The Villainous Children Retire

Chapter 12

'It seems we have met another troublesome person.'

Esther eyed her brother, who had a look of such complexity on his face that it made it hard for even her to tell what he was thinking. However, she believed it to be along the lines of either accepting his request or leaving him behind as quickly as possible without so much as a word goodbye.

'It seems we have,' she replied.

'I honestly don't know what we should do.'

'Shouldn't we just accept his request and leave?'

Eli paused and lifted a finger to his lips. He looked to be in deep thought. 'I was thinking something along those lines.'

Esther grinned; she knew her brother well. She turned her attention back to the over-enthusiastic boy.

'Well, what should we say to him, El?'

'What do you think we should say?'

Without having to give it another thought, they both answered, "Yes."

The boy's face lit up, and a huge smile appeared on his face. "Yes!" he cheered. "My first new friends! And they're heroes!"

Eli grumbled in a manner only Esther could hear. 'Angels, fairies, and now heroes. . . I wish they would just stick to one.'

Esther quickly agreed. Her focus wasn't on her brother so much as it was on the new boy.

'Has anyone ever been so happy about being our friend before?'

Eli looked at her confusedly.

'I know Cheryl was happy about it, but was she as excited as Bryce here is?'

The twins watched as the boy continued to cheer and rave about them running Billy off.

'Has there ever even been one time where we got to see someone so excited?'

Eli didn't know what to say about it.

'I don't know,' he answered. 'You're probably right; there's probably no one else in the world who would be as excited as him.'

Suddenly, they both got a strange feeling. They felt weirdly light-hearted as if they were walking on air, but neither could understand what the intense feeling meant. It was so foreign to them.

Bryce laughed as he picked up his things, "What a day!" After picking everything up, he spun around to wave at the twins. With a big smile on his face, he exclaimed, "See you tomorrow!" Before scurrying off down a trail far opposite of Cheryl's and the twin's.

After watching him disappear from view, the twins felt calmer.

Eli sighed, "What a day indeed."

Esther shared her brother's thoughts and took his hand, saying with a small smile on her face, "Come on, let's go home." Eli firmly gripped her hand as they slowly walked up the hill. "I'm sure tomorrow will be even more eventful," Esther said quietly to him.

* * *

Esther had been right to expect a day just as eventful as the last.

The twins had stood beside Cheryl during recess as they watched the rest of the children play.

Bryce was off playing with the same children as the day before.

Cheryl eyed him closely. She couldn't understand why, but for some reason, she felt threatened by the new boy.

When the twins noticed this, it was Esther who spoke up about it first. "What's wrong, Cheryl?" Her words made the young girl jump. "Why are you staring at Bryce so intensely?"

"N-no reason," she awkwardly answered. "I just don't like him very much."

"But you didn't seem to have a problem with him yesterday," Eli interjected.

"Yeah, you even stood up for him," added Esther.

"That was yesterday," Cheryl replied harshly. "This is today."

The twins were puzzled by her words.

"So you don't like him anymore?" they asked in sync.

"No," Cheryl answered seriously, "I don't."

"Why?" Another question they both asked together.

They looked as Cheryl seemed to give her reason some more thought. When she finally gave her answer, it wasn't a clear one.

"I don't know, it feels like I shouldn't?" She shook her head. "I don't know how to explain it."

'Hm,' hummed Esther.

'Weird,' Eli said.

Before they could question Cheryl about it more, Bryce took notice of them. He dropped the red ball he and his friends had been tossing around and waved at the twins before starting to rush over to them.

The twins smiled and waved back. Before they could say anything, they heard Cheryl mutter annoyedly under her breath, "Ugh, he's coming over here."

They looked at Cheryl with stiff faces. They hadn't expected a child like her to already have so much hatred for others. They seriously began to wonder what her problem was.

After rushing over, Bryce greeted the twins cheerfully. "Eli! Esther! Hi!"

"Hello," they replied politely.

"What are you guys doing? I wanted to ask if you guys want to come play ball with me."

