At sunrise the next morning the two girls woke up in the back of Jade's car, as they always did after their evening drives. Never intending to fall asleep back there, its just always where they seemed to up after sitting on the bonnet got too cold. With a few hours before school, Jade dropped Cat off home and then continued onwards to her own house.
"6:00" Cat noted, looking at the time as she walked in through her front door. Not really enough time to go back to sleep so, she'd make breakfast. A proper breakfast, not one of the breakfast bars she normally had, and she'd make some for her dad too. She knew his favourite was a frittata, so after unlocking the pantry she pulled out a small skillet she started chopping up the vegetables and mixing the eggs.
Cat loved cooking, especially Italian dishes. It reminded her of her Nonna, before she passed away a few years ago. She would often look after Cat while her parents were with Matty, until her Nonna died that is. She taught her how to cook, and as much Italian as the young girl could learn- she wished she'd tried harder with that as she'd retained very little. She struggled a lot with learning new things, unless it was to do with the arts. Dancing? Easy! Singing? Easy! Piano? Easy! Italian? Hard. Maths? So so hard. If she didn't live near Hollywood Arts she didn't know what she'd do. Fail a lot more classes, probably. It was lucky that HA was a little sneaky with their credits, Theatre Tech counted as a Science! And Dance was a part of PE. Of course she still had some 'normal' classes, including Maths which she'd failed last year so still had to continue taking to fulfil her final credit, and was hoping and praying she'd pass this time around, luckily it was a little easier the 2nd time.
"Something smells good!" Cat's Dad voice came from the top of the stairs, followed by a series of quick thuds as he ran down it. He was already half dressed in his work suit, tie loose around his neck as he did up his shirt buttons.
"I'm making frittata, like Nonna used to!" Cat beamed to her father.
"Ooh my favourite!" He smiled at his daughter, starting up the coffee machine behind her. "Do you think you could put my half in a little to go box? I've got an early start at the bank." He explained, finishing the last button on his shirt and then flipping up his shirt collar to fit the tie under.
"Oh, yeah kay kay." Cat smiled weakly at him, she'd hope they could have eaten breakfast together, but this was okay too. They never got to spend much time together anyone, she wondered if he'd even noticed she wasn't here last night.
"Thanks Bambina." He replied, kissing her shortly on the top of her head, before reaching past her for his coffee flask. "I could get used to you making breakfast while your mom isn't here."
"Oh I don't know about that," Cat cringed a little, she didn't want to be like her Mom anymore than she already had to be. She already noted that she had a few things to wash up from her dad's dinner last night. He really didn't know how to operate in a house without someone to clean up after him, "I'm never up this early." She covered, deciding the frittata was cooked, and scooping it onto a plate. She cut it in half and put one part into a Tupperware box for her Dad, whose coffee had just finished brewing. He took one in one hand, one in the other and balanced his car keyring off his ring finger as he headed towards the front door.
"Thanks Cassy! I mean Catty!" He called back, rushing out the door, it slamming loudly behind him.
"Oh. Ickie" Cat said to no one. That had never happened before and quite frankly she hoped it wouldn't again.
Ignoring that, Cat brought her plate, along with a glass of orange juice, to the table. She never ate this early, and looking at the food now she didn't really want it. But with the low level of sleep and lack of ritalin in her system for the second day running, she knew it would be a headache filled day so definitely needed to keep herself well fueld.
The house was rather peaceful without Matteo home. It was strange really. Sometimes the house could be mental, with Matteo constantly trying to escape or break something. There wasn't much left out in the house anymore, no vases, no ornaments, everything was either soft, like a pillow, or nailed to the wall like the family photos. Cat wondered how much longer they'd stay up, as she was sure one day Matty would learn how to pry them off and use them as a projectile. The kitchen was the worst part, it was annoying that they lived in an open plan house, cause you couldn't just lock him out of it. Everything that could be used as a weapon lived in the locked pantry; knives, pans, plates, bowls. Matteo wasn't always violent, just sometimes, and you could never tell when that would be, so you needed to be on guard at all times. You could tell he didn't really want to hurt anyone, it's just sometimes his brain and body didn't listen to each other. Cat still had a scar on the top of her head from a vase he'd shattered onto her skull, she winced every time she thought about it. He hadn't hurt her that badly since then, but he was always just one bad manic episode away. Each episode was so different. Sometimes Cat being there helped calm him, but sometimes she just made it all worse. It was such a scary thing to witness, especially if her mother had tried everything else so just shoved Cat towards him with the hopes she could cure it.
Cat hoped something could cure everything wrong with him. Or that… it was awful but… sometimes she hoped he'd die at that hospital. So her mother could go back to teaching dance, so that her father could go back to producing documentaries, and so both of them could look after their little girl instead.