Chapter 2.45- Burnt Toast

          All in all, for Mariah, the day had turned out to be pretty good. Roger hadn’t cried at all that afternoon during class, which meant she could hear everything Mrs.Byrd said. Since she could hear, she was able to finish all of her work on time. Finishing all of her work meant she had no homework today. And Mrs.Byrd had even praised her on how well her work was done. She got praised a lot for her work, (probably the teacher trying to ‘build her up,’) but it meant a lot today since it probably also meant Mrs.Byrd wouldn’t tattle on her for fighting. Put it all together and Mariah was feeling the happiest she’d been in a very long time.

          Too bad the feeling didn’t last. With a long way to go before she reached the front door she heard it. The raised and angry voices coming from inside made her stop in her tracks, stomach twisting as a scowl crept onto her face. Of all the days this was just her luck. Why couldn’t she ever be happy for more than a moment?

          The sight of her mother cowering in the kitchen met her the moment she walked in the door. Though she wasn’t yet used to seeing Layla home again it was still a relief to see her instead of Abuella Sabria. Too bad she could hear her.

As quietly as she could Mariah crept closer to the kitchen hoping she could catch her mother’s eye. Instead, Sabria’s tirade began to escalate and she began to be afraid of getting caught in the cross fire.

          So Mariah averted her eyes and walked on hoping to be ignored this time. She’d had enough of Abuella Sabria’s attentions the past few years her mother was away.

          Even though she’d reached the safety of her room Mariah remained tense. Her eyes swept the room searching intently for signs of anything that might have been disturbed. While her grandmother had lived in the house with her and her older sister Tiburcia she’d searched the girls rooms regularly, looking for who knows what.

          Tiburcia had moved out the moment she was old enough, her formerly good relationship with their grandmother destroyed. But that was also the moment Sabria latched onto Mariah, doing her utmost to ‘See.’

          She’d find even the tiniest bit of skin and then start going on and on about what the future would hold. How terrible Mariah would be, how she’d break her grandmothers heart and didn’t she love her grandmother? Didn’t she think lying was terrible? And how that because Sabria could See how Mariah really was that she’d never be able to fool her grandmother.

          Mariah clambered up onto her bed, listening to the continued sounds of Sabria’s rants as they drifted up the stairs.

          Now she was onto how Layla had taken the wrong course in her attempts to save Ignacio. Mariah snorted and rolled her eyes. The old fraud.

          Smirking, she reached down between the mattress and the wall and fished out a book she’d checked out from the library time and time again the past few months.

          At first, she’d checked out ‘Seances and Sixth Sense Abilities’ trembling in dread lest Abuella Sabria find out. That feeling lasted maybe a week, that was when the book finally started making sense to her. There was no such thing as a Seer, or a Psychic, or a Fortune Teller. It was all logic. Logic and paying attention to your surroundings, what was told to you before, and details others over looked.

Anyone could ‘predict’ something. And she’d been doing it to her classmates with varying degrees of success for the last week. Experimenting to see what could happen, and what her classmates reactions were.

          And here was a new nugget! If you could be subtle enough, you could get those gullible enough to believe in your psychic abilities to act upon it themselves!

          Mariah silently chortled, rocking in mirth on her bed until a new wave of angry voices reached her. What if Abuella Sabria had done just that to get Layla to kill her uncle and father?

          Slowly she lowered the book, a sneer curling her lip, fresh hatred for her Abuella surging through her.

          Closing the book she allowed herself to listen to the exchange between Sabria and her mother for a moment. As she concentrated on the words she tried to apply the tricks from the book to what she overheard.

          Then she recognize tip number 3. If you’re incorrect, turn the situation. Perhaps the Receiver didn’t properly handle the situation. The Seer is never wrong.

          Rolling her eyes, Mariah shook her head wondering how much longer Sabria would continue. Layla wasn’t really responding and Mariah hoped Sabria would finally tire of putting down her mother.

          And then she heard the happy sound of the front door slamming followed by silence. That didn’t take nearly as long as she’d thought it would. Perhaps now she could go back to being happy.

          Sounds of pots and pans clanging on the stove confirmed that the calm would continue and she hopped off of her bed ready for a little play time.

          Mariah played happily in her room, rejoicing in the toys Sabria usually wouldn’t let her play with since she spent most of her time grounded. But when a strange smell reached her nostrils she decided she’d better to down to see what her mother was up to.

