— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — RENN — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
*The Next Day…*
We are now at the Megaplex Mall of the United States.
"You take care of those two. I got afternoon training to do." Vance is still busy with his training, leaving me with the two for a while.
Serra and Syrra and staring at the mall. It is big and wide. It became a tourist attraction at the center of New York.
Serra is wearing one of Syrra's clothings. It's a blazer dress, just without the blazer. She tied the blazer at her hips because she didn't want to have any hands on her and because she is not used to wearing dresses.
"They're under good hands, don't worry. Plus we can take care of ourselves just fine." I confidently answered Vance.
"Well, I'll leave you to it then. Just take the train, then the taxi home. I told you the instructions on how to get home before we left this morning, are we clear?" I nodded with a salute.
"Good scout... Then, adiós." Vance happily drove away to get to his afternoon shift. I went to the two girls.
"Hey! Let's get to it! Let's go shopping!" Syrra was excited to enter this place for the first time.
Honestly, I don't blame her. It's also my first time visiting this place too.
"My clothes... The clothes I want..." Serra is new to the whole "being able to choose the clothes that suits her" thing. She'll end up uncomfortable if she has clothes that don't suit her.
"No skirts..." For example, the clothes she is wearing right now from Syrra. She didn't like wearing them and is a little frustrated looking at them right now.
"Sorry, those were the only clothes we have right now... You can change clothes after you find your own..." Syrra bowed and apologized.
"It's okay. It's better than the loser's boy clothes that wouldn't fit on me." I felt that personal attack on me, Serra. I'm slightly upset.
"I wasn't even going to give you my clothes, because they're too plain for you." I bluntly answered her. My casual and formal clothes, excluding the tuxedo from months ago, were all plain clothes.
"So... You're saying you think your own clothes are lame." Ack- I walked myself right into that one... Serra's such a savage towards me... She has been since the beginning but now I can't help but be attacked...
Not because I hated her, what she said just now is true.
We all entered the mall. The interior is very modern. There are many popular restaurants here too. They say it also has a sports central.
No, not the one where you buy sports attire. It's one that features sports that a alot of people can try. There's bowling, archery, basketball, volleyball, tennis, and badminton.
"Where should we start? It's our first visit here. Want to take a stroll and see what we can find?" Syrra asked as we looked around each and every brands of clothing. So many choices, so much clothing to pick, so much things to mix-and-match...
With so much money in my wallet to buy all she chose.
"Let's take a gander. Serra, stay close with Syrra." Serra nodded. We began walking around the mall.
Serra was sticking with Syrra and looking around for the clothes that she likes. I'm here just standing around, watching the both of them.
They eventually picked a lot of casual and formal clothes, a set of pajamas, and 2 hoodies.
"How much are all of these?" I asked Syrra.
"Based on the tags… $2,996.82." It's times like these where I really am thankful I brought A LOT of money to pay for all of these.
"Are you sure that's everything you wanted to buy here, Serra?" I asked and she nodded once again. I went to pay for all the clothes and carry them, of course.
We all took a further look in the supermarket. She needs her own stuff, more than just clothes.
This is also the perfect time for me to buy food for next week as well.
"Hey, loser." Serra called my... Why does she call me that every time now?
"I have a name... You probably forgot... What is it?" I asked but she pointed at the cheese-flavored chips.
"You want that?" I asked her.
"Yes." She kept pointing at it.
I put the big pack of potato chips that she wanted.
"Alright, I still need to buy the food I'll cook for you." I put the bag of chips in the cart.
"You can cook?" She asked. This is the first time she heard it from me.
"Yep. Learned cooking from my mother. I could teach you some time." I happily explained. Mothers are truly the best cooks, change my mind.
"I didn't ask if I wanted to cook... Maybe some other day." I am going to get used to the way she speaks... She indirectly answered my question anyway so I was slightly pleasantly satisfied...
"Hey! What did I miss?" Syrra came back with a big bag of nacho chips.
"Are you going to have nachos today, Syrra?" I asked.
"Not today, I'll have a party sometime this week. Jenna wanted me to get a big bag of nachos for the occasion!" She put it in the cart.
"By the way, Syrra… You never told me that Renn can cook." Syrra bluntly told her.
"Oh, right… He has been cooking for… How long now? 2 years? We had cooking class last year, and Renn kept on scoring high with his great cooking." All thanks to mother and Vance. I got confident hearing that from her.
"I want to watch him cook." Serra looked at me.
"I'll buy the food I need first, then I'll show you what I can whip up." I went on to continue buying groceries as they followed.
"So I can sabotage it later..." I was a little surprised by that comment.
"No please..." She then went silent. I sighed. I bought more items like steak, a bar of unsalted butter, ¾ kilogram of ground meat, vegetables, molo wrappers, fish…
You get the point. I just got food to cook.
