Chapter 2

,Revenge…" Rie whispered. ,Revenge on my nitwit brother."
She was stirring in the cookingpan. She was making a carrotporridge.
If Aye hates something more then anything, it's carrots.
Rie offered to cook, like she does a lot, since she enjoys doing it. And she is making Aye a special meal tonight.
Grinning she adds some extra carrots and stirrs the stuff roughly.
Checking on the patatoes and chicken, she quickly sets the table. She loves cooking. It's almost like inventing stuff, only cooking usually turns out good and not in explosions.
,Dinner is ready!" Rie cries out, putting the pans and pots on table.
Father is the first one to enter, his nose high up the air. ,Mmmm, this smells so good. Are we in a 5 star restaurant?" He says smiling.
,Dad, don't be stupid." Rie cuts his compliment short, blushing. She isn't good with compliments at all. They make her feel so uncomfortable and stupid.
Mother and Aye quickly follow, sitting down at their seats.
,I have prepared something new. I wanted to try something out with vegetables." Rie explains. ,So I hope you will all eat your plates."
,Ofcourse we will!" Father says immediately. ,We don't wanna be rude."

Aye is sitting on his knees, staring at the orange stuff in the pot in front of him. ,Ehm… that…"

Rie sticks the spoon in the orange carrot substance.

,I'm sure you will love this Aye! Look, you don't have to chew it!" She drops a whole spoon of carrotessence on Aye's plate.
,But…." Aye complains, questioning himself if the stuff on his plate is what he thinks it is. ,This…but…."
,You wan't some more? Here you go!" Rie drops another spoon on Aye's plate. ,I have more then plenty Aye!"
,I think he has enough now, dear." Mother says. ,But I would love some."

She holds up her plate and Rie smiles and scoops up the carrotmouche.
After helping everybody to their food, she sits down and says,,I hope you will all like my master cooking as much as I do! Let us all dig in and finish every last bit of it, since there are starving people in the world, amen!"

Father grins at his daughter. ,Yesh, let's!"
The signal for everybody to start eating and they do, accept for Aye.
Father and mother are really enjoying the meal Rie cooked but Aye is poking the orange colored porridge with his spoon, looking suspisiously at it.
,These…"
,Don't be rude and eat it." Rie says.
Father looks up at Aye. ,Yes, son. You can't say you don't like it, you haven't tasted it yet!"
,I don't really like carrots, daddy." Aye mumbles, staring at the carrotstuff.
,Try it and find out if you like it!" Father says.
,Eat it all." Rie adds.
Pressured, Aye sticks his spoon into the mass of carrot and pulls it back out. A pile of orange is balancing on top of his spoon. He swallows bravely, blinks at the vegetablemixture. Then he opens his mouth and lets the spoon enter it.
He chews and chews, swallows. Rie is staring at him, hoping he will hurl it all out again, since that's his usual reaction to carrots.
Aye looks at Rie, a surprised look on his face.
He sticks his spoon into the carrotmass for the second time, taking another bite.
Rie watches him, not able to move as he finishes his whole plate of carrot without complaining. Suddenly he lifts up his plate to Rie.
,Can I have some more Carroty?"
Rie stares at him motionless for a second, but then wants to explode.
,YOU MEAN YOU LIKE IT!" She bellows with astounishment.
Aye smiles. ,Yes, please can I have some more?"
,You're such a big boy!" Mother cries out happily. ,Eating carrots and all!"
,I love it! I wanna eat it at my birthday." Aye says.
Angry Rie turns the pot with carrotporridge upside down over Aye's plate, causing the whole inside of it be thrown out of it, spattering in every direction as soon as it hits Aye's plate. Whiping bits of carrot of his face Aye looks at his overfull plate.
,Well, I don't know if I can finish that all…"
,You don't have to." Mother says.
Rie grumbles and leans back in her chair.

