It didn't take long for the family to disperse after the morning breakfast. His father had spent a bit too long enjoying the cooked meal they had and raced off to work. Throwing on his work clothes as he was running out the door in a flash. The sound of the car engine started outside as his father's car sped off, Will just watched from inside the house seeing his father rush to work. His mother was cleaning up the dishes and seeing the opportunity he decided to spend some much needed time with her. And what better way than to cook together.
This time he was teaching a simple pancake recipe. They had plenty of the ingredients at home but they never went through a lot of it. Though Will would preferably want to use fresher ingredients as the flour bag had been sitting there for months and considering it would affect the taste, stale fresh pancakes were certainly a new one for his taste buds but it was easy to cover up with some honey from the cupboard or lemon and sugar. His mother was beaming after taste testing the meal as she only had to focus on not burning the food. Giving each other a thumbs up Will felt his mother was ready to try and make food for her husband tomorrow morning. To say he would be surprised would be an understatement, though it would be less effective since his father had been eating so well lately and under the pretense that his cooking was supposed to be his mother's. The big surprise would be if he found out that it was his son was preparing their morning meals for them in the last few days.
Having finished up Will went upstairs and took down his school bag filled with books and writing materials as he headed towards the front door. His mother was hovering on the side as she worried, biting her nails as she wasn't sure what to do right now. Whether to stop her child and be the parent she was supposed to be or let him take this golden opportunity he talked about earlier. For Will, it was hard to ignore his mother like this and so he went over to her before anything else.
"I'll be back soon mum, I'm gonna go visit Fiona and talk with the two of us about going to school together in the future" Will said f
reassuring his mother that he wasn't up to no good and flashing a smile. Well not as much as usual. His mother looked him over carefully before relenting and giving a peck on the forehead.
"Okay hun, I know we should send you off to another school but there's nothing close by or ready to take us in for a while. If you can study and learn we couldn't be prouder" His mother complained but she was still happy her child was growing up already. After the arrest of the principal and several others it wasn't surprising that the school was closed without a future date given of when it could possibly open again.They hadn't finished an internal investigation and it wasn't looking good for many from what had been reported so far in the news. Although the children couldn't do any schooling the scandal was too heavy that anything relatively normal for school was allowed to continue.
"I'm heading off" Will said as he opened the door, giving his mother a short wave and running onto the street. His mother waved and watched as Will disappeared down the street, closing the door after her and sighing at all the troubles that were beginning to pile up.
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Fiona was sitting up from her bed, stretching her body out with arms outstretched and let out a groan. It was strange seeing a young girl acting like an old woman, the characteristic cracking noises were almost the same as well.
'Well at least it's nice to sleep in' Fiona thought to herself as she looked out the window next to her bed. After the local school was closed the students had much freer mornings. Although she found it a relief as now she wasn't bored to death from all the classes. Everything was too easy for her. Although the empty feeling of not having much to do was no longer so attractive to her after the first couple of days.
Will didn't annoy her...ahem come by to visit her for days and she had a sense of annoyance from that. He went through so much effort to be friends with her and he abandoned her out of the blue. If she wasn't more mature she would want to rap him on the head for leaving her in the lurch for so long. She did like the attention but she wouldn't admit it outloud, a lady needed to have her own secrets you know.
"I hope mum cooked breakfast already" Fiona mumbled as she went over to her cupboard. Opening the doors should was troubled in deciding her clothes for the day but settled on one pair that her mother had bought since it was really cute and started to strip. As she was half way she heard a slight knock on the window that startled her heart out of her chest.
Reflexively she covered herself and looked out the window. She couldn't see the whole person clearly but she could see the shadow of a person's head just outside. She wanted to have a look just to check but she had a bad feeling she already knew who it was. It didn't take long for her to change back where she then to the window in a rage. Will was sitting on the second story window sill. Giving a smile and a wave as he saw Fiona coming close.
"Morning" Will yelled from the other side of the window pane. Fiona could feel her face twitch at seeing how happy he was. She rolled the window up to let him in and Will climbed in as if it were perfectly natural.
