Honey, why?

17. What's In A Name

Five minutes should be all I need to get my head in the game. In the past half hour, I've missed more steps than I've ever had my entire dancing career, even more than when I was a kid, it's a shame. Abel had been trying hard to clean up my mess and save my footing but I am just too distracted to focus, really.

I try to ignore the figure walking towards me, stopping just in front of my outstretched legs. Her pink dance shoes are tapping on the hardwood floor and I can only imagine her arms crossed on her chest and the sneer that she always carries whenever she's facing me.

"What's your problem, Veron?" Abel's voice is thick with distaste. He's sitting cross-legged beside me, patting his sweaty face with a gray towel.

Veronica sits in front of me, not even bothering to fold her short spandex skirt between her legs and thighs so her pink undies wouldn't show. I mean, we're surrounded by mirrors for crying out loud. And we have male classmates here. But I'm too exhausted to care so I just let her do whatever it is that she deems appropriate.

She ignored Abel's question and talks straight to me. "Is there something the matter? Because it looks like your right foot has been replaced by a left one." There's an evil smirk playing across her thin glossed lips.

"Get lost." This time, Able catches her attention. She throws him a hateful glare, rolls her eyes and stands back up.

"Well, let's hope it's not permanent." Veronica snides one last time before going back to her circle of friends. I go back to my water bottle, drinking it empty. Like I said, too tired to care. It has been a long day. What am I supposed to do?

Tomorrow's the last day of the Math Week with only a single competition left, the Math Academic Contest. I'm confident Ash and Ali will kick it but you'll never know what'll happen. I can only hope for the best... and expect the worst. But positive thinking all the way! Argh. And then there's the date tomorrow with Charles.

That's right. I have a date. Tomorrow. With Charles freaking Albero. And I would've been rolling in cloud nine right now if not for the thing that happened at the restaurant not long while ago. When Chad busted me by showing me a video of me and said guy getting all chummy in the Student Council Room yesterday when it was just him comforting me because I was momentarily breaking down.

Honestly, now that I've calmed down a bit and thought it over, I think Chad is being unfair. True, I've had a crush on Charles for a while now that began almost the same time as hers did but is it really fair to call dibs on him? He's an actual person with feelings, not a toy or a food that someone can just claim. I know Chad didn't make her moves too obvious because he had a girlfriend, I felt the same. But it's not really my fault that he's being like this to me right now.

Heck, I don't even know what this is. All I know is that I'm getting closer to him than I ever was. It's not like I was the one who started it. Okay, maybe it was me when I stupidly made that phone call but I never treated it like it could be something more than I expected it to be, though I'm hoping it is, anyway back to the matter at hand. Chad. I pull my legs up to my chin and lock them with my arms. I rest my head on my chin, staring at nothing in particular. How can I fix this thing with her?

Then there's the thing with Ruslan... I can't believe that guy. Really. How dare he? What does he think of me? I'm just glad he has the decency not to contact me after what he just said - or more correctly, what he just proposed. Seriously. Everyone's gone mad and I'm not far off myself.

I look over at Aunt Emmy and see her doing figures in front of the mirrors. Her neck cranes elegantly as her arms raise up her head in half a circle. She then raises her leg backward as Andrew, her partner, holds on to her flat stomach for support.

They look like that figurine inside my music box, rotating hypnotically amidst the white and pink peonies. I could almost imagine the music playing as it appears to be in tune with the song playing right here in the studio. Soft and mellow, almost lulling me into sleep but is containing an urgency to keep me awake all the same.

I feel fingers digging softly into my shoulder. "Do you want to practice that fourth figure, baby girl?" Abel asks as he stands up, holding a hand out to me. I purse my lips and force a smile, taking his hand. He pulls me up effortlessly, placing his other hand around my waist. "Or we could just do some waltzing to ease you up a bit."

He starts swaying us from side to side, his eyes staring at me with such softness. He pushes my head gently to rest on his shoulder and I rest my cheek on it. My eyes drift closed and just for this moment, I free my mind from all the people and things that have been bothering me. I can almost feel myself shutting down until my aunt's voice pulls me back to the painful time that is now.

***

"Thanks, guys! Don't forget to drink plenty of water and remember the steps! See you all next week." I grab my backpack and wait for my aunt on one side of the room. She's seeing all her other students to the door, smiling and waving, giving them last minute pieces of advice and answers to some of their questions. Abel stands beside me, drinking from his water bottle.

"Hasn't your ride arrived yet?" The last half of the session was much better than when I initially started, somehow. I was able to minimize my mistakes and didn't embarrass Abel. He's such a good and caring partner and I know that I've been more of a burden to him than what he is to me. He must be specially exhausted right now and he always leave on time, that's why I'm wondering why he's still here.