          In the kitchen, Layla sat silently and still at the bar while a steady trickle of smoke seeped out of the oven.

          Mariah gasped.

          “Mom! Something’s burning!”

          Layla didn’t move.

          “Mooo-oooom!” Mariah yelled, and she ran over to shake her mother.

          “Wha- Oh! Oh oh no!”

          Smoke poured out as Layla opened the oven, making both of them cough. Mariah went and opened windows while Layla pulled whatever was in there out. 

          Finally, Mariah went to sit down watching as Layla scratched her head over the plate of whatever had survived the oven. The first time Layla had burnt something Mariah had ran to grab it out of the oven just as the social worker had walked in the door for a routine check in to make sure she was still being looked after. Mariah had barely managed to convince Mrs.Jensen she was alright and that it was a one time thing. It couldn't happen again.

          “Mom?” She asked tentatively.

          There was no answer. Instead, Layla continued to mutter over the plate of waffles.

          Mariah sighed as her stomach grumbled. She really hoped the waffles weren’t too badly burnt. She was kind of tired of calling for pizza, and breakfast for dinner was always a treat.

          When Layla finally came and sat next to her Mariah had a brief hope that perhaps her mother might be a little more together and might talk to her. That hope died a swift death though, when Layla sat stony and still.

          “Mom?” It took everything she had to break into that reverie, but she had to know how together her mother was today, especially after her grandmother’s barrage.

          “Mom?” A little louder this time and it made Layla jump as she turned to survey Mariah with wonder in her eyes.

          “Mom, are the waffles okay to eat for dinner?”

          Layla blinked and looked around.

          “The waffles didn’t burn. It was the toast I had under them,” she finally admitted. “The toast burnt.”

          Mariah sighed in relief before she became confused.

          “Toast?” Mariah asked. “Why did you have toast under the waffles?”

          “Daddy loves toast for breakfast, and the waffles would have made the toast soggy so I put it on the bottom rack. He’ll freak out if he finds out I burned it. So don’t tell him when he comes in okay, Tiburcia?”

          Mariah’s shoulders slumped. Her mom wasn’t here today. For a moment tears pricked her eyes and the corners of her mouth trembled. The last two days she’d had her mother and things were going so good! Why did Abuella Sabria have to ruin everything?

          “No,” Mariah was able to answer at last. “No, I won’t tell that you burned the toast.”

          Layla grinned as Mariah turned away, angry, sullen and disappointed.

          “I knew I could count on you not to tell him about burnt toast,” she said cheerily. “Now then, get your breakfast while it’s hot. You want to eat it before the bus arrives!”

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So was anyone confused there? If you were I’m incredibly sorry.

          The quick n’ dirty version is Sabria was there yelling at Layla, blaming her for the death of both of her sons (in italics since I know y'all are going to ask.) Mariah then snuck upstairs and informed us that Tibi has already grown to YA and moved out. She also informed us that Sabria used Mariah as an Object for her Sight and proceeded to drop hints and clues that Mariah scoffed at (We'll find out later just what Sabria Saw when using Mariah as her medium.) Mariah also found a skeptics book about Seers that she’s using to shore up her disgust with her grandmother. Finally- Layla is just broken. She has good days and bad days, and on the bad days she can’t remember the time or the year or who people really are in an attempt to block the world out. I hated doing this one, but but but… It’ll work out in the end.

          And finally finally, because I want to keep this as transparent as possible, strictly speaking this is no longer Appaloosa Plains. I still love the town layout, and the look and feel but the small animal spawners were driving me nuts, as were the obscene amount of moonstone spawners, and then anything I had in town Showtime related kept glitching and lagging my game. So I shipped her into CAW, moved all the gem/metal/insect spawners around (since Layla is a 'collector' I've got their locations all memorized and had gotten bored with it,) deleted a few spawners, added a handful from the newer EPs (lesser value only,) deleted everything Showtime related, deleted that ginormous Equestrian Center in favor of a Rabbit Hole Rug at the training grounds, added some empty lots, fixed some routing and broken roads, then Portered the entire population over to my New Appaloosa Plains. So you'll start to see a lot of buildings not normally found in AP; one was the school last chapter and there will be 2 new buildings next chapter. Just wanted you to know.