Reina's POV

I skipped along the sidewalk, with my best friends Camelia and Gabriela, with the wind blowing our faces. Leaves crunched under my sneakers and I picked some for my scrapbook.

I also picked up dirty pebbles when I saw Gabriela standing like a statue, and her pigtails shining like a chestnut. I crept up to her and jumped on her back. She screamed and galloped forward, waving her arms around, and we fell in front of a tree.

"Did I scare you Gabi?" I smiled and pulled up her bangs. She scrunched her face, frowning at me with bright pink lips.

"Da, you did," she said and bumped into me, making me wobble like an egg. She giggled and nibbled on her nails.

"And why did you jump on me? You're too heavy for me to carry." She pouted and lightly punched my arm.

"Um, I felt like it." I smiled innocently. "And I'm not heavy! I'm small and very light."

"Haide!" Camelia shouted at us to come on. So I grabbed Gabriela's hand, and we hurried to catch up. We linked arms with her in the middle as Camelia was the tallest, and had two long black ponytails swishing behind our backs.

"Okay so I was thinking that we should play Roblox tonight," Camelia said, tugging us along and stuffed some corn puffs in her mouth.

"I might be able to come online if I get all my work done but I'm not sure," Gabriela replied as she played with her fingers.

"Okay, make sure you hurry because I found this really cool game where we can become mermaids!" Camelia exclaimed.

"I'm definitely coming on because I want to see," I smiled broadly, holding my backpack. We crossed the road and landed in a round hedge and the colorful trees arched over us down the street like a rainbow.

"So what can you do in this game?" Gabriela asked curiously.

"I haven't played it that much but it looks pretty cool," Camelia said, "but we can just go back to playing our regular games afterwards."

"Like shooting some zombies?" Gabriela happily said.

"Da!" Camelia nodded and got out her phone to check the time.

"Every time we play that game, I always end up with a group of zombies just following me around," I whined.

"That's because you actually need to shoot them," Camelia smirked and chuckled a little.

"It's not my fault I can't shoot properly," I exclaimed, putting my hands up in defense. "I'm on a laptop, so it's a bit hard to move and shoot at the same time. But I'll ask my Mamă to get me a mouse so it'll be easier."

"Yeah that's a good idea. But don't worry Reina. I'll still protect you from getting eaten." Camelia laughed and swung her arm round me.

"I know. I remember when I was playing this game as a killer and was struggling to stab people and—" I suddenly bumped into a few boys and tumbled onto the ground. I landed on my butt and groaned as my backpack fell beside me.

They turned around and stared at me on the floor with raised eyebrows. They stood over us like tower blocks and looked older as they started cackling with laughter, while my face was burning hot.

"Hei leave my friend alone!" Camelia shouted and tried to kick him, but he moved out of the way so she kicked the air and landed on me. Gabriela froze and started shaking, so they pushed her too.

They pointed their fingers at me while laughing. I sniffed and quickly squeezed my eyes shut to stop my tears from my watery eyes. But my arms trembled when I felt them leaking out.

But they didn't stop laughing and one of them picked up my backpack and they threw it at each other. My fists clenched as I got up and started shouting:

"Give me my bag back!" I started punching the boy's sides, but he lifted it far above my head where I could barely reach it.

"Try and catch it tiny." He smirked and hurled it away. I leapt in the air, but the other boy grabbed it before I could. They passed it to each other like I was the piggy in the middle.

Their laughter got louder, booming in my aching ears, until it was all I heard while whizzing around. My eyes became flooded and my surroundings blurred together with the cackling in the background.

I whimpered and covered my ears, but then the voices of my old bullies echoed and screamed in my head, causing me a headache. While my face was getting wet as my tears continuously ran down my cheeks.

I slumped to the floor and sobbed while staring at them hopelessly. While they just flung my bag around like it was trash.

I was about to get up to fight them again but they dumped my bag down and walked away, laughing to themselves. I quickly picked it up and walked with my head low and quickly wiping my eyes.

"Hey, are you okay?" My friends got off and pulled me up.

"Da sunt bine," I mumbled into my fuzzy sweater and sniffed loudly. I didn't want to think about what happened because it reminded me of when I used to get picked on a lot in elementary.

"You sure those boys didn't hurt you?" Gabriela asked and clutched my hand.

"Yeah... they just really got on my nerves," I wiped my sleeve across my nose and sighed heavily. I tried not to let them irritate me but I couldn't help it.

"Ignoră-le Reina, they are just really stupid," Camelia said and seized my other hand.

"I know, but it just reminded me of when I used to get in a lot of fights in elementary," I admitted and shifted my feet awkwardly. I hated thinking about that time because when I needed my mother the most, she wasn't there.

"O how come you were in so many?" Gabriela asked.

"I don't know. But every time I was in a fight, they would always say, 'at least my mom is not behind bars! Yours probably wanted to get away from your ugly face!'" I shouted while clenching my teeth.

I stood as my tears dripped onto my shoes. All I can think about is how my classmates jabbed me with sticks all the way to my meeting place with Raiden. Since we were in different classes, I had to deal with it alone and had some peace at recess since I would be with him. And he would help me fight them off.

"Here's a tissue." Gabriela plucked one out from her pocket and handed it to me. "I feel so bad for you," she then hugged me.

"Me too. I had no idea your mamă was in prison," Camelia said and joined in so I was squashed in the middle.

"I don't like talking about it," I mumbled, nibbling my bottom lip. "I just remember being told my Mamă is going away for a long time."

