“Shane, Shane.”

  As Shane began to wake up, he heard someone calling his name next to him.

  “Shane. Get up, it's already late.”

  As Shane opened his eyes to see who was trying to wake him up, he saw a blurry version of Mona.

  “Ugh. What time is Mona?” said Shane as he got up and was blinded by the sunlight entering through his window.

  “It's almost 12 in the afternoon. Just how tired were you? You never sleep this late.”

  “Sorry, I guess I was more tired than I expected. Have you already eaten breakfast, Mona?”

  “Yes. I ate cereal so I wouldn’t wake you up. After all, you looked so at peace when sleeping.”

  “Ok, so why did you wake me up now? I know your game isn’t for another three hours.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot. Alicia is in the living room. She wanted to talk to you.”

  “Ok, get out so I can change. Once I’m finished, I’ll talk to her.”

  “Ok,” said Mona as she closed the door to Shane's room.

  The moment Shane got out of his bed, he thought, "Why is Alicia here?" Did Arthur tell her about my training yesterday? No, he said he was going to leave that to me. If that isn’t the reason, then what could she be here for? Does she want to know what her father and I did yesterday, or is she going to ask me to help her study for tomorrow's exam?

  When Shane finished changing, he went towards the living room. When he entered the living room, he saw Mona and Alicia watching TV.

  “Hey Shane. So it looks like you finally decided to get up. I thought you were about to sleep the rest of the day,” said Alicia as she jumped up from the couch while looking at Shane.

  “Hey, Alicia. What did you want to talk about?”

  “Well, can we talk somewhere else? I don’t want Mona to hear us.”

  “Hey. Why are you treating me like a kid? Why can’t I know?” asked Mona as she looked at Shane and Alicia.

  “Hey Mona, calm down, you're still a kid, and I assume Alicia wants to talk about something for adults.”

  “Yeah. This is a private matter involving your brother. So I’ll tell you later once I find out more.”

  “But”

  “No but’s, Mona. This is something Alicia wants to keep private for now, so you should respect her decision.”

  “Fine,” said Mona as she pouted.

  “Ha ha ha ha. Sorry, I just couldn’t stop myself from laughing when she looked that cute. She really is your little sister. You used to make the same face when we were younger, Shane,” said Alicia as she looked at Mona.

  “Ok, ok. Mona, you can stay here and continue watching TV. Alicia and I will go to Father’s study to talk, and you better not listen in, I will know.”

  “Ok, I’ll stay here.”

  As if satisfied with her answer, Shane led Alicia to his father’s study to talk.

  The moment they entered the study, Shane locked the door, so Mona wouldn’t join to hear what they were saying.

  After he closed the door, he took a seat on the office chair his father had used, and Alicia sat on the sofa in the room.

  As Shane looked at Alicia, he noticed she was shaking, as if she were nervous about what to ask him.

  “Hey, Alicia, is everything alright. You're shaking a lot, so are you nervous or something?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you this for a while, since Friday, but is something wrong. You just seem different now. It’s like you have a lot on your mind. I noticed it a little on Friday when we were studying. Then I noticed it again yesterday when you got home late. It seems something within you has changed over these past couple of days, and it's worrying me because I see you as family, so I don’t want anything bad to happen to you or Mona.”

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  As Shane looked at Alicia, he noticed that keeping what he knows has taken a toll on her. Ever since they became friends, they rarely kept things from each other.

  Should I tell her it seems like she's really concerned about this? But I don’t know how to tell her about any of this. How would she react to learning that she's part angel? How would she react if she found out that Mona and I are also angels? Would she still even want to see us after knowing the truth? I mean, this is something big that will change the life she's known all this time. Shane thought as he listened to what Alicia was saying.

  “Alicia. I’m sorry, but I’m not ready to talk about what's bothering me. I still haven’t even processed what happened the last couple of days. But I will say this: the thing that has been bothering me relates to my dad's disappearance.”

  “Wait, your father? Did you find something out? Does Mona know about this?”

  “I learned more about my father and his past from your dad. That's why I asked you if I could speak with him. And Mona doesn’t know about any of this, so I'd rather not have her worry until I learn more.”

