CHAPTER 28: Birthday Memories.

Lance's POV

9th November 2015

I looked at my calendar. It was that time of the year again.

I dressed up for school. I went downstairs for breakfast; sure enough, Gina, Charity and Trisha were there.

Trisha was living with me now.

When I got home last night, Yvonne and Emilia had told her about the engagement. I thought she would be upset with the news but surprisingly she was excited about being my bride. I pleaded with herself, Yvonne and Emilia not to tell Gina about it. I didn't know or understand why I didn't want GG to find out about it. Luckily, the ladies agreed not to tell Gina, in return for their kindness, Trisha was to live with me. The school wasn't the problem as Trisha would start attending my school but would be in GG's class.

I had the feeling this was going to get troublesome.

"If you don't understand anything in class, please be sure to ask me," said GG.

"I'll be in your care!" Trisha said while saluting.

Well looks like GG was okay with Trisha attending the same school and class as herself.

"You guys should hurry up or you'll be late." Said Charity who was still in PJs with a few loose buttons revealing most of her cleavage. I tried to look away but couldn't.

"Charity, you shouldn't be looking like that. There's a man here," said GG

"What's the big deal?" asked Charity, "It's not like he hasn't seen them before."

"No fair! At least button up," said Trisha.

"No way!" said Charity, "Besides, Lance seems to be enjoying the view."

Trisha and GG looked at me with pouting faces. I looked away and started drinking my tea.

"Well if it comes to that," Charity said, "I think I should take off everything!"

She took off her top and revealed her breasts. I spat out the tea and started coughing. My dick was getting excited.

"Anyway! I'm going ahead." I said as I stood up to leave.

"My, my," said Charity, "Looks like somebody just woke up."

"Mind your business," I said then shut the door behind me.

Any guy would be happy with the situation I was in.

As I walked down to school, I felt that sensation again.

"Would you stop following me? It's beginning to creep me out!" I said without turning around.

I heard footsteps walk up to me but I still didn't turn around.

"Greetings Miracle, I'm Alpha." She said. For some reason, I thought her voice was familiar.

"What do you want? I'm going to be late for school," I said nonchalantly.

"If you wouldn't mind, I would like to monitor you for a while."

"Any particular reason why?"

"I wouldn't say. They are selfish reasons I guess."

"Whatever. I'm off to school."

"Trust your enemies more than those you call family."

I turned around but didn't see her there anymore. I saw GG and Trisha walking towards me, they were engrossed in whatever it was that they were discussing. I sighed and made my way down to school.

I got into class and took my seat. Dan and Glory came in some few minutes later.

"Xup bro!" said Dan as he patted my back, "Did you do the math homework?"

"Good morning Dan," I said and brought out my homework and handed it over to him, "Just barely did them. Extremely difficult."

"Thanks, bro, you're a lifesaver," he said as he transferred the answers from my book to his.

Dan didn't seem to be a bad guy. It's hard to believe that someone as nice as he was could kill his father to inherit the leadership of his family.

He turned and looked at me, "You know my girlfriend is here right?"

"Sorry for staring. I was just thinking." I said.

He sighed and said, "I hate the Everglade family. I didn't expect the new head to be my friend. I don't kill friends unless the price is right."

"Thanks. That made me feel better." I said in a half-sarcastic tone.

"Anytime bro," he said.

"All right guys, submit your homework." The class rep said.

The class became noisy as people tried to finish up as fast as they could. I noticed Glory had already submitted hers.

"Why didn't you take Glory's homework?" I asked.

"She wouldn't agree to give it to me," he said, "I'm all done."

He submitted both our homework then turned to ask me, "Do you know how to play soccer?"

GINA'S POV

I introduced Trisha to some of my classmates I felt were serious-minded and warned her about the wolves.

She seemed to fit in perfectly. Everyone one wanted to be friends with her including that idiot that wrote me a love letter when I first came to the school. My seatmate wasn't in school so Trisha sat with me.

As the teachers rolled in one after the other, I noticed the subjects she excelled in but couldn't find any she had difficulty with.

We had a double period in math class, which was the first subject for the day, she was able to answer most of the questions he asked although they were all topics we hadn't been taught yet.