As we left the supermarket and headed elsewhere, I noticed the two stopped and noticed something.
I looked to see that they wanted ice cream. It's the limited time banana split ice cream cups for sale. They must be interested in it.
Meanwhile I am wondering how you get the banana split flavor in the ice cream…
Nevertheless, the two were now looking at me as if they wanted it. I chuckled.
"Go ahead and buy… It's on me." Syrra was happy and quickly dragged Serra to buy the ice cream.
I also ordered one for myself to see how it tastes. We then all got our ice creams and we gave it a taste.
Syrra seemed to enjoy the taste, I can't tell whether Serra was enjoying it or not but she was eating it, anyway
While I was…
Neutral.
It tasted like they just added a bunch of banana flavoring in there and called it a day. It's good, but it's not the feeling of a banana split.
But hey, the two are enjoying their ice creams, so I have no right to complain.
We decided to look around more and we went to the bowling alley in the sports central. Syrra nudged me with her elbow.
"$100 says I can beat you in bowling." She really placed a bet on that one, huh…
"Bring it. But Serra, do you want to go bowling?" I asked her.
"No, thanks… I'll watch you both play." So she doesn't want to. That's fine.
We got in and paid for Syrra and I to bowl.
"Remember, $100 if I win!" Syrra looked at me, ready to take me down.
"But if I win, lunch will be on you." Of course I ain't backing down.
"Bring it!" We then started bowling with Serra watching.
Syrra
Bowl 1 - 5, 3 (7)
Bowl 2 - 4, 0 (4)
Bowl 3 - 4, 3 (7)
Bowl 4 - 2, 6 (8)
Bowl 5 - Strike (10 + 6)
Bowl 6 - 0, 6 (6)
Bowl 7 - 5, 3 (8)
Bowl 8 - Gutter (0)
Bowl 9 - Spare (10 + 8)
Bowl 10 - 8, 1, 6 (15)
Total: 79
Renn
Bowl 1 - 6, 2 (8)
Bowl 2 - Strike (10 + 0)
Bowl 3 - Gutter (0)
Bowl 4 - 9, 0 (9)
Bowl 5 - Gutter (0)
Bowl 6 - Spare (10 + 2)
Bowl 7 - 2, 5 (7)
Bowl 8 - 4, 4 (8)
Bowl 9 - 6, 0 (6)
Bowl 10 - 5, 1, 0 (6)
Total: 66
Well, after knowing that damn score… I gave $100 to Syrra.
"I'll just go to the restroom." Serra stood up and she went to the restroom.
We also went to the restroom. While I was at the men's room, my phone rang. It was from my stepdad.
"Son, I hear your remedials are going well. How are you today?" He regularly does check on me unlike my stepmom. Even after my expulsion got revoked, she never thought to check how I was doing at all. My dad was thoughtful enough to do so, since he was the one who apologized and made up with me ever since that incident.
"Hey, dad. I'm fine. I went shopping for Serra's clothes a few minutes back, she'll be living with me." I answered.
"Ah... So I've heard. I didn't think you'd take in a girl in your care. What made you take her in?" He was curious.
"Well… To make a long story short, her family treated her badly to the point she got kicked out of her own home." I didn't want to tell him a full explanation. I could be here all day.
"Oh… I understand. Do you want us to settle things and adopt her? I'll give a word to your stepmother so that things are taken care of." He asked me and I smiled, genuinely wanting her to be part of the family.
"Please do... By the way, is there another reason why you called me?" I asked him. He didn't call me just to check on me, did he? It usually happens that there are other matters usually being discussed when he calls me.
"You catch on quick. We are having a trip to several places today on Saturday. We are going to use a rental van then. Vance is planning to invite his friend over, and Cherry is inviting her special friend as well. What about you? Are you planning to invite people over?" A van? Wait, did dad plan this summer field trip?
That's the first… AND I CERTAINLY DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!
"I'll ask my friends over, if that's okay!" I felt excited.
"Great, tell me how many friends you're bringing over and I'll let your mom know. Alright, I better not take too much of your time. Check you later!" He hung up. I was done using the restroom.
"We said no!"
I recognize that voice, it's Syrra. I quickly went out to see a guy and his gang pinning Syrra and Serra to the wall. Serra guarded her as she was the one in front of her.
"Come on, I know I will make it worth your while… We all can have some fun together, I have the money to make you happy. So what do you both say?~" It seems this blonde-haired guy, who seemed to have applied shiny hair gel on his hair, was hitting on Syrra.
"Stop approaching us like that. Can't you see you're being a total creep by just approaching this girl here?" Serra was defending Syrra, bluntly shaming the guy. Syrra was shivering at the sight of the guys.