Abel wipes his chin with the back of his hand and closes the lid of his bottle. "It's outside."

I stare at him, wrapping my fingers on the straps of my backpack. "Why are you still here, then?" My question is just meet by a shrug, ignoring me for the person he is now texting.

When the last of the student steps out of the facility, my aunt sighs deeply and grabs her gym bag. "No time to shower, we'll shower home like we always do." She turns around to face us and takes notice of Abel immediately. "Oh, hey, darling. You're still here. What's wrong? Don't you have a ride?"

Abel walks forward to her with a confident gait. "Actually, my friend was supposed to pick me up but he suddenly has to go somewhere else."

"But - " I take a step towards them, confused.

"Oh, you poor thing. Tell you what. We'll take you!" Aunt Emmy's expression changes from sadness to determined to excitement. She looks at me expectantly. "Right, honey?"

My eyes dart from her to Abel, who's poker face reveal nothing, just waiting for my answer. Oh what the heck. I shrug. "Sure. It's no bother at all."

A slow smile creeps up Abel's face. "Oh, Em. Thank you so much! You're a life saver!" He gives my aunt a gentle pat on the arm. Just then, my aunt's already bright face lights up more.

"Wait a minute. I have a better idea." She holds her palm up, her eyes bulging out. "Abel, come have dinner with us! It's perfect. Helly's baking some chicken and potatoes, and Ace and I are on our way to pick up some fruit cupcakes from the bakery. My sister Terry should be the one doing that but she won't be joining us for dinner tonight. Something came up," she looks sideways at me as she says this, then continues, "and we totally have one seat vacant. Now, I don't take no for an answer and even if Terry is there, I still would've invited you!" She leans in to Abel's ear to whisper something to him but I hear it anyway. Oh, aunt Emmy. "And you're my favorite student, too! But don't tell Ada, she's very sensitive!"

The look on Abel's face is so priceless I giggle. I think he's not used to my aunt being all talkative and true, it's not as obvious as when you first meet her or when she's laser focus on teaching or dancing but when you strike up a conversation with her, oh man. Be prepared to take three shots of espresso to keep up with her banter. And Abel thought he talks too much. Oh, my sweet summer child.

On our way, Abel pointed us the direction to his place, which is not that far from either the studio or our home. Aunt Emmy offers to drive him back to his house after dinner after she contracted herself on asking him to stay longer then realizing it's a school night so he has to leave sooner.

The cafe is still open, it is until eleven o'clock but aunt Terry is working on keeping it open for twenty-four hours, and we ask Miranda, the manager, to hand us the cupcakes that aunt Terry had prepared for us. She sometimes brings home treats like cookies and these cupcakes and she doesn't do so every single day because it's not good to let the twins get used, or in my own vocabulary, addicted, to them.

These particular cupcakes, though, I do not like. Don't get me wrong, aunt Terry bakes the best dam cupcakes in town, I just don't like the taste of fruit mixed in with the buttery moist cake. It's like two different things that shouldn't be together but we're forced to for the sake of innovation.

Driving us to the gate, Aunt Emmy honked twice and Juancho opens it for us. She tells Abel and me to go before her as she parks the car in the garage. We enter through the backdoor for Aunt Emmy rounded this far back closer to the garage. A delicious smell of tomatoes, shrimp, and basil slap us in the face. Abel hums in delight.

Inside, we find Aunt Helly chopping onions in the kitchen with all hell lose in the living room. They're too engrossed with their own little businesses that they don't even take notice of our arrival. Aunt Terry must've left already. The twins are playing swords and their lego is everywhere, while Bash is doing some tinkering on metal scraps and God knows what on the sofa. Mom's gonna be so pissed when she sees the rust on the sofa cover. Only one kiddo is missing.

"Where's Lily?" I ask aunt Helly. I take Abel's hand and lead him through the kitchen. I place the box of cupcakes on the counter.

Aunt Helly doesn't look up as she answers. "In her room, taking a nap. Could you please wake her up now, honey? I should've done so minutes ago but I got too busy." Her voice is so soft even though she's speaking loudly. I love aunt Helly but she can't handle the kids. She's not authoritative and she's too soft with them. I nod my head and hold my palms out to Abel.

"Stay here. I'll just deal with the brats." He laughs and sits down on a high chair by the counter, placing his backpack on the floor. This time, Aunt Helly's head snaps up.

"Oh."

I make my way to the living room, trying to avoid stepping on the lego scattered on the floor. I put the Clean Up song on the iPod and turning the speakers on. The song begins playing and Tommy and Massie perks up before singing along and cleaning up their toys.

