'Family my ass,' Damien thought to himself rolling his eyes. He was sandwiched between his "parents", all three sitting on one side of Mrs Fuggerson's oakwood desk.
Despite her office being filled with shades of earthly brown and green colors and enough sunlight to give it a homely feel; Damien didn't feel at home right then. The office air was depressing. Never mind his waiting to be assessed, Ahara had brought the last person Damien wanted to see his school grades—Kingston Kapoor—her 'friend' and admirer since Damien could remember.
Dark long-haired melanoid charismatic guy he was, with a mischievous glint in his blue eyes that shone to maximum capacity every time he saw Ahara. Damien usually abhorred the men who approached his sister since he could smell trouble from a mile away, but such wasn't the case with Kingston. Luckily for him, Ahara tolerated his advances despite her introverted nature.
Damien couldn't bring himself to hate the one guy who'd managed to crack his sister's thick walls somehow. That's why he always pretended not to know what the two of them did every time he wasn't home when Kingston visited.
Long story short, Kingston showed a yearning for Ahara and so did she, but for some reason unknown to Damien they weren't publicly dating yet.
'Silliness knows no age bounds, huh,' Damien thought to himself glancing at his "parents".
"Ahem!" Mrs Fuggerson cleared her throat, drawing the family's attention in an instant.
"Damien Amaris..." She let out a sigh the boy was quite accustomed to hearing from most teachers every time they called out his name by now.
The woman rummaged through the stacks of papers on her desk before pulling out one with Damien's name written in bold letters and sighing a second time.
"Is something wrong, ma'am?" Ahara finally asked, brows scrunched at the teacher.
Mrs Fuggerson shook her head. "What can I say? Please see for yourself," she passed the paper to Ahara.
Damien's chest constricted when he saw the lined 'F's' forming a line down his end of year result slip. He wanted to cover his face but that'd only embarrass him more than he was already so he stopped.
"I'd advise signing him up for extra classes," Mrs. Fuggerson added. " I've tried everything I can to assist him in class, even giving him free extra help when he reached out to me...but as you can see, none of it is working," another sigh escaped from the woman.
"He's a bit dumb for his own—"
SLAM!
"—Good lord!" Mrs Fuggerson cried, backing away from the loud noise.
Damien and Kingston flinched at it too. It was Ahara's palm that'd hit the table and Damien knew why. She never let anyone badmouth him—even Kingston wasn't immune to that bit of treatment. She once punched him across the face after he called Damien a loser for failing to bake cookies during his fifth-grade home economics classes.
Realizing that everyone's wide eyes were set on her, Ahara slowly slipped back into her seat and cleared her throat, uncomfortably scratching the back of her neck.
"Sorry. That was rude of me. It's just...I get emotional when people call my brother names."
"Ah. My bad, I should've found a better way to put it," Mrs Fuggerson replied, her voice barely audible as she adjusted herself in her seat.
"Ahem! As I was saying, you might want to spend more on his extra lessons. Maybe he'll get better as time goes on, but as his teacher, I'd advise you to invest more of his time in sporting activities. He's my top student in Physical Education classes as you can see from his report card, and he's also our school's most famous athlete in almost every competition."
'Finally, some good news.'
Damien watched as Ahara's eyes landed on his PE grade—a whooping A plus. She passed the paper to Kingston after Mrs Fuggerson suggested that Damien's dad see his grades and the guy verbally agreed with her suggestions. After a bit more talk on her student and giving Damien's parents contact numbers to some coaches she knew for the boy's future career options, the meeting ended with Ahara apologizing to the teacher before the happy family of three left the office.
"Did you bring your bag?" Ahara asked once they were walking down the corridors towards the exit.
"No," Damien replied.
Usually, Ahara would be laughing at his grades by now. It was nothing new for them to see a line of 'F's' on Damien's report card. He really was dumb as Mrs Fuggerson had put it. However, unlike her usual self whenever she saw Damien's poor grades, Ahara was gloomy today.
