"Not good enough, Lyra." The petite girl's mom scolded, holding her fist college entrance exams in her hand, a frown upon her face.
"Nothing is ever good enough for you." Lyra shook her head, her hand shaking from anger. She had been brought up to not talk back, to do as everyone had pleased, and to go with anything her parents had said. She had pleased them over and over. Her mom and her step dad. They often preached at how great a life she had, how blessed she was. She lived in a southern mansion, her step dad the highest town official and she was taught people were always watching them. Her feelings didn't matter so much, if at all.
"Don't raise your voice to your mother. We have given…" the step dad started on one of his usual speeches at the slightest complaint she would attempt to render. Even the slightest face of displeasure, a roll of the eyes, a frown, and she was reprimanded. She turned to walk upstairs, more anger in her than ever before.
"I'll show you what you have given me." Lyra muttered, going to her mother's room as the two talked downstairs. She took out the pearls her mom so loved, the ones that were true as true could be. The net worth on the pearl and diamond necklace was more than Lyra could possibly fathom. She rarely saw their money, as she was not an original daughter of her step dad's. She worked a local part time job at the diner in her friend's part of town to get her money. This time she was going to take it and carry out the plan she had so intended to do every time she thought of her original family. Necklace in hand, she sat on her bed, held it close to her heart, and began to cry hopelessly as though her heart were on fire. She picked up the phone and dialed the one number she had found that could be her brother's. Her father who had her twin, was no where on this side of the earth that she could find.
"Hello." A shaky male voice answered.
"Is…is ….Leon there?" She asked, her heart pounding full force and she felt like she could throw up in a split second.
"Nope, he's…." The voice started but was interrupted and hung up on. Lyra had put down the phone and curled up, her heart not able to take it.
"That's it." She jumped off the bed in a haste, furiously threw some clothes into a bag, and packed a suitcase. She ran to the hall, where she knew of a vase that stashed the illegal money or bribe money she knew her step dad hid there, and raided the lot of it.
"Where you going, Lyra?" Her mom asked, once she was downstairs. She had thrown the suitcase out the window, her room being hid by nothing but big, willowy trees.
"To see some friends and to try to find a tutor." She smiled sweetly, catering to her mom's appeal and permission.
"Good girl. And dye that hair back to it's normal color. Red doesn't suit you." She said, blowing her a fake kiss, speaking of the dark cheery red hair she had dyed her hair the night before.
"I'll pick some up from the store and rinse it out. I promise." Lyra nodded, taking a few things out of the refrigerator.
"I'm glad. I'll expect to see you for dinner. We have company coming over so get home to dress nicely." Her mom reminded her. Lyra waked out, taking one last look at the house she had grown up in, hating it all the more. She stopped on the walk to the airport to get some things she needed she had forgotten.
"I shoulda been a blonde." She muttered to herself in the store as she ridiculed herself out loud for forgetting things. She picked up a crossword puzzle book, a cd payer and some head phones, her forgotten items and paid for it all. On the way out, her cell phone rang and she growled at it, seeing it was her mom. All her life her mom had smothered her, been too controlling, and not even let her grow up normal. She always had to be prim and proper.
"Where you headed?" A guy asked, his little boy running circles around him.
"Airport. You?" She asked., putting the cell phone on the bench.She decied to ride the bus to the airport.
"Same." He nodded.
"Aw, dad, can't I stay with you?" He asked, whining almost. He looked to be about eightish, maybe nine.
"Sorry son." he shook his head, a crease across his face as he looked for words to explain it. Lyra guess his parents had divorced and she felt sorry for him. Her phone rang yet again and she turned it on, then immediately off, not saying a word.
"DAD! You can get my a phone so mom won't have to know when I call you!" the boy said, getting an idea. This made the dad smile apologetically and shake his head.
"I would if I could, Jayson. I would. But you know I can't." He looked down, then at Lyra. "Sorry. Kids, they say what they want without thinking." He apologized.
"Yeah, I understand." Lyra smiled, smiling at the little boy who was cuter than most kids she saw at banquets and fund raisers. She got on the bus in quiet and when they were taken to the airport, she had an idea. She looked at the dad, who clearly had less than she did. "Do you mind if I send this home with him?" She asked, hoping she wasn't overstepping her boundaries. She asked in a low enough voice to make sure the boy hadn't heard.
"Oh, we couldn't possibly. But thank you." He said, his face turning red from what she hoped was embarrassment, not anger.
"It's not a big deal. It's already paid for three years and I can change the number right now. Please. He would love to be able to talk to you when he wanted. It's unlimited minutes and it's …just please. I have never been wanting to do something like this and I would love to see you give it to him." Lyra said, straightening out her pink, mini dress that looked like it has just came from the store.
"Your parents wouldn't like that." The guy said as he walked to the gate.
"My parents trust my judgment. And I can get another one. Where I'm going, I won't even need a phone. So you would be doing me a favour." She smiled, looking at the boy's eyes as a plane pulled up the gate they were in front of.