  “Wait, did you say my dad knew about something that happened to Father? Why didn’t he tell us sooner?”

  “He didn’t tell you because he cares about you, and he didn’t tell me because my dad told him not to. The only reason he told me yesterday was because of something I learned on Friday. And yesterday he had to show me something that my father did a while ago, for when we were ready.”

  “So that's why you were out so late. And why can’t you tell the whole truth?”

  “I’m sorry, but that’s all I can tell you now. The rest need to wait until the others in our group are here. This involves all of us. That's why I told you I’ll tell you on Friday when we're all together.”

  “Ok. I can see that you're still processing what you learned over the past couple of days, so I won’t press the matter further.”

  “Don’t worry about me. You know me, you know I’ll get through this as I did in the past. And I will tell you the whole truth with the others. It just sucked, we were going to celebrate the grades we're going to get on tomorrow's exam.”

  “Yeah. I finally think that I might get a good grade on tomorrow's exam.” Alicia said proudly as she looked at Shane.

  “You'd better, after all the help Elena gave you. You remember the cold glare she gave you last when you failed.”

  As Shane looked at Alicia, it seemed like she had just had a nightmare, thinking back to the glare Elena gave her when she failed.

  “Don’t remind me, it took a while for me to recover from that.”

  “So, I was just wondering, did you help Mona practice for today’s game?”

  “Yeah. It was fun. It’s been a while since I was able to spend time with her like that. I think she will play well today, and I will enjoy watching her play today.”

  “That’s good, I’ve been looking forward to seeing her play, and she seemed really excited to be a starter for the first time.”

  As they finished talking, Shane opened the door, and the first thing he saw was Mona. It was like she was going to eavesdrop to hear what they were saying.

  As Shane looked down at her, she got scared when she saw her brother's annoyed face.

  “Mona, what did I tell you about eavesdropping on others' conversations?”

  “Uh. I don’t know.”

  “Oh, so you're going to play dumb now.”

  “Ok, fine, I just wanted to know what you were talking about.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything soon, so just give me some time,” said Shane as he tried to relieve Mona of her worries.

  ***

  Three hours later, Shane and Alicia sat next to each other in lawn chairs as they watched Mona play.

  As they watched Mona play, the sun would hit their eyes if they looked up too high, and the only sounds they could hear were the kick of the ball and the children's screams.

  “It seems like she's playing great,” said Alicia as she looked at Mona.

  “Yeah, she seems happy out there playing.”

  As they continued to watch Mona, they noticed she was in a 1v1 against the keeper. As they watched in suspense, Mona dribbled past the keeper and scored in the empty net.

  At the sight of this, Shane jumped out of his chair and screamed, “That’s my sister! I knew she could do it! She is the best in the world!”

  Mona, who was celebrating with her teammate, heard her brother and got embarrassed by the scene he was creating. She would have never expected her brother to celebrate like that, so when he did, she got happy.

  As Alicia saw Shane screaming, she said, “I know it's your sister, but don’t you think you're embarrassing her a bit?”

  “Sorry, I just couldn’t control my emotions. I was just happy seeing her score.”

  As soon as Shane calmed down a bit, he sat down in his chair again to watch the rest of the game.

  ***

  After the game, Mona ran to Shane and Alicia and hugged them. The game ended two to nothing. Mona had scored the first goal to give a lead early on and provided the assist for the second goal.

  “You were the best today, Mona,” said Shane as he smiled at Mona.

  “Yeah, you played well out there today,” said Alicia as she looked at Mona.

  “You think so. I was just doing what was good for the team.”

  “Yeah, you did, so for a prize, I’ll make your favorite food today.”

  “Yay! I wanted lasagna today.”

  “I don’t want to ruin this moment, but I think we should head home before it gets too dark,” said Alicia as she noticed it was getting dark outside.

  “Yeah, let’s go home, Mona.”

  “Ok, I can’t wait to eat lasagna.”

  As Mona finished speaking, they picked up their chairs and headed home so Shane could start cooking. It was getting dark, and they could hear a car pass them as they walked home. It was times like this that made Shane forget all his worries and enjoy the time he spent with people he cared about.