60 Talented Me! 30

"I assure you, Mrs. May," Sandra said. "I am no boy."

"I can see that. You're too lovely to be one," Mom affirmed. "Look at mine. He can't keep himself nicely groomed as you are."

Derrick looked over at Mom and pouted. He felt aggrieved! His mom said he was a stinky boy! Which, he is not! Very clean! Freshly bathe!

"Mom, stop it. Look at bro," Wilona pointed at Derrick sulking in the corner again. "He's sad now."

"That boy," Mom muttered. "He's just silly."

Mom took a look at the clock hanging on the wall. The minute had passed by quickly, and it was getting late. She turned to look at the group of children in front of her all of who should be getting ready for bed.

"Do you guys think that your parents would allow you to sleep over tonight? It may be a tight fit, but you can sleep in the living room. It's a little late now."

Daisy looked at her phone. She was right; it was getting late. Daisy went and excused herself to call her parents. The rest of them did the same as well.

In the end, only Daisy was able to stay. Gina's parents didn't want her to stay up too late. The boys didn't think it was okay to stay the night with a house full of girls (except for Derrick, but still). Sandra, who was a star, definitely couldn't stay.

Wilona thought so because it was a school night. In the end, with the few precious minutes she still had with her friends, she wanted to hang out.

"What should we do then?" Wilona asked. "I'm fine with anything."

Gina was the first one to chime in an idea. "How about singing? You wanted to practice, and every minute used is a good one."

Sandra looked over with surprise. "You sing?"

Wilona scratched her head. She sheepishly looked down with a faint blush. "Not really. Gina does and she's helping me practice."

"I can teach you a few notes and tricks if you want," Sandra added. "I had to practice for one of my movies."

"That'll be awesome!" Wilona eagerly anticipated the mentorship of Sandra.

The group went out to the street, for there was no yard, and started simple. From solfege to simple breathing exercises, the group prepared Wilona properly. Of course, very, unfortunately, but absolutely hilarious, Avina failed miserably.

Mom, who was standing at the side, was flabbergasted. She can't exactly say that her daughter was national-level singer-worthy, but she didn't think Wilona was *this* bad. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, a poor bird who lost its voice, a crying chicken - everything terrible sounding in the world!

The pitch was off. Forget the beat, it ran off on the first note. The words were a blur in the sound, and it couldn't even count as singing - chicken squawking maybe. Sure, Gina admitted it was better than the last time, but that was just a little - very minuscule, extremely.

Sandra covered her ears unable to allow herself to listen to this torture. It was agony! "I hate to break it to you, Wilona, but I don't think you're cut out for singing."

Avina rubbed her throat. It didn't exactly feel pleasant for her to sing either. "I know, but I still hope I can improve."

'5025, got anything to fix singing?' Maybe, just maybe, 5025 has something.

5025, being the equally smart and cute system it was, blocked its hearing. As a cat, albeit fake, it could hear its Host sing. It didn't have the heart to stop her, so all it could do was block its hearing. So, it couldn't hear its Host…

'5025? 5025? You there? Hello?' Avina called out in her mind alone. No cute system voice answered her back at all.

Avina waved for everyone to come back in. The cold breeze chilled her legs even covered in pants, and she did not want to stay out even for a second longer. Not to mention, she couldn't have them getting sick because of her.

Rushing in, the warm air greeted her. Her face, rosy from the cold, warmed considerably. Looking around, she found 5025 at the corner with Toffee.

Toffee, who was grumpy just a moment ago, seemed to have relaxed. It no longer snorted at 5025 nor arrogantly meowed. Instead, Toffee was docile and even rubbed its head against 5025's cheek several times.

Avina didn't want to disturb their precious bonding time. She'll just ask it later.

"Wonderful! Toffee and Frosty are friends!" Sandra looked over. Seeing her cat and Wilona's, Sandra was overfilled with joy. "I'm so happy!"

All her friends had cats, but none of them ever successfully became friends with Toffee. And now look! Frosty, in one go, was friends with Toffee! This was a worthy event for celebration.

The night went just like that. Mindless chatter with teasing between one another. The cats stayed in their desolate corner enjoying the presence of each other, and Avina again found relaxation in her heart.

10 minutes later, the sounds of knocking interrupted the merriment. Mom came to the door and opened it revealing the parents (+1 assistant) waiting outside. She called Ben, Eli, Gina, and Sandra, and that marked the end of their group fun. Luckily, everyone knew how to keep a secret and Sandra trusted them, so the assistant did not fret too much knowing how many people knew of Sandra staying here. Thanking them for taking care of Sandra, they, along with Toffee, left.

Avina hugged everyone single of them and watched as their cars left on the road. Only when there was no longer a shadow of dust did she close the door. Coming back inside, Daisy pulled her inside the bedroom and sat down with a loud thud.

