With Ephriam and Draken on his tail, Sean joined Gianna where he'd instructed her to wait for him with a bone-chilling authoritative tone. He'd wasted time to show up, or was it her who was too eager to get rid of the leather case, so much that she'd gotten stuffed with the pungent odor from the garbage dumpster. Good thing she hadn't had lunch just yet as she notified to join Mimie as soon as she'd taken care of 'a little something', as she put it, so she wouldn't worry much. As eager as scared Gianna was, remembering her last encounter with Sean. She kicked his balls for the sake of Christ. There was no way she would go scot-free. And she was prepared to face it as long as he got his stuff off her shoulders. Sean wrinkled his nose. "You stink." Gianna said nothing as quietness reigned. No soul but theirs in the horizon. It was either a lucky day to not have come across the delinquents who perched there to stuff themselves with pot or were warned ahead of time of Almighty Sean's ne

"When you have to start trusting the decisions taken by a teen, Lulu, I will never advise you to do it wholeheartedly. We have this African saying; 'what an old man sees seated, a young man can never see even while standing on the tallest Iroko.' At this age they think they know so much, they live in the spur of the moment, take quick decisions without thinking about the aftereffects. In this case, what you do is give them the silent benefit of the doubt. Ask if you can give your opinion, which of course, the proud ones will turn you down. Assure them that you got their back and will always be there if things don't go as planned. Tell a little story related to that matter, you know, with a little lesson they can learn from it. I don't know if I'm making some sense to you." Louisa nodded. "Yeah." She bit on a cookie, her stare distant. "Come, have you ever had a mother-daughter time with Gigi? 'Cuz I recall you mentioning one with Mason before and never with you." Louisa twisted her

"Gianna's being bullied," Mason calmly stated. "Did you know that?" "I suspected. You know she doesn't tell me anything." Mason exhaled. "Was that the reason for Sean?" Louisa hesitated, freezing from applying a layer of clay mask. "Yeah. I figured he could help, which he did from my observations and his reports until the last incident. And I can't help but wonder what went wrong. I haven't seen him since." Mason remained quiet, silently putting two and two together. "You're saying you've been receiving reports from Sean all along which no doubt confirmed that Gianna was being bullied and didn't let me know?" "Honey, I didn't want you troubled with all that you were going through in the vineyard and—" "Bullshit, Lou! That's bullshit. Gianna is our daughter. Not yours, not mine, but ours, and I don't mind breaking my limits when it comes to our kids so that is not a fucking excuse." Louisa's head lowered in guilt. "Did you ever ask her anything pertaining to the subject matter

Adam left the principal's office as fast as he could, tearing past a small crowd heading to their class and dismissing the profanities and comments of those he bumped. Luck on his side, he spotted Mimie exiting the restroom after contemplating on whether to call out on Gianna from outside of it. "Where's Gianna?" He walked in on a pale and beaten-looking Mimie. "Is she in there?" Mimie sluggishly shook her head. She'd wanted to wait for her friend outside as planned but was scared off by Ephraim who guarded the door with diligence. "She's in th-the art room, w-with Sean." At the mention of the name, Adam made a U-turn and bolted to said place. The sight of the burly dark-haired teen hadn't any effect on his momentum yet, ignoring him wasn't an option. "Where to?" Ephraim interrogated, his big hand in a back-off stance. "Piss off!" Adam swatted his hand away with a force that alerted Ephraim to take his opponent seriously. "You better back off if you don't want to end up with a

"I got my fingers on Zombie Down III, if you're still interested. Sorry, my room's a mess," Adam picked up some littering pants, boxers, and shirts and shoved them into the laundry basket next to the bathroom door. "Been challenged with having to figure out what to put on lately. Please sit. Can I offer you something?""No, I'm fi-fine.""Gianna said you won't be hanging out with us tonight, why not?""I'm not fe-feeling too well.""What's wrong?" He sat on the chair in front of his laptop, so concerned that Mimie would've thought it genuine."Like you care.""Huh? What do you mean by 'like I care'? If I didn't I wouldn't bother asking. You are the one slipping off of me every time I want to care."Mimie looked away to better blink off her tears. He was victimizing himself again as usual. To cut the reason for her visit relatively short, Mimie nailed her gaze on the thick grey rug where her dressed up feet laid. "Can we-we conclude on our st-status now?"Adam pondered after wiping awa