MAL left her friends' house that day after she said goodbye to Alyvia and Bjorgvin. She made sure Teo was feeling as better as ever because it made her feel good herself.

As soon as she entered her house, she greeted her brothers and sisters with a hug. She was feeling rather delighted.

"So, how did it go?" Rajwan asked.

"It went well! Although I'm thinking that there's something wrong, you know?" Mal spoke, her voice trailing off at the end of her sentence.

"Like... What?"

"I don't know... It's just a feeling, I guess." she turned to her brother, "By the way, you have great eyes."

Rajwan's face reddened, as he looked away shyly.

"Thanks, Mal."

It was true. Both of her brothers had beautiful features, which made a lot of girls like them almost immediately. Their well-mannered attitude was a bonus as well.

"Anyway, I'm going to get some work done in my room. Maybe I'll be done in a few hours, so we can sit down and talk by then."

"Can't wait." her sisters muttered. They waved goodbye at their sister before they all went back to what they were doing. Mal hurried to her room to finish her work.

☭

Later that day, Mal finished her work and wanted to finish her day by spending time with her siblings. They sat together at the kitchen table as her brothers made food. They were making fried chicken, and Mac N Cheese, which was considered Mal's favorite right after pizza and french fries. Mal thanked them and sat down to eat.

They all then began talking about their life. Maya and Luna were doing great at their online work but were slowly falling behind in their school work. Or at least, they thought they did. They were still getting straight A's, and so was Mal. However, Mal was more focused on her friends and family. Lately, she hasn't been caring about her grades as much as she cared about Teo, and that made her less stressed than before.

Because when a person worries about something too much, they start to believe that what they're doing isn't good enough. That was only her opinion whatsoever.

"So, what makes your friends think Teo's being paranoid?" Maya asked her older sister, taking a bite of her chicken.

"I don't know. Probably because they didn't hear the noise themselves, but then again, they couldn't have heard the noise anyway. To them, why would they believe something they didn't hear before?"

"I mean, it's kind of true. But, why wouldn't they believe him? It only seems as if they just don't want to believe him, you know? Because you said that they don't go that much in the basement anyway."

Mal nodded in agreement.

"I know! I've been in the basement before. It's a pretty dark place. The house still needs renovating, so they don't go to that part of the house whatsoever."

Just then, they heard the familiar ring of the landline coming from the hall. Mal sighed as she stood up, heading slowly towards the stairs so she could go answer it, knowing that the caller was probably Teo again. She smiled to herself as she finally reached the speaker, then put it close to her ear.

"Speak of the devil..."

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