Two

The next morning, Jeff and Liu were told that they were already enrolled in a new school. Melanie, however, had not been enrolled in any school yet.

At eight in the morning, Margaret woke up her three children. Jeff and Liu were up and full of energy. Melanie was not impressed with her mother- not one bit. Melanie was not a morning person.

"Mom, why did you have to wake me up? I don't even go to school yet!" She moaned, huffily getting dressed into a pair of blue dungarees and a purple long sleeved top.

"You're eight. I don't expect an eight-year-old to be in bed all day." Margaret shook her head, making her way over to the coffee machine. She has to have her morning coffee to be able to deal with these kids.

Melanie made her way to the kitchen, sitting herself on one of the six barstools. She stared expectantly at her mother, who raised an eyebrow as she sipped her coffee.

"What?" Margaret eventually asked, tone flat.

Melanie gave her mother a dry look. "I'm eight. You're the one who makes me my breakfast."

Margaret let out a dry laugh. "Oh right, yeah." She made her way to the cupboard. "Cornflakes." Margaret grinned as she made her daughter a bowl- milk before cereal.

Melanie saw the way her mother made her cereal and grimaced. It makes the cereal taste weird. But alas, she ate it anyway.

By the time she had finished her cereal, her brothers had left for school, leaving Melanie alone in the house with her mother. Peter had already left for work hours ago. Melanie made her way to her bedroom, sitting on her bed which was placed beside her window. When she took a glance out of the window, she saw her brothers sitting peacefully at the bus stop, chatting idly.

She sat watching them for a few minutes, bored out of her mind. Then Melanie was snapped out of her boredom. Three boys walked up to Jeff and Liu and began to talk to them. One boy was talking to the pair, while the other two stood behind him menacingly- like bodyguards.

The boy talking to Jeff and Liu was fairly tall (even though he was the shortest of the group) , with fair skin and vibrant red hair that shone in the summer light, even if half of it was covered by a red cap that was turned backwards. His white t-shirt clung to his figure; the black vest top he wore above fitting loosely. His jeans fit well, slightly baggy at the ankles. His black converse were covered in dirt and mud.

The boy to his right was the tallest of the group, with an extremely slim figure. He was a pale boy, with messy black locks covered by a beanie of the same colour. He wore a loose fitting, dark green vest top and a pair of dark red knee-high jean shorts. His plain white socks rested up at his mid-shin, his trainers white with blue stripes, free of dirt.

The third boy stood to his left. The boy is taller than the red head, but shorter than the other boy. This boy was rounded, with tanned skin and chocolate brown hair, also covered by a beanie. His aqua blue tank top fit snug, and the gray tracksuit bottoms he wore rested well at the waist. His trainers were white, with black stripes across the shoe. The three boys wore dog tags around their necks.

Liu stood up, wearily talking to the boys. The tallest boy pulled out a knife, pointing it at Liu before taking his wallet and handing it over to their ringleader. Melanie was watching this happen to her brothers in sadness and horror. Jeff spoke to the boys, but the ringleader shoved Liu's wallet into his pocket. The ringleader pulled out a knife too, laughing at Jeff. Before he could finish his sentence, Jeff punched the red head in the nose before harshly twisting his wrist- most likely breaking it. Jeff took the boy's knife, as the other two boys rushed at Jeff. In self-defence, Jeff stabbed the tall boy in the arm and punched the tanned boy in the stomach. At the impact, the tanned boy was sick. The three bullies fled the scene.

Melanie was furious. Why did those three boys attack her brothers? They did absolutely nothing!

The bus finally arrived, and the two boys climbed aboard, travelling to school. The day was boring from there, as Melanie only sat around and played with some of her toys as she danced with boredom all day. During the entirety of the evening, Melanie didn't say a word about what happened between her brothers and the boys, as she could tell that they didn't want to talk about it themselves.

The next morning, Melanie wasn't awoken by her mother, nor her father. It was the obnoxiously loud sirens what woke her up. She wasn't happy about that. But when she realised that the sirens had stopped and now there was knocking on the door, she knew something was wrong. She immediately got dressed into a pink dress- the first thing she could find- and rushed downstairs.

Her parents were already there, speaking with two police officers as Jeff and Liu were stood on the other side of the room, looking extremely guilty.

She rushed over to her brothers, unnoticed, and stared up at them, her face blank. "Is this about what happened yesterday?" Melanie questioned as soon as she was stood before them.

Her brothers gawked at her before Liu knelt down. "Yeah, it is. What did you see?" He muttered, and Melanie grinned cheekily.

"Everything."

The boys frowned, exchanging a look. Why was she so calm?

"Melanie! Come here now!" Her mother exclaimed, her shrill voice silencing everyone else.

Melanie shook her head, standing defiantly in front of her brothers. "Why?" She asked.

"Your brothers attacked three defenceless boys yesterday morning. They are dangerous, little girl. Step away from them." One of the police officers stated.

"Oh please." She scoffed, face blank. "I saw the entire thing from my window. My brothers were being attacked- at knife point. They stole Liu's wallet! Jeff made sure that he or Liu didn't get hurt. He defended them because the other boys were going to hurt them." She explained, glaring down at the four adults staring at her.

"You are a little girl. Like hell we'll believe you. You don't even know what you're talking about!" The other officer roared, bursting into laughter.

"You're really nice, aren't you?" Melanie muttered sarcastically. "If you don't believe me or my brothers, get them to take that thing... You know, the one with the red and green and it tells you if you lied?" Melanie stumbled on her words, forgetting what she needed to say.

"A lie detector?" Peter spoke up, glancing at his daughter whose eyes lit up.

"Yeah! That's what I meant."

"We should actually do that…." One officer spoke hesitantly.

Jeff shook his head, gently moving Melanie aside. "It's okay. I did attack them, technically. Even if it was in self-defence." He admitted, making everyone in the room gasp and turn to him.

"Well then, he admitted it. He'll be taken to a youths prison for a year, so that he never acts out like this again." The officer that refused to believe Melanie spoke up.

"No. No, it was me. I did it." Liu spoke as he brandished a knife from his jacket.

Melanie knew this was a lie, as did Jeff, but all the pair could do was stare in shock as did everyone else. Liu pulled his sleeve up, showing many cuts and bruises on his arm.

"Well then, we'll be taking this one. Thanks for your time, Mrs. Woods, Mr. Woods." The first officer said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and cuffing Liu. Jeff tried to object, as did Melanie, but neither were listened to.

Liu was gone, and that left the three siblings into a depression.