He handed Violetta the maintenance fee. Violetta was smart. She put the fee away immediately so it would be deposited in the company's account right away. Then she took the man over to his hoverbike. She took off the lock, and told him, "I repaired the scratch while I was at it. We threw that piece of maintenance in at no cost."
Shocked, the man went to inspect the scratch. Did she mess up his paint job! Some of the colors used on this paint job were no longer in production. They were impossible to match! If she messed up his paint job… There would be a heavy price to pay.
There was nothing wrong with the paint job. It was perfect. It looked like the scratch had never happened! This was amazing! Wait. How had she repaired the scratch?
He was so dazed that he hadn't realized Violetta put his bike outside for him to take. She left him standing out of the shop with his fully repaired hoverbike. And easily walked back into the shop. She knew these types of customers well. She quickly left through the back of the shop so she could take a shortcut to get back to school.
It wasn't long til she heard the sounds of hoverbikes coming up behind her. Violetta began to run. She could hear the bike gang calling out obscenities and telling her to stop running or she would be sorry. This was really unfair. She didn't even scam the guy. She just prevented him from scamming other mechanics and took a real payment from the guy. Did he have to chase her down now!?
Was this really something the guy needed to chase her down for? He should be grateful she even fixed the scratch in the first place!
Violetta ran through small alleyways, and jumped over fences. She managed to get into the school gates just before they reached her. Their hoverbikes wouldn't work on campus. That didn't stop them from chasing her on foot.
Violetta turned and ran through the hallways. A hand suddenly reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into a classroom. Violetta was just about to pounce on the preson who grabbed her but as she looked to see who it was she came face to face with Ruby.
Ruby quickly hushed Violetta and picked up her backpack. Hiding Violetta behind the door she walked unassumingly into the hall and acted completely shocked that there were hooligans running rampant through the school.
She looked scared as they asked her which way the purple haired brat went.
"I don't know!" Ruby cried out with tears in her eyes, "I only left the classroom now because I fell asleep in class!" Bawling like a spoiled brat she began to run down the hall. She ran right past the Smaldone twins.
They noticed the street gang seemingly chasing after Ruby. Iris turned to her older -by 28 minutes- sister and inquired, "Sister… Did we allow them to come and make trouble on our territory?"
Angelica looked thoughtful, and put her index finger to her chin, "I don't recall any requests coming in?" The man in charge of the chase was the one who owned the bike. He had enough status in the street gang to know who he was talking to. He couldn't afford to offend these people. If he offended them, he wouldn't even know how his entire gang was taken out. Angelica looked at the man and asked calmly, "Who are you chasing?"
The 20 year old ruffian responded, "Some purple mechanic chick"
Iris looked like she was hearing this news for the first time and responded excitedly, "Oh! He must be talking about Violetta!"
Angelica looked like she had an epiphany, "Ah that girl." She turned to smile at the ruffian, "She's unavailable at the moment."
"Oh no sister that's not right," Iris pulled at her sister's sleeve cheerfully. Then she turned to the hooligans and with a stoney face. She said with all the forbearance of an overbearing CEO, "She's unavailable for the rest of your life. However short that may be depends on how quickly you leave."
Angelica gave them two seconds before asking, "Not leaving?"
The street gang barely had time to process what the Smaldone twins were saying. Once the word hit their brain cells, the gang had turned around and started running to exit the school.
Angelica watched them run out of the school, and said to her sister, "Hmm, they left pretty quickly. Should we have uncle make a move?"
"Not yet," Iris looked thoughtful as she said it. "We'll see how this plays out first. If they bother our Violetta again, then…" Iris looked at her sister meaningfully.
The twins had decided that no matter what happened in the future, they would be there for Violetta and have her back if she ever got in trouble. They absolutely loved Violetta, because without her, they would have had an entirely different school experience.
Back in their second year, many of the kids had come back from summer vacation. They had spoken to their parents out of curiosity. Why were the Smaldone twins not hiding their identities as higher nobles?
When the other kids found out why the twins were able to keep their names and identities as higher nobles even in school, they distanced themselves from the twins. The twins were from a family that had its own private army, but that wasn't the problem. The major problem was that their parents ran a mafia. So in order to protect their reputation many of the kids began to give the twins space when walking down the hall. They even stopped talking to them in their classes.
Where the others ostracized them, Violetta did not. She remained their friend and treated them the same way she always had. The girls worried Violetta's other friends would start to avoid her too if she kept hanging out with them. But then Violetta said something that made sense to a lot of the kids who were nearby.
"You didn't pick your parents profession. Besides, where is the proof? Your family members haven't been convicted of anything because there isn't any evidence that they've broken the laws right?" In Violetta's opinion many of the laws were unfair and unjust anyway. She saw no reason for social media to be outlawed. But it was. One of the Smaldone families biggest crimes was running a social media site on the dark web. Violetta was very curious about it. What was so wrong with it?
Violetta had the twins make adjustments to her communication ring so that she could look at social media. She just wanted a quick peek at first, but soon she was really excited to look at it when she was done with her school day.
People were able to share so much knowledge about everything. There were even some secrets she was sure would get others in trouble. She had an account. But she almost never posted. She didn't want to give away too much information. She knew she still needed to keep her information from getting out as much as possible.
She discovered social media was a great way to communicate secret messages as well. Because it was in the dark web, it wasn't monitored by the government. So she could send a message to Heath whom she had convinced to get an account, without worrying that it would get deciphered or discovered by the monitors.
She really wondered what type of person would want to get that job anyway. The twins asked her one time why she had done that back then. Why did she stay hanging out with them, and even go so far as to involve them in her lunch group?
"In my second year, while visiting a shop with my father, I witnessed one of your family's soldiers beating up a drug dealer. From what I could tell, the guy's younger cousin who was fourteen had just bought drugs off the man. My uncle on my father's side dies of a drug overdose. I also am not a fan of drug dealers," Violetta explained.
Drugs were not to be sold on the Smaldone family turf. Since that incident, she knew she had made the right decision to stand with the Smaldone twins.
They were really grateful that their father had made the right decision to not allow drugs on their turf. Sure the Samldone family collected "Insurance" fees. But they also protected those that paid. If there was an issue that the family or business needed dealt with, the Smaldone family actually stepped in and helped. Even if it was something little like needing a babysitter so they could go to work to earn that insurance fee they had to pay. The Smaldone's didn't go back on their word.