Life is full of changes.
A fact that people tend to forget for change can happen right in front of them and they wouldn't even know it. It can be little changes, barely perceived in real-time, unknown and unquantifiable. Until suddenly, one realizes in a moment of great clarity that everything they had ever known wasn't as it was before.
Or, as most people fear, it can be quick and sudden like a lightning strike.
Leaving one shocked and dumbfounded of this sudden new reality. But humans are creatures that are adaptable to change. To hunker down and weather through the storm until finally, they could fully adapt to the situation, little by little, pushing forward.
Discard a bit of pride, shed some tears and maybe even pour copious amounts of sweat, blood and effort. Humans have always adapted to change in their environment.
And so as it was with Elliot.
Elliot was quite happy for his father and Katherine but not quite so much at the prospect of his new step-siblings. His mind still coming to terms with this change from being an only child for all thirteen years of his life. What was worse was he could taste the animosity the Morgan sisters had for him. The adults were oblivious to the hard glares Kassidy and Kinley gave Elliot, being enamored in one another's company.
And what might have Elliot done, one might ask, to garner such loathing from the sisters in their brief time in acquainting one another?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing of noteworthy.
And that was exactly it.
As Katherine was prone to ramble from time to time whenever she visited Elliot's father, one particular topic was her pride and joy she found in her two daughters.
Kinley Morgan was the more outgoing of the two blondes, prone to energetic bursts of energy. Her mother's open-natured positivity rubbed off on her and people tend to be drawn at her bright personality. Her classmates tend to invite her to their cliques or cling close by at how her cheerful disposition made her an engaging company. She was the athletic of the two siblings and was a natural athlete by whatever sports activity it was she participated in. Be they volleyball, basketball, soccer or track and field, the list goes on.
The girl liked to compete and win.
Her older sister, Kassidy, was on the other end of the spectrum however. Senior by a year, she was the brains of the operations so to speak. She was the cold ice to Kinley's bright fire, reserved and calculating. Fitting that she had a bit of a reputation for being an ice queen at their school. A brilliant student that garnered academic awards that rivaled Kinley's sports trophies. She stands as a solitary figure above from the rest peers in her accomplishments and ambitions. People were instinctively intimidated to some degree whenever face-to-face with Kassidy. Her ice-blue eyes and an air of regality at the most minute of her actions.
The Morgan sisters were deemed unmistakably bright by their peers and family.
But, as Elliot would soon come to know, every light has its darkness, a shadow casted that was overlooked by most, enamored by their brilliance. And the sisters were no exception.
A lifetime of watching other people, Elliot was by no means a master of human socializing but he picked up a useful trait or two in that period. The sisters were used to being elevated by their peers, and thus, their egos were fed to such an extraordinary size. He could almost hear the thoughts coming out of the top of their heads as they barely gave him another glance but he knew damn well that they were conscious of his presence. They did not like him. Not one bit. From the sudden twitch of Kassidy's lips when Katherine first introduced him to the wrinkling motion of Kinley's nostrils as Elliot sat opposite her. They barely gave him any more time than what was needed aside from their initial introduction by their mother.
And why should they? They were the Morgan sisters, the top of the school food chain. One of the school's brightest and gifted students. The cool kids.
And the reclusive, lanky teen that was Elliot, he was found wanting by his soon-to-be stepsisters. A quiet sheep who was more boring than a rock. A loser to be short. And they were going to be stepsiblings.
The sisters need not say what their opinion of him was for Elliot to get the message:
Yuck.
Time blurred for Elliot. He relished the last days of being an only child, feeling the days slip through his fingers like sand before the fated day arrived.
The ceremony was small.
People flocked to the bright-blonde flower girls while Elliot settled on eating a cake in a quiet corner, finding the rush of moving bodies and flurry of questions to be too tiresome that he hid in plain sight, occasionally slicing off a portion of the delectable pastry into his mouth.
And just like that, the last official day of him being the only child was greeted with thunderous jubilation.
