The Marmalade Cure

Hazel

Hazel finished brushing her hair and threw the brush on her bed. Her golden hair were curled to perfection and tied in ponytails. She picked up a fuschia lipstick and stained her lips.

She stepped back and looked at herself in the mirror, turning this way and that. She looked gorgeous. Her white dress accentuated her complexion.

Smiling at herself she left her room to get breakfast.

Her parents were up and they were already at the dining table and eating. Her mouth turned bitter at the thought of being left out again. Her elder sister was also munching on cereal next to her mother.

Great.

Sarah was here. No need to look for Hazel.

Pasting a smile on her face, Hazel took the last remaining chair. Her dad looked up at her and smiled. He looked a bit pale.

"Dad? Are you OK" She inquired.

"Of course I am ok. What could be wrong with me." He said with a forced cheer and bent his head as he spread honey on a toast. But not before Hazel saw him exchange a glance with her mother.

Something was wrong.

Hazel was 19 and jobless. She didn't want to pursue her studies but she did just because it made dad proud of her. Sarah was also going to college and of course she was absolutely brilliant.

Hazel just wanted to be perfect. She was beautiful. Now she had to make everyone realize she was responsible too. But no matter what she did, Sarah always managed to steal everyone's adoration.

Hazel loved her life but strived to get her parents approval even at the cost of her own happiness sometimes. Now she was beginning to think it was useless.

She could never be on her parents top priority list as long as her sister was in their house.

Hazel wished Sarah would move out and stop being a shadow over her accomplishments.

They finished their meal in relative silence. Warning bells were ringing in Hazel's mind. This wasn't right. Her parents were very animated and this time of the day was devoted to discussing the daily agendas.

Hazel couldn't finish her breakfast in this situation. Her curious nature won't rest until she found out everything. So, she had to bunk school today.

How?

Her dad would never let her have a day off without any reason.

Time to play some games.

But before she could put her plan into action. The door bell rang.

Dad looked up and frowned.

" Who could that be at this time of the day?" he muttered to himself as he went to open the main door.

"Aha!" She heard him exclaim. " Look who's here!" Her dad came into view followed closely by Mathias.

Mathias was smiling. It was a carefully maintained smile. Mannered yet formal. She smiled back. Her mom got up to greet him.

"Oh my son! Its been a while. Where have you been? How are you?"

She was gushing as if he was her own son.

Which he very well could have been. His parents adored him and strangely she couldn't muster any jealousy towards him.

The last to get up was Sarah. She gracefully put down her spoon and stood up. She then tilted her head and gave a warm smile to Mathias and said hello.

He waved hi at her and went to fetch himself a chair from the kitchen.

Sarah sat back down a bit crestfallen.

Ah, her poor smitten sister. Hazel shook her head. If there was one person who looked right through Sarah and wasn't affected by her fake charms, it was Mathias. He was stone hearted when it came to matters of heart. Hazel knew him well.

Sarah was infatutaed with Mathias. Hazel could see why. As he carried the plastic chair inside and placed it next to Hazel, she observed his carefully mussed hair. His black neat but Gothic dressing and that little cut right through the center of his left eyebrow where hair were missing in a slant. He was your average bad boy. But only in appearance. There was something about him that made you want to get to know him, to get his approval.

He was an intelligent man. His ideas and aspirations were high and talking with him always led to discovering something new.

Too bad her sister didn't have have the gift of gab like Hazel did.

Mathias never initiated any conversation with Sarah, other then casual Hello's and Hi 's. With Hazel though, it was different. And as if right on cue, he turned towards her.

"Haze would you pass me that omelete?" Mathias pointed at the omelete.

"Sure" Hazel smiled and passed him the plate but not before she threw a smirk at Sarah.

"Thanks. Are you busy with school today?" Mathias asked her.

"Yes. Hazel has a big presentation today" Her dad answered for her and boy was he beaming with pride.

Crap. There goes her plan to stay at home today. There was no way she could crush his happiness.

Guess she'll have to postpone the detective work until she got home.

"Oh. That's a bummer. I was hoping to have a nice discussion about a few of my ideas about your research project for this summer." Mathias seemed deflated.

Wait? Summer project?

She didn't have any. What was Mathias doing?

"Summer project? Sweety you'd didn't tell me about this" Dad turned towards me.

Ummmm

"Oh my bad. Hazel doesn't know about that, I forgot. Our lab takes in interns for the summers and I thought Hazel would be a perfect candidate. I signed her up. I hope it's OK?" Mathias asked with a hint of anxiousness in his tone.

"That's wonderful." Mom beamed. " Isn't it sweety?" Now she asked Hazel.

Her heart sank. She wanted to attend the fashion design course in her college. There was no way she could say it though.

"Yeah"

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Hazel left for school. But she turned back after 10 minutes using the back roads. She parked her scooter at a safe distance and quietly made her way back to her house. Climbing over the fence, she kept glancing towards the back door. Thankfully, no one saw her.

She went to the side of the house and climbed in through the study window. It was empty at this time of the day.

She carefully tiptoed inside and glanced out the door. The living room was empty but she could hear voices from the kitchen.

Hazel ignored the voices and moved up the stairs and entered her parents bedroom. Whatever they were hiding she would definitely find it here.

Searching through the drawers and desks yielded nothing.

There was nothing under the mattress either.

Only her father's laptop was left. She grabbed it and quickly scanned the documents folder. Nothing.

Now she was getting frustrated.

What are you hiding dad?

Groaning she turned to leave the room. Once outside, she thought things over. Where hadn't she looked.

Then she heard someone coming up the steps.

Hazel had to act fast.

Heart racing, she dived into the guestroom.

She jumped behind the bed and peeked from under it.

Her mom's purple slippers came into view as she walked towards her room. Hazel waited with bated breath. Should she get out?.

But her mom came back an instant later and then she paused in front of the guest room. Why? Had she heard Hazel?

Hazel jumped as her mom slammed shut the guestroom door and then she went down the stairs.

Hazel sat up.

Too many confusing things were happening.

For starters, the guest room was never closed. Why now?

Could it be her parents were hiding something here?

No. No. The guest room?

Since she was already there, Hazel stood up to look around. Again she found nothing in the dresser or the closet. Nothing under the mattress either.

Maybe she was imagining things.

She turned to leave the room when something caught her eye. Sunlight was filtering in through the bathroom window. Her mom made sure the blinds were closed in this heat.

Intrigued, Hazel went inside to inspect. The blinds were open.

The bathroom was spotless.

Hazel began opening the cabinets.

In the cabinet under the sink, she found a plastic bag. Reaching in, she pulled out a handful of crumpled papers.

What were these doing in her neat freak mom's cabinet?

Suddenly Hazel felt very very strange.

Leaning back against the tub, she smoothed one appear against her thigh. It looked like a report of some kind. She picked another paper. It was a doctor's prescription. For a moment she couldn't make sense.

And when she did, all her world was shattered.