Volume I Chapter 9

"Pearson."

"Guy."

"Trying to disobey the curfew again, aren't we?"

"Don't you know me so well, Peter?" It was late evening when we reached the gates of our shared neighborhood. Peter Guy, the guard who takes the night shift every weekday, was currently reprimanding me about how many times I've ignored the curfew implemented by his boss and fellow officers. "Oh yes. Yes, I do. Although I'm surprised that you've even brought a friend to continue this incessant trouble you've been-wait, isn't this young lady with you Ms. Collins' lovable niece?"

Lovable?

"Well, lovable or not, do say hello to the old guard little Andy." I cooed to her like a mom would when watching her own kid introduce herself confidently on public. I knew that I'd feel a hard glare coming on my way so I quickly turned my head from the brewing disaster beside me. "Hello sir. I'm Andy Collins, the niece that you were talking about. We had to stop by and do some auditing on the school's upcoming tree-planting event today, just that we've forgotten about the time so we're deeply sorry about that."

"Well I'll be, you can call me Guy little lady. This friend of yours had been long calling me one." The two talked for a short while, sending discreet stabbing messages my way, in which I both ignored the two of them as they reached a silent truce on their conversation. No sooner than later, Guy had let the curfew thing on the two of us to slide just for the sake of the lovable niece.

"Well, next time that you do go out, give me some heads-up alright? Go along now." He huffed out a few more words before finally taking a turn to sit on his post to provide safety for the whole neighborhood. "We'll keep that in mind Mr. Guy. Do have a good evening." We waved him goodbye- I mean, Andy waved him goodbye as I silently waited for her to finish the conversation.

"Well aren't you lovable right now?"

"Ugh, shut up Pearson. As if."

"You're words, not mine." I teased her and slowly followed her pace to walk in the cold stone pavement of the silent street.

"Are you going tell where the Pearson family lives, or am I not going to get the answer that I wanted?" She questioned me after I took a few paces beside her. I didn't answer at first, wanting to give out an excuse not to as I looked through the rows of silent houses in front of us. Giving her a definite answer means that someone would finally know where I lived at for the last six years, and giving out a lie would be destroying the little trust we have. It was a small manner but a large conflict in my head, so I said, "My family and I live in a small basket you see. We can be seen being picked at edge of the neighborh-ow!" A light slap came my way after that.

"Whatever." We then continued to walk in silence as my thoughts were still a little conflicted if what I did was just right. I was pretty sure that the girl beside me was testing if I'd give in from her cold shoulder, when suddenly, a loud beeping came and halted us in our tracks.

"There you are, Nessa! You brat- oh, who's this friend with you?" Dressed in his job attire of a licensed doctor with disheveled hair was Kai, sitting on the black electric motorbike that I was supposed to borrow for the next week's airport fetching appointment with my mom. "Kai. This is my classmate and our neighbors' niece, Andy Collins. Andy, this is Kai my mom's-"

"Friend. A friend tasked to take care of her careless daughter." He ruffled my head and I couldn't help but groan at his unnecessary words and actions. "Yes, hello Kai. Are you here to take Vanessa home?" Before the conversation could even continue from the question, I pushed Kai out of his seat muttering a quick word of thanks for bringing the scooter before pushing him far off from the two of us on the sidewalk. He was quite peeved on what I was exactly doing by sending him off, but gave up due to my stubborn disposition on sending him home.

"You better explain this at home, young lady."

"Yeah, yeah. Now, go away will you." I waved him back and turned to catch up on the confused girl slowly walking by the sidewalk. "You don't intend to leave me, don't you." I asked with a grin. She ignored me and continued to walk under the lonely street light of the dark street.

"Why didn't you go home when you're mom's friend came looking for you." I snorted at her silly question and said, "Because I wouldn't abandon the kidnapee alone in this lonely and dark street, why else would I?"

"Okay, what was that?" He questioned when the door was open before I could even knock and exude my presence in our oh so lonely house. "What was what?" I asked, going past him and putting my things down on the living room before heading towards my room to change.

"That." I paused and gave him a confused look. My mind still wandering of my earlier conversation with a girl at the moment. He looked at my expression for a few moments and said, "That pushing me to go home before you, that."

"Ohh… That." I gave a nod to indicate that I was finally following his trail of thought but continued going to my room for a change of clothes. "Yes, that- wait! You're trying to delay answering my question again." I gave out a laughed as I shut him my bedroom door.

"Vanessa Pearson!"

"Chill! I'm changing my clothes! I'll tell you all about it downstairs later!" I shouted in my room trying to hear his footsteps disappearing off to the living room. When I was certain that everything had finally turned quiet, I walked by my closet and changed out of my previous clothes. I stopped when I noticed the family ring that dad always used to hang on his neck as a makeshift necklace.