"Sheesh, it's pretty quiet with the school being closed" Will kept talking as he wasn't paying attention to Fiona trembling behind his back in fury.
"So just wanted to see...hghk" Will continued talking but Fiona couldn't hold back any longer and landed a solid punch into his gut sending him onto the floor.
"What did you do that for?" Will groaned as he was on the floor. God that was terrifying, it seemed he couldn't remember if he had ever been hit like that before. But Fiona didn't care much about what he thought. Her hands were together cracking her knuckles to ease her need to beat Will.
"Seems like there's some things you need to learn when it comes to girls" Fiona said threateningly as she began her approach Will, he could only look back in fear.
That morning Auntie Veronica was very confused as unexpected she heard the sounds of a boy being tortured or what she could assume from the yelling and screams coming from Fiona's room. She was a little worried and was already approaching the door to her daughter's room.
"Fiona, is everything alright?" Veronica asked as she rapped on the door. Ever since the kidnapping incident Veronica had been on high alert for her daughter. Fiona opened it up her face was flushed red and she was panting as If she went through a heavy workout.
"Hey mum, what's up?" Fiona asked smiling leaving her mother confused. Just to check Veronica poked her head in to look around the room but found it was normal.
"We'll just wanted to check up on you. Breakfast is ready so can you please come downstairs?" Veronica asked as she could put the strange occurrence to the back of her mind.
"Okay" Fiona answered and closed the door right away. Veronica shook her head and smiled going back downstairs. It was just another day.
Will was letting out a moan as he was lying on the lawn outside Fiona's house. He knew it was risky to knock on a girls window but he didn't think he would be in this much danger. He had been locked out of rooms similarly after doing it in his previous life. But he could always get away and not get beaten. Seeing Fiona sending fists flying at him in her rage left him with a strange feeling of familiarity. Of the woman she would become in the future. Ah, but he didn't want this to happen too often, then he wouldn't be reminiscing but just a plain masochist. Will could hear the window rattle above him as Fiona stuck her head out. She had already changed her clothes and was frowning as she looked at the boy lying on the ground flatly on his back waiting for her.
"Next time I'll make sure to kick you hard enough your future children will even shudder" Fiona shouted in anger and closed the window as it rattled from the force. Will chuckled as he got off the ground and patted the dirt off his body. It was just a few minor bruises and a bit of swelling that would disappear before he saw his mother again. If he had to explain the situation he was sure she would give him a thrashing as well. Seeing he had his fun for the day, Will walked away in a slowly familiar direction.
Fiona was watching from her window as Will disappeared from sight before she let down her guard. Though she had been surprised a few times but this young Will it gave her a bad feeling that she knew the person well. Although it shouldn't be possible just yet, she still couldn't believe a ten year old was capable of being like...like...like that. Fiona felt her anger swell again and decided to eat breakfast would be a good way to vent her steaming anger at the mischievous boy.
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Will was panting as he reached the outside of the hideout for the Brokers. Although he ran quite a distance he only sweated a little it, looking more like he went out for a light jog. There were a couple of the gangsters sitting on the steps outside smoking cigarettes before eyeing the primary schooler walking into their hideout. One of them stood up and was about to yell at the kid.
"Oi! Brats aren't…." The man was starting to shout but his friends tackled and held his mouth shut with their hands. The men who were piled on-top were pale and panicking at the child being angry at them and so turned to look. Will gave a smile.
"Keep up the good work" he said innocently and stepped inside with no one else stopping him. As they all removes themselves from the dog pile the man who had been tackled looked at his sunglasses he was wearing that were all smashed up underfoot. He was cursing and yelling at his supposed comrades in arms at being taken down.
"What's the big fucking idea?" he yelled and kicked the shattered glasses away to take the edge off his anger.
"Man, you weren't here last night but don't mess with the kid. He twisted Bran's foot off" one of the others advised, he wasn't happy taking shit after saving his friends life. Let's see him do a dive for his friend again if he was going to be like this.
