FIVE

Luis walked into Scarlet Sapphira's room as she tapped and swiped on her tablet, then he said,"Scarlet, I get that you're trying to impress me and so you have, but you shouldn't be hurting or cheating people that way."

"But you do that all the time, don't you?"

"Yes, but it's complicated."

"What's so complicated about law enforcement?"

"Good point, but really kid..."He sat besides her,"...you shouldn't take things that aren't yours, or hurt other people for no reason, and even if they were being jerks, you could just report them to the authorities, please Scarlet Sapphira."

She finally looked at him with her beautiful blue eyes, then down and back at him and said,"The money's downstairs, in the first cherry pop soda in the vending machine, you can't miss it."

"Okay, but how could I know that you're telling the truth?"

She looked hurt, then spoke,"Uncle Luis, I'm sorry if I damaged your trust in me, I wouldn't do it again, but even then, I could never lie to you, I'm a terrible liar."

He squinted his eyes then widened them, then she tilted her head with a smile and asked,"What?"

He slowly stood up, then shook his head and left, then she brought out the ten dollar bill from beneath her and added the five hundred dollars and smirked.

She then took her selfie stick and put it through a hole between the wooden floorboards and there was a click as she walked to her closet, revealing a collection of all sorts of miscellaneous items, including money from each of us, apart from Luis, and she just filled the space with a smile.

After she had come down to play, Luis looked at her with a frown and Lucy asked why, then he palmed his forehead and said,"I couldn't convince her."

I was down right shocked as Rose asked how it happened, then he said,"The girl's a liar, and I fell for one of her schemes, even when it sounded absolutely stupid."

"I don't get it, how?"Rose asked.

"Somehow she didn't show any and I mean any of the most common and inconspicuous signs of a liar, at all."

He looked at the children as he played then said,"I just hope she's happy playing with them and not straight up playing them."

Scarlet Sapphira walked through the hallway again, her confident but seductive stride catching the eyes of everyone, till she looked at them, then they immediately pulled the nearest trapped kid out of the locker and locked themselves in, ran into the nearest classroom or just looked away.

One random guy gave her a raspberry when out of vision range, then opened his locker only for all his books to fall down, glued together.

Akane was talking with her girl group when Scarlet Sapphira passed by, then Akane looked at one of the jocks in town and he smirked.

As Scarlet made her way up the stairs, the guy buzzed around her like a fly till she elbowed him in the face and he fell to the bottom.

The moment she got to the top, she was pushed down as well...

***

Time seemed to slow down as Scarlet Sapphira slowly fell backwards, but she smirked as she gripped the shirt of the guy that pushed her and pulled him down and herself up.

She looked at his minion, who jumped down by himself and when he got halfway down, she kicked him in the back to complete the stairwell then said,"Only I render punishment..."

She flung her hair aside and walked back into class, then looked out the window from the corner of her eyes and smirked...

"I'll like to introduce our new student class, could you introduce yourself young man?"

He stood up and shyly spoke, almost whispering,"H...hello, my name's Jack Johnson Tommy Lester, I've lived in New York all my life and, that's my sister over there, Scarlet."

Everyone gasped as he just called her by her first name, but she made no visible response other than a tsk.

After he had finished introducing himself, the class went on as normal and as he supposed, Scarlet Sapphira was one of the main hecklers in town with her questions specially designed to agitate and confuse the teacher.

After class, Scarlet Sapphira simply packed her stuff and left then everyone began whispering of how much trouble Jack Johnson was in, but he smiled at them and said,"My sister's my best friend, she'd never hurt me."

There was a short pause, before a burst of laughter which made his hearing aids to ring slightly, but even the hearing protection wasn't enough as he also burst into uncontrollable laughter, only when everyone stopped did he, then he shied out of class as if nothing happened, no wonder she was so mean, she has such a freak as a brother...

Scarlet Sapphira closed her locker and turned to her side to see Jack Johnson smiling at her.

She then braced for impact as he began talking nonstop, asking about her day, one hour into it.

She simply satisfied her interlocutor by saying,"We have class, don't get into trouble."

Jack Johnson nodded then trailed behind her like a shadow and all of this was quite new to everyone as no one had ever touched Scarlet Sapphira without her hurting them, talk about holding her hand and brushing up against her.

Jack Johnson ignored all the whispers he heard but Scarlet couldn't.

She took him into a corner then said,"Umm Jack, I wanted to tell you something, in school, I have a reputation to uphold, and with you holding my hand, it could be damaged."

"So you want me to stop following you."He said sadly.

"No, I want you to start acting like a normal kid, I don't care what they think of me, I care of what they think of you, it wouldn't hurt me if I was insulted but I know your high emotional empathy would make you feel every ounce of hatred they have against you so, keep up."

He nodded with a beaming smile as she led the way to their next class.

It was such a blessing for me to see Scarlet Sapphira and Jack Johnson holding hands when I went to take them from school.

My son wasn't ready for a public space after the first year of mild homeschooling had elapsed, so we had to postpone the date he'd attend his sister's and cousins' school by up to three years.

When he passed the entrance exam with a perfect score, I didn't know what to say, not only because I was proud of him, but also because I didn't want to hurt Scarlet Sapphira whom had been flunking recently, even though it wasn't by much, she still had lowered her average scores by a letter.

By the next week, they had their first test in school, and everyone was sweating, anxiety filled the air, with the only cool person in the room being the fiery haired Scarlet Sapphira.

She flashed an eye at her brother, who sat a few rows to the right, then started spinning her pen between her fingers in a way with little expertise.

He saw the signal and did the same, but she frowned when he answered no, then asked him to show her the answers.

She told him to look at her, but he averted his eyes, still, he could feel the overwhelming fear and sorrow that filled her heart, then slammed his hands on the table, stood up and yelled,"A black bee climbed behind a car!"

The tension in the hall morphed into laughter as the instructor frowned, and Scarlet Sapphira started to erase and shade the alternatives she chose, as determined by the first letter of each word.

"A big, dark, aardvark ate a dog!"He yelled again.

This time the teacher widened his eyes, thinking this was being caused by his medical conditions and ran to rush him to the sick bay as he began to yell magic words like,"Abacadaba cadab..."

Scarlet Sapphira finished her paper first and submitted both her's and her absent brother's as Akane looked at her suspiciously.

When the test results were out, Jack Johnson was terrified till Scarlet Sapphira snatched his papers and shoved them into my hands, alongside hers.

I looked at Jack Johnson's score, he had become top of the block...in his first week for that matter!

Looking at Scarlet Sapphira's report, my smile began to fade...