THE BEGINNING:CHAPTER XXXIII: FAMILY TIES

The Hallway inside the first floor of an average heighted school building, became crowded
once again with departing students
leaving their classes after the alarm bell which signalled the end of lectures,resounded intrusively for a third time within the interior structure of the school building bringing a temporal end to the teaching for the day enabling fatigued students and tired teachers to leave for their homes amidst the tall and bright civilized but gilded houses of Summerville where they will refreshed themselves during the remaining hours of the hot afternoon except for few lazy students serving their periodic punishment in detention under the watchful eyes of their chemistry teacher whose efforts in sending many distracted teenagers into the detainment room until they are free to leave the school, have been proving quite futile for him to handle since the defaulters were yet to learn from their mistakes of not paying attention at his teachings each time he spends stressful hours trying to impact technical knowledge on them using his theoretical verbal speech in the classroom and regular practical tests in the school's laboratory with vital scientific instruments to build up their knowledge for pompous career jobs in the demanding society. Leonardo strolled out of his class holding an arm of his fancy backpack with his left hand, followed by his friend together with few departing students who made
their way to join a wild flock of young teenagers, streaming outside of their classes towards the staircase which led to the bottom floor of the building and where they will join another stampede of students heading to the open exit of the school with different sizable bags of different brands strapped to their mufti outfits as they kept moving out of the rowdy hallway in mass numbers. The heir to the Sao clan fully clad in a green trouser and a tight fitted longsleeves, led himself and his friend through the interminable rampage of departing teens to the main hallway along with several others who were finding it difficult to move freely as a result of the stampede overcrowding with clothed bodies on their way down the stairs.
"Did you really saw her staring at me during the soccer tryouts?",
Leonardo questioned his buddy after the two friends had luckily evade the crowd and had arrived at their sealed lockers to in order to keep some vital items and textbooks which they plan to use in class the next day when they will resume for the third time this week to begin the morning lectures.
"Not really but I heard about it from Jacob whom I saw getting himself to race with the other athletes on the race track",
Jason replied feeling a bit defeated by his friend's relentless argument not to admit that a pretty girl in the cheerleaders team who coincidentally happens to be in their class was having a superficial crush on him like most teenage girls from the other classes do.
Leonardo stifled a laughter as he opened his locker with his keys which he took from his front pocket and placed two of his hefty books into the opened locker beside his soccer uniform while Jason rested his shoulder on the locker
"Jason, Ever since you got back from Vinewood two weeks ago, you've gotten your head wrapped up lately in a lot of speculative theories which ain't true",
"They are true alright",
"You sure about that?",
"Absolutely, Mary might not really show it but I feel she does care about you",
"I seriously doubt that",
Leonardo replied closing his locker before heading towards the distant doorway which was now almost wide open for the two boys to freely venture out without fear of being toss down by the dispersing crowd.
The two boys finally left the building ignoring other students who walked their way out of the school but they stopped abruptly when they saw a familiar female teenage standing on the foot the wide stairs outside the door with her hands beckoning on the confused boys to come over to where she stood and yelled as soon as her eyes fell upon them
"Hey Leo! You forgot to get your maths test papers from Mr. Redmond!"
She said and hurried towards the dumbstruck fellows who was completely shrouded in astonishment and were still in a trance when she came face to face with them.
She peered at their perplexed faces which displayed utter astonishment especially Leonardo who had suffered much of the surprise effects that got his tongue stuck inside his mouth making him unable to respond back even when he himself remembered that he indeed had hastily left the class in an hurry without having to retrieve his marked papers from his math teacher until she brought them back from their confused states with her charming words.
"Why are both of you staring at me like that?",
She asked trying to figure out why they stood stiff without saying anything to her while Jason who recovered first from the trance swiftly whispered something to the ear of his friend and smirked before leaving the duo stranded instead of answering her inquisitive question
Leonardo wasn't thrilled that Jason had to leave him there stranded with someone he doesn't want to get involve with in spite of his flimsy attraction towards the cheerleader whom he had tried to prevent himself from getting into a close relationship with which his father was strictly against and wouldn't permit him or his two other brothers from having any affair with a human since he had been told not to be seen hanging around with friends in school even his friendship with Jason was still under a close guarded secret without the knowledge of his vicious father.