"I heard he took the Lads gang down by himself, which is why he was invited in" one of the others said piling on the rumours of the terrifying child that had walked past.
"But I thought the police were the ones to wrap it up since they planned ahead and stuff" the one who lost his glasses was confused and could only sit back down as he listened to his friends talk. But his friend shook his head.
"I've got a sister who works in the hospital. Apparently it was all emergency patients that were admitted in since they were beaten so badly they either died or became vegetables. There was apparently one guy the police had trouble even talking about because he became mush" the man said as he shuddered remembering the story. Although it was second hand to him, the blood and gore were too easily believable after being described so vividly. The beaten man shuddered and was happy he dodged the bullet and pulled a cigarette to call his nerves.
Will didn't even notice the fear that was settling into the gang as he walked himself around the hideout. A number of the other gangsters were polite to him which he did find hilarious inside. 'If only they had a little more spine this would be more fun' and Will chuckled at his evil thoughts. It was then he felt the ache in his chest flare a little and causes him to wipe the smile off his face. He rubbed the sore on his chest and was still quite annoyed with it. Unlike usual the wound wasn't closing at its fast pace but plenty of his other injuries were from this morning were, in fact they were healing even faster than he was used to. 'Hmm I should check to see if burns or other ways of being harmed would make me less effective' Will added this to his new long list of things to do.
It didn't take him long to end up at the big boss' front door and since he couldn't hear much noise he pushed it open since there obviously wasn't a meeting going on. Will walked in as E was sitting on the couch leaning over to look at a large number of papers splayed out on the coffee table and scratched his head as he looked at them in confusion. The big boss looked worse for wear with sagging eye bags showed he hadn't slept much just to keep up with the work. And with the tower of paperwork next to him it wasn't hard to guess.
"Morning big boss" Will greeted. E looked over and beamed seeing Will come in while the Big Boss looked so happy he was ready to collapse at seeing Will come in his time of need.
"Ah Will, I was wondering if you could help us out. You seem to be quite an intelligent young man and it would be best if we could have an extra pair of hands." The big boss smile was so bright Will felt a little pity for him. And he immediately felt that he should mess with this person. But maybe another time when things weren't so important.
Will looked over the documents and could summarise by the pages and pages of documents that they were for accounts of their "businesses". Although he was glad that the Brokers gang had a lot of fingers in things and thus gave him plenty of opportunities, but business wise there was no point draining yourself dry trying to feed the many with a few.
"E, how have you organised it before?" Will asked as he didn't want to assume these perfectly operating adults were idiots before knowing the full story in why there were in so much trouble. If anything despite public education plenty of the criminals that he knew of were often illiterate which was half of his problems in his last life.
"Ahhh, we did it alphabetically" E answered proudly to Will as he stopped shuffling papers around. Will resisted the need to hit himself in front of these two.
Correction. These two were perfectly functioning idiot adults.
"E organise it into the different types of business we have, gambling, protection money, etc. And then organise it highest to lowest in monetary earnings" Will instructed as E nodded and quickly began organising things in the background. The big boss had stopped and was fascinated at the child demon or genius before him. The impression gave him an image of when his father was still the gang leader a long time ago and he could tell this child was just ripe for some more teachings. That is if the child didn't spring anymore surprises on him. Despite his need to have this person around he truly hoped there wasn't much left to surprise him since his heart couldn't take much more.
"Big boss, we need to talk" Will said as he took up one of the chairs sitting opposite his desk. Lazing into it it seemed like the kid actually owned the place instead of him. If Big boss was like in his early days he would beat the kid and put him in his place. But now he was older it didn't matter if he lost a little dignity, if anything everyone else was too terrified to deal with the wild tiger of the Brokers gang other than him. Ironically enough that gave him more respect than he ever had before.
"What do you need kid?" big boss said as he was still waiting on what this kid wanted. Although he was extreme he was definitely useful. So he could play along.
