Black Card

By the time Jason parked the car in front of the mansion. The sun was already beginning to set over the city. The three quickly got out, Michael heading to a smaller side building near the mansion, where his family and some of the other servants lived.

Meanwhile, Melina and Jason entered the mansion, Andrew opening the door for them as if had been waiting there. He quickly took Jason's coat and briefcase, leaving after telling them that dinner would be ready in an hour.

After Andrew had disappeared, Jason turned to his sister. "Want to do a quick workout before dinner?"

After their discussion about improving stamina would help Melina with controlling and manipulating her powers, Melina had decided to do small workouts with Jason. So far, they had mostly been doing some running but Jason had promised that they would do some swimming soon as well as other stamina building workouts.

"Sure." Melina nodded her head. "Let me just get changed quickly. And put my bag down."

"Okay. I'll meet you in five minutes." Jason paused for a second. "You know it's okay to have Andrew take your bag for you."

"I know." Melina smiled before quickly heading off to her room to change.

She was honestly just uncomfortable with having Andrew do it for her. She had spent most of her life doing a lot of things herself, like carrying her school bags and getting things, so while she had learnt to quickly adjust to her new life, she was still trying to get used to the fact that there were servants around.

Melina opened the door of her room and dumped her bag on her chair. She then went to grab a pair of workout clothes from her cupboard. Quickly changing in some leggings and a baggy t-shirt, she tied her running shoe laces and headed for her father's study.

Inside, she spotted her father on the phone looking at some documents at his desk. She quietly walked over to the secret door, swiftly heading down to the gym. There she found Jason changed into some sweatpants and a t-shirt carrying some dumbbells.

He looked to see her walking and smiled. "You ready to start?"

"Yeah." Melina replied, walking over. "Are we doing some running again?"

"No. I thought we'd do something different today." Jason said, walking over to a small shelf. He grabbed some rope, handing one to Melina.

Melina took the rope and noticed it was skipping rope. "We're skipping?"

"Yeah. Change it up a little."

Melina looked at Jason a little confused. Skipping was something she had done with her classmates when she was younger at school. It was how they'd play. She didn't see how it was going to be a workout.

Jason, realizing what Melina was thinking, laughed. "Just trust me okay."

He then took the ends of the rope in each hand, letting the rest of the rope fall to his feet. Doing a little jump over the rope, he started spinning the rope around, jumping each time it came near his feet.

"See if you can keep up."

Melina, feeling challenged, started skipping too, keeping to the speed Jason was going. However he kept speeding it up, going a little faster with each jump.

After ten minutes, Melina was starting to tire. She also started seeing what Jason meant with it being a workout. She felt herself slowing down a little, watching as Jason kept to the same speed, not tiring at all.

Suddenly she lost her momentum, tripping over her rope, nearing falling. Jason stopped, reaching out to grab her.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, thanks." Melina muttered, a little embarrassed. "I'm fine."

Jason released her arm, taking a step back. "Alright, I think that's enough for today. We both had a long day. Dinner is going to be ready soon anyway."

Melina handed Jason the skipping rope in agreement, heading back to her room without a word. She showered before changing into some pajama pants and a strappy shirt.

When she got out of the bathroom, she looked at her phone for the time, to see a bunch of messages and that she had ten minutes before dinner. Opening the messaging app she saw a few messages from Alice, an unknown number and an invite to a group.

Checking Alice's message first, Melina saw that it was to let her know that she had gotten home safely and had given Antonio her number to add her to their group chat. Melina smiled at the message, happy to be a little close to someone.

Hey Alice

Got home safe too. Have a good evening o(>ω<)o

Within seconds Alice responded and the two girls chatted for a little before Alice messaged Melina, telling her that she needed to get going. After saying goodbye, Melina closed the chat and opened the message from the unknown number, guessing it was from Antonio.

Reading it, she saw she had guessed right.

Hey Melina

This is Antonio Masan, Alice gave me your number. Make sure to save mine.

