Chapter Twenty-Two

I slowly got out of my van already feeling exhausted with the day. Locking my car, I enter my house slowly, not caring when my feet dragged against the ground. I paused in the living room when I came face to face with my parents.

I didn't hide my surprise and got straight to the point,"Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?" I questioned, my eyes narrowing slightly.

"Oh, I hope you don't mind. I thought it would be okay if we stopped by to our home."My Mother said dryly, her voicing lacking any real emotion.

"Right, well, welcome home!" I said with a nervous smile. My parents only come home every once in a while or when there is a problem and I'm guessing they came home for a problem. "I'm just going to go upstairs," I said heading straight for the stairs.

"Clover Ann Thompson, take a seat now." My Mother said pointing to the couch causing me to let out a sigh.

Well, so much for that.

"You have been modeling for years. I mean since you were a baby for goodness sake! Which is why when I heard from not only Mary but from social media and places like TMZ that you're hanging out with some juvenal delinquent I could say I was quite disappointed. You were raised better than this."Her disgust with the situation was clear and hung through the air with tension.

Yeah, mom, I missed you and I love you too. Thanks for coming home for once. I appreciate your constant support with my career. Sure, I'd love to go out to dinner with you and Dad. I thought sarcastically as I tried to get rid of my scowl.

"Mother, don't be dramatic, he is not a delinquent! Plus, It's all taken care of so you have nothing to worry about. Have you looked at the magazines lately? "I asked already knowing the answer.

Probably not.

"No, Clover, you know I don't have time to look at all of you photo shoots. I have a busy schedule. You should appreciate the fact that I go across the world opening up clothing shops all while selling my greatest creations to celebrities that makes us completely rich. Plus, with your father constantly traveling as one of the greatest lawyers it's all just impossible for us. You should know by not that we don't have time for your childish behavior and your typical photo shoots." My mother said with a sigh as she looked down at her expensive watch.

Ouch.

"You're right. I'm so sorry." I said with a tight smile.

"Yes, well, let me see how you fixed the situation." She said waving off my apology.

"In the recent magazine Mary and I worked out the whole jail thing," I said grabbing the magazine off the glass side table next to the couch.

"Oh, you see I really like this. What a truly brilliant idea. I must congratulate Mary for this. I mean that red lace lingerie and then the devil wings and horns. Absolutely genius." She said nodding in approvement. "See I knew it would work out the. This jail shoot just tops it off." I let out a sigh when suddenly her pager on her phone went off.

"Yeah, that wasn't bad. Now, I must get going since I have a plane to London that leaves in an hour. Goodbye, Sweetie." My mother said handing me my magazine. I watched her back as her heels clicked against the floor, the sound getting quieter the farther she walked away.

Thanks for coming, mom. Please do come again soon.

My lips pursed as I looked at my father, "Are you staying any longer?"I asked my father who only scoffed and rolled his eyes. I watched as he stood up, grabbing his briefcase and walked out of the room.

"Yeah, I love you both too," I whispered when the front door slammed close. The sound caused the usual tears my parents cause to start to fill my eyes. I wiped my eyes angrily as one traitor tear fell.

"Do not cry. You know better than to expect anything more."I whispered to myself, my fists unconsciously trying to clench the end of the plush couch.

I sighed as the familiar ringing sounded throughout the room, "Hello," I said not even bothering to look at the caller ID.

"Clover, what do you think you're doing? Go get on your run now! I want you in that new promotional item. The gray and black sports bra and pair it with any matching shorts." Mary ordered not even hesitating to jump right into the conversation. " Also, wear Nike shoes. It was requested that if you promote their items for a week you'll get a decent promotional cut. I already signed the papers." She informed me.

Yeah, because some teenager is really going to gush over me wearing some Nike tennis shoes.

"Sorry, I forgot! My parents came home so I was talking to them." I explained, but she didn't seem to care as she rambled on about something else. Once she was finished yelling I hesitantly got off the count, taking off my ugly brown messy wig. I went upstairs and opened the top left dresser drawer, putting my wig and glasses inside. I didn't hide the relief I felt from taking the slobbery piece from my mouth, the usual lisp I got from it disappearing along with it as it was washed off and put in its black case. I put on the outfit I was ordered to and threw my hair up in a high ponytail.