Before the twins could even think of an answer, Cheryl answered coldly, "They don't. Now go back and play ball with the other little kids you baby."

Cheryl's new demeanor really perplexed the twins.

"Baby?" asked Bryce. "If anyone's a baby it's you."

They hadn't anticipated Bryce to return her cold attitude either.

"Baby?" scoffed Cheryl. "Why are you calling me a baby? The baby is obviously you."

"Am not!" replied Bryce loudly. "I'm not a baby. The baby is you. All you do is stare at the other kids playing. You act like you're cool standing here, but you're really just a big baby."

"A big baby?" Cheryl's face became flushed with embarrassment. "I am not! And-and you're making fun of my friends, too!" She quickly pointed behind her at Eli and Esther. "We stand here together every day! Are they big babies, too?"

"No!" shouted Bryce, who was already ready to counteract her. "They aren't babies! You are!"

Cheryl and Bryce continued bickering wholeheartedly while Eli and Esther stood dumbfounded.

'Hey,' Esther called to her brother when she had finally became numb to it. 'What kind of fight is this?'

'A childish one, no doubt.' Eli crossed his arms. 'Don't interfere. Let's let this run its course. It'll be over soon.'

Just as they had decided to do nothing and act as spectators, the fighting had seemed to reach the end.

"Little baby," Bryce said. "You think you're super cool because you hang out with Esther and Eli, but you don't even have a secret with them."

'A secret?' Esther asked her brother, confused. 'Since when did we share a secret with him?'

'Don't know,' answered Eli.

"What secret?" hissed Cheryl. "You don't have any secrets."

"Do too," replied Bryce. With a smirk, Bryce said, "I am friends with heroes."

They were wondering when he was going to bring that back up.

"You aren't friends with no heroes. That's why you're a little baby." He laughed, "Hoping their coolness will rub off on you? Well, it won't. You'll never be anything but a little tiny baby." He tried to look as menacing as a seven-year-old could. "I'm their friend now, so you have to leave. Cool kids don't play with babies."

An angered Cheryl quickly slapped Bryce across the face.

Everyone besides her, who was huffing and puffing quite a bit seemed to have frozen.

It was at that moment when a new career path opened for the twins: becoming people who act like statues.

Bryce, who held onto his red hand-printed cheek tightly, looked at Cheryl with tears welling up.

Cheryl glared at him as her tears already began to pour out of her eyes. In an almost ear-shattering voice, she shouted, "I'm telling the teacher on you!"

Bryce, who by now had started sobbing shouted incoherently at her as they raced to see who could reach Ms. Dunley first.

"What. . . just happened?" Esther asked, but not even her brother could tell her the answer.

It wasn't long after Bryce and Cheryl had raced inside to tell the teacher before she came hurrying out and ordering the twins to come back inside.

They knew whatever their teacher was about to say to them was going to be bad since she hadn't called the other children in yet; they all continued to play as their other teachers sat and watched them.

They knew Ms. Dunley hadn't managed to get a good understanding of the situation from Bryce and Cheryl when she asked them.

But Eli and Esther couldn't tell her anything that would help her since they didn't understand what had happened either.

A child's quarrel, was the best they could offer her.

Confused and a little bit angry due to a child being hit, Ms. Dunley ordered Bryce and Cheryl to sit in opposite corners of the room for the rest of recess until they could give her a clear explanation of the story.

What's more, she tirelessly ordered the twins to join them: Eli with Bryce in his corner and Esther with Cheryl in hers.

The twins stared at each other from the other end of the room.

'What just happened?' Esther asked slowly.

'I don't know,' Eli replied in a just as confused voice as her. 'But why are we being punished along with them?'

'Isn't it because we did nothing?'

'Should we have done something?'

They gave it a lot of thought.

'I don't know,' Esther answered.

Truthfully, neither thought their decision to stay out of it was wrong, no matter what Ms. Dunley had to say about it.

Luckily, no parents would be involved, so there was one good thing about the outcome.