The car rocketed down the pothole-filled road leading into town. Asher and Adah were going in to town for their respective missions while their mother went grocery shopping.
Adah was going to snoop around the police station while Asher was going to check out the library next door.
Asher padded into the cool of the library. It was L - shaped, with the larger part rbing the library and the smaller part being a tiny cafe and its lobby.
He approached the U-shaped desk after walking through the doors. The middle-aged librarian looked up from her book.
"Asher! Here to pick up books?" She asked. She knew him because he went to the library every two weeks to find some books.
"Yep," Asher said, opening the large carrier slung over his shoulder. She put the books on the table and he slid them into the carrier.
"Thank you!" Asher exclaimed. He walked away and sat down in one of the soft beanbags in the cafe and started waiting to get a text from Adah.
A tiny bit earlier, said twin was snooping around, wondering if she looked suspicious. After a while of debating, she decided she didn't and began to walk around the police station. But she had a problem - she couldn't go fully around the police station. Her wandering through a field would definitely look suspicious.
But she didn't need to go around the entire perimeter, luckily. All she needed to do was looked at the parking lot.
She looked at the singular aisle of cruisers. They were white with scuff marks and dents. A blue logo said "Laketown Police".
Adah didn't like the name of her town. She found it boring, and it didn't help that their schools were also named "Laketown". The only school that wasn't was the nearby religious school "Holy Waters Academy". She shivered as she wondered what it was like to go there.
There was no cars that stood out to her, so she crossed the street to the library, texting; "All good." It got a thumbs up reaction.
She searched around the library a tiny bit, not knowing where her nerdy brother could be hiding. Finally, she found him on a bean bag.
"Wow, that looks soft," Adah said.
"And you said libraries are boring," Asher snorted, standing up and picking up a bag full of books.
Adah reached towards the bag. "What did you get?"
Asher slapped her hand away from the books and said, "Books on viruses. Did you know viruses can be used to transport DNA?"
"Huh. I didn't know that," Adah said, and then realized that by that he was mentioning the devices.
"Ohhh…" she went.
They stepped out into the sunlight heat braced the air, and Asher was even more thankful he'd handed off his books to Adah.
"Yeah. Didn't think you would catch my drift. Where should we go now? Mam won't be done for another thirty minutes." Asher asked.
"Hmmm… Maybe get some froyo?"
Asher nodded. "Sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to carry all of these books."
"Don't fear! Adah is here!" Exclaimed his twin as she took the bag from him.
From there, the area became more crowded. The town was kinda small, but it was large enough to have a downtown and three schools which were located on the same campus. Donations from full-timers at the lake meant they had great programs.
They eventually found the shop. Adah and Asher both got large frozen yogurt cups. Adah got peach and Asher got tart. She made a snide comment about how it was tart just like him, and he laughed until he spotted them.
"Duck!" He hissed, crouching behind a table.
"What?" Adah asked, but did as he told her. Asher winced as his books hit the floor.
"Lake Kids," he told her.
"What are they even going to do to us in public? This isn't the middle of the woods," Adah replied, standing up.
"You forget, power is money," Asher said. He hated butchering the phrase knowledge is power like that, but it was true. The money their parents donated to the various programs of the town was valuable.
Adah refused to get back down, so Asher stood up too and sat down in a chair. He looked down at the froyo, and thankfully it wasn't melted.
The bell rang as the three entered the shop. Asher was suddenly aware that Tobias, Grace, and Jasmine outnumbered them. He gulped.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Grace sneered.
"Two startled infants," Tobias said.
Adah narrowed her eyes at all three of them. Or rather, all two of them. Jasmine was staying out of this, preoccupied by froyo. She always was the most calm and logical of the group, a trait that looking at Cain certainly didn't run in the family.
"We're not infants. We're more like fawns," Asher said. What he meant to say was that they weren't defenseless - they could run if necessary. But what they took was more fuel for their laughter.
Adah protectively put a hand in front of Asher, but he pushed through it and set down his froyo cup. "Listen, it's a sunday," he pleadingly said. "Can't we not do this?"
Tobias looked at Grace who looked at the employee going into the back room. "I think not," she announced.
The pair of brawlers were glaring at each other. Meanwhile, Jasmine sat down and crossed her legs, trying to hide the grin on her face.
"So who's going first? Certainly not little book boy," Grace snarled.
Asher felt a burst of anger. He reached behind him, hand curling around the handle of the book bag. In one swing, he brought the bag full of books across her chest and she slumped to the floor with a shriek.
"Git! Git!" Asher exclaimed, as if she was a racoon digging through trash.
"Unfair!" Tobias spluttered.
"Three to one isn't fair," Asher replied.
Grace shrugged from her seat. "No, I'm not doing anything," she pointed out.
"Leave now. Asher just beat you up, and I'm ten times worse," Adah Warner.
"F-fine dude. Chill out," Tobias said as he rushed outside.
As the door closed Grace stood up and said, "Sorry about that." She sipped the last of her froEn yogurt from her cup, tossed it into a trash can, and then walked out.
"Wow, Asher, I didn't think you would do that!" Adah exclaimed.
Asher shrugged. "I took what you said to heart."
Asher was more bold now, and Adah could only hope that newfound bravery would not lead him to press the button.