Chapter 2: Her Family

I decided to break the tension with some questions. "Where do you live exactly?"

"It's close to the school, but in a nicer area."
"Thought so."
"What's that mean?"
"Well… you just seem a bit more, brought up than the other kids there."
"Thanks" She started walking a bit faster, which was somewhat strange. The houses seemed to be getting nicer the further we walked on. "You live in a house like these?"
"Yeah, do you not?"
"Nah, I live by myself in an apartment by myself."
"Oh, sorry if I said something wrong."
"It's fine."
"But I would like to live myself."
"You say that, but I miss having the option of relying on my parents sometimes."
"Speaking of parents, why don't you meet mine?"
"I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome."
"Don't worry about it, it's fine." Her words seemed to reassure me and I eventually gave in.

When we got close to her house there was a tall man, with muscles he wasn't afraid to hide, standing at the top of the stairs. "Where have you been?"
"This is my friend Nora…"
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR FRIEND, I'M ASKING ABOUT YOU." Monica flinched back at the sound of her father's booming voice. "HEY!" They both stared at me, the father more surprised than anyone. "She is not the one to blame here, I know I have no right saying this, but she was only late because she was convincing me to come over so she could thank me for helping her in class." I didn't want to mention the part about her getting attacked and alarm her father. The dad stared at me with a piercing glare but I stared back harder until he said, "Got some brass ones down there." I was a little shocked by his comment on my…genitals, then again so was she, "Dad!"
"What? It's the truth."
"But you still shouldn't say things like that."
"I see what you mean, but there's no point in overreacting to something so trivial." Monica just stood there for a couple seconds trying to think of something to say, but before she could her dad interrupted her, "why don't you come inside? It's about to get dark." I turned to Monica to see if I was allowed to. She started to walk towards the door and I decided to follow. The outside of the house was amazing, but the inside was a whole other story, there was a chandelier, four bookshelves completely covered with books, even an extensive collection of swords hanging from the wall, needless to say, I was stupefied by the amount of work that went into this house.

"You have an amazing house."
"We try to impress our guests whenever they are here."
"Well, consider me impressed." Monica went off to see her mom while I was looking at the swords and books that they had. "You must like swords to be staring at them like that."
"I know how to use them more than I know the history behind them."
"What style do you major in?"
""I was taught a little of everything so I just kinda mix everything together to make my own style."
"Who taught you how to fight?, if you don't mind me asking."
"My mother was a Pandora so she taught me."
"Is she out fighting now?"
"She died while fighting a Nova."
"I'm sorry to hear that, not a lot of Pandora have children these days."
"Yeah, but I wanted to ask what style you fight with."
"The only one I know is kendo, why?" I took down two wooden swords that were next to the collection and tossed him one, "I wanted to know what technique I should beat you with." He smiled a little bit, "I'm always looking for someone to spar with." He dashed at me with his sword aimed at my head, I used the back of my sword to push his away, then I swung towards his face, he ducked and aimed for my stomach, I bent my knees so the sword would swing over me, before he could recover our counter I put the point of the sword to his neck. "Well, you surely are skilled."
"And you have very good speed for someone who doesn't train often."
"How do you know I don't?"
" It's just that your movements seemed a little unrefined, just practice a bit more and they should become more polished."
"I see…thanks for the tip."
"Is this the friend you brought over?" I turned to see Monica, and who I guessed was her mother, standing behind us. "Mom, can we please go to the kitchen now?" She almost sounded like she didn't want her mom to meet me. "Go ahead you know what we're going to make, you don't need my help." She seemed to be looking me over and when she was done, she just went into the kitchen nothing else was said. Her dad and I talked about his job, and some of the books he had in his collection. "I may not enjoy seeing plays, but for some reason I've always liked reading Shakespeare for some reason."
"Same with me, they're just so interesting, have you ever read the Divine Comedy?"
"I remember reading it at one point."
"Dinner is ready whenever you two are!"
"Let's save this topic for another day, alright?"
"Sounds good to me, let's go eat." I followed Monica's dad to the dining room, which was just as impressive as the living room.
"Wow, the food looks really good."
"Thank you." I heard the voice from behind me and I was surprised I didn't know Monica was there behind me.
"Did you cook a lot of this?"
"I tried anyway, as thanks for today."
"You keep bringing that up, but it really isn't a big deal." We both sat next to each other at the table. We all passed the food around when Monica's father asked, "So what's this about the classroom today." Monica and I spent the next couple of minutes describing what had happened that day. "I can't believe all that happened on your first day here, I knew there were gang problems but I didn't think it had gotten that bad."
"Well, it was nothing major, but you can't be too careful when it comes to gangs." Monica's father nodded his head in agreement. "Oh, I forgot to ask, but what is your last name?, I never learned it."
"It's Anderson."
"Anderson got it."
"And we never learned your name, what is it?"
"It's Nora, Nora Walker."
"Interesting name, but it fits."
"Thank you." After that happened we had dessert, and just talked for a while. "I think it's about time I got back to my apartment." Mr. Anderson stood up, but Monica got up faster. "I'll walk him out dad." He nodded and sat back down. When we got to the door Monica said, "Thanks for coming over."
"Well you didn't give me much choice on the matter."
"True, but it was still nice, maybe you can come over again sometime." She didn't look me in the eyes when she said that, but it was to know we had become friends. "Sure I don't see why I couldn't come over sometime." She smiled at this and it felt good to see her happy. "I'll see you at school tomorrow then?"
"Definitely." I walked onto sidewalk and started the long walk home, I turned to wave and she waved back. I had thought that it would turn out bad that day, but it turned very nice, and couldn't wait for school the next morning.