Elitism

Chapter ONE

The drive took half a day, but it was still too long for me. I was one lazy ass person, but sitting in a moving car limited my options to stretch my legs making me irritated to no end. Unfortunately, the time had come and I was going to meet my father as we pulled up in front of the house.

For a second there I thought my father might be sharing this place with five other families. This size of it was ridiculous. The driveway began on one side and curled around to the other side. The front of the house, or should I say mansion, was made entirely of bricks. There was a big red door. What was it about red doors, seriously?

The mansion had two floors plus a basement. Attached to the second floor on each end was a huge balcony. Shit. I could only imagine the spaces each room had. It felt weird just looking at it. The driveway was bigger than my old apartment. And this was only the front of the house. My expectation suddenly tripled and I was praying there was a pool behind this beautiful architecture.

“Is there a map to go with this place?” I said out loud.

“You know what? I’m thinking the same thing,” she said, amazed. “Okay, let’s go,” she added.

I dropped my shoulders in defeat. Of course, fate would have it that I didn’t fit in given where I came from. This should be interesting. But if anyone in that house turned out to be really cheerful as though they were the happiest person in the world, I wasn’t rolling with that shit.

Rich people; they didn’t experience the same hurt as we did. They could never understand the true meaning of survival when power was what they desperately held on. My view on the world was dark and hateful, but that didn’t mean I didn’t see the good in people and things. I learned to appreciate the beauty in wherever I went… even a place as trashed as the graffiti sprayed along the debris of old buildings. You just have to know where to look.

Meeting my father for the first time I didn’t know what to think.

“What does he do again?” I asked her, remembering how I blew her off when she suggested sharing information about him with me. I didn’t care back then. I didn’t think I would end up here.

“He’s head of his own airline company,” she said.

I nodded. Okay, so that was cool. I had always wanted to travel.

“And his wife?” I asked.

“Doctor. She’s on the short-list for Dean of Medicine.”

“That’s an odd pair,” I commented. My social worker looked at me rather confused. “What? Doctors are always busy and pilots work in time and distances.”

“Well, timing is manageable considering they have four children.”

I stopped dead on my track. “Say what now?”

There was that annoyed look on her face again. From the look of it, she had told me this before, but I wasn’t listening. Damn, I now had four new siblings. It sounded like a lot of work to get to know them and I wasn’t exactly planning on staying here too long. My birthday was in six months. I would be 18 soon enough.

“You know it shouldn’t take this long to get to the door,” I said, changing the subject and continued walking.

We stepped up the stone pavement and my social worker rang the doorbell. My stomach turned making knots inside. The door opened itself and I was completely caught off guard when a little girl, maybe about six years old, appeared from behind the door. She smiled.

“Hi!” she said loudly, slightly startling me.

“Where’s your daddy, sweetheart?” my social worker jumped in.

“In the kitchen talking to the cooking guy.”

“Will you go get him please,” she smiled back.

The little girl nodded and started skipping away.

“They let their little kid answer the door?” I said quietly.

“Your father was probably a little too preoccupied,” she shrugged as though it was no big deal. “She looks just like you, you know.”

I scoffed. “I don’t look like nobody. Don’t play that game with me,” I said seriously.

Within minutes, the man who helped made me appeared right in front of me and suddenly I lost my voice. I couldn’t be mad at him because he didn’t even know I existed until recently. I learned a little bit of the truth from my social worker. My mother seduced him because she wanted a baby so bad. When she found out she was pregnant, she left. I couldn’t help, but wonder if there was more to the story though.

“Spencer.”

He breathed my name so softly it sent shiver down my spine. Next thing I knew, he was hugging me leaving me speechless. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I didn’t move. He let go and took a step back. He shook his head, smiling.

“I’m so happy you’re here. Come on in,” he stepped back in the house as we followed inside. “I was just in the kitchen talking to my chef about dinner plans tonight. You’ll get to meet everyone.”

We followed him down the large hall where it opened into a larger space I believed everyone called it the living room.

“Oh please, let me help you with that,” he said grabbing my bags from my social worker. “I’ll show you your room.”

“You go ahead, I’ll wait here,” she nodded. “When you return, I will need to speak with you and go over some papers for you to sign.”

“Absolutely,” he said and turned.

I followed him to the second floor in silence. This was really awkward. I could have - no, I should have known him. I was related to this man and yet he was merely a stranger to me. How did one go about this? I didn’t how to be myself around him.

Would he scowl me if he knew I smoked weed? Would he ground me if I broke curfew, assuming there was one? Would he save me from a bad situation regardless of the imaginable feud between us? Or was he going to let me do whatever I wanted as long as I didn’t harm his family? How much of him would act as my father because it was a little too late. I had already grown up.

I was deep in my thoughts when we stopped. He opened the door to my new room. I tried not to look surprised, and I didn’t. I was good at hiding my emotions from all those times I got arrested and they thought they could scare me. They clearly didn’t know my mother.

The room was gigantic. On the back wall against the large window was a queen size bed covered with pure black covers. On the left sidewall were a desk and a dresser next to another door, which I discovered was a full size bathroom. On the opposite side was a little sitting area and huge walk-in closet like you wouldn’t believe.

The best part was the French door that led to the balcony I mentioned earlier. Awesome. I threw my bags on the bed and circled around one more. I could adjust to this.

“So,” he started. I looked at him. “How is your mother?” he asked.

My heart stopped for a second. But then I realized... “Nobody told you?”

“Told me what?”

“My mom’s in jail.”

And there it was, that sympathetic look I hated so much.
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