"You, too, Bash." I ruffle his hair and he nods his head, scooping up his junk. "And you shouldn't be playing with those. It's too dangerous." I look down at where he was doing his tinkering. Oh, yeah. Mom's gonna freak out when she sees what he's done to her sofa.

Bash heads for the back door, past the kitchen. "Yeah, yeah, Annie."

I head back the kitchen where I see Abel watching my aunt as she cooks. He stands up when he sees me and I introduce him and my aunt to each other.

"Aunt Helly, this is Abel. He's from the studio. We invited him for dinner. Abel, my Aunt Helly."

"Hello," Abel says with a jolly voice. "It's very nice to meet you. Thank you for having me here. You have an amazing house." He compliments as he looks around.

My aunt smiles warmly at him. "Thank you. Any friend of Ace is a friend of ours. I hope you're hungry. I'm making chicken, pasta, and mashed potatoes. Only a few minutes left and it's done."

"Do you need help setting the table?" Abel asks just as Aunt Emmy appears behind me.

"You are not to touch a single thing, Abel. Go with Ace. We'll handle things here." She pushes me up the stairs, beckoning Abel to follow, then I hear her saying to the kids, "All right, you rascals. If I count to ten and everything's not yet clean, I won't let you take abuse from my fairy fruit cakes!"

After a few seconds, I hear the television open and the familiar sound from Kidzone channel vibrates from below and we could hear nobody talking. Silence. Finally.

"Your family's - "

"Big? Messy? Loud? Crazy?"

We reach the second floor landing and Abel laughs. "Amazing. It's nice to have a huge family, baby girl."

We head to Lily's bedroom first and I knock twice in the door. When she doesn't answer, I call on to her, twisting the doorknob as I do. She's still under her purple covers, sleeping in a little ball with Schrödinger close to her. How cute.

I let myself in and sit on her bed, throwing the covers away. Our cat jumps up from the bed, meows, and walks away. "Hey, Lil. Time to wake up. You won't be able to sleep later if you don't." She stirs and opens her eyes.

"Okay. I'm awake." Her voice is still think with sleepiness and I smile to myself as she tries to sound otherwise. She sits up and stares at the door. "Annie. There's a boy outside my door. Can you see him, too, or am I the only one?"

"That's Abel," I tell her, twisting my body to Abel's direction. "He's a friend and he'll be joining us tonight. You better get dressed. Dinner's almost ready."

My sister rubs her eyes and yawns. "Okay."

"Did you do your homework?" I stand up, watching as she makes her way towards her closet.

"Yeah."

"What about your reading?"

Lily nods before disappearing in her bathroom. "Good girl," I murmur, heading outside.

"Your sister looks nothing like you. I mean, she's pretty, too, but you don't share the same features." Abel comments as we make our way to my bedroom.

I get that a lot. Lily and Bash took more from our father and I from our mother. They have dark brown hair, blue eyes, and they're blessed with such height. Yep. The one thing that makes me feel sad, waiting for my little sister and brother to grow taller than me. Already, Lily is almost the same height as me and she's still growing.

When I was her age, I was as tall as Bash. And when I was Bash's age, we'll, let's just say I'm dreading the moment when my little siblings tease me for being their little big sister.

I open my door and drop my purse and backpack on the carpeted floor with a relief. "Yeah. I look more like my mom. Lil and Bash, my brother who was downstairs playing with scraps of metal, looks more like my dad."

"You mean him?" I see him standing at my bookshelf where I have some family photos displayed in addition to my books.

The one he's pointing at right now is the photo we've taken about four years ago, I guess? When we had our Christmas vacation at the Alps. There was a huge fireplace in the background and Daddy was in the middle of the huge couch with mom, snuggled under a thick maroon blanket. I sat beside him, his arms around me and my mom, Lily was on the other side of mommy and Bash was on her lap. Daddy asked everyone to join in but Aunt Emmy insisted that it should just be us in this photo, then they'll join us in the next.

"Yeah. That's him."

"Damn. He's fine, girl." I laugh. Abel sinks down on my beanbag, stretching his arms and legs. "Why did they call you Annie?"

"Well," I begin explaining as I prepare the clothes I'm going to change into. "My parents, aunts, and uncles - basically everyone in the family- call me honey. You know, a nickname. But when Lily started learning talking, it was hard for her to pronounce the letter H. Then Bash came along and he, too, took a hard time pronouncing it. And now, even the twins can't do it. So they just settled for Annie and it kinda stuck so it's what they call me."

"Cute."