"Go take it, we'll be waiting for you by the gate," Ahara notified her brother before turning to leave, mumbling something under her breath.
Damien could only look at her as she walked down the corridor. "Just what's going on with her these days?" He mumbled to himself, completely forgetting about Kingston who was standing next to him.
The dude placed his hand on Damien's shoulder, drawing his attention as he gave him a gentle smile that showed his pearly white teeth. Damien could help but notice how his canines were a little too pointed as if he filed them daily.
"She's probably having a mid-life crisis," Kingston's deep voice rang in Damien's ears the next moment as he realized that Kingston had heard him.
"You too then? You're mirroring her behavior ever since we left the office," the boy replied.
"That's because I'm her friend," Kingston replied.
"Ha! Yeah right."
Kingston's smile immediately faded. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Realizing where this was going, Damien shrugged the guy's hand off his shoulder and nodded in Ahara's direction. "She's waiting for you. I'll meet up with you guys in less than ten minutes."
Then he dashed in the opposite direction towards his classroom, leaving Kingston with a confused expression on his face as he watched the boy leave.
******
"Where's Ahara?" Damien asked moments later after reaching the school's large black gate, panting after the sprinting he'd just done.
Kingston pointed back at the school building. "Restrooms."
"Right."
And that was it.
Nothing more to say was left between them, only a comfortable silence where each one wondered when Ahara would come back. It was then that an awesome idea hit Damien. Instead of waiting for Ahara to spill her secrets to him, why not ask Kingston instead?
"Hey, Kingston."
"Hmm?"
"Did you perhaps...go out with Ahara last night around eleven?"
To Damien's surprise, Kingston's body visibly froze. He gave the man a devilish smile.
'So they were together.'
"Why're you asking me that? Did you see her leaving the house?"
Damien debated whether to ignore his question but after seeing Kingston's reaction, he wanted to tease the man even more. It was hard to surprise the Joker in any way. This was his only chance to get back at him for all the jump scares he'd given the boy as a child.
"Matter of fact, I did. The way she left the house, you'd think she's an undercover agent or something."
Another freezing moment from Kingston and Damien grinned from ear to ear. This was fun. Kingston had no way of denying he had spent the night with Ahara. Their puke-inducing private game of love or whatever was ending today. Damien was going to make sure of that.
He closed in on Kingston who was now ruffling his hair with his back glued to the wall, clearly thinking of an excuse to evade Damien's questions.
'Spill it!' Damien hissed in his head just when Kingston snapped his fingers.
"Ahara's coming," he announced, a grin forming on his lips.
Damien hadn't even peeked through the gate before he heard her yelling:
"They found it Kingston! My team located the fucking Gem in our territory, can you believe that?!" She was running from what Damien could make out.
None of what she was saying made any sense to him though, but it seemed to click with Kingston.
"What's she talking about?" Damien asked the man, a little relieved that his sister was finally acting normal again.
However, Kingston didn't look pleased with her joy at all. He just pushed past Damien without answering the boy's question and revealed himself to Ahara from behind the gate. Then as if to tell Ahara to stop running her mouth, he placed a finger above his lips whilst facing in the direction she was coming from—but she continued anyway.
"I'll need backup, we can't let this chance slip up or they'll vanish with it for good this time. Claudine said they're S rank, so call your men and let's go whoop some ass toni—"
"Whoop whose ass?" Damien cut her, finally showing himself to Ahara from behind the gate.
"Damien!" Ahara squeaked, glancing at Kingston suggestively. The man only shrugged and looked away, clearly not ready for the confrontation they were about to have with her brother.
Damien almost smacked his head at how stupid he'd been. Why'd he think Kingston would tell him about Ahara's whereabouts when she was hiding it from him? Of course, Kingston was bound to hide it too.
'I should have known,' he groaned in his head, standing between the secretive duo and cutting their 'eye talk'. He was done playing games with them now.
"Please answer me, Ahara, or I'm coming with you tonight."