SEVEN

Jack Johnson was undergoing his nightly journal filling routine when Scarlet Sapphira dropped down from the ceiling and he yelled.

She then said,"Calm down, it's me, I'm not going to hurt you."

"How the heck did you get in here?!"He yelled.

"I climbed through the air vents and ceiling like a normal person, what have you got there?"She asked.

"It's just my journal."He said.

With a look between the hard leather covers, she said,"Wow, you do write everything, you wrote about Cindy Stacy drinking from a water fountain? And the duration of time? And why are the letters over here so small and oh, didn't know he did that..."

"The smaller letters represent less important details no one would notice, I try to write the font size in proportion to the event significance."

"You should make this a biography..."Scarlet said,"... it's amazing, but a little boring though, I mean just a few oxymorons here and..."

"Scarlet..."

"... euphemisms to replace those statements, oh and a hyperbole right there would really lighten things up..."

"Scarlet Sapphira!"

She looked at him with a sour, almost hurt expression as she repeated what he called her and he apologized several times, but she smiled and said,"It's okay, I'm all ears now."

"Are you mad at me for ratting out on you?"

"Why should I be? You only did the right thing."

"But would you be mad if someone else did it?"

"Maybe, it depends, why did you ask?"

"Because Scarlet, I don't want to move on when my best friend is stuck behind me, I've seen what you can do, you stack rotating champagne bottles and soda cans on an office pin and hacked into mom and dad's phones to send a message to the principal that they had received your previous test results, why?"

"First off, I don't do the whole tech stuff on my own, I pay someone and second off, the stacking thing just takes practice."

Looking at her, his eyebrows furrowed, before he frowned then said,"Scarlet, don't lie to me."

"What are you talking about?"

"What are you doing? What is happening to you? You used to look out for me but now you intimidate anyone who has the guts to challenge me, you have lied and stolen literally from everyone in our family and have now learned to lie to me, I don't even know what you feel anymore."

"Jack Johnson, relax."

"I can't, I want my sister back, please..."

"Shhh, calm down, I'm right here."

She hugged him tightly and he begged her not to leave him alone and she agreed, gently stroking his long, wavy hair, she hummed to him as he wrote...till the pen fell from his asleep hand...

The next day, Jack Johnson woke up and realized his sister was gone.

He ran down the stairs to look for her but all I said was,"And my little man is finally awake."

"Where's Scarlet?"

"She left for school, hours ago."

"But why didn't you wake me?"

"This was your first time ever sleeping in, I didn't want to bother you, you'll meet her later."

"But I need to meet her now, did she give you something to sign?"

"You mean the IQ test application form? Yeah, Rose and me."

"...please could you take me to school?"

"Son, it's well past ten, I..."

"Please?"

I sighed, then to him to get prepared.

At school, Scarlet Sapphira sat in the empty classroom, spinning a stylus pen between her fingers with her legs crossed on the desk, blowing a bubble of gum.

The instructor then spoke,"Thirty minutes to time..."

She didn't flinch till he spoke,"Ms Lester..."

"Call me Scarlet Sapphira..."

"Alright, Ms Scarlet Sapphira, your time is running out and it seems you haven't even begun."

"I'm thinking."

"But Ms, it's only an objective test."

"Who said I care about the test? I've gotten better things to bother myself about."

Scarlet Sapphira literally saw stars as she looked at the ceiling, numbers floating around in her head and fusing together in complex arrays, organic compounds forming in several ways, some of which possible and others which were impossible so she discarded, till she heard someone call her name.

She sat up and looked at Jack Johnson through the window, then sighed and asked,"What?"

"Are you done?"

"I've tried, it's not working."

"Scarlet please, don't give up, don't let me be alone anymore, please..."

She knew he was making it up, not only because he was one of the most popular and least lonely kids as everyone wanted to sit by him... in a test, but also because for such a strong emotional empath, he was a sloppy liar, but she sighed as the invigilator said fifteen minutes remained on the clock, spun the pen, then got to work...

The examiner watched as she tapped on the screen several times, with basically no aim in sight, and approximately five minutes to time, she dumped the tablet on the desk before him and walked out.

He looked at her and began to ask but before he finished, she said,"If you want to know whether I'm done or not, read through, maybe you'd learn something new."

Then she left...

