(Kim)
When I first started school, I thought that it would be great. I mean, I would get to spend the whole day with Trin and Shin along with Ron. What could be better than that? Nothing that I could think of, especially since Ron hadn’t given into all of the bad things people said about Trin yet.
But, I failed to take into account that Trin and Shin were fourth graders and I was just going to be in the first grade, so I wouldn’t be able to spend the entire day with them. I would get to see them at recess, though, which wasn’t nearly as good as being able to be with them for the entire day. To make matters worse, Ron was in a different class than I was.
School wasn’t anything like what I expected it to be. I hated it for the most part. Aside for everything I just named, the lessons were also so slow. I already knew everything that we were learning in class. Hey, my parents are a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon, not to mention my sister thought she was like Da Vinci reincarnated with the way that she soaked up knowledge. So, I had no choice in being advanced. So, school was very boring from the educational stand point.
School was weird too because it was there that I learned there was more to Trin than what I was used to. I was used to the quiet girl that read me almost every night or gave me half her snacks while we watched cartoons or let me win at board games. I was used to a slightly warmer Trin; it was before she considered hugging a crime against humanity. I was used to having my super big sister that was great at everything and treated me like I was greatest gift she could ever receive. At school, people told me things about her, terrible things and that included teachers.
Kids I could ignore. I mean, if a person didn’t know who John Steinbeck was didn’t have my respect; yes, Ron knew who Steinbeck was because Trin used to read to him too before he started acting like she had the Plague. I just didn’t trust anyone to tell me about my sister because I knew her better than anyone. So, they could go ahead and say what they wanted; well, at first they could do that. Eventually, it got on my nerves.
My teacher in particular had a thing against my sister. I don’t know what she had against her even now, but I know that she didn’t like Trin. The first few days of school, she noticed that I had the same last name and she wanted to know if I was related to Trin. I grinned widely and proudly declared that Trin was my big sister. The woman appeared absolutely shocked by my words. I don’t know why she was stunned, but it could have been for a number of reasons.
There was the chance that she was stunned at how proud I was to have a sister. It could have been that she was shocked because I considered Trin my sister. It could have been that she was surprised that I was related to Trin point blank.
After finding out that I was Trin’s sister, the teacher started up with all kinds of crap. It seemed that the thing that bothered her the most was that Trin was a know-it-all. I don’t see the problem with a child having an intellect and exercising it. I know for a fact that back then, Trin wasn’t nearly as obnoxious about her mind as she is now; she was practically humble back then. So, my teacher was more than likely, as Trin would say, a hater. She just hated that my sister was a very smart kid.
Most of the other things that she went into, I just didn’t understand. Hey, I was a very naïve and good-natured six-year-old. So, a lot of the things the woman said went over my head and I just erased them from my memory. I do remember her telling me that Trin wasn’t really my sister, but for the life of me, I didn’t comprehend how that was plausible. Trin was my sister and that was the end of the discussion in my head. It was like someone telling me that my parents weren’t my parents or that the tweebs weren’t my brothers. The teacher tried to make it a big thing for some reason, though.
She actually had the nerve to tell me about how my parents found Trin and that was why she was in my house. I didn’t really believe her. I believed that my mother had Trin just like she had me and the tweebs. I didn’t know any better.
“You shouldn’t tell her things like that,” Trin said in a low and rather creepy voice. She was standing in the doorway of my classroom; everyone else had left to go outside for recess.
“Sis!” I cheered and ran over to her. I easily put everything that the teacher said right out of my mind the moment. I saw Trin. The sight of her always just brightened my day from the start as far as I know.
“Come on, I had Shin save you a swing,” Trin informed me. See, my sister was always the best.
“You’ll push me, right?” I asked.
“Right,” she agreed. She always pushed me on the swings. She also always had Shin save me a swing because I really liked the swings.
“Really high?” I asked.
“As high as you want,” she replied.
I walked off with Trin and noticed that she gave my teacher a lingering look. My teacher didn’t seem affected by it, but she should have been. Trin wasn’t the docile little creature she had once been. Bitterness had built in her system from years of bullying and confidence had been instilled in her by the four adults around her that cared, namely our parents and Shin’s parents. Trin was beginning to figure that she didn’t need to take everyone’s crap because she was much more than some little trinket.
I wasn’t supposed to see how Trin got back at my teacher for all of the despicable things that she had said. It was a darker side to my sister that I would see more often; I actually helped create some of it by getting into things and Trin would come to bail me out or just didn’t want me to do something I might regret. But, it was starting to manifest itself now.
She had been fighting with kids more often, doing some things to kids to show them that they should stop messing with her. But, she was now starting on adults. She wasn’t taking anything from anybody whose last name wasn’t Possible or Toriyama.