"Listen, um. I'm gonna go take a quick shower. You could boot up my PC if you want to, or watch TV. I got books and some magazines over there," I point back at my bookshelf. "Make yourself at home. I'll be done in a jiffy." I grab my clothes and walk to my bathroom.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I hear Abel grumble.

"Excuse me?" I turn around to see his hands crumpled in his hair. He immediately looks up, surprised.

I see him swallow before he answers. "Nothing. I, uh, I think I'll go see if dinner is ready." And with that he jumps up and walks out of my room.

I take a quick shower, soaping my loofah and feeling the warm water wash the sweat from my body away, softening the muscles underneath. I can't wait to go to the spa next weekend, after the exams.

Aunt Terry has this close friend who gave us unbelievable discount on her newly renovated spa and my family we're supposed to go tomorrow night and spend two days and three nights there but I've got my exams and Daddy will be out of town so we moved it next week so I wouldn't have any problems with school and Daddy would be there, too.

I step out of the shower and pat myself dry, putting on a pink tank top with matching pajamas and wearing my fluffy white Uggs bedroom slippers, then I head downstairs.

The meal is very nice and as usual, and as expected, my parents aren't here. But Abel is here and it's good to have him though I notice that during dinner, he doesn't speak to me that much. Maybe he's just more concerned getting acquainted with my aunts and my siblings as he talks fondly to them, asking questions and looking really interested. He even makes funny faces for my cousins.

"Don't you like the linguine, Abel?" Lily asks.

His shoulders shrug, a sheepish grin forming on his lips. "I'm actually allergic to shrimps."

"Oh no. I'm sorry, darling. I didn't know." Aunt Helly is quick to apologize. She always take the word hospitable into the next level and it's like her duty to please every guest that steps foot in our home. The same thing happened when she prepared buttered shrimps when Chadi and Luke came to visit us one time. Chadi is also allergic to shrimps.

Abel just smiles and winks at my aunt. "No worries. I love the.m chicken, by the way. It's so soft." He then proceeds to eat a piece, making a contented sound. He swallows and exclaims, "Superb! Magnificent!" Aunt Helly beams shyly.

This new side of Abel kinda surprise me. No foul words, no cussing, no dirty jokes. I don't even hear a single question about Luke the entire night. Huh. That's weird. However, I'm enjoying his company right now.

Surprisingly, he's also talking a lot about himself. I learned that he's been taking dance lessons since the age of three and plans to become either a professional dancer or open up his own studio in the future.

"Just don't compete with me, darling. I'd beat the shi - eep out of you," Aunt Emmy tells him, saving that supposedly curse word at the last minute. I try to hide my laugh along with Abel and aunt Helly.

Abel is an only child living with his grandmother as his mother works abroad as a real estate agent. His father passed away when he was two.

"I'm sorry." I place my hand on top of his and squeeze softly. He smiles down at our hands and nods his head before plastering a wide smile once again.

When I ask why doesn't he stay with her, he just says casually that he just doesn't feel like living with her own family.

The conversation seems to be spiraling downwards after that but Abel saves it by telling a story of how he once decided to adopt a pet goat. Spoiler alert: it didn't end well. We also find out that Abel is actually old enough to vote and that he's voting for senator Teagan McShane for president. My aunts are visibly impressed. She's our bet candidate, too.

"Oh, honey," Aunt Helly addresses me. "I saw Petunia in the market this morning. She told me that she won't be able to take you to school tomorrow. Paula came down with a fever and she's gonna take her to the doctor."

Now that she mentions it, I think Paula did send me a text message later in the afternoon. I was so shook with my conversation with Chad and the thing with Rus that I didn't bother looking through my phone at all. I better check my messages later.

"Does Jesse know?" I ask, cutting a piece of chicken and scooping some mashed potatoes with it.

"She was informed, yes. Petunia said Jesse is going to take the school bus. Her parents contracted the school so she could go by bus whenever she needs to. As for you, Juancho will drive you." So it has been already settled then.

When we're all done, Abel help aunt Emmy to clean up while aunt Helly put the twins into bed. I check up on Lily and Bash, browsing their notebooks for homework they might've missed or future projects to be done.

I almost miss Abel leaving when I come back downstairs. I ask to come take him home but both he and Aunt Emmy refuse, ganging up on me.

"Get some rest, Annie. It's not yet the weekend," he says, kissing me on the cheek. He smirks at me and I just stand there, staring at him as he jogs down after Aunt Emmy to the gate where the car awaits. "Thanks for the meal! See you tomorrow!" He calls back at me.

I watch his retreating figure even as he enters the vehicle, having not the slightest idea about the drastic change that is about to hit me in the face.