Punished for waking up late

ASHLEY

I woke up the next morning on my bed.

Which was strange because the last thing I remembered was collapsing on the bathroom floor. And not only was I on the bed, I wasn’t in those drenched clothes, I was now in a very comfortable piece of pajamas and the duvet was covering my body.

It almost seemed like someone had ticked me in.

But I knew better than to think or believe that someone had really tucked me in. The three people in this house with me would rather give me off to the lion to devour than to lift a finger to help me.

I must have done that myself but I had no recollection of it whatsoever. Was I starting to space out and forget things now?

My eyes fell on my bedside clock and a short scream left my mouth. It was 6:45 am. I should have woken up a long time ago to prepare breakfast for the triplets.

Heck! My heart dropped drastically when I realized that I didn’t remember to iron their school uniforms before I slept off.

They were going to kill me. I was sure of that. I looked around the room, trying to plot my escape so I’d return when they were calmer. I had not even gotten out of the bed when my door was flung open with so much force that my heart dropped again.

They filled in, looking angry as hell while also looking exceedingly dashing in their well-ironed uniforms.

I stopped when I realized that their uniforms were ironed. I didn’t remember ironing it.

Or did I? No, I was sure I didn’t.

So where did they get well-ironed uniforms from?

“Good… good morning.”

“Save your useless stuttering,” it was Carson who growled at me, looking so pissed that I could see angry fumes coming out of him in waves.

“So you’re a princess now that we have to come and wake you up before you’d prepare breakfast for us, right?”

“No… I mean… I was just…”

“No,” Brody interrupted me, “I’m sure she wants us to wake her up with breakfast in bed.”

“And I don’t blame her, I blame the comfortable bed she slept on. If only she had slept on the cold floor like she rightfully deserved to, she wouldn’t have overslept.”

“I see,” Axel replied Carson and from the sinister look in his eyes, I knew he was scheming something that’d make me bleed.

“And luckily for her, I’ve figured out a way to rectify that. Today will be the last time you’ll sleep on a bed till your lousy mother is back. Now, you have three minutes to pick whatever you’ll need from this room before we lock the door.”

“What?” I stared at them in disbelief, they were kidding, right? They couldn’t chase me out of my room!

“You have 2 minutes now,” Brody grinned at me, a completely sardonic and sinister grin.

That propelled me to move. I moved around in a frenzy, and grabbed my school uniforms, underwear, nightgown, dresses, phone, school back, laptop, purse… I was about to grab my duvet when…

“Your time is up! Now get out.”

“Please, I just need…” A strong hand clasped around my wrist, crushed my bones and pushed me outside. Brody locked the door and kept the key securely in his pocket.

They were really locking me out of my room. Without a duvet.

“From now, till the whore you call a mother comes back, you’ll be sleeping on the kitchen floor,” Axel announced, “that’s where you belong to anyways.”

Then they started to walk away, leaving me with the new level of wickedness that they just unlocked.

“And our breakfast in 10 minutes if you don’t want us to start our morning with a whipping session.”

That was Carson and I felt my heart break even more.

But I did not even have time to waste around by putting myself. I quickly tied my clothes together and made my way to the kitchen. And as I was preparing their breakfast, I realized they didn’t get angry that I didn’t iron their clothes even though they already ironed it themselves.

Or did I iron it last night and forget it too?

*****

Axel was the last one to speed off. They all drove their individual cars and never offered me a ride unless our parents were around. And even if they offered me a ride, they’d drop me somewhere on the way and make me trek the rest of the distance.

But if our parents weren’t around, I was made to trek the whole distance from home to school. It wasn’t a really far distance but trekking that distance after waking up by 4 am to prepare breakfast for them was too much for me.

And I couldn’t take a bus. They’ll find out. The one time I took it, they found out and I was punished harshly.

That was when they got the whips because I was a goat who wouldn’t listen unless whipped.

I plugged in my AirPods and started walking. It was hard but I was already used to it and in no time, I could see the gates of Empire High.

I was already late, almost an hour late and I was hoping that the teachers and disciplinarian prefects already left the gate. That way, I’d be able to sneak it.

But I had no such luck when I got to the gate and I saw who was standing behind it.