Connected

The sun has yet to rise, the leaves of trees are changing colors, summer break has come to an end and schools are restarting. A young girl walks down the stairs. “Where are you going so early in the morning ?“says a woman sitting on a couch.

“Did you watch Tv all night ?” says the young girl, avoiding the woman’s question.

The woman gives a quick glances at the television in front of her.“No...Yeah. Stop avoiding my question Billie.”

Billie is a 16 year old, 173 cm (5′8.5 ft) tall girl in junior year. She’s the daughter of Frank, an african-german 189cm (6′2 ft ) tall man and Anitta,a african-british 166cm (5′4 ft) tall woman. She has natural brown hair that she dyed beige and is wearing hip length knotless braids. Her face is heart shaped with round hazel eyes and full plump lips. “I’m going for a walk, Hillary damn.” She says

Hillary is Billie’s older sister. She’s almost 23 years old, has curly brown hair, brown eyes and is 165cm (5′4 ft). After graduating from law school, she took a sabbatical year and is now spending most of her time doing curious activities such as pulling all-nighters, running marathons to race elderly people, going to strangers’ funerals to cry more than the family and celebrating the “new years” every 31th. But over-all she’s a stable and smart person. “Don’t be late for school and don’t get kidnapped or dad’s going to get mad at me.” she comments, turning her head back to the Television.

“Why would I get kidnapped ?“grumbles Billie as she tilts her head while frowning her brows.

“You never know what the future holds. Leave, you’re disrupting my all nighter.” adds Hillary giving a submissive hand signal.

Billie leaves the house and walks around her neighborhood. Suddenly she sees two people arguing. One of them is a man around 195cm (6′5 ft), wearing a black costume with a tattoo on his neck. Unfortunately due a thick fog, she is unable to really see much of him and the other person he’s talking to, even so she can see the other person’s silhouette which appears to be shorter. I mean who can easily top this height, am I right ? The average height for a man is 171cm (5′7.5 ft) ! Billie draws herself nearer to eavesdrop but from her distance she can only hear bits. The tall man speaks with an accent.” You can’t do this to your family !” He says.

“I stopped considering them my family.” Replies the other man before getting slapped by the tall man.” Don’t ever slap me again.” He warns, in a sharp tone.

“Don’t ever say that again and I won’t have to ! They are your family ! You can’t escape it, the Vintanza blood ruins through your veins ! I can feel it and I know you can too.” explains the tall man as his fists began to clench.

What type of weird discussion is that ? thought Billie. The two men continued arguing.

" Leonardo, I don’t want to be part of this anymore.” sighed the shorter guy. “You and Uncle gave me a choice and I picked this one. I let you down, I know I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want your apology. Come back cous’. We, Vintanzas, need to stay united.” Leonardo looks to his right, in Billie’s direction. Billie startles and starts to back up. She marches on a tree branch making a noise that echoes.

“They definitely saw me..” whimpers Billie.

“What ? What are you looking at Leo ?”

“Keep quiet, someone is listening.” The fog starts to clear up.“Are you a spy ? Why do you keep gloating at us ? Does she want to die ? Do you want to die !” continues Leonardo. He comes closer to Billie but she runs away before he can get a good look at her. The other man grabs Leonardo by the arm, pulling him back.

“Leave her alone, she probably lives in this neighborhood. Now go, you’re going to make me late for school.”

“I’ll come check on you later. Think about it though, fra.” Leonardo drives away in a car, the other man keeps looking in the direction Billie ran off. He grins before entering his house.

Billie comes back home out of breath. A woman with her arms crossed awaits her. ” Do you know what’s wrong with your sister ?“asks the woman while analyzing Hillary.

“What.. What...What’s wrong with whom, mom?“asks Billie.

" You’re right. What even is right ?” she answers, shaking her head.

" Why are you exhausted ?“asks Frank, Billie’s father.

" I was running, dad. ” Billie goes upstairs and gets ready for school. An hour and a half later, her mother drives her to school.

“Are you staying after school?” she asks.

" I doubt it. See you later, mom.”

“Bye sweetheart.” Answers Billie’s mother.

Billie enters the school, gets her schedule from the office and begins looking for her friend. Esmae-Rose is her name but everyone calls her Rose besides Billie who calls her Esmae. She’s 169 cm tall (5′6 ft), has small upturned green-blue eyes, thin wavy dirty blond hair. Her face is round with a common european nose.They’ve been friends since fifth grade. ” I thought you weren’t coming. Do you know how long I’ve waited for you ?” complains Esmae-Rose.

" I saw you arriving, Esmae.”

" Oh... Anyways, how was your summer ?”

“I already gave you the resume. ”

“You really hate small talk, huh.”

“With you ? Yeah. Let’s go.” chuckles Billie.