Gen Three- Chapter Fourteen

I expected Zenith Peak to be fancy given that it was a private school in one of the most affluent places in the world, but Zenith Peak went far past fancy. Mom and Aunt Taffy didn't just pull up to a nice building and drop us off. They pulled up to a parking lot in front of an expensive looking road gate where Canary and Crescent had to get out because all typical students took shuttles to their respective buildings. Zenith Peak, apparently, was a series of buildings much like a college campus settled up against the hills. The actual college campus was a bit further down the way. Aunt Taffy drove us up to the gate, some guards double checked the permission she had to drive us new students to the buildings directly, and off we were in this crazy other world. The high school was the closest, so Ember got taken inside first. Then came the elementary, and Merlot was off. The middle school was the farthest away, and Gilly and I hopped out of the car with wide eyes.

     "This feels so..." I began slowly.

     "Excessive?" Gilly finished for me.

     "Yeah."

     "Perhaps a little." Aunt Taffy laughed as she ushered us inside.

Right across the entrance was the administration offices. A pink and orange woman awaited us inside, and she gave us the biggest smiles.

     "Ah, Mrs. Vivid, a pleasure to see you again," she beckoned towards Aunt Taffy before addressing mom, "And you must be our new Mrs. Vivid."

     "Yes, I'm Hollyhock. A pleasure to meet you."

     "Indeed. Same to you too, Gilly, Dianthus."

My sister and I returned the greeting after she motioned to us in turn.

     "I'm assuming you have already stopped at the high school and elementary, so these should look rather familiar. I'll just need you to sign in these places I've highlighted." the receptionist pulled out a small handful of official looking papers.

Mom briefly glanced over them before taking a moment to sign. She moved through it so fast Gilly and I barely had time to glance out the glass windows to see several other students rush to get to their classrooms as a chime rang out.

     "Everything's set then," the receptionist grinned again, "You're free to take your leave after saying goodbye, and I'll take Gilly and Dianthus to their classroom."

Saying goodbye to mom for the day was harder than anticipated, but I liked the good news that Gilly and I would be together in the same class. She and I received long squeezes from both mom and Aunt Taffy, they left, and the receptionist took us out into the entrance way.

     "There are three floors. Each year the grades get to rotate what floor they're on. Last year, the seventh graders were on the second floor. Now they're on the first. Next year they'll be on the third. Your classroom is over here, and your lockers are down this way. Here are your combinations."

     "It is really okay that we didn't bring anything with us?" Gilly pondered as the woman took us to our lockers after giving us slips of paper, "It feels strange not having anything."

     "The school provides you with all the materials required for your classes. You'll find items like your school bag in your locker, and supplies like paper and pencils in your desk."

     "And all for free?" I asked in amazement.

     "Well, the price is included in the payments your parents make to the school." the woman explained.

     "Oh, right."

We were done being shown our lockers right as a second chime echoed throughout the halls. The receptionist told us it was time for classes to begin, reassured us that we weren't late, and took us to the corner classroom where I became overwhelmed because of a whole bunch of different reasons. The first thing that caught me was the layout. There were eight desks on the two sides of the room all facing the center. The teacher stood in the middle, and the teacher was the second thing that caught me off guard. He was albino. However, it wasn't just him. The first of my classmates I spotted was another set of twins, identical albino girls. On the other side of the room sat another albino, a boy. A quick search around also revealed that there were only two Mixed students not counting Gilly. To top it all off, everyone in the room was super pretty. It wasn't that I thought my classmates back home were ugly, it was just that everyone now had gotten really good genes.

     "Oh, thank you, Honey. These must be our new students." the teacher spoke after we stepped inside and everyone's attention snapped to us.

Gilly and I nodded, perhaps a tad more sheepishly than we would have liked.

     "Welcome." he greeted warmly, and there was no stopping my brain from recognizing that even he was model gorgeous.

The receptionist prompted us to stand by him, and stand by him we did as she nodded before taking off.

     "Everyone, this is Gilly and Dianthus Vivid. They'll be with us for the year due to their hometown being hit by the hurricane on the east coast. I know you'll do all you can to make them feel comfortable and welcome here."

There was a chorus of 'hello's, and Gilly and I glanced around in an only somewhat awkward spin in order to greet everyone with hesitant smiles.

     "I'm Mr. Divine on paper, but your delightful peers have taken to calling me Divi or Mr. Divi if they feel the need to be more formal," Mr. Divine explained with a chuckle, "Are there any questions you have? I'm sure Zenith Peak is quite the change from public school."

