"What are you doing?" Calista peered over at Lui and a girl that looked vaguely like him.
"Oh hello Calista." he said.
“Hello. Sooooo… what are you doing?” She repeated. The girl gave a sour look and calmed down immediately.
“Tickling my sister. What’s in the box?” Lui replied almost immediately.
“Cheesecake. What’s your sister’s name?”
“Mai. Why do you have the cheesecake?”
“Leftovers.”
“Can I have them?”
“No.” Calista sighed then turned and looked at Mai. “Sorry I didn’t properly introduce myself or talk to you but I have to go now.” She ran down the street thinking about how her sister would kill her if she was late, and it’s not Margret who would kill her.
Bursting through the doors, Calista ran straight to her sister’s room and placed the cheesecake on Salvia’s lap.
“Merry Christmas.” She said and then ran back down the stairs to put away her coat.
“You still have to buy me a present!” Salvia yelled down the stairs then returned to finish the half eaten cake. For about an hour and a half Calista sat staring at her sister. Finally she left and brought in her violin. She handed it to Salvia and said, “Play.”
“Why?” salvia asked, staring at the violin. “I’m not as good as you and I haven’t been practicing…”
“just play. I want to see how much heart you put into it, skill doesn’t matter in this case.”
“Oh alright.”
Salvia’s performance took about an hour. Margret finally came home and Calista left. She didn’t bring her violin with her but she was holding a small present. She headed to the back end of her street and headed down an alleyway. There was the fountain she played at the night before. Alex was sitting there with his head in his hands. He was right by the water and the end of his coat was dipping into it as he breathed.
“I don’t understand.” He was mumbling to himself. “Why would they choose now?”
“What’s wrong?” She sat down next to him and tried to catch his gaze.
“My quota has been met and Aunt Jennifer doesn’t have to keep me around anymore. I will probably be put in an orphanage but who wants to adopt a teenager? My life is over…” His voice was shaky and he refused to look up.
“Alex… Maybe I could convince her to let you stay…”
“That won’t work. It won’t. It will never…” He finally started crying. Calista’s heart was sinking. She wanted to help him but even comforting wasn’t her specialty. Suddenly she dropped the monotone.
“Fine then. I guess I can’t do anything. No matter how hard I try I won’t be able to convince you that the world’s not gonna end. Optimist my ass I can’t stand this!” She got up and left, leaving the present and letter behind. Without looking back she knew he was staring at her.
Was it anger for cussing? Or shock? She will never know. Calista started to cry. Finally she bumped into someone and fell flat on her butt.
“Owwwwww…” She moaned.
“I’m so sorry!” A voice came from in front of her and a hand reached down to help her up.
Taking it she realized who it was.