"I'll need your assistance so I can come here on a regular basis." Will said seriously. Big boss was in his chair, gripping his chair arm tight. He could see the worry apparent on Will's face and it made him worry in tandem.
'Dear god, what could make the wild tiger worry so? Did they make enemies with someone they shouldn't? But they just started over, it was beyond humiliating if they got crushed while in the middle of fixing themselves' The big boss had many thoughts floating around his head as he tried to guess anything and everything that Will was about to say.
"Yes I need help convincing my parents to pretend I am studying here to assist the gang and change our future ahead, I had already said that was what I hear for so they weren't too suspicious. Though it might be inconvenient it would be a better path towards our future" Will said trying to lay it out with clear pros and cons for big boss to accept it was worthwhile, since the big boss was already familiar with his way of doing things. Big boss was frozen in fear though.
'Fuuuuuuuuccccckkkk' he screamed out internally as he looked over the boy with dead eyes and a cold face. Why did it have to be his parents? If the child was this much of a monster his parents were highly likely to be even more dangerous, professional killers even. He could barely imagine the depth of their bloodlust or danger compared to this small wild tiger. He felt this child was asking him to jump into a predators wide open jaws and do a circus trick. The danger was just too high.
"You want the Brokers gang to convince your parents we're a study group?" The big boss reiterated. Will felt like it was obviously humiliating and not enough of a deal for them to try and pretend for his family, it seemed he would have to raise the value he could give.
"There's a number of other opportunities I think we can achieve as well, but until I look through the current accounts I would not know of what we have. I have expertise in what you already know but I do have insider information that would make it a huge earner for our group that could easily catapult us to a strong position" Will continued with his argument hoping for the big boss to bend or wilt under the endless pros and potential earnings he had for the gang, or future company he would say. But Big boss sat there quietly as he gazed at the child up and down.
'Shiiiiiiiiit' Big boss let himself go internally as he vented and cursed on the inside. What were his parents, giant conglomerate spies? Super assassins? The kid literally sounds like a modern James Bond but with killers as parents and they seemed to have rubbed off on him hard. But if they didn't technically lie then there was a high chance they wouldn't be obliterated off the face of the earth. If they actually did set up studies for this kid then the parents would approve and everyone would be happy.
"You mentioned studies. Does that mean you have a school in mind?" Big boss asked calmly. Will was trying hard to suppress his smile as it seemed he succeeded in convincing the mafia don to give him study assistance.
"North Shore High" Will answered. Big boss was moving his finger in a slow tapping motion but stopped moving at hearing his words. `Wasn't that an elite school for children who were the best in the state or the ones who could afford to buy their way in' Big boss thought as he was trying to walk himself through what that meant as he looked over the child sitting patiently in front of him. Seeing his behaviour since from before he was easily a genius child who had seemed to be familiar with business and numbers at such a young age. And since he was insisting on studying at the school instead of buying his way in then it was obvious his parents were confident in his intelligence. Which meant that they thought any issues that could crop up from his studies were negligible.
Big boss felt a small drop of sweat dropped down his forehead, the feeling of possibly failing at this gave him a feeling of dread and fear. And this child cornered the whole gang from the beginning by telling his parents first and him, Big boss, second. Dear lord, I am not a match for this boy, but...if he could convince him to stay with the gang and lead it to great heights than who knew how far he and everyone else would go.
"I believe we have definitely potential Will" Big boss said with a smile. Will was already smiling and beaming at the mafia don. It seemed that it wasn't too hard to convince this man it would be worth it having him around.
"I'll make sure the Brokers gang will help. It would be best if I met your parents to convince them about us" Big boss said as he let out a smile and moved this wonderfully huge problem to himself tomorrow. The future him could suffer in his place.
"That's great, since I have that out of the road I'll concentrate on the accounts here" Will said as he leapt off the chair and was helping E with renewed vigor. The paper work being sorted was being done at at an exponential rate. Big boss watched as E and Will were going over the sorted papers as he could finally unwind from the work being handed over to someone else. But the problem put in its place made him want to crawl back into the piles of paper that had previously crushed his soul.