Mariana and Jesus tiptoed down the stairs with their backpacks in hand and they placed them by the couch for now.
"We need money," Mariana whispered to Jesus. "And food."
"Oh, right," the little boy said as he walked over to the dining room table and opened Lena's purse, pulling out her brown leather wallet. "How much?" Jesus asked as he looked up at his sister, but she was already gone. He sighed and looked down at the crisp bills in front of him, which consisted of 1 fifty dollar bill, 4 twenties, and two singles. There's four twenties so maybe she won't notice that only one is gone, Jesus rationalized as he shoved the other bills messily back into the wallet and threw it in her purse without zipping it back up.
He quickly shoved it into his pocket and looked around to make sure that no one saw, before he made his way back over toward the living room.
Mariana peaked her head in the kitchen before making her way through and noticed both Lena and Stef chopping some vegetables on the kitchen counter. She let out a huge exasperated breath and rolled her eyes before making her way in and slowly tiptoeing inside, suddenly glad that their backs were turned. By the time she made her way over to the cabinets and pulled it open, she quickly glanced over its contents.
Bag of potato chips? …Nope, too much noise.
Box of cereal? …Nope, can't take milk.
Multi-grain crackers? Don't have to think for that one. Ew, gross!
Cheez-Its?
"Do you want a snack, sweets?" Stef's voice asked abruptly, which caused the girl to jump from fear. Cheez-Its it is then, she thinks to herself as she grabs the red box of cheesy crackers.
"I got it," Mariana answered precipitously before she looked up at Stef and Lena with an obvious hint of nervousness. Immediately afterwards, she walked over to the fridge and pulled it open.
Both women shared wary looks with each other before placing their gaze back on their daughter. Lena thought she'd try next, "Dinner's in a few minutes, pumpkin. Are you sure you can't wait a little while?"
"I'm sure," Mariana said matter-of-factly, while she pulled two small water bottles out and held the box against her chest so that she wouldn't drop it.
"2 water bottles?" the blonde questioned. "... You must be really thirsty, huh?" she continued in hopes to get more out of what was bothering her.
"One is for Jesus."
"Oh," Stef nodded. "…And what about Brandon?"
"What about Brandon?" Mariana mumbled before she walked out of the room without a second thought.
Stef watched after her before she turned to look at Lena with a sly smile, "I guess we know who's the cause for this…" she sighed. "Don't you love it when they're like this?" she asked her partner, followed by a short chuckle.
"Oh you won't be so cheery in a few years when her attitude is directed towards you and not Brandon or Jesus," Lena reminded her.
"The teens," Stef cried. "God, don't remind me!" she laughed. "…But who knows? Maybe they'll find a cure for them by then. There's still hope, ya know."
"I'm afraid that's all it is, babe," Lena smiled.
"No," Stef cried in an exaggerated voice, causing Lena to laugh.
"…Do you want to go find out what happened?" Lena questioned.
"Let them cool off. They're kids. Let's enjoy the silence. I mean, come on. They'll probably forget all about it soon enough. And besides, dinner is almost ready. We'll get the deets then."
"Cheez-Its?" Jesus said in a depressed voice.
"Moms—" Mariana paused, "I mean Stef and Lena were in the kitchen. I had to be quick."
"Mariana, are you positive you want to leave? I mean aren't you going to miss them?" he asked again.
Mariana glanced back towards the kitchen sadly and then reached for one of the picture frames on the coffee table, which consisted of all five of them on the coffee. "We can still see them," she said as she unzipped her backpack and shoved everything in there.
A picture was better than nothing, she thought to herself.
"Okay," Jesus murmured as he pulled his book bag over his back again and led his sister out of their house.
The two siblings had been walking for five minutes and they weren't sure how far they'd gone. But they did know that they couldn't see their house any more, so that was a good thing. And Mariana was leading the way.
"Mariana, where are we going?" Jesus questioned out of boredom.
"Mommy's."
"How do you know where mommy is?"
"I don't. But we can take the bus and…and then we'll find her. We can go to tia's house and go from there. It's gonna be fun. Like an adventure," Mariana smiled as she started walking with a slight skip.
"Like Spy Kids?" Jesus smiled.
"No," Mariana said seriously. "Like Dora."
"I can't believe you still watch Dora. You're such a baby," Jesus shook his head in disbelief.
"Like you don't watch Diego?" she retorted. " Anyways, we already have the book bags and everything. We're the real live ones so it's better than the show. But…"
Jesus hesitated to ask, "But what?"
"We just need a map now."
"A map?" The boy glanced around his perimeter and starting running in the middle of the street.
"Jesus, moms said no running in the street! You never listen!" Mariana sighed as she slapped her leg.
"Well, moms aren't here now, are they? We can do what we want!" Jesus spat back.
Mariana considered the thought and a huge smile crept on her face before she ran over to him. "We can do what we want," she mumbled. "I like that." But when she glanced down at what Jesus had in his hand she couldn't understand why he had ran all the way over here in the first place, "What are you doing?" she asked with an apparent attitude.
"I found us a map," he said as he unfolded the napkin and began to examine it.
"That's a dirty napkin, Jesus," Mariana mumbled seriously.
"Haven't you've ever heard of imagination?" Jesus asked with obvious sarcasm.
"And you called me a baby? …Let's go," Mariana snapped as she tried to turn around and grab her brother so that he'd move it along, but froze when she saw a head peeking out from behind a red car. "Do you see that?" she asked him.
"See what?" Jesus turned around.
Mariana took a few steps closer to get a better look and immediately felt rage fill her body. "I'm going to kill him," she yelled as she dropped her book bag and ran over toward the car.