Dad.

Can't believe that I remembered I had one. I shook my head off from thoughts I've long abandoned with him, and went off downstairs to eat dinner.

"Are you telling me now or-" I saw Kai, sitting crossed leg on the couch with dinner fully set on the table. "Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you after I grab myself a plate of the pasta you've ordered-." "How about, you tell me all about it, while you get your own plate from the cupboard!" I ignored him and went to get a plate and fork from the kitchen before sitting down beside him to eat.

"Are you seriously putting this conversation off until you finished eating?" I looked at him, swallowing the food in my mouth before saying, "Are you seriously going to question me about such a silly matter?" He snorted before taking my plate away and facing me with a serious tone in his words.

"Yes." I groaned. "If I didn't know better, I would've really thought that you're my real dad. Sheesh, no wonder mom would always get angry when I'm as stubborn as you." I reached for my plate back but he continued on raising it on a height that was too high for me to reach.

Dang it!

"Talking now?" He asked. "Fine. My plate." He handed me back my plate of delicious pasta and asked again. "So, why? Why would you send an adult, who was, by the way, looking to fetch you home, in front of your friend and neighbor?"

"Duh! You already know why." I gave him a closed off answer in which he continued to look at me with an annoying expression before giving off by saying, "You're a man, hello? I couldn't just leave a girl alone on that dark and lonely street! Who knows what would happen…" I shoved my mouth a roll of pasta and rolled my eyes at the stupid expression that laid on his face.

"I don't follow. I mean, you could've let me send the two of you home, right?" "I would, if you had your car with you. Besides, you and her have only just met a couple of moments ago. I'd doubt she'd take you up on the offer of riding a small scooter in the middle of the night." I didn't say anymore as I remembered the moment that we had when we ate on the small convenience store along the way home. How she strongly opposed and argued with me on having someone to treat her for some food to satiate the loss of energy that we had spent on traveling for the rest of the time. She had this sort of heated energy on her that I couldn't really ignore so, I, myself, couldn't help but argue with her for the heck of it. It was fun messing with her, because at that time, I've got to see different expressions that I haven't seen on her calculated face ever since the first time I've met her.

Still, it was strange to know how she's the only person I've met that had such a strong sense of responsibility. Even on the smallest things such as free food, she wouldn't let it go without getting back at the person who treated her for the end of the day.

"Even if you won't tell me the location on where exactly do you live in this ghostly neighborhood, you better come at the gate early on the morning and wait for me there." After saying those words, she turned to the front lawn of one familiar house and opened the door with a quick swing.

"Why?!" I lightly shouted at her, but she seemed like she didn't hear it and continued closing the door of the said house.

I was stunned for a long while. The eerie silence made me a little lost on what I was supposed to do when suddenly, a small chime came from the direction above my head. Curious of what made it chime out of its beautiful melody, I turn my head to look up the cause. Only that I saw an ephemeral sight of beauty that I probably wouldn't ever forget on my whole lifetime.

There, on the small balcony, walked a long-haired and slender woman. The tips of her black hair swayed with the gentle breeze of the cold wind, as I saw her walk towards the balcony's railings little by little. It was a little dark from my field of vision and I couldn't completely see who the person exactly was. However, it's like the world had heard my silent plea and let the hiding moon from the night sky, peek, at the place that I wanted to have a clear look upon. The bright moonlight shone upon the figure's visage, and then, there, I finally recognized the girl wearing a solid blue turquoise night suit.

The wearer was the girl that I just spent the whole day with, the girl who was called the Collins' most lovable niece, and the girl who I had clumsily bumped into at the school hallway on the first day of class.

Andy Collins.

"I'll see you at the gate tomorrow?" She said to me in a whisper, like it was Juliet going off script from her famous lines. Still stunned by what I merely witnessed, I almost nodded my head when I stopped and give her a full-fledged smile instead.

"Yeah."

"Earth to Alien? Hello?" A wave of hand brought me back from the night I sent the girl in front of me on her doorstep. Today she looked extremely vibrant and energetic with her hair pulled up in a ponytail over our old school uniform. I couldn't help letting out a satisfied hum after I remember the reason why she asked me to wait for her so early on the village gate.

"Don't you look quite cute today, Ms. Collins?" She stopped waving her right hand and looked at me as if I was kidding her first thing in the morning. "You mean to say that I don't usually look cute in the mornings?"

"No."

"Then?"

"I meant to say that you've stopped being lovable this morning- Ah. Ah! I was just joking okay?" I then got another slap from her as we head our way to school. "But I'm not joking about the cute part." I quickly left her behind as I felt that my words sounded a little off at the moment but quickly shrugged it away.

