Zizah's Story

      “Sebastian, are you awake?”, the voice was coming from the other side of the door. I opened the door and saw my mother was standing in front of me wearing a black dress with her black hair tied in ponytail. “Today is the day for the summer camp. Please, ready yourself.”, she told me. I watched her as she walked down the stairs.

      I was shown the way by the camp’s guard to the hall. The hall was filled with many rich high school students. I watched the people around me talking to their friends. “Hey, you’re not going to join them?”, the voice was coming from my back. I turned my back to look at her. She was around my age and is short than me around 167 cm tall with dark brown wavy hair. I stared into her green eyes. “No.” She introduced herself as Ashley Hopkins, one of the summer camp’s leader and I introduced myself as Sebastian Midford.

      I was sitting near a tall big tree when I saw Ashley. She walked towards me and then sat next to me . We sat there around 15 minutes with silence. The fireworks began to play. I watched the fireworks and the way it beautifully bloom in the sky which was a bit lonely made me remember about my life. I thought about my mother, the way she was threatened by my father was awful. Even if she worked as a maid in Midford’s mansion, she was still his wife. I, as the heir of Midford’s family and the son of Cedric Midford and Patricia Midford needed to keep the fact that my mother was a maid as a secret. I act as the son of my father’s first wife to hide the identity of myself. I thought about revenge and suddenly, I heard Ashley’s voice. I realized that I was daydreaming. Her face was near that our nose almost touched. I pushed her until she fell to the ground. She was almost crying and I felt guilty for pushing her. I helped her stood to her feet and then apologized to her. I walked away after asking her forgiveness, leaving her alone near the tree.

 

      There was gossip about Ashley the next day. I ran to her room and I found her crying on her bed. She looked at me and ran to me for a hug. I thought that she was a weirdo. She told me about herself that she was not rich as I am. She worked this summer to help her mother to pay her late father’s debt. She stared at me and asked me to follow her. We went to the stage in the hall. I didn’t know what she was planning to do. She held the microphone in her hands and told everyone about herself. People started to mumble as we go down from the stage.

      The next day, I asked her how she felt when she told everyone that she was not rich. “At first, I was scared to tell them the fact that I’m not as rich as they are but after thinking about it, I know that this is the best way to solve problems. By the way, its better to tell them the real story than lying, right?” Now, I have the courage to argue with my dad.

      I went to find Ashley to say goodbye and thank her for everything even though its just for six days we known each other. She was crying a lot that I thought this place would be filled with her tears. She hugged me tightly that I couldn’t take a breath. I was picked by a luxury car by my personal driver around one o’clock in the afternoon. I smiled and waved my hand at her. She gave me a flying kiss while I giggled.

      I went to my father’s library as I arrived at the mansion. I took a deep breath before entering his room. When I got inside the library, my mother was talking with my dad. The conversation was stopped when they saw me. My mother asked permission to go out from the room but I managed to stop her.  My father asked me about my purpose. “Dad, I want you to stop threatening my mother. I want you to stop being a coward and stop lying about my mother. For your information, I already told the media about your mistress that you hid this whole years.” My mother gripped my wrist and I felt the aura of the room. I’ve never seen that shocked expression shown on his face. “Fine, I’ll let your mother go but with one condition, I’ll send you to Australia.”, he told me and went out from the library. My mother stared at me and told me that she’ll follow me to Australia.

      Now, this is what I wanted and cared about, freedom and revenge. I also managed to make a friend during summer camp. I hoped this happiness will last forever.