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S A R A H

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"Oh my God, ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?" Asher and I entered the Taylors' mansion to Mrs. Taylor's scream. I looked at Asher who just sighed and motioned for me to move for the time being. 

The mansion definitely stood up to its title. There were high ceiling, two stairs at the opposite side leading up to another floor, several rooms on the as mentioned floor that were visible from even down here. It was a typical mansion. They were loaded, alright. 

The whole group was here today to finish our literature assignment, meaning tomorrow was the last day of submission, obviously. 

Mia raced down the steps to reach us, throwing a look over her shoulder at her parents currently in the middle of an arguement, in the very middle of the hall. "Sorry about them. It's their routine fight." Mia whispered to me as soon as she reached down. 

"What-" I started only to be waved off by her. "Chill. They do this on a monthly basis to keep the spark in the relationship, or whatever. Have it marked on calendar and everything." She gestured at us to follow her to one of the rooms above. I looked at Asher. He nodded to me, then followed her.

"Why don't you just divorce me already?!" Mr. Taylor's voice echoed behind me, and I turned at the last step to watch the servants going around them without a care, doing their works as if this was totally normal. 

"WHY SHOULD I REWARD YOU?" His wife shouted back at him and I swiveled back to go the twins' room, trying my best not to laugh. 

-

I looked at the notice board with a single paper pinned to it, with 'Even if I get an A I'm not going to get a job when I graduate' written on it in bold, large letters, then back at Cole.

"It's yours, isn't it?" I asked raising an eye. He grinned, nodding. Apparently Mia and Cole weren't allowed to get their own rooms until they graduated, so they were given one of the biggest rooms in the mansion to cohabitate in. Which, of course, they hated. They have two beds in the extreme opposite corner of the room, as far away from each other as possible, and two study tables adjacent to their beds. 

Cole pointed at his board, then back at himself. "That's how I overcome the finals anxiety. By accepting that they don't matter." 

I laughed, shaking my head. Complete mental. 

Mia was currently in the middle of trying to get her baby sister, Beth, to leave the room so that we could start with the assignment, and failing remarkably. Looking at the beautiful mess of papers and pens on the floor though, I was sure we would have to start thinking about our excuse to get extension date for submission. There was no way we were going to finish it all today. 

"What happens when you die?" Beth asked, innocently looking up at her older sister. In a way, they looked similar with brown hair and straight nose, but unlike Mia and Cole's amber eyes, she had blue ones like her father and older brother Jax, whom I only got a glimpse of when we were entering the estate. 

"You go to heaven." Mia said matter of factly. Stephan, Evie and Liv were sitting on Mia's bed, eating snacks that Mia brought us half an hour ago and snickring at the siblings, while Asher and Kevin were going through the materials, actually trying to get some work done. 

"No," Beth said, shaking her head looking irritated as if Mia has failed to get the point, "I mean when you die, do I get your stuff?" she asked. Cole and I burst our laughing while Mia narrowed her eyes. 

"If I die I am going to haunt all of my stuffs." She huffed, then got up to go to the door. "JAX!" She  screamed at the top of her lungs, startling everyone in the room. 

Half an hour later, we finally sat down around the cluster of mess to start the assignment. Jax finally managed to take Beth away from the room after getting a promise of labour's income from both Mia and Cole, and I finally understood what Asher meant in the car when he said 'the Taylors are sort of crazy'. 

We decided to have everyone summarize one literature work each so everyone could get the gist of the play or book. And to make sure that everyone actually knew what they were doing here.

Liv went first, alrerady looking bored. "Julus Caesar." Evie read from the paper listing the works we were supposed to work on.  

"Okay, so this work is basically a typical Shakespeare play," she started in monotone, looking at her nails. "Like most of his works, this is a play that is approximately 27% historical inaccuracies and 90% just people with daggers running around making poor decisions." Cole raised his hand. "That's not how percentage works," he said. Liv glared at him and replied with a 'I don't fucking care'. 

After her, it was as if some kind of switch flipped. The room blew up. 

"There are some boys on an island, they hunt pigs,-"

"I know! Like I usually have the good sense to at least act like my every waking moment isn't consumed by the object of my romantic desire, but this guy-" 

"- and before you know it half the island's gone up in flames, and it's all because of humanity's inner darkness. "

"-that's all he talks about. When he's miserable—his love unrequited—he's the only one who has ever been this miserable in the history of living things and how dare you suggest otherwise. When he's in a relationship-"

"-I am telling you, Charles actually wrote that book about talking rabbits and watches that don't tell time as an effort to make people hate new maths, not drugs-"

"Okay, so his loved ones were stabbing him, but at least his funeral was cool. I swear to God, if my funeral doesn't involve people literally rioting in my name, then my life was wasted."

"He decided to explore the gothic farmhouse of Wuthering Heights at night, like some kind of moron who's never seen a scary movie." 

"He wrote 37 freaking plays, and that's just a conservative estimate. The dude just didn't know when to quit! Look, I love the guy but those things are DENSE-" 

Everyone sure had lots to say about the classics.

To my utmost surprise, we were done with the rough draft in an hour and Stephan got up to call Liam. You know, to ask for a good excuse for due date extension.

We all still had two hours left until our curfew time, and no one was in the mood to continue with literature, so we all decided to stay and watch the first Hunger Games movie because it was the only 'must watch' series I hadn't seen. 

"I don't like movie adaptations of most of the books so I stopped watching them years ago." i said with a shrug. 

"Oh you poor, poor girl." Asher said, tutting at me. 

I mock glared at him. "Don't bring my financial status into this."

"You seriously haven't seen the Hunger Games?" Cole asked, wide eyed.

I sighed. "No, I haven't seen the Hunger Games, but since the main character is in the trailer and cast list of the next film, using my wits and an inexplicable comprehension of agricultural sciences and engineering I'm going to assume she lives, which is all that matters. Are we going to be okay?" I asked him, trying to appear as serious as possible while the others burst out laughing. 

Cole shook his head and put an arm around my shoulders. "There are so many things we need to teach you," he said wistfully and lead me towards the door, others following behind us.

I pretended not to notice when Asher subtly removed Cole's hands from my shoulders, and the butterflies I felt when he did it. 

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A/n: The works hinted in the chapter includes - Julius Caesar, Lord of the Flies, Romoe and Juliet, Alice's adventrues in Wonderland and Wuthering Heights - in case someone didn't get it.