"And so, I've noticed that there was something peculiar about the two of you today." Jill said as she went to sit with us on the school bleachers for a little rest from the gym class activity today.

��Why so?" Andy asked her new friend while I propped open my water bottle to drink.

"Oh, I don't know. How about the fact that you both went out of school for a short date?" I choked on the water that I was drinking and unintentionally spitted out large amounts of water upon Steven's shirt, who was sitting on the row below us and listen about the gossips that went out of my best friend's mouth.

"Ah! Fuck! Pearson-"

"Cough! Sorry-cough! Bout that. Cough! Cough! Steven." Someone patted my back as I try to help my body fixed my breathing back to normal again.

"Here, I have a towel that you could use." I heard Andy's voice whisper to me and a soft cloth of cotton landed right upon my lap, free to use. I nodded at her silently in thanks for her help, and used the towel to dry off the water from both of Steven and I's bodies.

"Yuck. I feel like I've been bathe with saliva all over my body." He complained and I couldn't help but give him a quick roll of the eye from his exaggerated disgust about my earlier mishap in gym class. He noticed that I wasn't having any of his fake acting so he pulled me away from our seats and asked, "How's the operation Make-Clementine-Accepted-for-Better-Grades going?"

I took off his arm on my shoulder and said, "First off, your plan name sucks as always. Secondly, I didn't sign up for this exact purpose just to offend a smart, responsible, and nice girl. Lastly, the 'plan' has long been busted by the girl itself, genius."

"Really? I didn't expect for you to fail, Pearson-" "I didn't! Why am I even arguing about you in something I didn't sign up for?" I huffed and massaged the middle of my brows out of pure frustration from the topic that we're talking about.

"Okay, okay. No need to be so snappy about it. The finding out thing wasn't what I was expecting. But how is it that the three of you could talk animatedly when she already knows all about the plan."

"Maybe, she needed friends to talked with because the whole class is basically ignoring her existence? I'm not sure though!" He looked at me for a moment, silent for the first time that I've met him since middle school and I couldn't help but cast my gaze down and say, "Sorry for being snappy throughout this whole conversation that we're having. The wet shirt as well, but having to discuss this whole thing with just the two of us like kids is… I don't know if you follow me here, but… We aren't exactly kids anymore, Ven."

He sighed and said, "I know, Van. I'm stupid in a lot of things that aren't related to History and sports, but I know." We then hugged for a moment to console each other from the memories of middle school that erupted on both of our heads, and I said, "You know that it wasn't your fault you turned stupid. It was them, okay? Not you."

He nodded silently in my embrace and we separated moments later with a smile.

"Are we both better?"

"Yeah, but I still hate the fact that I feel like I've been bathed in your saliva." I punched his shoulder as he laughed at me and went to a nearby men's restroom to change. I lightly smiled but frowned when he finally disappeared from my sight as I remembered the major bullying event that involved us on our old middle school in town.

On that particular day, I could still hear the incessant cries of his sister for help. The sharp pummeling of fists and kicks shadowed over my heart when I saw him being beaten by the two famous delinquents of the school. I couldn't do a thing, rather, I was forced to do nothing but to silently watch in one hidden corner of the room. In those years, we were called the detective duo of the class. We protected those who were wrong, questioned other students to get the facts from the nasty rumors circulating in the school, and tied everyone together to get along. Before the dreaded incident, we had the case of a major bullying in the school. Some of our classmates had been extorted by two seniors of the school so we tried to make a secret spot for us to capture the major bullying that was happening on the school at night. It was supposed to be just the two of us and with my mom's camera. But when we heard that his sister had gotten involved by following his brother out of the house, I was the only one left to do the duty in the dark.

The result we got was the absolute worse. The two senior students knocked him up a lot of times on one area of his head, and it resulted in him on being out for a long time. The police arrived at the scene when my mom and Steven's parents came to the station to conduct a search party for us on the whole area. Everything happened in a blur and the only last thing that I remembered was my mom taking away the crucial evidence in my hand, and consoling me from everything that I was forced to see as a kid. Later on, I found out that the side effect from our last mission left Steven's brain to process a little slower than kids of our age. He would have this blank look in his face quite often when someone would teach him about the things one would learn at school. And if someone even mentions things about middle school, his body would tremble and he'd cry out of despair.

It was hard seeing him like that, but as time passed, everyone saw that he got a little bit better now. He wouldn't tremble much nor would he cry out and throw a fit. However, anything that involved a thing or two about class relationships was a very touchy subject for him because all of our bullying investigation started out with someone being singled out in class. It was a rollercoaster of events in our life that I'd never ever forget.

"Hey, you okay?"