The beginning

"Who are you?"

"I am your salvation."

....

North America. USA.

Queens, New York.

It was a great day for Lucy. This was the start of the summer vacation of her second year in high school and just like most of the girls in USA, she needed money so that she can enjoy a better summer vacation.

"Haah, any ideas girls? I am not getting one," Lucy asked her friends Liz and Samantha.

"I told you we can do a part time job," Samantha said to Lucy.

"Yeah we could have but we need 50 thousand bucks! No part time job would pay that well. Even the shady ones," Liz replied to Samantha.

"Can't we just ask our parents then? We can ask 10-20 thousand dollars each. It should not be that difficult." Samantha again have a suggestion.

"You try it first and if you get it then we would try to ask our parents as well," Lucy said to Samantha.

"Then there is no hope," Samantha replied dejectedly. Her shoulders were down and she was looking at the bed.

"Do we really have no choice?" Liz asked them.

"We don't. We have already taken money from our parents last month to give to the moneylenders that we borrowed from. Now even they would not give us any money." Samantha replied to Liz.

All three of them lied on the bed and looked at the ceiling.

The cold moonlight came from the window of Lucy's room. A full moon could be seen in the dark sky that was devoid of any clouds.

Lucy looked at the time on the clock. It was 3:13 in the morning. They were thinking about ways of earning money for the whole night.

"When did we started our small debate yesterday?" Lucy asked something that she already knew. She just wanted to change the atmosphere.

*Splash*

*Splash*

*Swoosh*

"Huh, what are those sounds?" Liz asked. She heard low sounds water being splashed.

"Ignore him," Lucy replied to Liz.

"He? You know him?" Samantha interjected in their conversation.

"Tell us who is he?" Liz also asked.

Both of them were being curious. They knew that their friend had changed in the past months and they definitely thought something had happened to make her change that much.

"My brother." Lucy said without any emotions.

""You had a brother!?"" Both Liz and Samantha asked at the same time.

"Why didn't you tell us anything about him then?" Liz continued while Samantha was asking the same question with her eyes.

"I hate him." Lucy gave a short reply.

"Huh, why do you hate him?" Samantha asked her.

"Because he has everything. My parents love him. They do everything to not disappoint him. While they neglect me as if he is their child." Lucy said with hatred and resentment in her words.

!!!

"What do you mean?" Samantha and Liz asked again.

"Just look at him yourselves. Make sure to hide yourselves as he can somehow sense when people are staring at him." Lucy said Liz and Samantha.

"What is he? Spiderman or Darth Vader? Anything~?" Liz replied nonchalantly

"Let's ignore her and see him. We have been friends with her for the past three years and she had never told us about him. She must be trying to hide something."

Both of them came near the window and peeked at the figure that was causing those noises. Despite her words, Liz was making sure that they hid themselves well.

Both of them saw the small rubber inflated pool in the back lawn. Beside the pool, a silhouette of a man that was reading from a book while sitting on a small wooden chair could be seen due to the moonlight

The silhouette was using his hands to play with the water in the small rubber pool causing the low splashing noises.

Liz and Samantha were only able to see the back side of Lucy's brother as he was facing the moon and they too were facing the moon.

The only thing they got to know was that Lucy's brother had long black hair tied in a small ribbon at the nape of his neck.

"Is he a boy or a girl?" Samantha asked Lucy.

"A boy. Why do you think that he is a girl?" Lucy asked Samantha. She was a little surprised by Samantha's words.

"His figure is too sleek. Just like that nerd. He also have long silky, smooth, shiny black hair. He must care a lot about it," Liz replied to Lucy's question.

"Heh! He doesn't take any special care for his hair. He also doesn't cut it out and they don't say anything to him. Nothing at all," Lucy said to both Liz and Samantha while gritting her teeth. Resentment and bitterness could be seen on her face.

"Calm down, calm down. Ignore him and think about what to do? How can we get all that money from?" Samantha tried to calm her friend by using reality.

It worked.

"Can we ask your brother for money? Maybe he can help us get it or maybe, just maybe he had enough money to give us." Liz suggested to Lucy.

"He would rather donate it to the beggars instead of giving me a single penny of his money." Lucy said without a hint of mercy.

"Exactly what did you do to him for this treatment?" Samantha and Liz asked at the same time.

"Many things. I hated him and that's why I burned his favourite books. I threw his scholarship application and I also cancelled his loan application and many other things. Some small and some big," Lucy said without any care.

"I think that you deserve it." Liz said to Lucy.

"Karma. You are paying for your sins." Samantha also gave her small review.

"I asked you to help me find a way to get money not for you guys to give lectures about life." Lucy said in a higher tone of voice. High enough that the low splashing water sounds stopped.

"He heard us. He did." Lucy said without any context.

"What do you mean? Of course he heard you... You nearly shouted at us so of course he would hear you... And what's the problem if he heard you." Liz asked Lucy.

"If he heard it means that mom must have heard it too. I am so damn." Lucy said in fear.

"Mom had banned me from staying in the nights for this month." Lucy said in a hurry.

"So?" Liz asked her. She didn't thought that it was a matter that Lucy needed to be afraid of.

"She took my six months pocket money due to this same problem. Why did you think that I asked others for money?" Lucy replied to Liz and Samantha.