"Are you sure about this?" The dad asked hesitantly. She gave him a firm nod. Her parents would scold her for years if they knew, they were so snobbish and she hated them for it. "I don't know what to say." the father stuttered, looking ashamed.
":Just say yes, before his plane leaves and I have to go too. I'm at this gate and I only have a few minutes left." She noted as the boy raced back and forth to the window.,
"You're going to La too?" He asked, looking shocked. She nodded, taking a deep breath. If she only knew where in LA.
"Yeah, to find my brother. And I have a twin too. I don't know if she's there or not." Lyra sighed, her thoughts making her stomach ache.
"Well, good luck and thank you." He said, as she handed him the phone.
"No problem." She started for the gate.
"Hey! Wait up! Can I sit with you?" The little boy asked, a few minutes later after they were all headed to the plane itself thought the tunnelled gateway.
"Sure." Lyra laughed, the boy's eyes huge. He looked relieved.
"I'm Jayson." He shook out his hand, after settling in the seat.
"Lyra." She smiled.
"As in Lie-ra?" Jayson asked, making her nod. She watched as the plane backed out, happy to finally be leavening for her dream destination. To find her brother. Her mother told her from the very day they had been split up to never talk about the 'other' family. "Lyra, you okay?" Chas asked as the plane picked up speed on the runway to take off. She didn't realize she had been gripping the arm of the seat, as in panic. She had never flown. Her mother catered to her fear and always ha made other arrangements for travel or simply left her at home.
"Yeah. Just a little nervous. You fly a lot, I guess." She laughed, as he handed her a piece of gum.
"Yeah, ever since my parents divorced." he sighed, though kept his smile.
"SO, how old are you?" She asked, making small talk to keep her mind off the fact they were headed high into the sky and at any minute she could fall, crash, and burn.
"Nine, almost ten." He replied, looking down at the patchy cloud s that were now below the huge plane.
"Cool. Nice phone your dad gave you." Lyra smiled, trying to get her thoughts off the mental flashbacks she was having of the day they had all been ripped apart.
"You can't take Mira away from me!" Lyra cried, her tears falling as she stared out the back window of the small, Chevy S-10 truck's window.
"It's for the best." Her mom said, turning onto the winding road that led them into the town she and her siblings attended.
"NO! I'm not going!" Lyra screamed, trying to claw at the window.
"Where we're going is much better for you. I want to help you and your mom." The gentlemen that had picked home up at the airport thousands of miles away smiled at her.
"Nothing is better than my family." She glared.
"She'll need to be put in a private school and taught some discipline." The guy remarked to her mother as they were led to a limousine and ushered in, the door shut by the driver. Lyra cried as though her heart was breaking.
"Of course, she'll be fine. She's always been the good one of the bunch." Her mom had replied. The rest of the ride had been a blur to her and then she remembered the speech her mom had given her, once up in her stuffy new room, but not before begging to go home.
"Please, please. Let's go home. Daddy will take you back, he will." She cried, fresh tears making their way down her face as her mom shushed her.
"It's my choice, Lyra. My choice. Hush that talk, right now." Her mom scolded, lifting up her chin, "It was my choice made for us. You deserve a better life and so do I." Her mom said, looking into Lyra's bluish green eyes that favored her mother's. Her twin sister had green eyes, favoring their dad and Lyra had never understood how they could be twins, yet loos so different.
"No, I want our life there. I don't want to stay here. Mama, please." Lyra begged, her mom's eyes now spilling tears.
"I will not go back and let him keep beating on me. Pretty soon, he would be beating you too." Her mom said hastily, a frown on her determined face. She looked around, then calmed down. "Now, I need my perfect little princess to help me or this will never work." She admitted, stroking Lyra's hair.
"What do I have to do?" Lyra asked, her heart hurting and her mind confused.
"I need you to be on your best behaviour, do as I ask, and anyone asks. They are doing us a favor and we owe it to this family." her mom stated. Lyra was too young at the time to think about how that couldn't be possible, since marriage was a two way agreement and fifty fifty.
"But.." She stuttered, shaking her long black straight hair that shined so bright.
"Lyra, you have always been my jewel, my precious one that is so well behaved, the smartest one, the one with the good head on her shoulders. I have high expectations for you." She stared at her daughter intensely.
"But Mira…" Lyra started and a finger was up to her lips.
"Mira has always been one to do things on her own and she can stay with your dad and she can learn a sense of discipline, then we'll see later on if she straightens up to become part of this world." her mother reassured her. "Honey, I am doing this all for us. You and me, and I promise Mira too.. I am your mother, I birthed you and have nothing but the best for you in mind. I will see to it that all ends up well." she said, her tone more firm now, giving her daughter a stern look.
"Ok, mama. Whatever you say, I will do." She needed, giving in. That was her personality, always doing as she was told . Toady was the same story that played out over and over.
"Lyra, we're here! We're here!" Jayson pulled on her arm, jolting her out of her memories and thoughts.
"I'm sorry.. We're here?'" She asked, sitting up.
"You fell asleep." Jayson laughed at her as they stood up to exit the plane.
"Yeah, if only it had been a dream." She said softly, grabbing the only bag she had bothered to bring with her.