The Respect:
Was that a request? It did not sound like one at all. It sounded more like that of an order.
Although her mind was a mess, Reina did not show it on her face. She wore a blank expression so that her cluelessness could hide comfortably behind her expression. Nonetheless, she decided to feed her curiosity by asking questions.
"What do I have to do? Run errands for you? I can do that." What more could it be anyway? The man in front of her was the reputed captain of such a big ship. She had already witnessed the respect people had for him in first person from the incident before.
"Errands?" He said scratching his chin, "You could say so. It deals with stuff though."
"Stuff? What stuff?"
"You know, Cocaine? Heroin? Marijuana? Sometimes weed and alcohol may be? Depends on how good you are at work."
Reina panicked internally. She is an earnest believer of spirituality and religion. Drugs and alcohol? She? Never!
"Think about it. You will be able to make all the people onboard who disrespected you before pay for their treatment towards you. You will gain their respect. All of theirs."
Giving it a thought, she realized he was right. She wanted to slam those people on their faces with her bare hands and make them regret their actions. They disrespected her mother's upbringing. They dared to disrespect her mother.
But then again, it was her mother who had taught her not to take sinful paths and do unholy things to achieve any goal she wished to pursue.
To Reina it was not a decision. It was now a choice. A choice between her mother's teachings and a revenge to satisfy her mother's soul, after all, she also taught her to take a stand for herself.
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(YumNom Restaurant)
"The coffee is really good." Tim said finishing his cup of coffee.
"I know right. It is strong but smooth at the same time." Tina looked down at her cup with a warm smile.
"Our lunch was great, the coffee was great. Now what next? Do we go home?" Tim asked, facing Tina.
"Why home? We still have loads of time left." She replied.
"So?" Tim asked genuinely having no clue as to where he could spend more time.
He had never done anything other than partying with people whom he calls friends and playing Hockey in the club. Except for these two activities, he never left the house to 'spend time' or 'grab lunch'. Such things sound foreign to him.
"We can go to the park if you'd like to." Tina offered.
"Sure, sounds good."
Walking side by side with Tim, Tina looked up at the sky with a sigh.
"It has been a week since she left the house, I wonder how she is."
Tim smiled at the statement made by his legal step-mother, "She is strong. She will be just fine."
"I hope so."
"I know so."
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(Ship's Wheelhouse)
"Hey can you make it fast? To be honest, we are hiring urgently. We are short on staff as we blew up all of a sudden. So your answer is...?"
"I accept it." Reina said taking a deep breath. "What do I have to do sir?"
"Sir?" The captain laughed loudly. "I'm a ma'am. Welcome onboard. I'm Sheina, and you are?"
"I'm Reina." She replied, still stunned by the fact that the handsome gentleman in front of her, who saved her twice already, is not a man but a woman.
"Don't worry," Sheina laughed, "People do that mistake often, I don't mind. On the brighter side, our names rhyme with each other.
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(Common staff lounge)
"Ma'am, how were you so sure that she would join us?"
"These low lives. One nudge and they fall right into the trap. They take the bait faster than anyone." Sheina replied to her subordinate.
"There's so much to learn from you ma'am. I truly feel inspired by your tactics. How did you even know all these things?"
"I used to be a low life myself. My mother made me go through these same things all the time." Sheina smiled bitterly at the memories.
She can still recall all the times she went to bed empty stomached because she could not deal with a certain situation or complete a mission assigned to her by her mother. At the tender age of 10, she already knew the real face of the world, and already faced uncountable hardships. All of this was thanks to mother. She knew being raised by a single mother was tough so she tried not to trouble her mother but what did she receive in return?
In return she had to suffer through all the misery.
Everything she had to put up with throughout her childhood had the net result of zero.
No hugs. No kisses. Not even a praise or a pat on the back when she came back from completing her missions.
The day she turned thirteen and her mother did not wish her, she swore to her birthday candles, which she lit by herself through all the tears, to avenge her mother for all the things and other things that she made her go through.
It had been five years since then. She was eighteen now.
"I need to gather more people to fight against her." Sheina mumbled to herself.
"Sorry? You said something to me ma'am?"
Blinking the tears away, Sheina quickly turned to the worker, "No nothing, go do your work."
"Ma'am, why did master ask you to take this weirdo in the team?" Her subordinate asked her the question that had been bothering Sheina for a while already.
Why did her mother ask her to take Reina in the team and train her? Did she not know that running a drug racket is already a risky job? Why add more fuel to the fire by adding a mix of blunder, innocence and stupidity into it?
"I'm not sure about that either, but while we are at it, let's have some fun." Sheina smirked.
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"Looks like Sheina did execute her work properly in time."
"What next master?"
"Train her."