Next period was Literature-In-English, we were tasked with writing short prose on any genre we wanted. Now, this was my forte, I wrote a story where a Young master fell in love with his maid. She also wrote a romance story where a young man fell in love with his cousin who happened not to be blood-related. That was suspicious though. Anyway, hers was the best.

The next two periods were Government and Civic Education, again Trisha displayed her intelligence.

I was so happy that a genius was sitting right next to me and also lived in my house. Everyone loved her. Sure some girls were green with envy because all the boys had started to flock around Trisha, but other girls looked at her as a role model. I was truly happy for her.

It was lunch time at last, and after dragging her away from the crowd that had been created around my peaceful little kingdom, I took her to the canteen.

We bought some meat pies and found a nice spot to chill and watched the soccer field which was filled with two teams from the JS3 classes engaged in an all-out soccer match. I was kind of surprised to see Lance playing in one of the teams. He played extremely well and was so skilled, that none of the boys in the other team was able to keep up with him. His only problem seemed to be that effeminate boy I met the other day. I think his name was Daniel Bishop.

We were sitting with some girls in the JS3 class that seemed to be fans of them.

They would yell things like:

"Crush him, Lance!"

"Dan, win for us!"

"Dan, you can do it."

"Lance I love you!!"

"Dan be my boyfriend."

"Lance if you win, I'll carry your baby."

Trisha and I laughed at that last statement and looked at the girl who just made the statement. To our surprise, she was extremely beautiful, well balanced and her hourglass shape put mine to shame.

We both started praying for Lance to lose.

"Hey Trisha, can I ask you something?" I asked while taking a bite out of my meat-pie.

"Sure go ahead," she said.

"How come you're so smart?"

"Well," she looked away for a second to hide her blushing face, "It was because of Lance."

I looked at Lance who had just scored the 3rd goal for his team, "Care to share?"

She stared at her lap before telling me her story, "Well, when I was much little, I normally had Lance's older sister help me with my homework. I was a dumb kid and couldn't understand what I was being taught. One random day in 2008, I went over to his place with my homework in hand. On reaching there, his sister wasn't at home and neither was Charity. His mom couldn't help me with it and told me to meet Lance. I was surprised. How could a boy in Basic 2 help a student in Basic 3? I was desperate so I decided to give it a shot. Lance looked at my homework and roared with laughter. He asked me if this was what I disturbed his sister with. After calming down, he showed me how to do it and even taught me more things I didn't know. I submitted the homework the following day and scored perfectly. I asked him to continue helping me with my homework, but he said princesses need to know how to take care of themselves. He didn't help me with my homework rather, he had extracurricular classes with me and even taught me things beyond my class. With each passing day, I started getting attached to my cousin. In 2012, I wrote my common entrance examinations and was the highest-scoring student who wrote the exam. I took my results and proudly showed it to him. He nodded and pecked my cheek, then said he had nothing else to teach me. He told me to keep making him proud. So I study with whatever chance I get so that I can one day teach him something he doesn't know."

Her love story seemed to make mine pale in comparison.

"I didn't know Lance was that intelligent," I said softly.

"He is." She said, "That's why he's fit to be the head of..."

She stopped talking.

"The head of what?" I asked.

"The head of his class." She said while letting out a forced chuckle.

She was lying but I just let it slide. The whistle was blown signalling the end of the match. Dan's team won with 4 goals while Lance's team scored 3.

The girl who had promised to carry Lance's baby ran up to him and hugged him. He just rolled his eyes and tried to free himself from her grip.

"Let's head back to class," Trisha said while wiping off her skirt.

"Ladies," Lance called out to us.

"Yeah?" we both chorused.

"You guys should head home without me I'll be home a little late." He said.

"Alright," I said, "What would you like for lunch and dinner."

"Surprise me." He said then left to meet up with his team.

I sighed and followed Trisha back to class.

LANCE'S POV

The school was finally over. I checked my wristwatch and it read 2:35 pm. She was late.

Her car finally arrived. Gina Johnson alighted from the vehicle in her usual corporate outfit. This time it was all black.

"You know normal girls wear a skirt," I said

"You know normal boys compliments a woman's dressing." She said while running her fingers through her long hair.

"Your outfit sucks," I said.

"Thank you." She curtseyed, "Well what do you need me for?"