"So now what? What should we talk about?" Daisy eagerly looked forward to the night all to themselves. "The night is so long!"

Avina laughed at the excited Daisy. Every person she met (with the exception of those who were mean) reminded her so much of Bea. She couldn't help but be swept by the flow. "How about-"

Before she could successfully finish her words, the phone's ring drew her attention. She picked it up and on the screen was an unknown number. Answering, it was Mr. Greene.

Now, let's for a moment ignore the fact that Mr. Greene could get Wilona's number and focus on what he wants to say. Avina could conjure a few theories of why her number was in the hand of Mr. Greene, but it still felt a little awkward.

"Hello?"

"I apologize, Wilona, for calling you this late in the night. I used your school contact information to inform you that Rebecca did not claim she was guilty, but her phone had enough evidence. She will face suspension charges, but that will be all," Mr. Greene calmly stated the results of their investigation. As he saw Rebecca's chat history, he knew that she was acting on someone's behavior, but the more they dug, nothing came up.

'Well, figured as much.'

Avina knew that results would come up for sure. Whether or not Rebecca deleted the chat, she could just make 5025 place it back in. So regardless of what, she expected an outcome.

"Isn't there someone behind her?" Avina took the chance to ask. If she could uproot Adi with this, what was stopping her?

Now, Mr. Greene was puzzled and part suspicious. "How do you know there is someone behind her? Did you have another suspect?"

"Yes, Adi."

"Adi?"

"Doesn't that name ring a bell?" She was certain most people knew the two of them used to be friends. The important part: used to.

"Yes, but why would she do such a thing?"

Avina could only sigh mildly annoyed. The answer was obvious. Adi, whom Avina did not know how she managed to convince everyone that she was good, was plain evil. Nothing coming out of her mouth or actions, was any good, and if there was anything good, that would be the day pigs fly.

"Remember about the rumors?" Avina, despite no clear evidence, knew it had Adi's handiwork all over it.

"Yes, but what does that have anything to do with this?" Mr. Greene, confused, asked. Weren't they on the topic of Rebecca?

"Rebecca was also the prosecutor of that. And there was that lunchroom incident, although I don't think anyone noticed, that is still bullying. And there was once a time when Adi physically attacked me outside of school." Avina started to blab about all the terrible encounters she had so far. There were many and the more she talked, the more she couldn't stop.

"Wait, wait, wait. Physically attack you?" Mr. Greene focused on one important part. If what Wilona was saying was true, then there were a lot of things he didn't know about Adi. And from the looks of it, Wilona did not have evidence for most of these things. But, that attack, cameras were everywhere in this school - that was plenty of evidence.

"Yes. Right outside of school," Avina recalled. "But I also self defended myself. I wonder if that is bad."

Thinking of it, this was a pretty good piece of evidence but she dealt a heavy hand against her. It would be easy for Adi to twist the truth against her. She dealt more damage to Adi than Adi to her.

"How hard did you defend yourself?"

"...a few punches and kicks."

Mr. Greene went silent. He doubted how hard Wilona could hit with her weak arms and legs, but from her tone, he was skeptical it was just a 'few'.

"I'll keep that in mind. Tomorrow is a school day so I hope that you sleep well. Good night, Wilona." With that, the phone call ended.

Avina turned back to Daisy who was listening to the whole time. She had a mischievous smile asking to know the full story. Avina was prepared to share, because why not, but her phone rang again. Looking down, it was Graham.

Gesturing to her phone, she picked up the call. "Hello?"

"Sorry for the late call, but I wanted to share some good news," his kind elderly voice apologized.

"You see, I managed to gather some information against Mr. Tet, but if you want to deal a blow against Adi, you need to provide one last piece of evidence."

"What if she physically harmed me, but I self defended?" That was the only thing that was big so far.

Graham started to think of the odds of using this piece of evidence. Although he didn't personally witness Wilona's fighting capabilities, to deal with a room full of bodyguards and to leave Mr. Tet traumatized, he couldn't assure that the opposition wouldn't use this for themselves.

"I'll see if I can make that work. If there is new information, tell me as soon as possible. The longer we let them continue, the more I fear that they will begin taking bigger actions."

He was right. Adi was already taking shady actions just from her small anger and vengeance problem (Avina will be honest, a part of her thinks Adi is a nutcase), imagine what would happen the longer her soup brewed.

Avina thought it was appropriate to share about what Mr. Greene had told her as well. The more information Graham had, as the target mission, the quicker she could properly administer karma to Adi. Graham listened carefully and told her he will also look more into this.

"Then, thank you," Avina said. "I couldn't have done this without you."

Graham laughed at her thanks. "Don't worry, child. I'm more than grateful to be paving the road which you live on."

The call ended there, and Avina could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Instead of being a powerful old man, Graham seems more like a clever detective!

She turned to Daisy and smiled. There shouldn't be any more calls from now on, hopefully.