I headed downstairs and exited out the front door, locking it behind me and placing my spare key back under its usual step. I immediately turned on my timer on my apple watch and started on my jog, slightly glad to see the usual paparazzi weren't around.

All the celebrities on the street must be out. They usually swarmed all on this street when there were other celebrities home on the street. What celebrities? I wasn't sure, but I was almost positive some famous basketball player lived somewhere down here along with some famous singer.

Three hours later, I decided to call it a day and headed home. When I arrived home I was surprised to see my door was opened a small crack.

"Hello?" I yelled in the dark house. Making sure to close the door behind me.

"Mary? Mom? Dad?" I yelled, frowning slightly when I didn't anyone. I grabbed a picture frame from the table and slowly started walking up stairs.

Don't judge me. It's the best I've got.

"Hello." I whispered looking down the hallway.

"Hey, do you have some-," Someone said from beside me making me jump and throw the picture frame in the same direction the voice came from.

"Oww, what the hell was that for?" A familiar voice yelled causing me to walk over and switch on the hall light.

I inhaled a good amount of oxygen, looking up at my ceiling.

"I should kill you for this, I muttered causing his eyebrows to furrow.

"What? Why are you still whispering?" He whispered glancing around.

"Andrew, what the hell are you doing in my house?" I questioned.

"I didn't. I was walking by and the front door was wide open, so I decided to be the best person you could ever imagine and went to check if everything was okay." Andrew said while holding his arm."Quite a brave and heroic act if you ask me, yet still an act I get assaulted for."

I looked to where his hand was and saw he was bleeding slightly."Sorry about that. Here, follow me." I said helping him up off the ground and leading him to the bathroom.

"Should I ask what a wooden picture frame would do if someone did break in?" Andrew asked with a raised eyebrow as I cleaned his cut,

"In my defense, it was the first thing I saw. You don't really have time to think about a deadly situation." I said placing a band-aid on the area. "Plus, it managed to make you bleed," I said watching as he scowled. The look made my own lips turn upward.

I put away all the supplied before heading back into my bedroom, Andrew close behind me.

"Anyways, did you see anyone in here?" I asked and he shook his head no.

"No, the house was completely empty." He said shrugging as he picked up a magazine off my side table and started flipping through it all while laying on my bed.

"Well, thank for letting me know and sorry again for hitting you with a picture frame." I apologized.

Next time I'll go for your head.

"But I have to shower and do all that fun stuff, so you're going to have to go," I said taking the magazine out of his hand.

A smirk slid on his face, "Bye Clo." He said taking the magazine from my hand, rolling it up and putting it in his back pocket. "By the way, you look hot in that magazine." He added causing me to throw a pillow at his figure at the door.

"Goodbye, Andrew," I said slamming my bedroom door  behind him. I slid off my tennis shoes, socks, and pants. I grabbed my silk pajamas and headed into the bathroom, on the way losing my sports bra and my underwear.  Oh, the perks of living alone ninety percent of the time. Once the water was set at the right temperature, I went in, thoroughly enjoying the hot steam it created along with the pressure on my back.

Once I was done doing my usual routine in the shower, I  got out, wrapping the towel around me and drying off. I picked up my dirty clothes, throwing them into the basket before putting on my pajamas. As I walked past, I noticed my top left dresser drawer was opened. Walking over to the dresser I saw a white envelope lying there.

Dear Clover,

Secrets, secrets are no fun unless you share them with everyone. Hasn't your mother always taught you that? Oh, my bad, she is never home to tell you anything. See you at school tomorrow, Lucky.

Kisses,

Unknown.

I read the letter over and over again. It couldn't be. Did someone actually know my secret? I noticed everything in the drawer was gone. Feeling the panic start to consume me, I opened every dresser drawer, throwing out every outfit onto the floor.

"C'mon, where is it?" I muttered once all the drawers were empty and my nerd stuff couldn't be found. Picking up my cell phone, I dialed the one number who I knew could help.

"Hello." Mary asked sleepily from the other line.

"We have a problem," I said glancing around my now messy room.

"What? What's Wrong?" Mary snapped, sound irritated, yet now wide awake.

"Someone stole my stuff nerd uniform."  When she didn't reply I rephrased the statement..

"Someone stole my supplies I use to go undercover.