What Elliot dreaded most was the move.
The Morgan's home was an old gargantuan house that was past a hundred years old. Katherine said she loved the old grandeur vibe the place gave off and that it looked like a castle. Elliot would later come to know of it as a Queen Anne-style of architecture. What gave it a castle-feel was the round front corner tower with a conical roof that pierced towards the sky much like a European castle would. Renovating the entire property costed a fortune and she had only focused for the time being on the bare necessities. It was indeed an antique but inside it was apparent what was changed to fit modern times and conveniences.
The Morgans' lived two towns away from Strathurst, an hour and a half drive away. The marriage between Katherine and Byron was not only one of affection but also of convenience. Byron was in the motions of putting his plans of opening another store, backed by Katherine's farm and connections, offering the inhabitants of the county at a wallet-friendly alternative as opposed to the chemical-infused overpriced goods from corporate shills that were slowly working their way around the area, popping up like daisies as the years go by.
Elliot was made to move in with her new stepmother as Byron had felt that the boy had grown more detached with people ever since his mother's death and hoped that Katherine's good-naturedness would bring some life back into his son's eyes. And being around kids his age, Byron hoped that Elliot would finally connect with people. Even Eliza herself had worried Elliot would grow up to be too much of a recluse.
As Byron busied himself with work once more, Elliot observed to adapt in this new environment he found himself.
Katherine liked to spoil her daughters, not that she ever notices or sees a problem of it. She was. in Elliot's estimation, a genuinely good person. But too much of a good thing can be bad and that includes love itself. She rarely chastises her children's misdemeanors, always overshadowed by their brilliant accomplishments, that she fails to see their flaws and foibles.
The Morgan Sisters found Elliot to be painstakingly boring, one might have thought that Elliot had more in common with Kassidy, on account of their reserved personality. But whereas Elliot actions have no ulterior reason aside that he was just continent on being with himself, Kassidy refuses to talk to those who she deemed below her or not worth her time.
Although by right, Kassidy was the eldest among the three, Elliot had taken it up to himself to take up the chores around the house. In the Sutton household, Elliot grew up without a housekeeper and with things still tough financially speaking, Byron convinced Katherine to not pay extra for the housekeeper and that Elliott would take up the slack.
Elliot did not grumble as it was something he had been used to, although it was something of a change than what he was accustomed to, being in a new place aside from his old home. Elliot let himself lose on the rote his body had gotten used to, simple tasks as his mind drifted and his body was on automated mode as he wiped the furniture, mopped the floor and cleaned the glass paneling of the windows. He vacuumed thoroughly throughout the house with Katherine's quiet oversight (at Elliot's insistence to see what it was he shouldn't touch. Afterall, he was still a newcomer to the place and Elliot observed people are touchy, especially towards strangers in other places aside than their own house.)
But to Elliot's innocent ignorance, he had inadvertently set himself low on the pecking order of the house.
The first few days, Elliot and the girls didn't really interact much. They would settle on their own routine and Elliot on his, which was usually doing housework in the morning and his free time in the afternoon and nights.
The only instance where their circle of habits meet was when Elliot cleaned up after them. A stray dish here, a discarded laundry there. But as the days passed by, little by little, the amount of what he had to clean up rose. Kinley was by far the worst offender, leaving a trail of dishes and food wrappings like Hansel and Gretel each time after school practice. Kassidy was no help either, refusing to chastise her younger sister and even on occasion had to boss Elliot around by making him clean her own room and take out the trash (Elliot later found out that Katherine had assigned the task to Kassidy to not overwork Elliot but considered the task far beneath her and utterly disgusting.)
Tasks that had taken only time in the morning now ate into the afternoon for Elliot as he had more and more things to do. At times, he had just finished cleaning a section of the house only to find it dirtied once more with muddy footprints and open bags of chips courtesy of a calorie-deprived Kinley after a bout at soccer practice. Or see a trail of paint when Kassidy decided to pursue an interest in painting and be ordered by the older Morgan sister to clean up after her.
