Chapter Five
Emotions Building Up
"Young lady, you were supposed to be home almost fifteen minutes ago. I thought you told your mother you'd be back before curfew." Lettuce's father greeted her as she walked into the darkened house. He didn't raise his voice- they weren't that kind of family. But the way he said it was so that she knew she was in trouble.
Both her father and mother were waiting in the kitchen when she entered. Their arms were crossed and they both wore disappointed looks on their faces. Lettuce struggled not to roll her eyes and sigh out loud. Instead, she looked at the floor, appearing sorrowful and said, "I'm sorry mother, father. I didn't mean to stay out late, I was with a friend."
A look passed between her parents. They knew how hard it was for Lettuce to make friends, but they had to stick to their principles. "We understand that you have a social life now," her mother started, "but that was no reason to miss curfew. We need to know where you are and who you're with." She continued. "So because you failed to inform us and you broke curfew, we are going to have to ground you for two days."
"Two days?" Lettuce asked, her face falling even more. She had never been grounded before. Ever. It just didn't happen to her.
"One day for each offense." Her father said, looking her in the eye now.
"Okay." Lettuce said in a defeated voice. She knew it was better if she didn't push her luck. With that, she went upstairs, changed into her pajamas and lay down under her covers. A few minutes later, she heard the door open and someone come up to her bed.
"Are you okay, sis?" Her little brother asked. Lettuce smiled in the dark. He was always asking her this. He was mature for his age, and really looked up to his older sister.
"I'm fine, thanks. There's nothing wrong. Go back to bed." She replied gently, and a few seconds later she heard the patter of his feet fade from her room. Outside, the sky was dotted with stars, and Lettuce looked at them, trying not to think about what she just told her brother. Nothing was alright right now, and she didn't know when it would be. It seemed like everything was going wrong for her, and she just wanted it to end.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Sunday, Lettuce stayed home and completed what was left of her homework. She didn't venture out from the house, as she was grounded, and when she was done with her formulas, she decided to keep busy by cleaning her room. She looked for anything to keep her mind off the picture of Ryou and Ichigo kissing that kept playing in her head.
While she was going through her closet, she found a box containing mementos of her time at Café Mew Mew. There was a napkin from one of the tables, a menu from her first day of work, and even a piece of the one hundredth plate that she had accidentally broken. She took all of these items out and placed them on the floor where she had ended up sitting. At the bottom of the box there was a picture of all the girls in their waitressing outfits, with Ryou and Keiichiro off to the side. Lettuce was in the middle of the picture and looked so happy. A bright smile was on her face, and she was surrounded by her friends. Thinking back to the time when this picture was taken, Lettuce began to tear up and she silently cried as she placed all the items back into the box and put it in the farthest depths of her closet.
The next day, Lettuce was late to school for the first time that she could remember.Her eyes were red and puffy from crying all night long, and she didn't mind that she was briefly scolded by her teacher when she entered homeroom.Silently,she took a seat at the back of the room. She was quiet the whole day through, yet no one seemed to notice anything different. For once, she was glad that she never attracted much attention-it made the day that much easier to get through.