"I wanted someone to follow me to a grave."

"You could have asked your fiancé or maids."

"It's kind of important that you're there. Think of it as a date."

She sighed and entered the car, "I don't think you're fifteen at all."

We stopped at the flower shop to pick up some Red roses before heading down to the cemetery.

On reaching the cemetery, we visited a grave which my family's insignia on the tombstone.

It read:

Princess Rose Everglade

1996 – 2010

Daughter, sister and friend

I said my prayers, then stared at the tombstone, "Did you know her?"

"Met her twice or thrice. She tended to be cold and sarcastic but someone nice enough to have tea with." Said GJ.

"You know, something keeps bothering me." I said, "If I wasn't born, would she have become the head of the family?"

"No, only males can head your family."

"You also said something else, the head of the families should be single kids with no blood-related siblings."

"Where are you going with this? I might not look like it but I'm very impatient."

"Let's say in my family's case, the first child is a girl and the second happens to be a boy, what happens to the girl?"

"I don't know. In my family, if a boy was born first, he is sent off to one of his father's relatives to be taken care off. Happened to my mother's elder brother."

"Come to think of it, you and Vivian's families are headed by women, but your surnames don't change."

"Men are married into our family and answer the family name."

"Ok. That's weird."

"We're getting off-topic."

"Yeah, we are. So you have no idea what happens to girls in my family?"

"Nope. Not a thing. Want me to dig around?"

"No, it's fine. Could you give me a minute?"

GJ nodded and said, "I'll be in the car."

When GJ had left, I was all alone with my role-model and sister, "Hey sis. How's it going? It's been a bit tough for me that's why I haven't been able to visit recently. The thing is, dad and mom divorced. I thought I was going to stay with dad but he died. I'll be visiting his grave later. I was also placed as the head of our family. Very soon I'll take over The Restaurant and other businesses dad used to be in charge of. Speaking of which, I always wondered why you hated dad but I guess it's because of his shady activities. Now that I'm taking over, I guess you'll probably hate me too. I don't even think I'm the little brother you used to love. Family aside other crazy stuff has happened to me, I have a BDSM maid, I slept with Trisha and her mom, I also slept with Charity and a guy sucked my dick. I guess I am bisexual just like you were although it was a one-time thing. Mom comes around sometimes; she's still as fucked up as you were. I don't even know what's going to happen next. Turns out dad was a bad guy and a creepy girl wants to destroy me for it. Anyway, I'm scared."

I stopped and brought out the roses I bought, "I must be very stupid. Briefing you with all my problems when it's your birthday. I bought these for you. They were your favourite right? I'll just leave them here. Enjoy the rest of your day."

I placed the rose on the grave, "I think she would have loved to speak with her mom first."

My mother walked up to the grave with a bouquet of roses in her hands, "I had to talk with your dad first. And I also didn't want to interrupt the good vibe you had going on."

"Whatever," I turned to take my leave.

"Will you visit him as well?" she asked

"On second thought I wouldn't," I said.

I got into GJ's car.

"I feel like I've become your chauffeur," she said.

"Seems like you're always free," I said

"I do have a job as a private investigator."

"Ah! I see. You're one of those people women hire to check if their husband is cheating on them."

"Something like that. It just so happens that many men are faithful this period so I don't have any clients today."

She dropped me off at home after making a stop at the bakery. There was another person I had to celebrate.

I got in and hid the cake. Charity and GG were at home but the celebrant had stepped out to get something. We got everything ready and surprised her when she got back.

Trisha loved the small birthday party we had organized.

After the party, she came to my room.

"Hey princess, happy birthday," I said.

She threw herself on my bed, "Thanks for everything today."

"You're welcome."

"Did you visit her?"

I nodded.

"Did you tell her about us?" she asked

"Not really." I said, "About that, are you...?

Nah, it was a stupid question to ask her. I knew she was in love with me; I wasn't that dumb not to notice it. So, of course, she was okay with the arranged marriage.

"Am I what?" she asked.

"Are you in the mood for a birthday kiss?" I asked.

"What type of stupid question is that?" she laughed.

I pulled her in for a kiss. We kissed for a minute before I banished her to her room.

Alpha was watching me at the cemetery. Where did all these weird girls come from?