(Trin)
I stood in front of that cow’s car with my bokken clutched tightly in my grip. That dumb bitch, how dare she try to lower my sister’s opinion of me! How dare she tell Kim that I wasn’t her real sister! How dare she speak as if she was better than I was! The bitch.
Oh, she had to be taught a lesson. I wasn’t the same Trin Possible that sat quietly in her class three years earlier while students poured glue in my hair or spat paper at me. I wasn’t the same girl that she could look at callously as if it was a sin for me to be adopted. I was definitely not that frightened little girl anymore. I was something new, something malicious. Hell, I might have been a demon at that time.
I took my bokken to that bitch’s car with more anger than any nine-year-old should ever possess. I worked on it for a couple of minutes before Shin joined in; I guess I made it just look too good. Actually, he just wanted revenge too.
Shin wanted revenge for every time that she told him “you people are good at math.” He wanted revenge for every time that she asked him what part of China he was from, for every time she wanted to know why he never had egg rolls for lunch, for every time that she asked him to show her how to use chopsticks, and for every fucking time that she wanted to know if he was related to the people that ran a Chinese restaurant in the damn mall. As one could imagine, he had a lot of pinned up frustration.
We were both silent as we trashed her car with strength that children shouldn’t have; Shin’s father trained us very, very hard. I doubt I could make someone understand how hard that man trained us. He always said “students of mine need to be the best or need to be gone.” It was a bit impossible for his son to be gone and I was attached to Shin like we were stitched together, so we had little choice in being the best.
Shin and I got too caught up in our dance with that heifer’s car to say anything to each other. I was pretty much yelling my obscenities in my head and I’m sure he was doing the same, so we didn’t disturb each other. We beat that car like it was the last thing that we would ever do. We truly detested that whore.
When it was all said and done and her car looked like it had been shot up, we stood there and waited for her. We wanted her to know who it was that took the time and effort from their day to torment her so perfectly. It didn’t take long and the look on her face was priceless. I didn’t show it, but oh my, I was so fucking satisfied with our work that I wanted to do it again. Why didn’t she have two cars?
She looked at us and the stupid bitch actually wanted to know why we would do such a thing. I could only wonder why we never thought to do it before. It was such a brilliant idea; I still think it was brilliant.
Shin and I stared at the female jackass. A woman that swore to the heavens that Shin was completely Chinese and I was unwanted actually wanted to know why we would do something like what we did. She lucked out in my opinion. We should’ve done more, like covered her in pig’s blood or something.
Shin and I started at her as she fell to the ground. Shin took another whack at her car just to show her that she needed to learn to watch her tongue. She started crying once he dinged it. We looked at each other when she started weeping; he smirked for the both of us. It was even more satisfying and then Shin made it even better. He went into his pocket and flung some loose change at her, hitting her in the head.
“Learn to take the fucking bus,” Shin told her and then we walked off. A very good day’s work in our shared opinion; that bitch made sure to watch what she said after that.
Had I known then that Kim had been watching, I would’ve behaved differently, of course. Even at my worse, I never wanted Kim to know that I had demons inside of me and, most of the time, I just let the demons do their thing. I don’t hate to say it, but I don’t feel remorse like regular people do. If someone hurts me, I hurt them back, preferably worse. To me, they’re asking for it. I didn’t want Kim to be that way because I do know right from wrong and I know that most of the time what I do isn’t right. I won’t say it’s wrong, but it isn’t right.
I never wanted my little sister to be like me, some creature that could barely smile unless some jackass’ bleeding and I made it happen. I never wanted her to answer misery with misery; I never even want her to know misery. How I live is no way to live and I always wanted to set a good example because that was what my parents wanted and I always knew that was what a good big sister would do. It is hard to set a good example with redheaded pixies spying on your evil deeds.
Believe it or not, I never wanted to hurt someone that didn’t hurt me. I never went out of my way to kick someone down a flight of stairs or anything, but that isn’t something to brag about. But, if I was left alone for the most part, many people wouldn’t need fake teeth or to have their friends sign their casts.
(Kim)
I had a feeling that Trin didn’t want me around when she and Shin seemed to lose control of themselves. Well, I shouldn’t say lose control of themselves because I know that they’re always aware of what they’re doing. They just didn’t seem to care as long as no one that mattered saw them do it.
As much as Trin tried to control herself around me and act like a quiet angel, sometimes she slipped up while I was standing right there. Sometimes it was necessary for her to slip up and though I was little, I did understand. So, when she slipped up and it was necessary, she started looking like a superhero to me.
Trin never came out of nowhere when she was fighting; there was always a reason behind it. Like one time, there were these big kids that were pushing me around; I think it was because people used to push Trin around and they looked at me like a replacement. Stupid move. After all, there was a reason that they couldn’t push Trin around anymore.
