd found a miraculous cure for some sort of disease or a way to fight off alien abductions, then you have absolutely no excuse!'
'For crying out loud Bella, calm down! At least I have a job to provide for the family!' shouted Mortimer, finally snapping. Bella's eyes narrowed and she made a disgusted noise.
'Excuse me?! I'm still on maternity leave, for God's sake! I still have a good job that I'll return to once Alexander starts nursery school! Do you actually think that I WANT to stay at home all day when we don't even own a television?!' yelled Bella, face burning red with anger.
Upstairs, Cassandra lay awake. She hadn't gone to sleep, she was waiting for her dad to arrive home. Now her parents were in a blazing argument that had sadly woken her little brother up. She could hear him starting to cry. Before her parents heard which would probably result in them blaming each other for the crying, she tip toed rapidly across the landing into Alexander's room.
As her parents continued to scream profanities at one another, Cassandra tried calming her baby brother down. She too was trying not to cry. Her parents had never argued like this before, only had the slight disagreement there and then. Alexander's cries soon turned into soft whimpers, and Cassandra sung soothingly to him until he fell back asleep. Then she crept back into her room and sandwiched her head between her mattress and her pillow to try and block out the sound of her arguing parents. It only slightly worked, the noise still worked it's way through into Cassandra's ears.
The screaming eventually stopped and Cassandra could hear someone, presumably her mother, storming up the stairs and slamming the master bedroom door behind them. Then the entire house fell quiet and Cassandra let two small tears run down each cheek. She hoped that everything would be alright in the morning.
Done. Oh gosh, first chapter nerves. I've been through this plenty of times now. This was supposed to come out at the weekend, but I started writing it a few days earlier. Okay, more like a week earlier. So, what do you all think? Is it alright? Cassandra seems to be centered a little during this chapter. It won't always be like that. I still don't like this title name too much. I may or may not be able to think of a better one.