Stolas made oatmeal for breakfast the next morning. It was nothing more than a bland mixture of oats and milk, which met the nurtional needs of the consumer but the tasteful needs? Not so much. Then again Stolas never was much of a cook. He could make something that could feed you and give you nutrion, in other words he could make something that wasn't poisonous, but hardly anything he made tasted good. Lucky thing that Octavia wasn't a picky eater, but Charlie would often be pushing her plate aside or hiding her meal in the napkin or slipping it into the trash.
"No I am not horading money from you! I am well aware that you get half of everything!" Stolas said over the phone to his ex wife. "Look if you want to take your rage out on someone, take it out on my lawyer, he's the one who's supposed to be drawing up the papers!"
Charlie and Octavia could hear the former Mrs. Goetia screaming on the other line.
"Oh please, like you need anymore money. I know about that trust fund your borther left you, and no I did not steal your jewelry! You probably misplaced it again...Why would I even want your jewelry? You wear such cheap and tacky brands."
Now she was cursing.
"Why you arrogant, pathetic, son of a-" The phone screeched.
"Stella please! The children are present." He warned. "Yes you can talk to Octavia."
He turned the phone from his ear.
"Via Mommy wants to talk to you."
He handed the phone to Octavia which caused the girl to smile.
"Hi Mommy."
"Hi!" Charlie heard the tone on the other line drastically change. "How's my little princess? I miss you so much."
Stella, Stolas's ex wife was a world class, rich-bitch, but her one redeeming quality was that she loved Octavia to pieces. Loved her just as much as her ex husband did. She had spared no expense in buying Octavia the best of everything, the best clothes and toys. She made every birthday party a grand gala and when Ocatvia would come live with her in the Summer, she'd make sure it was the best Summer ever.
Octavia was probably the only reason Stolas and Stella stayed married for as long as they did. But eventually they realized that when they were together all they did was fight and that just made things harder for their little girl. After all, if this marriage was just for her sake then how come all they did was fight instead of spend time with her? So it was decided that things would be better for everyone if the two divorced. Octavia would spend most of the year with Stolas and then spend the Summer and Holidays with Stella. However split or not, they were still at each other's throats.
"How you two ever got married in the first place is mystery to me." Charlie said.
"That makes two of us." Stolas said.
He sat down at the table and then pulled a small mirror from his pocket to use for checking his hair and teeth. Charlie sipped her glass of apple juice and glanced out the window, her gaze was directed specifically at the garden. The plants were kept in green house in which the door had a pad lock on it and inside the only things growing were briars, flytraps, shrubs, and cacti. Nothing really bright or pretty, in fact just those plants alone made things look very gloomy and boring.
"Stolas why don't you ever plant flowers in the garden?" She asked him. "Or maybe something a little nicer?"
"Charlie no one asks me to look over and examine flowers. They ask me to look over and examine plants that may or may not prove toxic."
"I just want to lighten things up around here. Can I plant some flowers in the greenhouse?"
"Absolutely not. That greenhouse is for work only, and you could end up getting poisoned by plant toxins."
"I thought you said the plants you keep in there are safe and that you root out and burn the toxic ones?"
"I do but I still get new samples to test and my tests are not always a hundred percent accurate. I can't take that risk."
"Then can I at least have some area to garden on my own."
"I don't see why not but I doubt you'll have any luck, not many flowers are in season."
"Daddy, Mommy wants to talk to you." Octavia said giving her father the phone back.
"Thank you Via. Now finish your oatmeal while it's still hot and don't forget to take your vitamin."
"Are they gummy viatmins?"
"Of course." He smiled at her before continuing his conversation with is ex wife. "Yes I know when I'm supposed to be in court. I'm not forgetful. No I didn't forget about our anniversary dinner last year, I just didn't want to come...Oh yeah? Well you're a bigger one!"
When he hung up, he slammed the phone.
"Everything okay Daddy?" Octavia asked.
"Everything's fine sweetie." He told her. "Daddy's lawyers are just being a little slow on drawing up certain papers and Mommy doesn't like that."
He proceeded to poor himself a very strong cup of coffee and then picked up the phone again to call his lawyer.
"Charlie I'm going to schedule a meeting with my lawyer for this evening so I need you to pick up Octavia from school and watch her."
"I can't do that. I'm meeting with Vaggie tonight." Charlie said.
"I'm sorry Charlie but you'll have to reschedule."
"But Stolas I always have to watch Octavia and I never get invited to do anything. Can't you just call a babysitter?"
"Leave my daughter alone with a complete, total, stranger? I think not."
"They run background checks on them."
"I don't care, I'm not going to just trust anyone to watch my child. I'm sorry but you can't go out tonight."