"At least you have your Mamă back now," Gabriela said and patted me on the back.

"Da I guess..." I mumbled and rolled my eyes. I then blew my nose and stuffed the tissue into my pocket.

"It's still not the same," I said. I was happy she was back, but she still made me feel abandoned as I waited too long, sitting at the window of my foster family. They were really nice but I just wanted my own Mamă back.

So I continued watching the cars as they drove by. Jumping excitedly, thinking my mother was in one of them.

But she never was, and I would go back to waiting for her every day. Waiting for her to come for my brother and me.

But she never did.

The others in my class were right... She was sick of us and wanted to be away as far as possible. When that happened, that's when she decided to come but it was too late.

When we reached the bus stop, we said goodbye to Gabriela when she went on to go to her neighbourhood in sector 2. Me and Camelia continued walking and I said bye to her when we got to my street and walked home. Once I was inside. I put on my slippers and walked to my room.

"Mamă sunt acasă!" I yelled to let her know I was home. I heard her talking on the phone, as I went into my room and changed into jogging bottoms and a pink hoodie.

I dived into my bed and grabbed my scrapbook. My Mamă gave it to me so as to not forget about her. I began collecting petals and other natural things with my foster mom to go along with my mama's previous flower collection. But I later started to make pages of other things.

I put the leaves and pebbles on the pages for things I collect with friends. I drew lines around them with sparkly gel pens while listening to music.

A few hours later, I was seated on my bed, cuddled with my stuffed animals while watching TV. Suddenly my door creaked open and I froze when Mamă poked her head through. She smiled, and I slowly backed into my bed as she came nearer.

"Hei my dear Reina, did you have a good day at school?" She smiled sweetly at me and sat at the edge of my bed.

"It was good." I shrugged.

"Did you do anything interesting?"

"Nu." I mumbled. She scooted closer, and I felt her staring even though I focused on the TV.

"Did you add something in your scrapbook?" She asked and grabbed it from where it laid at my feet. She shuffled up closer to me but I inched away.

"This book is really old, but you've looked after this book so well," she commented as she thumbed the ruffled edge of the brown hardcover.

"Well I like it," I said and tucked my legs into a ball. There were a few old scratches but the pages were still intact and a little faded as she flicked through.

"Aw I'm really glad to hear that." She reached out and I flinched as her fingertips massaged my neck. She gently tickled it and gradually pulled me in to kiss my forehead while I tried pulling away.

"I like what you have done with this page," she said as she released me. Her finger was now on the page I was working on. "Did you collect some of these today? They look like they've just been stuck in."

"Only the leaves and pebbles."

"Oh okay, they look nice here," she said and finally handed it back to me. "Anyway I'm going to start heating up the leftover food from yesterday, so we can have our dinner. You can join your brother in the living room as he's setting up his experiment."

"Alright," I agreed and followed her as we walked out my room. Mamă drifted off into the kitchen and Raiden was in the living room, in his lab outfit and wearing goggles. He had a little volcano placed on the table and blotches of red and orange spotted around his face.

"Hei pinhead can you come help me with this?" he asked while painting his volcano.
"Urgh bine," I sighed in agreement. I went to stand next to him and slapped his head. "And I'm not a pinhead."

"You look like one though," he snickered. He pinched my cheeks and got some of the paint smeared on me.

"Ewww," I winced and wiped it off. Mamă quickly came back with a tray of honey cakes with plum jam and cream filling and left it with us.

"So I'm planning to show Mami my volcano when she's finished," Raiden said proudly. He took off his goggles and a cake off a tray.

"You made this?" I said and peered over the top of his experiment. It had red lines squiggling down for rivers of lava between the rocky, brown-painted rocks.

"Da!" Raiden nodded with a mouthful and pointed inside the top. "I placed an empty bottle there. Then I wrapped this paper around and made it look like an actual volcano."

"It looks really good." I leaned on the table and saw the baking soda, vinegar, water, and red food coloring laid out. "What are these for?"

"They are going to go inside to cause the explosion! And I want you to help me with the mixture."

"Alright, what do I need to do?"

"You can mix these two." He gave me the baking soda and the water. I mixed them while he mixed the other stuff and poured it inside the volcano.

We got newspapers and laid them out, so we won't make a mess. We set the last one down when I felt pain below my stomach. I hissed and hugged my waist tightly, but I felt like something was poking me from inside. But then Mamă came from the kitchen with the steam following. She kept wiping the sweat off her face while I just stared at the floor.

"I'm getting really hot now," she exclaimed and kept fanning herself. She unraveled her bun and looked at us with her eyelashes soaking wet.

"Mami, can I show you more volcano now?" Raiden piped up.

"Yes you can," Mamă said and leaned back. "Go on honey."

"Okay, haide Reina!" Raiden beckoned me, so I stood next to him as we poured everything down the volcano. Soon bubbly liquid erupted from the top and ran down the volcano.

"It worked! It actually worked!" Raiden said and instantly started recording it.

"Bravo! Very very good!" Mamă started clapping and he bowed and started clearing the table up.

"I'm just going to check if the food is warmed up, then I can have my lunch with you guys," Mamă said while getting up. "But that was a really good experiment, Raiden."

"Mersi!" He said as she went back to the kitchen. I laid on the couch as the pain in my belly got worse. Maybe I was riding too long on Prințesa, or it was something I ate in school.

I closed my eyes as I heard the pot bubbling from the kitchen. I hoped my stomach ache would go away soon, so I wouldn't have to talk to Mamă about it.