In The Moore’s Apartment Room, Elizabeth sits at the dining table completely mortified. The reason? Three of her also uncomfortable classmates – Ronnie, Alex, & Marcus – got invited to dinner here by Elizbeth’s very insistent mother.

“So you’re in high school right?” Nolan Moore, Elizabeth’s Irish father questions.

“Uh yes, we’re all the same grade,” Alex says, “Or at least I think we are?”

“We are,” Elizabeth sighs.

“I see, well our son Hai has been fascinated with high school,” Nolan remarks.

Elizabeth’s younger brother who’s in middle school, Hai Vhan Moore, shrugs.

“Aw don’t be shy Hai,” Elizabeth’s Mom, Lan Thi Pham-Moore insists.

“I’m not being shy,” Hai states, “Those kids are.”

Hai points at Elizabeth who has her hands on her head, Marcus who is glancing around the room, Alex who is looking down at his plate, and Ronnie who is drinking some water very slowly.

“Say this water is great, best water I’ve had,” Ronnie blurts.

“Oh thanks but it’s just tap water,” Misses Moore giggles.

“Well, it’s great tap water,” Ronnie tries to recover.

Silence falls onto the table, trying to think of a way to lighten the mood, Misses Moore recalls something.

“Say Alex, how’s your mother been doing?” Misses Moore asks, “She hasn’t been showing up to the book club meetings recently.”

“Oh her? She’s been doing fine,” Alex replies in between bites, “Still applying to new jobs.”

“Oh I see, hopefully she can find a job soon.”

"Uh, yeah...me too."

As silence falls on the table again, Elizabeth’s younger sister manages to scoop some of the food off of Marcus’ plate onto hers.

“Nhung you’re not allowed to eat off someone else’s plate!” Misses Moore scolds her young child.

In response, Nhung picks up her plate and slides the food back atop of Marcus’s.

“Uhhh thanks,” Marcus states.

As things finally begin to settle down, Elizabeth lets out a quiet sigh of relief. Dinner’s almost over and with that, they can leave and pretend this all never happen-

“Hey, what’s that?” Ronnie questions as he looks at the giant book sitting atop one of the counters.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

No.

“Oh this,” Mister Nolan Moore remarks, “It’s our….”

No no no no no-

Nolan grabs a hold of the book before opening it and answering, “Our family’s scrapbook!”

Elizabeth’s face flushes red with embarrassment before she tries to slide out of her chair and underneath the table. However, after seeing her mother’s cold gaze, she gets back into her chair.

Also embarrassed by the whole situation, Hai gets up from the table and walks away saying, “I gotta go to the bathroom!”

Nolan opens up the scrapbook and begins showing off several of the stuff inside.

He points to a coin that is taped to it and says, “This is how we decided who got to name the kid.”

“He got to name our Eli while I had to name Hai & Nhung,” Misses Moore adds.

“I see,” Alex says as he hides a chuckle.

Giving up on escaping, Elizabeth decides to just put her head down on the table and pretend words aren’t coming out of her parent’s mouths.

Mister Moore flips a page to a picture of a baby Elizabeth, “This is when Elizabeth first learned how to walk! Isn’t she so cute?”

“Wow that’s uh- something,” Ronnie says as he tries to hide his boredom.

Misses Moore flips the page and it’s a picture of her & Mr Moore standing outside of a run-down house with a baby Elizabeth.

“What’s that?” Marcus questions.

Seeing the picture, Elizabeth's hands begin to shake as a nervous sweat begins to break out on her face.

They wouldn’t…right?

“Oh, this was back when we first had our Eli,” Misses Moore begins.

Elizabeth can feel her own heartbeat as her parents' words seem to get louder and louder in her head.

“We just moved to the city so we didn’t exactly have a lot of money,” Mister Moore admits, “We ended up having to live in some sketchy area on the west side of town.”

“True, didn’t help much when our Eli came out of nowhere,” Mrs. Moore sighs, “but we made it work and now we’re here-”

Having reached her boiling point, Elizabeth sharply stands up and storms off to her room, slamming it behind her.

The table suddenly falls silent.

“Why would she do that?” Misses Moore ponders out loud, “She knows to have better manners than that.”

“We’ll go talk to her,” Mister Moore says as he begins to stand up, “Don’t worry, she’s a bit shy but she’ll be ready to come out and have some more fun soon.”

However before Mister Moore can leave the table, Marcus stands up surprising both Ronnie and Alex.

“Actually, I just remembered something,” Marcus says, “Elizabeth and I are in a group project together, I have some notes that I have to give her, do you mind if I go do that real quick?”

Mister Moore is skeptical but sits down and laments, “Sure go ahead, though don’t be in there for too long.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Marcus replies before walking over to Elizabeth’s door.

_________________________________

Sitting in her dark bedroom on a bean bag is none other than Elizabeth. Her desk is completely filled with random junk, the tiny trash can in her room is a bit too full, and her bed has been made sloppily. As she sits there, she begins to hear a knock on the door. Elizabeth groans as she stands up and walks over to the door.

“I don’t want to talk to you mom! Just leave me alon-” Elizabeth begins to yell until she fully opens her door to see Marcus standing there.

"Uh, so....I may not be your uh- mom," Marcus awkwardly begins to say, “but my name does start with an ‘M’ so there’s that. Mind if I come in?”

Elizabeth shrugs as she walks towards her bed and sits down, Marcus walks in, closes the door, and sits next to her. The two are silent as Marcus tries to find the right words to say.

"So- uh- your room is nice-"

"If you're here to make fun of me then just do it already," Elizabeth states coldly.

"What?! Make fun of you, why?" Marcus asks.

“Why? Because why wouldn’t you?” Elizabeth begins to vent as tears start to form, “I ended up having you guys fight and almost get in trouble, then my mom forces you all to come over for dinner, and now…. now you know that I wasn’t wanted.”

“But your parents do want you! They couldn’t stop talking about you,” Marcus tries to say to comfort her.

“Not back then,” Elizabeth cries, “You heard it from themselves earlier. And I know you guys don’t even like me, I heard what you were saying back at the restaurant. So stop trying to pretend to be nice and leave me alone like everyone else.”

Marcus is silent, unsure of what he’s supposed to say as Elizabeth begins to try and compose herself.

After wiping away her tears, Elizabeth sighs, “I- I guess I’m just the worst, huh? Crying to a person I barely even know, making assumptions about them, and spilling my guts to them. I guess that’s why I’m just a nobody. A nobody that spends all her time outside of school taking care of the siblings her parents actually wanted.”

Elizabeth & Marcus sit in her bedroom for a bit as Marcus doesn't know what to even say to her. That is until he remembers. He remembers what happened back then.

He remembers the words he was once told.

"Elizabeth," Marcus began, "you aren't the worst. And you are wanted. By your parents, by your siblings, by Ronnie, by Alex, and by me. And I’m sure of it.”

“How can you be so sure?” Elizabeth asks.

“Because we’re friends,” Marcus affirms, “That’s all the reason I need.”

See You Next Chapter!~