***

Jack Johnson was walking up the stairs when someone knocked him over and he dropped his books and almost dropped himself when someone caught him from behind.

He looked back, surprised and called her name,"Akane?"

She picked his books up for him then apologized for the trouble and her emotions felt sincere, but recently, he had learned not to trust he surface emotions of anyone he met as he asked,"Why did you help me?"

She looked at him then said,"Because you aren't like your sister, see you later."

She walked away and he ran for his Mathalon club meeting and the group leader, after everyone else had arrived on time, six minutes on average after Jack Johnson, said,"We have a math contest against our main competitors in two weeks, Primridge Elementary school."

The students either gritted their teeth, mildly cussed or simply spat on the floor as Jack Johnson sensed all the anger and spite around him, but not the reason.

Python, as they called their leader, continued,"I wanted all of you to start bubbling up the most sophisticated but useful math problems you can think of, when you're done, you can demonstrate your findings on the smart board, let's make history!"

Everyone cheered as Jack Johnson silently asked someone what the problem with Primridge was and the guy, while still cheering, said,"They're jerks."

Jack Johnson just resumed.

Several spheroids of cellulose polymer sheets littered the floor around everyone as they racked their brains, except for Jack Johnson, who slowly wrote whatever came to his mind, but couldn't make something new.

The door immediately flew open and Python said,"Christin, you are finally...here..."

All the boys in the club looked back and drooled, stunned as the most popular girl in school walked by, making their noses the same colour of her hair.

She then walked to Jack Johnson then said,"School's out, we have to leave."

"In a minute..."He spoke.

She was about to leave when she heard a silent voice say,"Please..."

She halted in her steps, tapped her lap with her palm several times then turned back and relaxed her elbow on his head while scribbling away on the notebook before him.

After a few seconds, she took Regina's last apple and bit into it, walking away then they asked if she ruined his work, he then said,"No, she just found the date of the next solar eclipse..."

Python made sure his hair was great, then ran after Scarlet Sapphira and Jack Johnson as they made their way out of the school building.

He called for her as he knew touching was severely prohibited, punishable by persecution, but she didn't make an effort to stop, till Jack Johnson stood still.

She looked at him from the corners of her eyes, then sighed and looked back at Python and asked what he wanted.

"I just... I just wanted to ask you if you'd like to join the Mathletes for our upcoming Mathal..."

"No."

"But you could help our school..."

"I'd rather die..."

"Make a good name for yourself."

"Of little importance to me."

"...make your brother happy?"

This time, she almost attacked him when Jack Johnson stepped forward and said,"He's right, please Scarlet Sapphira?"

She looked at him with her tongue lolling in her mouth, sighed then agreed, and Python ended up being the one jumping for joy, before Jack Johnson copied and Scarlet Sapphira just dragged him along.

Scarlet stumped down on the white background beneath her, then Jack Johnson also reclined as snowflakes fell on their faces.

Jack Johnson, covered in layer upon layer of winter outfits, said,"Scarlet Sapphira, you really should put on some more clothing."

Scarlet Sapphira, in sweat pants and a crop top which looked great on her by the way, said,"Never."

They were soon called to dinner, but as usual, Scarlet ate in seclusion, in her room, during this time, even Jack Johnson wasn't allowed in, so basically no one knew what she did when she ate.

Scarlet Sapphira finished copying and improving her brother's sketch of an Indian elephant, into realism, then got a message on her phone...via my tapped one, the test results were in.

She then sent a message to the principal that we were busy, so would send a relative to pick it up.

She went to the school as Peter, a middle aged man who lived under a bridge, dressed in Luis' clothes, brought the report to her and she thanked him, giving him her supper and a couple of hundred dollars.

He took it then said,"Thank you very much Scarlet, but may I ask where you got this money? And why you don't want your family seeing your results yet? You were said to have been jumped four grades."

"I don't want them making a fuss out of me when my brother needs the most attention, and don't worry, I'll show it to them if it meets the right requirements."

He nodded then presented the clothes back to her but she said,"Keep them, my uncle will hardly realize they're gone."

He thanked her again then left as she looked around, then at the envelope, why couldn't they just do it digitally so she could get rid of it?

Getting to midnight, there was darkness in every corner of the school, apart from within the eighth grade chemistry lab, within it was all sorts of activity...