A mask is usually worn as a covering for our faces, or it's often used as a disguise. If you were to tell me that you didn't have one I wouldn't believe you, everyone has more than one side to them and whether they choose to hide one part or let it show is up to them. I only wear one and it's called confidence, I've been so good at pretending for years that sometimes I forget I'm not actually like that in real life.

For once I'm not caring about my outfit today because I can't be bothered to wear my mask. I made sure I at least looked alive before leaving my bedroom, I hate people asking me questions.

Zoe spreads one last bit of butter onto a slice of toast before handing it to my little brother, "Thanks"

She ruffles his hair, "Your welcome"

Santiago comes down the stairs, "Wow Zo, you just couldn't get enough of me?" He places his hand on his heart

"Boy nobodies here for you" She says amused, he pouts before sitting besides Matty at the island

"Ready to go?" I ask, she nods and Sienna picks up her keys.

Enzo frowns as he comes down the stairs, "Is that mine?"

"Relax I'll give it back" I reply

He goes silent after noticing Sienna and the room goes quiet for a few seconds. "Earth to Lorenzo" Santi says with a mouthful of toast

How unusual

"Shut up"

"Let's go" Zoe says

Ok.... I found that just a little weird but I'm choosing to ignore it. I'm just hoping that today whizzes by quickly

~*~

"He asked you to leave?"

I nod and Zoe frowns, "Wow I guess he really is a dick"

"Luck just isn't attracted to me"

"I can't believe he has a sister, nobodies ever heard of her"

"Well maybe that's because cause nobodies been to his house"

As if on cue, the man himself walks right into history only this time he wasn't actually late. Zoe looks at me amused and I roll my eyes before writing the date in my book. Carter didn't see me at first but then when he sat down I was in his line of view.... he almost looked surprised.

I ignore him of course because why on earth would I waste my time staring at him, even if he is beautiful. However I could literally feel his eyes on me as Mr Richards began teaching the class. My phone vibrates and I frown before taking it out of my pocket, turns out Zoe took it upon herself to text me

She's enjoying this way too much.

Nobody decided to warn me about Mr Richards. Next thing I know he's towering over me, "Care to share whats so funny?"

I switch off my phone, "Oh it's just my sisters nudes"

He narrows his eyes at me and I frown as I sit back, "Your not expecting me to show you are you?..... cause that would be illegal" I say amused

Everyone looks back at Mr Richards curiously, including Carter. He clears his throat as embarrassment takes over and we all watch as he stands upright, "Just put the phone away"

I nod, "Will do"

He goes back to his desk and Zoe high fives me from underneath the table.

Works every time

-

"We should go shopping" She suggests

"I'll probably end up wearing something from Adri's wardrobe"

"Good idea, I'll steal from Chrissy"

Her cousin

Now whenever it comes to parties there's always a certain blonde who gets the most excited, however today she's been quiet.

"Sienna?" She then says expectantly

She smiles a little at her phone, oblivious to the fact that we're calling her.

I frown, "Earth to Si Si?"

Sienna turns off her phone quickly before looking at us, "Hmm?"

"Who's got you smiling like that?" Zoe says amused

She waves it off, "Oh no one"

"Are we really gonna have to grab that phone?"

"It was Michael texting me"

"Michael from the football team?" I say surprised, she nods

That's a new duo

Sienna then stands up as she reads a message, "Is he coming to the party?" Zoe asks

"Yeah...- hey, I'll catch you guys later" She then says

"Bye" We frown as Si walks away

She must definitely like Michael if she's leaving us to go and meet him in the middle of lunch

"She's really floating on cloud nine"

"I wouldn't worry about it, that's just Sienna" Zoe says amused

"Good point"

When school was done I went home and changed into something a little more revealing, it is way too hot today. Thankfully my parents weren't home so I didn't have to worry about any interrogations. It's not like my job is a secret but parents can just be really annoying sometimes.

I decided to walk to the Miller household since I feel it's a good way to burn extra calories, plus they don't live too far from me. I made it to their house at exactly 4:31, Melissa is currently saying her goodbyes to Grace. "I'll be here as soon as you wake up in the morning" She murmurs as they hug

Grace rests her chin on her moms shoulder until they pull away, "Carmen will take good care of you" She kisses her on the head before standing up

"Ok dinner was made by Julia before she left, there's a few board games on the table incase you two get bored. Tv remotes on the couch and that's everything I'm sure"

I smile, "Don't worry, I'll take care of her"

"I trust that you will. I'll see you when I get back" She says softly

I wave as she leaves the house. The door clicks shut and that's when you could finally notice the silence in the room, I look down at Grace.

"Your mom tells me you like drawing" I reach into my bag and she watches curiously

I produce two colouring books, good thing I bought them on my way here. "I'll get some crayons and then we can start"

She takes them before sitting at the table and I follow her shortly. You can actually learn a lot from someone just by assessing them, I notice that Grace wears a lot of pink and she also wears ribbons in her hair quite a lot, each time I've seen her she's had them in. "Do you have a favourite colour?" I fill the silence

She continues to colour the sky green with her crayon, "If I could guess I'd say that you like pink"

Grace smiles a little and I applaud myself, she didn't talk but the smile was a start. I know that the goal isn't to try and get her to speak, mutism doesn't work like that. My agenda is different, I just wanna know Grace and if I have to have one sided conversations to do so then I'll do it. We spent the next fifteen minutes or so colouring, I spoke quite a bit and told her about how many siblings I had, I could tell she was listening even if she didn't show it.