"I've been searching everywhere for you after the Maths test ended but you weren't around", The cheerleader said grinning at him in an awkward way which made him feel nervous.
"Really? I was quite busy with some stuff in the gym because of the football coach", He replied feeling a bit puzzled but he remained calm without flinching a single sign of nervousness
"Is that so?", she questioned
"Yeah...Did anything went wrong when I was away from the class?",
" Not really. You forgot your test papers and Mr Redmond told me to give it to you", She answered taking out a neat piece of white paper with the bold letter A scribbled in red ink from her pink shoulder bag and handed the written test papers over to him.
Before Leonardo could utter another word to the cheerleader who stood there in front of him, eagerly waiting for him to say something to her, he caught sight of his usual home ride being driven to a stop near a mulberry tree across the streets by a hefty fellow accompanied by two other bodyguards inside the black Volkswagen, through the midst of departing students that were still walking to their domicile on the tarred road, a short distance away from the school perimeter and took two steps away from her, descending down the stairs but he paused when he realized his impoliteness of leaving her behind standing alone on the stairs above him and turned around to say goodbye to the cheerleader before his final departure from the school whose deserted vicinity soon began to become quiet and scanty of inhabitants leaving the premises of the sunny field.
"Thanks for your help getting me the test papers, and I'm really sorry but I have to go right now",
He said keeping his papers inside his backpack while the pretty cheerleader peered at his home ride at the mulberry tree and understood that her classmate is about to leave for his house in the city but her countenance kept her focused at the car without paying attention to him and didn't seem to notice when he left not hearing her reply until he had gone a few metres away from the stairs, close to edge of the green grass which separated the fenced field and the tarred road.
He strolled grudgingly under the sun towards the parked vehicle after heading past the barbedwire fence into the road and walked up to the other side of the back door which swung open as soon as he got closer enough to enter the car, revealing a teenage boy around his age clad in a black suit and black pants, sitting comfortably behind the front seat beside the open window of the side door where most of the refreshing wind pass into the car to chase away the rising heat inside the vehicle while the eyes of the two hefty familiar men who sat in front, met his sweaty face on the side mirrors as he gently adjusted his butt on the soft seat beside the the new guard.
He couldn't fully see the face of the young boy whose visage was facing the school field whom he deduced to be a new bodyguard that his father assigned to monitor the movements and activities of him and his other siblings as well as to offer but he didn't care if he had been sent by to watch him closely at all times for any sign of threat or danger and felt irritated by his presence in the car since he wasn't too comfortable to be sitting with another guard
"Who is that young girl?", the stranger asked unexpectedly compelling the others to look in his direction and Leonardo shifted his eyes away from the back head of the stranger towards the front yard of the school and saw the cheerleader still staring at the car from where he had left her stranded all alone in the silent vicinity of the school.
"She's a friend and totally not someone you should be bothering yourself with", The response came from Leonardo.
"Something feels different with the way she looks at us",
"I agree", One of the guards in front commented but Leonardo chuckled and tapped the driver on his shoulder after he returned his gaze from the cheerleader gesturing at the driver to take them to pick up his younger sister from middle school like they usually do whenever they wanted to go home except for his other brothers who were driven home in a separate car.
"You're just paranoid for nothing. She's completely harmless so, forget about her", He said resting his back on the seat and placing his seatbelt across his body as the car began to depart from the premises to the nearest neighborhood,
"Okay, I'll heed to your demand",
"That's good to hear",
Leonardo replied and took out his headset from his backpack, switching it on before placing it over his ears and kept his mind busy with his favorite songs allowing silence to return once again inside the car while the driver took a detour to the next street until they got to the main highway where several other cars kept going to unknown destinations ignoring them and lucky for them, the highway was free from the frequent traffic jam