The afternoon classes were calm, and when Mark returned home, he saw that his father had already arrived.
"Son, you're home early today. How was school?" When William saw his son walk in, he asked with a smile on his face.
"It was fine," Mark replied, then asked back, "Did you eat the coffee jelly I left in the fridge for you?"
Before leaving for school, Mark had left a note for his father, even though they both had phones and could talk anytime.
Father and son prefer leaving notes for small things like that.
"I did, thank you very much!" William replied, then asked, "It was really good. Where did you buy that?"
"I'm glad you liked it. I made it myself!" Mark replied, lying.
His father had lived in Forks for a long time and knew the town well; it was no use lying and saying he bought it somewhere else.
What if his father decided to go to that place to buy more? He would find out I lied to him.
Although I'm not a great cook, it's enough to make the lie believable, Mark thought to himself.
Of course, he would never tell anyone about the existence of his system.
"Wow, you have that kind of talent? I didn't expect you had that hidden skill!" William replied, surprised.
"I remembered that when I lived with your mother, she was never good at cooking," William said.
"I remember once your mother, Sara, almost set the house on fire while trying to make dinner," William said with a nostalgic smile.
Mark also remembered that day in his memories; his parents were still married at the time.
After the divorce, his mother went to live with her parents—Mark's grandparents—and it was his grandmother who prepared all the meals.
Of course, all of this happened in this parallel world, because in his previous life, Mark lived alone and had to learn to cook for himself.
Thinking about these things, Mark opened his mouth and said, "I still have homework to do, so I'm going upstairs!"
"Sure, go ahead," William replied and went back to doing his own things.
...
On the other side, at the Cullens' house.
Edward, Alice, and the others had just returned from school. As soon as they entered the house, Esme's voice rang out: "Welcome back!"
Everyone walked in and nodded to her in greeting.
Alice was the first to speak: "Has Edythe returned yet?"
Esme shook her head and said, "Maybe she'll only come back tonight?"
"When she's upset about something, she always liked to go out and be alone to cool off," Edward said, looking out toward the forest.
"What happened to put her in a bad mood?" Esme asked with interest.
Everyone looked at each other and fell silent; they didn't know how to respond, but Rosalie broke the silence for them.
"We're not sure, but she might have gotten too involved with a human boy from our school!"
"What boy? Can someone explain the whole situation?" Esme became more interested.
There was another exchange of glances among them, and this time Edward answered: "A new boy who recently moved to Forks. His name is Mark Sanchez."
"He's in the same grade as us; he also sits next to Edythe."
He paused before continuing: "I read Edythe's mind, and it's full of Mark."
"Is it that serious?" Alice asked, incredulous.
"Hehe..." Edward chuckled and was about to share something interesting when a cold voice rang out.
"Looks like my little brother wants to feel the true love of his older sister!"
When Edward looked toward the voice, he saw Edythe entering through the porch window.
Her eyes were half-closed, and her lips held a smile that wasn't really a smile as she walked forward.
It made Edward's body tremble instinctively.
"Ahem... You finally showed up. Mark asked about you today. I think he was worried about you," Edward said, averting his gaze.
In fact, he was about to reveal that Edythe had fallen in love with Mark at first sight the day they met.
But he didn't expect to be caught before spilling the beans.
"Oh," Edythe replied coldly. She knew exactly what Edward was about to say.
But after hearing what Edward said, she felt a little better. At the time, she just wanted to joke with Mark, but didn't expect him to get upset.
She had lived so long; even though she couldn't read the other person's mind, she could see that Mark was interested in her.
Just knowing that Mark shared the same feeling made her very happy.
At that moment, Alice walked over to Edythe, pulled her to sit beside her, and asked a critical question: "Are you in love with Mark?"
Edythe didn't expect Alice to ask such a direct question, and she replied nervously.
"What? No! He and I just met... We don't have those kinds of feelings for each other..."
While Edythe tried to find a justification to explain her relationship with Mark, everyone exchanged glances and thought in unison: definitely.