,Rie would you clean the mess up later, please." Mother says. ,But I must say, I think it's great you cooked carrot in a way you're brother likes it!"
,Yay for you." Rie mumbles, not eating her food, leaving it untouched.
Stupid Aye. How can it be she can't even take revenge on a stupid 5 year old?
She keeps looking grumpy, until her father informs her about school.
,Ehm…what…oh the usual." She mumbles.
,Okay…" Father says, trying to keep the talking up. ,So good grades for every class?"
,Yesh, the usual." Rie cuts it off short.
,A's and B's." Father says.
,Mmyup." Rie starts to pile up the plates which are now emptied. ,Don't worry about me. I know how to take care of myself, okay?"
,Don't need help studying or something?" He looks at her, hopeing her to react on his offer.

,No, thank you. I'll be fine." Rie clears off the rest of the table, cleaning the table as fast as she can, as her father stands up to do the dishes.
,Dad, I can do that myself." Rie bites at him. ,I promised to do the kitchen today."

Father grabs ahold of a dryingtowel. ,Let me help you, so we'll be done sooner."
,I don't want help!" With a fast movement she has taken the towel out of his hands.
,Now go and play with Aye or something!"
Father tries to make one last movement, but mother jumps in. ,Leave her. She has it under control, Diego."
She takes Aye out of his seat. ,I will put you into your bath, young man. You got carrot all over you!" And she tickles him. Aye cries out a laughter.
,I wanna bathe with daddy!" He claims as soon as his laughter gives him sence of speech back. He stretches his arms out to his father.
,Well, okay then." Diego says, taking over his son from his wife, who follows them upstairs to the bathroom to put down towels and bathrobes.
Rie is left alone in the kitchen with a big pile of dishes, cleaning them alone with fury.
She wishes her dad had put up more of a fight. That he would force her to go away so he would do the dishes. She wishes he wouldn't give up so easy, while she is dying for his attention.
Why doesn't she take it when she gets the chance?
What makes her want to run away like this?

She can't never become the daughter he wants to have. She is a stupid bitch, always swearing and being absend with almost everything. When was the last time she told him something what happened?
The only way she really contacts the family is through cooking and fights.
She closes her eyes to keep the tears from coming.
He can't love her like this. Why can't she change?

School, counting down the seconds, minutes, hours. Trying to avoid as much people as possible. Not looking anybody in the eye. Not paying attention to anybody.
Mathclass now, a big test with difficult formulas and large numbers.
Easy, piece of cake. Rie bends over the paper, filling in every answer carefully and precise. She can almost imagine a big red A+ at the top of her paper.
She grins. Rie, girl, you are a genius. Not even Einstein had so much brain!
After putting her pens away, she stands up to deliver the paper to her teacher, who smiles at her. His eyes almost say it too. ,An A+ again, huh, Rie?"
,Yes." Her eyes say back to him. ,Did you expect any different."
,No."
,I thought so."
Rie grabs her bag and quickly manages her way out of the classroom. She still has 20 minutes left until class is over. She better go to the library and bring back the book she lend. Maybe she can find a cool science book or something.
Besides the sciencelab, the library is Rie's other favorite hideout. When it's her birthday or christmas, she only asks for machanic parts and books.
Her mother, ofcourse, always gives her a piles of clothes too, but she doesn't care about those. A brain doesn't need those. A brain needs books.
Plus, she thinks she looks fine the way she looks now. Dark colored clothes, not standing out of the crowd because of flashy colors. Her mom loves colors, but stopped her attempts to let her daughter wear colorfull clothes, since Rie refused to wear those pink and yellow things she bought her.