P.S. The group invite is from me.

Melina quickly replied, saying she would do so and thanked him for the invite. After saving his number into her contacts, she accepted the group invite, laughing when she saw the group name - Colston High Devils.

The unexpected sound of someone knocking on the door made Melina realize how much time had passed. Slipping her phone into her pajama pants' pocket, she opened it to find a servant around her twenties standing nervously at the door.

"Is dinner ready?" Melina asked the blond girl.

"Um…yes miss. Young master Jason asked me to come call you."

"Okay thanks." Melina nodded. "I'll get going now."

The maid did a little bow before disappearing. Melina meanwhile made her way to the dining room to find her brothers were already sitting down. Melina took the seat next to Kai, letting the aromatic smells fill her with joy as servants began placing dinner on the table.

As the last plate of food was placed on the table, James entered the room, taking the seat at the head of the table. They all silently began dishing up some food and started eating as the servants left the room.

As Melina placed a piece of steak into her mouth, someone dumped a spoonful of spinach onto her plate.

"You need to eat vegetables too, Melina." Kai smirked, waving a pair of dishing tongs in the air. "Otherwise, you're going to stay weak."

"What am I, five?" Melina pouted, disgusted by the sight of spinach, her greatest hate. She moved the spinach to the side of her plate and picked up a roasted potato square with her fork. "Besides I am eating my vegetables, dad!"

"Come on Melina. Potatoes are a starch. Aren't you an A student?" Kai teased.

Melina, annoyed with her brother, grabbed the tongs out of his hands and quickly dumped two spoonfuls of spinach into his plate.

"You should eat up too, Kai. Seeing as you too only have potatoes." Melina smirked. "It's only fair, seeing as you've got muscles to keep in shape."

Jason laughed and James sighed, shaking his head at his two younger children. Grabbing Melina's plate, he took the spinach off and dumped it onto his plate. He then handed it back to Melina, who felt relieved at not having to eat the spinach.

"Kai, stop bullying your sister." James exclaimed, handing Melina a small bowl of steamed broccoli. "As for you, Melina, at least have some broccoli seeing as you won't eat any spinach."

Melina took some broccoli and James smiled, watching her eat. While the spat between his children had upset him a little, it had brought up a memory of when James tried feeding spinach to Melina when she was a baby.

His daughter had grown up a lot, but it seemed there were still some things that had stayed the same. Like her hate for spinach. James made a mental note to have the chef stop serving it at dinner.

"Melina, I heard you went out with some friends today." James said suddenly.

Melina nodded her head, finishing up the last bit of her food. "Yeah, I went with Alice and Michael to a café nearby."

"Alice Masan?" Her father questioned.

"Um…yeah. We're in the same class." Melina replied, as servants began to clear the table and place dessert on the table. "Is there a problem?"

"No. I'm just surprised that you two get along. Diana, the head of the Masan clan, heard about you transferring to Colston and offered to have her daughter take you under her wing." James explained. "However, I thought you would feel uncomfortable seeing how different you two are, so I refused."

"Oh…"

"Anyway, I wanted to give you this, seeing as you will probably be spending time out with friends." James continued, sliding something to Melina. "Here, for your expenses."

Melina looked down and grasped silently in shock. Her father had just handed her a black credit card. "I can't take this…it's too much."

"Melina, please. This is nothing for me." James said.

"Still…" Melina tried to figure a way to get her father to take it back. She didn't feel like she could handle something with that much money well. "I don't need that much. Keeping the card would be too uncomfortable."

Jason, noticing how uncomfortable Melina was getting exclaimed, "Father, why not give Melina a small allowance for now and increase it a little as time goes. Melina has lived ten years under a middle class lifestyle, something like this is too much. Time will allow for her to adjust to our lifestyle."

"True…" James took the card back. "Alright, I'll talk to Andrew and have him put a small allowance in a debit card. Is that okay?"

"That's fine." Melina nodded, thankful for Jason's help.

"Alright then."