Let's Dig In

Zoey walked into the store and was greeted with large display cases filled with jewelry. There were some attendants wearing black vests, long-sleeved white button-up shirts, and black pants along with a couple of people shopping around.

Zoey went to one of the display cases that was filled with jade bracelets, ruby necklaces, and incredible diamond earrings. She could see the heavy mist enveloping the gemstones and licked her lips.

She lightly pressed her hand against the glass and tried to absorb the essence, when a voice rang out, "Ugh, I thought this place was supposed to be high class. I didn't expect such trash to be in here."

"My GOD, why is it so hard to be FL! Can't I take my journey to becoming an op superhuman without snarky and evil bitches looking down on me? *UGH* And the worst thing about this isn't gonna be my only problem. *hiss hoo* Okey-doke, now SUCK IT UP," Zoey cursed in her mind.

She slowly turned around to be met with a slightly petite woman with a barely B-cup chest and small hips and waist and about five foot three. She wore a pleated black skirt, white button-up, short-sleeved collared shirt with a black tie, brown tights, and brown loafers.

She also had long black loose curly hair with light brown highlights, a small face with delicate thin pink lips and thin almond eyes with clear, pure, piercing light blue eyes that almost seemed to be glowing with green around the iris.

She was Melissa Yang; she was Zoey's cousin. Her mother was her aunt Amanda Yang, and once again the apple didn't fall from the tree with them. They were, well you know their deal. Raised rich and spoiled, bully poor people, arrogant, and very, very, punchable. Melissa's father, Anthony Ang however wasn't like them and was just one of Amanda's victims.

She got him drunk and slept with him, getting pregnant with Melissa and finally baby trapping him and forcing him to marry her. Or else she would release a videotape of him sleeping with her and go out to tell the world how he was a terrible human being.

Blah, blah, now the poor man is stuck with Amanda and Melissa sucking the life and money out of him. Oh, and Amanda did this when she was thirty-seven and while Anthony was celebrating his eighteenth birthday, so Anthony was in his late thirties with a wife who was in her mid-fifties.

Zoey rolled her eyes and tried to hurry up and absorb the essence from the gemstones but, to no avail. The glass was too thick and there were open areas for the essence to escape.

Zoey was slightly disappointed and tried to go over to one of the jewelry clerks when Melissa stopped her by stepping in front of her. Zoey glared at her annoyed and Melissa continued talking, "Hmph, what're you even doing here, you can't even dream of shopping in here. *GASP*

Could it be you have a sugar daddy? *haha* I'm just kidding, not even a fat old C.E.O would want you. Also, it's obvious why you're here, you damn poor, you're here to steal, aren't you? YOU, THIEF!"

As soon as Melissa said the word thief everyone's head turned, their eyes narrowed, and they guarded the jewelry very seriously.

Zoey just walked around Melissa leaving her standing there. She walked to one of the clerks, a skinny man wearing glasses and a haughty appearance. When Zoey approached him, he stared at her condescendingly and rudely asked, "*Hmph* What do you want, girl?"

He hated how plain and scruffy Zoey dressed in such a prestigious store. Meanwhile, Zoey's lip twitched ever so slightly in annoyance. She repeated in her mind, "Don't say I wanna break your face, don't say I wanna break your face, don't say I wanna break your face, don't say I wanna break your face."

Zoey silently took a breath and made a small polite smile and continued, "I would like to sell some jewelry." Melissa appeared next to Zoey again and sneered, "Hah, what do you have to offer that this store would even glance at."

Zoey still ignored her and using her pocket as a cover, pulled out the smoky quartz, and handed it to him. Melissa sneered again, "*HAHA* That's not even jewelry, it's a small and pathetic gemstone."

The clerk glanced down at the and reluctantly picked it up. His eyes slightly widened when he examined it. It was like the stone reacted to his touch and it was as if some kind of black cloud swirled around inside it as if it was magic.

The cloud even turned different colors like dark purple, white, and even dark mahogany. The clerk's eyes shined with greed and he thought, "This gem is so unique and incredible. It must be rare, I could make a small fortune from this, I have to find a way to keep this gem, luckily, she's just a dumb girl. I can swindle her easily."

He looked at Zoey with a poker face and said, "Hmph, this little stone is barely worth anything. One hundred dollars at the most. You can try to sell this at other jewelry stores but, they'll only tell you the same thing. Tell you what, I'll buy this from you for two-hundred dollars."

Zoey stood there for a moment with her head down, making anyone unable to see her eyes. Melissa who was still listening to this continued to bark in a haughty tone, "WHAT, that pathetic stone is worth more than pocket change?! Well, it's only two-hundred dollars but, that must be a lot for you, huh, Zoey?"

Meanwhile, the clerk grew an evil smirk and said to himself, "*HAHAHA* There's no way she'll refuse me and with the money I make from selling this stone. I can retire and spend the rest of my life in girls, designer clothes, jewelry, and with my toes in the sand. *MUHAHA*"

Zoey finally spoke up and said, "No thank you." The clerk and Melissa's eyes widened, and Zoey quickly snatched the stone from the clerk's hands. The clerk went pale and shouted out, while still trying to keep up his poker face, "W-WAIT, *ahem* Umm, was there something wrong with my offer?"

Zoey smiled sweetly and said in a sugary sweet voice, "Oh, no there was nothing wrong with your offer." While in her head she sneered, "Yeah, right as if I believe that shit old man. Only an idiot would believe you when you had such an obvious smirk earlier." He replied back with his face starting to sweat, "T-then why did you refuse."

Zoey replied, back still keeping her sweet tone, "Oh, that's because I didn't know that I would get so much for this little stone. I thought about making it into jewelry for my mother but, I wanted to see how much it was worth. Also, if I get SO MUCH for this little stone alone, I can't even imagine how much I'll get for the rest of my jewelry.