Rie stays in the library, flipping through books she already read, putting them back and avoiding people who start searching at the same bookcase as hers.
Finally time is over and the bell of next class rings.
Rie quicly puts the book back she had in her hands and rushes out of the library. The hallways is already packed with students, but Rie easily and quickly finds her way through them. Barely being noticed by anyone.
She hurries inside her Biologyclass. Another test coming up and she is reading for it. She sits herself down at a table in front of the teacher, so she won't have to look at the backs of other students.
The place next to hers remains as empty as ever.
Though on the table that goes with it, now sits a boy.
A boy that doesn't belong to the class, but a boy she met a few weeks ago.
She stares at him, wondering what in the world he is doing in their classroom. She dares to take a quick turn around to check if others find his presents weird too.
Questioning if maybe he is a new students they only got informed to the lst few minutes of her last class, so she missed the news, the teacher tells the class to settle down and take a pen or a pencil.
Rie immediately got her pen ready, purposly not looking at the boy, who's still sitting on the desk, his eyes focused intensly at her.
Sometimes you can feel it when somebody is watching you and this is one of those times. Rie just feels his eyes staring at her and she has an awful big deal concentrating on her test because of it.
When she read the same question 3 times at a row, she decides she isn't gonna let one bloody boy ruin her chance on an A+ and she raises her hand into the air.
,No questions during a test, miss Rie." The biologyteacher simply says, looking at her hand. But Rie keeps it up.
,Miss Rie?"
,Please sir." Rie says, as polite as she is able to. ,I was wondering why this boy is sitting on the table next to me. He is really annoying and I can't concentrate."
The eyes of the teacher moves swiftly from Rie to the table next to her.
,I have no idea what you are talking about, miss Rie." He says. ,But may I assure you, you are disturbing valuable testing-time right now. Please return to your work."

Staring at the teacher with large eyes, she wonders what he meant with the don't-know-what-your-talking-about-part.
It is clearly a boy is sitting on that table. Right in front of the teacher, for god sake.
How could he not see it!
Again she raises her hand into the air. ,Sir, he is really there. He is staring at me."
Losing his temper, the teacher cluthes a pen in his hand. ,Miss Rie, there is no boy sitting on that table, now please be quiet or else I have to send you to the principle!"
A giggling sounds hurls up from the class behind her.
She is being laughed at. She is at the center of the attention right now.
Her cheeks turns red and she bends over at her table, covering her head up.
No, this can't be. There is sitting a boy next to her.
Why are they laughing? Are the class and teacher trying to pull a prank on her?
The boy next to her bends over to her. ,You can see me." He breaths.
Her eyes shoot towards him. Who is this boy?
Is he a crazy guy escaped from some institution or something?
,You're the only one who can though." His whisperingvoice echoes in her ear.
What… What did he just say?
She is losing her mind.
Who is this boy? What in the world is happing to her?
,You…can see me, right?" The boy asks, now sounding really insecure.
Rie lifts her hand up the air again. ,Sir, I feel really really ill. I have to puke really really bad."
With a serious look on his face, the teacher studies her. Then he nods. ,Yes, clearly somethings wrong. You're excused. You can catch up the test later."
Without further talking, Rie grabs her stuff and rushes out of the classroom, running her way down the stairs, speeding outside.
This can't be good. What's happening?
Maybe she is losing it. Maybe she has some sort of panickattacks, maybe she is just to smart for her brain to handle. Just like Matilda could use her brain to let things fly.
Out of breath, she crushes down on a bench in the park.
She can't remember ever running like this, panting she drops her bag on the floor.
,You can see me! You can really see me."
It's like having a heartattack. Her eyes widen. ,Wha…who…What are you talking about!" She manages to cry out, backing away from the boy who now has taken seat next to her on the bench.
,You…you can hear me. You can see me…You… I can't believe it!" The boy almost seems to faint in excitement. ,I searched everywhere for you. I looked in every corner of the city to find you!"
He moves closer towards her.
Rie, however backs away more. ,Find me? I don't even know you!"
,Don't you understand?" The boy says. ,Im invisible. Nobody can see me….But…now you can! You can see me!"
,No I can't!" Rie cries out. ,Go away! Leave me alone!"
With these words she jumps up, grabs her bag and starts running, ignoring the stings in her side. Running, keep running, she pushes herself.
Get away from that freak!