Story (Cont.)

We came home, still arguing over who's fault it had been, and dropped off the meat in the kitchen for Mother to deal with. Then we went our seperate ways until we were all called in for dinner. Dinner was as usual, a noisy affair, all of my brothers coming in from a long day outside, and jostling for food, yelling to have things passed to them, and generally behaving like mongrels. Not that I was any better than them, mind you, my mother had almost given up that I would ever use the manners she had so painstakingly knocked into my noggin. In all the chaos, my mother suddenly gave me a look and said, "Sminetra, I need you to stay after dinner. I...We, your father and I need to talk to you." At those words, my brothers started to snicker and elbow each other, thinking that I was undoubtedly in trouble...again. My mind raced, trying to think if I had done anything recently that was bad enough that my mother wanted to drag my father into a lecture on my good behavior. I came up blank, I could think of nothing that would require both of my parents needing to talk to me. I helped clean up after dinner, looking at my mother curiously all the while. She seemed to be getting more and more tense. Her green eyes had darkened, and the skin around her eyes had tightened with worry. Finally, after the last dish had been put away, I went back to the table to sit and talk with my parents. "Sminetra," my mother stared. "Smin," my mother suddenly smiled, her face transformed. I started to get very worried. My mother never called me Smin. Ever. "Smin, I recieved a letter from my family today -"
"Your family? You've never spoken about your family before.."

Ok....that's it for now. I had writer's block before. I hope you enjoyed.