I couldn't even think to sell them to you or take advantage of your kindness. So, I'll just have this stone made into jewelry for my mother using the money I make for selling the rest of the stones and jewelry I have, at some other store. As my jewelry surely does not belong in such a prestigious as this."

The clerk's face was now as bright red and instantly his poker face broke as he yelled out, "THAT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN, YOU STUPID BITCH! I, OUT OF THE KINDNESS OF MY HEART, DECIDED TO PAY DOUBLE OF WHAT THAT PATHETIC ROCK SHOULDN'T EVEN BE WORTH! BUT YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO REFUSE ME AND WASTE MY VALUABLE TIME! AS COMPENSATION YOU SHOULD GIVE THAT STONE AND ANY OTHERS YOU HAVE TO ME!"

The whole store went silent and the clerk stood with his hands on the counter breathing heavily with his face a deep shade of red.

Suddenly a voice appeared, breaking the silence, "What's with all this commotion?" A man in a black suit and tie, with short silver hair, suddenly stepped out from the back of the store.

The man had an imposing aura sending a shiver up everyone's spine. The clerk's face quickly went pale once again and he walked up to the man with his hand clasped together and his body slightly arched forward and quivering. The person before him was simply known as Arthur, the right-hand man of the store's owner, and was not someone to cross. The clerk quietly said, "W-well sir, this girl over here with the orange hair s-she-."

"Quiet," Arthur blurted out suddenly and the clerk's lips pressed together, and he quickly shut up. Arthur looked over to a young female clerk with dark brown hair in a ponytail and said, "You there, what happened?"

The woman shuffled over to Arthur with her body shivering and kept her head down as she talked to him, "The young woman with the orange hair came in looking to sell some jewelry but, the young female with brown and black kept harassing her claiming her to be a thief and poor.

The young woman then went over to that man and gave him a gemstone, the clerk said it was only worth a hundred dollars and offered her two hundred as to 'be kind' or as he claimed. But the young woman didn't want to do that and declined and said she would be going somewhere else.

As she didn't believe she should take advantage of someone's 'kindness' and that her jewelry had no place here. But that man got extremely angry and yelled at her calling an *ahem*, stupid bitch and demanding the rest of her jewelry as compensation for wasting his time."

Arthur glared at the male clerk making him shiver uncontrollably. Arthur turned his attention to Zoey who was just standing there with an expressionless face. He softened his expression and with a slightly gentle tone, he asked, "May I see the stone in question, if you don't mind?" and stretched his hand out towards her.

Zoey looked at his outstretched hand and decided to give it to him and she gently placed the stone in his hand. Once AGAIN Melissa barked, "Don't bother with that stone, trash is always trash anyways," and she gave Zoey a smug look. Arthur ignored her and examined the stone and he noticed exactly what the male clerk did.

He looked at Zoey and smiled making the women in the store swoon and blush. "Hmm, when he's not all stone faced he's pretty good looking," Zoey thought when Arthur said. "My apologies miss but, do you mind waiting here a bit?" Zoey shrugged and simply said, "Sure, I don't mind."

Arthur quickly walked to the back of the store and left Zoey standing there. While she was standing there, Melissa opened her big mouth, AGAIN, "Hey, why did he smile at you like that?" Zoey didn't even turn her head, shrugged her shoulders again, and responded, "Dunno."

Melissa glared at her and continued, "How did you even get any jewelry at all? Let me guess you stole those too. Seriously though, you should just leave before any cops get here, and even if you could sell all of your pathetic stones you still wouldn't be able to afford anything here."

Zoey finally turned her head towards Melissa, who had her arms crossed and glaring at her, and sneered to herself, "Seriously, was I really that weak that this tiny little dog even picked on me.

Though I wasn't the strongest if I still had my incredible height and a good thirty pounds on her. I could just lift my foot a little and kick her the jaw she wouldn't be able to talk shit anymore.

But I don't want to cause any more trouble so let's just knock her down a peg."

Zoey smirked at Melissa and sneered, "While I may not be able to afford anything in here how that is even your business in the slightest. Besides aren't you someone who also can't afford to shop here." Melissa's face grew pale and she bit her lip.

As what Zoey said was true her allowance had been cut twice after she and her mother had spent almost half a million in a big shopping spree and again when she went on a big trip without telling anybody and racked up a bill of half a million dollars.

So now her allowance was cut down from two-hundred thousand dollars to twenty thousand dollars which weren't even close to the store's cheapest jewelry.

Before Melissa could respond, Arthur came back and Melissa suddenly looked really happy and smug. Arthur came to the counter and smiled even bigger and brighter than before, "Miss, I've just talked with the owner of the store and he is interested in this stone and any others you have with you.

If you would please step into the back so we can negotiate a reasonable price," he beamed. Melissa's smug look quickly disappeared and was replaced with one of rage as she bit her thumbnail.

Melissa always thrived off the feeling of being superior to Zoey so seeing her being treated like a V.I.P struck her to the core.

Zoey nodded, leaving Melissa burning a hole into the back of her head, and was then led to a room with two black couches with a large glass coffee table in the middle of them. The walls and even the carpet were pitch black as well.

Zoey walked into the room and breathed in the air that smelled like fresh peppermint. She sat down on the soft leather couch and Arthur sat on the other one. Arthur smiled at Zoey again and said, "Now shall we negotiate a price?"

Zoey smirked evilly and leaned back into the couch with her legs crossed and her arms crossed and replied maliciously, "Of course."

Zoey started producing a sort of blood lust and looked at Arthur like how a starving wolf would look at a fat cow as she was prepared to take as much money as possible and she said to herself, "Now let's dig into this cash cow."

(c) Copyright Olani Givens 2020 All Right Reserves