Now is not the time to watch them, it's now the time to act. So I went to the boys and tried to divert their attention to me.
"Leave them alone!" I shouted and the attention was now on me. The boys then laughed as if all of this was just a joke. Serra looked at me as she facepalmed in disappointment.
"Oh… My goodness… I wasn't expecting a KID of all people to show up against me! What are you going to do, use those pathetic arms of yours?~" They all kept laughing as they high-fived one another.
"You got some nerve flirting with girls you don't know… They're both with me, so if you're going to just hit on them, you're going to get through with me first!" I kept shouting and approached them.
But then I got shoved back down. Damn, curse me not working out...
"Hahahahahaha! Literal weakling! You must be delusional if you think you got a CHANCE to oppose me, a handsome rich boy!" I recognized his behavior… But now is not the time to reminisce. I tried not to get up.
"Being rich won't get you anywhere with that attitude…"
That voice... That intimidating voice... Serra? The boy turned to her. I also slowly looked at her, surprised.
"Oh… She's done it now…"
"She really said the forbidden phrase…"
"Brace yourself…"
I was suddenly confused about the forbidden phrase that the boys were talking about, but then the blonde guy immediately went towards Serra.
"You think I'll go easy on you just because you're a girl?! Well, too bad!"
Serra was literally unfazed as he approached her. She then literally grabbed his arm, tossed him over while pinning him down with her foot. Everyone in the stadium has gasped to see this happening.
I looked at Syrra and she wasn't at all surprised. Has she seen her fight before? If that's the case, this looked cool and scary at the same time.
The blonde guy's friends became scared, seeing she just pinned him down.
"Give up... Or I'll break your bones..."
Serra pulled on his arm a little more and hardened her stomping.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I won't bother you again, now please!" She lets go of him and he slowly stood up.
He then turned to me and glared at me.
"You think you're such a big shot with them... Are you, Alrose?!" My eyes widened to him. He just casually pointed at me and said my last name. He then noticed Serra glaring at him, hinting him to leave before it gets worse.
"This won't be the last you'll see of me!" He freaked out and left the bowling alley with a painful shoulder and a slightly hurting back.
I looked at Syrra and Serra.
"Syrra, are you alright? Serra, what was that about? I never knew you could fight! " I asked about Syrra's condition and was pleasantly surprised to see her fight.
"I'm alright... I should thank Serra for taking up against that guy... They never stood a chance..." Syrra smiled at Serra.
"Boys like them... They are disgusting." Serra had this frustrated look on her face while staring at the exit.
She went closer to me and punched me on the shoulder.
"Ow! Again with the shoulder! What was that for?" That still hurts…
"You should have known better than to try too hard and get yourself injured, you thin fragile stick." Serra punched me on the same shoulder again. Her vocabulary of insults just kept on increasing.
"Ow…" Still hurts…
"But still, you tried. Even if it is embarrassing, you tried... Keep it up, I guess..." Hearing something good come out of her felt heartwarming. It is a very rare moment for her to let out a compliment like that, even if it's not really a compliment...
"I'm just trying my best to be someone you can rely on… Plus you live with me, and I don't want anything bad happening to you." I remember the time she was lying face flat on the floor back at the stadium, it was very shocking to see.
"So, if I didn't live with you, you'd want something bad happening to me?" I was surprised when she said that, I definitely wasn't expecting that.
"N-No… I meant… That I didn't want anything bad to happen to you in general!" I got nervous, thinking I ended up disappointing her.
"I'm kidding. I'm hungry." I got a little grumpy. Never in my life have I ever thought Serra My-
Wait, should she have my last name or my dad's last name...
Ah... Problems with adoption. I'll deal with that later.
Anyway, never in my life have I ever thought Serra, of all people, would begin toying with me.
Well played…
"Well, I won so Renn's paying!" Goddamn, Syrra didn't need to add more insult to injury by making me pay for lunch while keeping that smile on her face. It's slightly unsettling.
"I don't remember agreeing to that..." I was genuinely against it with an unsatisfied look on my face.
"Well, you did say that if you win I will pay so… Technically, you will have to pay since you lost…" I facepalmed HARD. God damn it...
"Fine… Where do you wanna go for lunch?" I asked them.
"I wanna eat Zettley's Chinese-Style fried chicken today!" DID SYRRA SAY CHICKEN?! FORGIVE ME FOR CALLING YOU UNSETTLING EARLIER, YOU ONE CHEERFUL SUNSHINE!
"I'll try that, I guess. I never ate in any other restaurant before... Until that fancy place." Serra wanted to try it. I'll order the same thing, then.
"Well, let's go there then!" We went out to "Zettley's Diner" and ordered their chicken. We all ate on one table and enjoyed our lunch peacefully.
I may have spent more than what I was expecting,
but it's all worth it.
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