TWELVE

I was eating breakfast with Mark and Oleh when I asked,"So am I still allowed to hang out with Lucille?"

He looked at me for several seconds then sighed and said,"Yes, you are."

I was really happy and ran across the room to hug my little brother. He chuckled as I pushed him down with his chair.

Oleh was disgusted by how Mark treated me and wanted to discipline me before he spoiled me...

I got up from Mark and thanked him.

I went to finish my food and on my way, saw the deadly look on Oleh's face.

I simply ignored her and went to my seat.

I finished my lobster and went to do my homework. The syllabus of my new school was much more complicated so I needed a lot of help.

The next day was a holiday so I slept in.

I opened one eye to look at Mark who was smiling at me.

"Yup."I said sleepily.

"Would you like to come to work with me today?"

"What?"

"It's take your kid to work day."

I opened both eyes wide and yelled,"Would I ever!"

I ran to take a bath and quickly changed then came back.

He took me to the sky scraper he worked in and I was in awe.

We went inside and I heard everyone calling Mark, boss. I felt cool as he took me to the playground, while he went for a meeting.

The playground was cool but I didn't want to be there, I wanted to be with Mark.

Mark was speaking with the managers of the company about a new ad when he got a call.

"...excuse me, I have to answer this."

He went to a corner and answered,"Tommy, is everything okay?"

"No, I want to be with you."

"Tommy, not now, we can play later."

"But, but, but..."

"Bye."He said and hung up.

I appeared through the door and said,"I'm already here."

Mark slapped his forehead.

"Hi, my name is Tommy Hawkins and I have the coolest little brother in the world!!"

"Oh brother."Mark whispered.

Now what will happen?

"Awwww."The entire counsel said.

"He's so cute!"A woman said.

"Hey kid, can you tapdance?"A man asked.

I did a rhinoceros tap and said,"Can do."

"We could use him for the ad."

"We could?"Mark asked.

"Yes! He could wear some of our shoes while tapdancing!"

"He could?"

"They would sell like hot cakes!"

"They would?"

Mark looked at me and said,"Okay from now on you can come to my meetings."

"Really?! Awesome!"

One person in the council offered me a seat and I gladly took it. They treated me like gold, giving me any junk food I wanted, playing with me and more. Mark just had an eyebrow arched.

I looked at him then ran to give him a hug he wasn't expecting, suddenly, everyone in the room said awww.

I enjoyed the meeting, spinning on the chair, looking out the window, talking to the councillors and more.

This totally beats the playground.

After working, he went to his office to work on his laptop and I sat down on the couch, trying to look as formal as possible.

A woman came in and paused, looked at her enchanting boss for a second, then spoke,"Boss, we have a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"We have reason to believe, one of our employees is a double crosser, stealing our designs and giving them to Lightning Flash, our main opponents."

"What proof do you have?"

I was so excited to see my brother work, so excited.

She handed him some photos and he looked intently at them, then he said,"Bring all the models, male and female, to the exhibition area."

"Yes boss, right away boss."She said and left.

"Mark, what's Lightning Flash?"

"It's another shoe company which has us as their main competition, so for years, they had tried to get us down by hook and by crook."

I nodded and looked at the pictures...

How did he know it was one of the models?

He stood up to leave and I followed him.

We got to the exhibition area and I looked at all the models, Mark was just as good looking as the men, so I wondered why he wasn't also a model, then again, he's a C.E.O., he doesn't have enough time to wear tights and take pictures all day.

I looked at him as he calmly interrogated the models, one by one, but the look on his face intimidated them and they knew that below that blue tuxedo was a dangerous warrior, who could break your arm in a heartbeat.

All of them denied having any knowledge of the conspiracy going on, he checked their phones and had security arrest three of them, two women and one man.

I didn't understand how he did it, but he just did. I also checked their phones but found nothing, not even in the messages.

I asked him how he did it and he explained,"The culprits were the only ones who had lightning flash symbols on their phone batteries."

Smart.

When the day was over, he drove me home and I took a deep breath, breathing in the air through my mouth, I then choked when I swallowed a bug.

We were home in no time and I decided to stick to Mark like glue to be safe from Oleh.