Halfway through Carter turned up, I inwardly groan, why couldn't I have this one wish? I was really hoping that he wouldn't come home until later. He puts his keys down before looking at me annoyed, "What are you doing here"

"My job" I hum as I colour the sun yellow

"I told you that she doesn't need a babysitter-

I shrug as I get up. "You talked, I didn't listen"

"Look Harmony-

"It's Carmen, but you knew that already"

This is the first time that I've ever stood so close to him, and I won't that he smells so fucking good.... but all that aftershave is coated in ignorance and foolishness. "Your right I did. Goodbye now Carmen"

I turn away from him before sitting opposite his sister again, "Boys are stupid Grace, never forget that"

She full on smiles and Carter observes with an unreadable expression, he narrows his eyes at me and I get ready to reply to the next demand he's about to give. But then thankfully he walks away after staring. I thought he'd stay upstairs for the rest of the night but he came back down again about two hours later, just my luck.

I place a bowl of Mac n cheese in front of Grace and she lifts up the fork before starting to eat.

I would love nothing more than to be a kid again, to be able to sit down and not give a damn about what I ate or what I didn't eat, I can't even remember the last time I properly finished a meal. I run a hand through my hair as I sit down opposite her, I should use this time to look through my recent messages. Most of them are just from my siblings

Then a text from Santi

I roll my eyes

"How come I've never seen you in history before?" Carter asks as he walks in

I don't look up from my phone, "Because your either asleep or your late"

"But I've seen the redhead before"

"The only reason you've noticed Zoe is because she's apart of the group of girls who take it upon themselves to care about your life"

Carter narrows his eyes, "And you haven't"

"I didn't even know your last name was Miller until yesterday"

"So I guess you can't really say anything about me not knowing you when you barely knew I existed"

"No I can and will because I already acknowledged who you are, you however didn't even know that we were in the same History and English class"

"Well I'm flattered that it bothers you-

"Bothers me? Wow you really need to check on that ego of yours"

"Whatever, the point is that we don't know each other. So after today you can stop coming, I'll watch my sister from now on" Carter says seriously

I rinse a glass before setting it aside and turning around, "Yeah? And if I keep coming then you'll what? Threaten me? Spread rumours? Oh no I forgot, guys like you probably post girls on the internet and brand them as sluts after they've made one mistake"

He shrugs, "Well who knows, maybe I will"

I scoff, "So do it Carter because I can promise you there's nothing hurtful that you could do to me that's worse than what I put myself through everyday"

He narrows his eyes at me as I walk past him.

Literally, he could do whatever. There's nothing worse than my thoughts. Find me something worse than that drug and I'll take back my statement.

Grace's room gives me an idea of her personality. The walls are white but there are quite a few pink things in the room, like her bed sheets for example, and her teddy bears too, overall her bedroom is cute.

It's eight thirty now and she's in her pyjamas, they're pink of course and they have little tiny bunny rabbits on them. "I had a nice time with you today Grace" I pull the comforter over her body and she looks at me as she lies there

"It's eight thirty now so I'm going home, but I'll see you tomorrow ok?" I say softly, she slowly closes her eyes and I smile as I get up. Slowly, I shut the door behind me before walking away from her bedroom.

I head downstairs before putting on my shoes and picking up my bag, Carter leans on the wall as I push the colouring books aside. "She can have those, it won't be much use for me" I say without looking back at him

I see him nod slowly from the corner of my eye as he continues to watch me. I take my phone before heading for the door.

I'm not even going to bother with a goodbye, Carter is the most idiotic person I've ever met and I'm starting to wonder if he has any sanity left.... That is if he had any to begin with.

It's still warm outside thankfully but it's starting to get dark now, I exit the gates of the Miller household before walking down the street and making my way home

Lola widens her eyes as I enter the house, "What?" I frown

She points to the living room and I mentally sigh after noticing mom, I put my bag down.

"I was-

"Why is so hard for you to follow instructions"

"Ok I was literally about to explain myself" I scoff

"Where have you been? I know you weren't at Siennas because I called her mother-

"Why did you need to call her?"

"Because I wanted to know where you were"

"Can I speak now?"

"Speak"

"I was working"

She frowns, "Since when did you start working again"

"Today" I answer

"You got another job?" Dad says surprised, I nod and he smiles

"Estoy orgulloso de ti"

"Thanks dad"

At least one parent is proud of me

Mom doesn't say anything else and I take her silence as a pass. "You can't put a two on top of a one" I hear someone scoff from my room

"Yes you can"

I open the door, "No you can't, it's two different colours puta"

I frown as I stand by the door, Santi, Adri and Matteo are all sprawled across my bed. "What are you guys doing?" I say confused

"Playing uno" Santi answers

"Obviously, why is it happening in my room?"

"Cause you have the biggest bed"

I roll my eyes before slumping down besides Matteo, I look at his cards. "Use it" I tell him

"You can't help him" Adriana scoffs as he puts down a plus four

"Yeah I can"

"How was work" Santi asks

I shrug, "It was ok"

"Did you make any money?" Matteo asks

Adri lightly shoves his head to the side, "It's the first day"

He rubs his head before mumbling, "I was just asking"

I snort before picking up seven cards, "Hurry it's your turn" Adri says to Santi

"Shhhh, I know"

"Are we still going to his match?" Matty asks our sister

"Mhm"

"Wait but Leo said the tickets were sold out" Santiago says confused, I look through my cards as Matty looks back at her.

"Don't worry about it" Adriana says amused

Ok now I'm curious

"How did you get Leo to let you guys come?" Her twin asks suspiciously

She forms a fist before doing a twisting motion in front of her mouth and poking her tongue into her cheek. "Seriously?" I scoff with disgust

"Why" Santi groans

"What does that mean?" Matty says confused

I put a block card down, "Don't worry about it" I mutter