Now, I tried fighting those kids back because I wasn’t the average first grader; I was somewhat trained in martial arts. Shin’s father was teaching me right along with Shin and Trin. He actually liked making us work harder by making us ashamed of ourselves in someway or, in my case, just saying if I wanted to be like Shin and Trin I needed to train just as hard as them. He used to make Shin train harder by making fun of him when he got beaten up by Trin. He made Trin work harder by telling her that I was a natural and I’d be able to kick her butt in a little while. He was so good at manipulating us into working on everything very hard.
Well, anyway, the big kids were about to rough me up. There were like six boys and one of me. Trin charged in as soon as I hit the ground from a boy pushing me down. She kicked that kid so badly I thought I was watching a cartoon. He groaned and fell over right away. Shin came in behind her and punched another boy. They couldn’t have handled all six kids yet; they weren’t that good, but the kids didn’t know that.
The way Trin and Shin presented themselves after their explosive entrance was the key to winning the battle; it is still one of their major weapons. They just look like they could and would kill the whole world. I use too now. It isn’t as much of a bluff anymore now as it was then, as in they might actually be able to kill the whole world; I’m not sure.
“Anybody else looking to hit my little sister?” Trin inquired with a strange sort of frown on her face. It was almost like she was smirking, but she was frowning.
The bullies ran off as if they were on fire. Trin and Shin, my heroes. My sister saved me a lot of the time when I got into it with groups of people, especially when I argued with them. It never registered to me that those kids could do unspeakable things to me and probably would since many of them had either done such things or witnessed such things done to my sister. Thanks to Trin, I never came home with bruises like she used.
(Trin)
I wished that somebody would ever try to touch my sister the way that they used to do to me. I probably would’ve murdered one of those kids at the time. Sure, I might not have been able to take down a whole group of punks yet, but I damn sure could handle one or two. If they wanted to be stupid, which they didn’t, they would have tried to tie my little sister to a flag pole and they would’ve ended up in comas. Or, at least, I’d like to think that on some occasions.
But, Kim being my leash, probably would’ve halted things before they got that far. She would’ve seen me hurting someone too much and she would’ve started crying for me to stop or something. I can’t be responsible when my sister cries; it hurts me way too much, so I always stop. I always want to be a good sister; I swear I do.
But, I never wanted anyone to hurt her, so it was hard to be the good example I always wanted to be, especially at school. I knew I wasn’t the best sister when Kim started getting into fights, causing fights. She and some random kid might be arguing, usually, over something he said about me, and she would throw the first punch. The first time I saw that I swear the first thought in my head was “what the fuck?” and then I jumped in because I didn’t want her to get in trouble. It didn’t happen often, but it happened more times than I liked. Always by the time a teacher came over, I was working the brat over and Shin had pulled Kim away from the scene. Sometimes, we changed roles because Shin wanted to work the kid over.
(Shin)
You know, at the time, when Trin was jumping in to fights, I thought that she was just trying to protect Kim physically. It made sense to me at the time. But, I wasn’t heavy on thinking outside the box at the time. I was always a data cruncher, which might explain why I always hated English class; too much abstract thinking.
Anyway, there was more to it than protecting Kim physically. It was making sure that she didn’t go out of her fucking mind like we did. I think I can understand that, but I don’t think we’re so bad, now anyway. What I do know, I liked coming to the rescue with Trin. I also like practicing my fighting while knowing I would never get in trouble for it.
We did get into a lot of fights that first year Kim was in school, though. It bothered our parents a bit. They had come to believe that it was never our faults now after all the grief we went through before we could fight back. So, they threw us in a private school for the fifth grade, thinking that it was safer for us to be there than at public school. Such an adventure there; I had no idea that you could be kicked out of a school in a month.
Apparently teachers don’t like being cursed out in three languages, especially if they speak two of them. Yes, we had a teacher that could speak Cantonese. We barked some very distasteful things at her for making an offhanded comment about my parents. We could’ve let it go; it wasn’t the worst thing a person could’ve said, but we don’t operate like that. We stopped taking shit from people the moment we realized that we didn’t have to take it and people didn’t seem to like that. Well, as we told the private school staff when we were leaving, fuck them. We’re people too and we deserve just as much respect as the next person.
Cursing at the teachers weren’t the only reason we got kicked out. Our usual problems followed us there; kids just didn’t seem to believe in leaving us alone. If no one bothered us, Trin would gladly sit quietly and read and I would scheme a way to nearly get me and her killed without hurting anyone else. But, Middleton seemed to be a small town because they knew that we were the outcasts. They always knew that we were the outcasts.
Next time: Trin and Shin discover their homosexuality together, in more than one way. Not to mention Shin tells his parents.