Pictures Under The Bed

Naomi's room had a large bed in the right corner. There was a study table on the bed's left side and beside that was the door to the bathroom. There was a waist length bookshelf beside the door, another shelf on the adjacent wall right beside the bookshelf and a cupboard beside the shelf. There were pictures on the bookshelf and on the wall.

It was nine at night. Hilary was sitting on the corner of the bed, leaning on the wall. She was reading some dairy. Naomi entered the room and Hilary hid the dairy she was reading. Naomi looked at the bookshelf and said, "Why are the pictures here?"

"Oh!" Hilary exclaimed, "I cleaned the room and found them under the bed so I kept them around the room."

Naomi hurriedly gathered all the pictures from the bookshelf and wall. "They were under the bed because they were supposed to be there," she put the pictures in a box under the bed, "Please don't do that again."

"Why were they there?" Hilary was confused, "They were really good pictures."

Naomi sat beside Hilary and explained, "Those were my mother, father and Dayna. I am mad at them; they all left us on our own." She pulled out a picture. It was her mother's picture. She looked just like Naomi but had longer hair that reached under her should. Her hair was curlier than Naomi's and her eyes shone like sapphires. She was wearing a maroon dress and a white lab coat over it. Hilary compared Naomi's face with her mother's and said, "You look just like her."

"I know," she pulled out more pictures and said, "People always say that." She showed another picture of her mother and another lady and said, "That is Riri's mother, Dayna. She always wore that look on her face, or so I remember."

Dayna was taller than Naomi's mother, Cora. Her hair was brown and reached till her waist and she was wearing a black bow on the top of her head. Her eyes were sharp and she had silver eyes. She wore maroon lipstick. She was wearing a light blue shirt and black skinny jeans and a lab coat. She looked serious and didn't even smile in that picture.

Hilary was curious so she asked, "Why are they in lab coats?" Naomi looked at her and smiled, "Because they were scientists."

She pulled out another picture. It was of a group of scientists. They were Naomi and Riri's parents and their grandmother was sitting on a wheelchair in middle. She pointed at her mother and father and said, "My mother was a physicist and my father was a beyblade engineer." She pointed at Riri's mother and father and continued, "Riri's mother was an astronomer and her father was physicist too. He used to study dark matters." She pointed at her grandmother and said, "Granny was a biologist. She studied different kind of animals and plants and sometimes stones too."

Hilary pulled out a picture from underneath that picture. It was of team frozen dark and Riri. Riri was hold Reo's hand with her both hands and smiled gracefully. Reo was smiling too. Beside him was Sianna. She had her right hand on Reo's shoulder and was showing a victory sign from her left hand. Joh was looking down at the hand that came in front of the camera and Shinyu was sitting on a bench behind them writing something on a notepad.

"Where is that black haired guy looking?" Hilary asked pointing at Joh. Naomi giggled and said, "I was supposed to be in the picture but after I set the timer on the camera I tripped and fell. That guy is looking at me."

Hilary giggled and then pointed at Reo and Riri, "They seem pretty close." Naomi looked at the picture and said, "They were pretty close back then. They were a couple."

"A couple?"

"Yes. Didn't you guys know about it?" Naomi asked as she was unknown to the fact that Riri never talked about her past relationship with them. Hilary pulled her eyebrows close and said, "No. She never told us, maybe Kai knows about it."

"Kai does. Riri told me," Naomi looked at her with a smile, "Don't worry. It wasn't a big deal. Reo wasn't a nice person anyway. I am glad that Riri is with Kai now. You see, he's hot." Naomi's smile became a little childish and she giggled.

"You said Reo was not a nice person," Hilary looked at Naomi mischievously, "How come you have a crush on his brother?" Hilary pulled out the dairy from her side.

"You read my dairy!" Naomi burst into blush, "You dolt!"

"You write a lot about that sapphire eyed guy," Hilary was having fun messing with Naomi, "Is he SO cool?"

"Stop it," Naomi hid her face in her hand, "He's not like Reo. Joh is sweet, kind and caring. Reo is more like his uncle. Joh says his uncle is like a psychotic maniac, he experimented on their younger sister."

"Ooo, family problems."

"Yeah," Naomi looked up, "Maybe you should meet Joh. We have the closing ceremony interhouse sports event tomorrow, so you can meet him in the school."

"No, it's fine." Hilary didn't like Naomi's suggestion. Naomi waved her hand and said, "I have a badminton match tomorrow. If you can bring Riri to cheer for me then I can win. Please, Hilary."

"Okay. But I'm not meeting the guy."

"Sure."

Naomi looked down at the pictures and said with a sad smile, "Hey, can you put them back? They are good and they should be around the room."
"Sure," Hilary smiled at her. Naomi pulled out the picture of Team Frozen Dark and said, "Leave this. Riri will not like this one."

"Okay."

Hilary went upstairs to the terrace for some fresh air. The terrace spread over Naomi's house and Riri's old house. Closing the door of the terrace behind her, she looked up to see Riri staring down from the ledge of the terrace. "Riri! What are you doing here?"

Riri looked back and said, "Nothing, just looking around."

"How come you have such a big house?"

"Well, our parents got a lot of money from their researches and both houses belong to our grandmother."

Hilary stood beside Riri, leaning on the ledge. They were standing on the other side of the house where they could see the Tree of Melancholy. She looked down at it and said in almost a whisper, "Beautiful!"

"It is"

"What is it?"

"That is a Tree of Melancholy, a clone. It does not grow on earth and..." She explained about the tree more in detail. Fascinated by the magic lying in the tree, Hilary leaned more on the ledge.

"Hey, hey, Hils!" Riri pulled her back, "You will fall. If you like it a lot see it tomorrow. It won't die till then." Hilary giggled and said, "Sorry."

"You know what tomorrow is?" Hilary asked. Riri looked at her and said, "No. What is it?"

"Naomi has a badminton match tomorrow."

"Really!" She rolled her eyes. "How come I forgot about it!?" Hilary smiled at her and said, "She wants you to be there."

"Okay. I will go there."

TO BE CONTINUED...