The next day arrives. Cassandra was nervous about everything. She, neither does Zayn know anything from this timeline. Apart from each other’s names and institutions and house addresses so far, they have no intellect about anything at all.
Zayn was in his room while Cassandra was in hers. Both did not walk out of their room for the whole day.
Cassandra however listens to her stomach rumbling. She’s bathed and made herself clean and tidy. She felt more girly now than she ever was in her whole life. The life from her timeline.
The truth was their family could not afford to buy her good girly products nor clothes. Louis sometimes made sure he stole a few clothes from his one-stands and gave them to his beloved sister. But she never appreciated him stealing nor did she want second hand clothes to wear for herself. She was a morally strong woman, but the present Cassandra of 2022 was the luckiest person she ever knew.
Louis stood in front of her door. He knocked on it at 11:12 am and she opens it at 11:15.
She appreciated the well built man’s gestures.
It was however way too eerie for her to see Louis resemble way too close to the Louis she knows. This man was extra tall and extra bulky than her brother. Louis Sympsons was only 5’11 in his prime. This man was already 6’3.
“Hey, sweetness.” He calls for the young lady.
“Hmm…” she rubs her eyes, still in slumber. She woke up abruptly at 6 to get ready and fell asleep just as instantly to be woken up by Louis at 11:12.
“This one’s for you. I had it made…” Louis’s words fade as he sees her expression.
Cassandra sees the most beautiful piece of necklace made of rubies and pearls. The combination was rarely made, but the piece was straight out of some Disney movie.
“A-are these real?” She asks him. He makes a face saying, “What the hell? Of course you blockhead.”
“Yes… but you- hey!” Cassandra’s mind was spinning. They looked way too authentic.
They must have cost a million dollars easily.
Suddenly, Cassandra begins to lose her consciousness. Maybe it was the shock of seeing such a beautiful and expensive article in front of her. Or maybe it was because she starved herself for a whole day.
Her body falls to the floor with a thud.
.
.
.
.
.
.
She wakes up in the middle of a room. She doesn’t recognise it. After being transported here mystically, she’s only been to her room and it’s attached bathroom.
She hears the voices of men holding an interesting conversation. She recognises she was asleep on someone’s thigh, and her hair was being caressed the softest way possible.
She hoped it was Zayn who was under her, but Zayn was seated in front of her. Her blurred vision begins to clear out as she realises.
“Ack!” She rises to sit up at once. She almost bumped her head to Framton’s poor chin, injuring the old man. The boys all howl out of concern. Zayn rushes to her side.
“Yo, sis! You’re okay?” He dives into his character right away. He understood his mission clearly and with insight. Zayn and Cassandra cannot risk disclosing their identities to these people.
They had to blend in.
“Cassandra, please lay back. That old man is supposed to our father. We are all adopted brothers and sister.” Zayn whispers to Cassandra. The silence was awkward, but Cassandra tries her best be act natural.
“Damn, these dreams are getting weirder day by day.” She mumbles and lays back down on Framton’s lap. The man chuckles, caressing her hair again.
“Oh, my lovely daughter. What made you scare your brothers yesterday? They were concerned.” Says Framton.
“Hmm… I don’t wanna talk aviut it right now. I’m sleepy.” She fakes a yawn when she was wide awake.
‘That’s my girl.’ Zayn appreciated her acting skills. She was the best of his class, of course she had some common sense when it came to things like these.
As for Cassandra, she was a person who grew up without the love of a father. Framton was a person as a father figure which she used to read in her fictional books. The love he was radiating while talking to his sons and caressing his daughter seemed almost uncanny. His love was suffocating her.
It was simply too much. She was moved.
She fakes a yawn again, the boys go silent. She wakes up, all their eyes were on her.
“Papa, I’m hungry.” Says the girl.
“Well, Louis made some delicious soup and garlic bread. You like it, don’t you?” He asks the skinny girl. “Yes, I love it!”
Out of excitement, Cassandra runs towards the kitchen while they awe at her. She was like their little doll, a beautiful little person to make their lives happy.
“I’ll go arrange her the plates.” Louis follows her to the kitchen. He sees Cassandra struggling to find where everything was hidden behind the drawers. He raises an eyebrow, chuckling.
“Are you new to this house?” He asks her, in a sarcastic way. She answers in literal terms but, “Yes.” She blurts out.
Shoot!
She internally curses herself for being so dumb already. Louis shakes his head as she was being pulled by the tall man.
“Sir your ass down. You seem to be in confusion. No fever though.” He says, assessing her medical status. She was fine and healthy.
“Did you hit your head somewhere Cassie? You’re being so weird right now.” Says Louis.
Wantedly, for her sake, he puts two more ladle-fulls of soup and an extra garlic bread.
However, he looks at her gulp everything in awe.
If she was the normal Cassandra, she would have stopped at half or even lesser.
“Who the hell did you become, Cassie?” He asks her, sitting opposite to her on the table.
“I’m just hungry. I didn’t eat since yesterday remember?” She quietens all emerging doubts from his mind in one statement.
“Right… lemme know if you want more-”
“Yes please!” She yells. She lifts the bowl, bottoms up and munches on two garlic breads at once. Who was she, he wondered.
“Okay…” nonetheless, he served half of the pot per her request. He was happy for her.
She chooses not to be skinny anymore, he thought.