"You know you're the one who's always telling me that I should get out more and not spend so much time in my room. And when I finally get the opportunity to do that, you tell me that I have to stay home and babysit. It's not fair."
"Charlie I'm not doing this to be mean to you, I'm glad that you've finally made a friend and that you're trying to get out more. But I have to settle this misunderstanding with my lawyers or Stella will sue my ass."
"Daddy!" Octavia scolded. "You said a bad word!"
"Oh sorry sweetheart." He handed Octavia a quarter from his wallet. "Go put this in the swear jar."
The six year old girl scurried off to do as she was told.
"Charlie I understand that you're going through something difficult." He continued. "But so am I, and I need a little help from you. At least in regards to Octavia."
"Why me? She's not even my sister."
"Because when I'm not around, you're all she has. Now can you please, please grow up a little and help me? It'll only be for tonight."
"Fine." She agreed reluctantly.
"Good. Now you remember the rules? Come straight home, don't talk to strangers, you can visit the neighbors, but both of you are to be in the house after dark and all doors are to be locked."
"Yes, yes, I know." Charlie said.
"My phone number and the emergency numbers are on the fridge, you don't open the door to strangers, and no inviting anyone over."
"Stolas I've babysat for you countless times. I know the rules and regulations."
"Just making sure. I'll be home by six o'clock and I'll be able to cook dinner so don't order anything."
After another hour had passed, he gave the girls's their packed lunches and dropped them off at school though it wasn't a particularly long drive. Both the high school and the elementary school were only three blocks down from the house. Perfect walking distance, hence why Stolas would occasionally have Charlie walk home from school and pick up Octavia.
Charlie hated school. To her it was a five and a half hour prison where she would be tormented nonstop. The worst of her tormentors was Helsa Von Eldritch, described by many as the most popular girl in school but described by Charlie as a sociopath who thrives on bullying other students. In fact Charlie was almost certain that the only time Helsa was happy was when others were miserable. To this day, she would never know why Helsa targeted Charlie, the girl had never even made eye contact with her. But perhaps Helsa could somehow smell that Charlie had issues like a predator could smell a prey's fear, and so like a predator, Helsa preyed on the weak. And she preyed without mercy.
For example, this morning when Charlie opened her locker, she found a dead rat inside. The sight caused her to jump back and scream. Behind her there stood Helsa and her friends laughing at her.
"See girls? I told you she was psycho." The girl with long, black and white dyed hair cackled. "Studies show that the first sign of psychopathy is cruelty to animals."
"Well I guess that means you better ditch that college dropout you've been banging Helsa. Considering that he's the one who actually killed that rat. Oh wait, I forgot, you get off on sickos like that."
The one who had provided that insult was Vaggie Ramierz, another misfit and local bad girl. Although you couldn't really call Vaggie bad, she rebelled and she would pick fights but she had a heart of pure gold. She was also among the very few students in the school who considered Charlie a friend.
"Back off Ramirez!" Helsa snapped.
"What's the matter Helsa? Can't take what you dish out? Or maybe you just don't have the spine to face someone willing to stand up to you?" Vaggie said.
"I just don't associate myself with trash."
"Yes you'd know all about what trash is wouldn't you? I mean you do sleep with it almost every night. Unless of course you have a test coming up, then you sleep with whatever teacher is dumb enough to risk getting arrested for statuary rape."
Enraged, Helsa drew back to slap Vaggie in the face but Vaggie was too quick, she moved out of the way so fast that Helsa ended up striking her hand on a locker. She screeched louder than Stolas's ex would, clutching her hand and whining all the way to the nurse's office with her group following behind.
"Thanks Vaggie." Charlie said.
"Sure thing Hon. Anything to do that bitch a disservice."
"I just don't get it, why does she always go after me? I won't even look at her if I can help it."
"She's probably jealous."
"Jealous? Are you kidding? I'm not special, I'm not popular, and I'm not pretty. I'm just a regular person trying to get through the day. I mean what could she possibly be jealous of?"
"The fact that you can feel good about yourself without ruining people's lives comes to mind."
Both girls laughed at that remark.
"Come on, we're going to be late for first period." Vaggie said.
"Wait, what about the dead rat in my locker?"
"Give it to me and I'll sneak it into Helsa's new Prada purse. That'll really cause her to freak."
"Vaggie that's sick."
"No killing a rat for a cruel joke is what's sick. Taking the already dead body and giving it back to the murderer, while using it to ruin her most prized possession, well that's justice."
Charlie rolled her eyes and smiled a little.
"I'm just going to look away and pretend you threw the body in the trash." She said grabbing her books and heading off to school. "Don't tell me the truth."
"Deal." Vaggie said.