“Cecilia, don’t forget to come home right after class. Your mother needs your help with some shopping. Those ruffians were harassing her again.”
Mervus, my father, well my adoptive father, was being overly concerned again for my adoptive mother, Bella. The ruffians were some local gangster wannabes that terrorized older people. I found out they terrorized my mother when she went shopping, starting around my sixteenth birthday. With a bit of help from the soccer team, we successfully scared them off. Unfortunately, they couldn’t always be around, so my presence was usually enough to scare them off.
“Okay dad. I’ll come home as quick as I can. You working late tonight?” I asked.
“Yeah, they got me down for overtime again. I wish I could go with your mother, but we need the money.”
“I know dad,” I said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. “Hopefully, I can get a decent job after I graduate and help out.”
“Now enough of that, Cecilia. We love you and raised you to be a good girl. But when you graduate, I want you to go start a life of your. You’re getting to the age where you need to become your own woman.”