A small girl lied on top of her bed with her eyes closed, bored, yet not wanting to do anything else. She finished her training around noon and studied until four. After taking a shower, she ended up flopping down on top of her bed. She didn't do anything except lie down. On days like these, she wished Ace was home. If she was fond of metaphors, she would have said that her brother was her only light in the darkness... But she wasn't fond of metaphors, so all she thought was, I wish he was here...
Ping
A text message.
Her head rolled to the side and stared at her phone for a minute as if she was willing it to turn over and just show her what the text message said. But alas, her ability did not work like that. With a mental sigh, her right hand grabbed her Galaxy S5 and lifted it above her face. Her hand was small compared to the phone, but she managed to reach the home button with her thumb, revealing the message. As soon as she read it, the phone fell straight on her face.
Vrzzz. Her shield made a sound as the phone hit it. It didn't matter that she made the stupid mistake of dropping her phone because Ace was home and taking her outside!
[Ace ❤]
Come down Mara. Let's eat out.
Mara giggled and grabbed her phone. She loved how he knew that she would always go with him outside. It had been so long since they went out together! Where were they going this time? She all but flew down the stairs where her brother was waiting. It looked like her parents weren't back from their date, and that made her happier. They left the house and got in Ace's car, but Ace didn't tell her where they were going. Instead, he started to talk about his thoughts. Even after one year, he hadn't run out of things to talk about with Mara even if Ace was doing most of the talking.
"The last time we went out to eat, we went to a nice Vietnamese restaurant, yeah?" Mara nodded.
Not everyone can afford a place like that, so they eat at smaller shops. The prices are a lot cheaper. Not everyone lives like us, you know?" Mara nodded again.
"Un, of course you know. You're a smart girl." And he smiled that smile that said that he loved her. It made her feel really warm inside and made her smile. From the way he was talking, she knew that they would probably be eating at one of those poor restaurants her parents always warned her to stay away from.
"So! We're going to eat a small shop so you can see for yourself that not all delicious foods come from fancy restaurants," he said enthusiastically and smiled as if that made him happy. Maybe it did make him happy to eat at a cheap restaurant.
Mara could see that they were entering a much neighborhood much poorer than their own neighborhood. Despite the crawling doubt, she held faith in Ace's choice of food. It was good last time... Maybe there really was something special about poor restaurants. They arrived at the small...restaurant that didn't look like a restaurant...and they both went in.
Ding. "Welcome!"
The restaurant was less clean than she thought it would be. Even an 11 year-old could see that most of the chairs were dirty and that some were broken. Though she loathed to admit it, she could see why her parents didn't like places like these. She tried to look for something positive. At least the tables seemed decently clean. Mara looked up to her brother, who just looked down, smiled, and ruffled her hair. Her lips lifted, liking it when he did that, but returned to normal when she had to fix her hair to look presentable.
"I'll order for you, so could you find a seat for us?" Mara nodded. He left, and she looked around for a moment. It was a really small place. On the left were no people, so she naturally went over to the left and sat at the table by the counter. She'd picked their table fairly quickly, so Ace wasn't quite done paying for their meal. On the other side of the restaurant, she could see adult women chatting at the same table. They both looked like they were used to a place like this, and she found that curious. Did people come to such a place so often if they didn't have enough money?
Ace finally came back with their meals and set them on the table. They were plain-looking sandwiches. Thye looked like nothing special. Mara looked to her brother with a questioning glance. Her brother just took a bite out of his own sandwich and gave her the look: why don't you try it? And so she did.
It was... interesting. It looked like nothing special, but she kept eating and eating until her sandwich was gone. The inside of the bread was crispy, but the outside was soft. The ham was ordinary, but it went really well with the special sauce inside. She looked at her brother who was also done with his sandwich. He was watching her with an amused smile.
"So. More?" Mara nodded immediately in all seriousness and drank her water.