     "I'll say. You have giant televisions on the walls." Gilly pointed out in awe, and that prompted some friendly laughter.

    "They can be used for watching videos, but these screens are generally more akin to a blackboard. I have this fancy tablet here, and what I write on it appears on the screens. The desks are facing opposite directions, so there's a need for two screens."

     "Why is the room set up like this?" I wondered.

     "Zenith Peak is about equal reach to all of it students. The traditional classroom set up puts a good number of students far away from the teacher, which prompts drifting attention from the students and a lack of awareness from the teacher."

     "So it's basically to make sure those in the back can't slack off." I summarized in amusement.

     "Pretty much." Mr. Divine agreed merrily.

     "That's going to be rough for us. We're always in the back." Gilly joked.

     "Hopefully you won't find it too much of a struggle. I do what I can to keep things entertaining." Mr. Divine promised enthusiastically.

He showed us to our seats, which were at least in the back corner, and from there on classes started. Relief took hold when I discovered the classes weren't too difficult to get into. I thought with all the students probably having private tutors and whatever that Gilly and I would be way over our heads. There was a seriousness about the material even if Mr. Divine was kind of funny with his instruction, but I suppose that was simply natural when the rest of your classmates were more mature due to them being involved with the entertainment industry or the like. Gilly and I typically only watched cartoons, but a few faces in the room did appear vaguely familiar.

Starting to grow comfortable, I became super psyched when health class rolled around. The class worked on the bone structure of the body, and I let the easier questions about which bones were which pass me by. In truth, I did want to show off a little. There were bound to be a lot of impressive people in the class. It did feel like I needed some way to put myself on their level, and revealing that I was smart, at least in one subject, felt like the right away to do that.

     "Does anyone feel up to answering this question?" Mr. Divine started it off, "I know we only covered it at the very end of class last Friday. What is periosteum?"

I waited and gave it a moment. The moment I looked for was the moment when everyone else in the class hesitated and desperately hoped someone else would answer. There was a moment of silence, another moment of silence that proved lightly awkward, and I went ahead and raised my hand when Mr. Divine, in his slow, perpetual spin to face everyone at some point, had me in his line of sight.

     "Yes, Dianthus?" he naturally chose me, seemingly happy that I'd raised my hand as I think he avoided picking Gilly and I for questioning as we were new.

     "The periosteum is a dense, fibrous membrane that covers bones except at the surface of the joints. It is divided into the outer fibrous layer and inner cambium layer. It is attached to the bone by Sharpey's fibers, and the periosteum that covers the skull is known as the pericranium."

I could have said more, but I cut it off there. I didn't want it to be obvious I was showing off.

     "Very good. That was impressive," Mr. Divine praised, "And thank you. You highlighted the main points we're going to cover today with that explanation."

     "Dia wants to be a doctor. She's super smart with this kind of stuff." Gilly piped up to either knowingly or unknowingly help me out.
     "Keep up the good work then." Mr. Divine encouraged.

Due to the new experience of everything, classes flew by. It approached lunchtime, and before I knew it everyone was packing up their things for the noontime break. My packing halted for a moment when no one else blinked when a brown man suddenly slid into view of the door, took a step inside, and motioned for the albino boy on the other side of the room. The boy got his things, said something to the man I couldn't quite catch, and walked out with the man on his heels with Mr. Divine not saying a word about it.

About to ask Gilly if she thought that as strange as I did, my pondering was interrupted by the other Mixed girl in class leaning over.

     "So, you're Dianthus and you're Gilly?" she questioned.

     "You can call me Dia." I answered after we both nodded.

     "I'm Morning Glory. Nice to meet you."

     "Nice to meet you." Gilly and I replied at the same time, which made Morning's lips curl into a grin.

     "Hey, I have a question," my sister put out there to her, "How come we don't change classes or at least have different teachers for the different subjects? Is it really just Mr. Divine doing it by himself?"

    "Uh-huh. It's one of the things Zenith Peak does to encourage better learning. The more familiar we are with the teacher, the better he's able to connect with us and figure out the most effective ways to teach. He's not just our instructor for all our subjects. He's also our teacher for our entire middle school career. He taught us last year, and he'll teach us next year. When we go up to high school, he'll gain a new class to look after for three years, and we'll gain another teacher for three years. College you have different teachers like normal though."

     "Oh wow." Gilly remarked in amazement.

     "Doesn't that mean the teachers have to be super geniuses then?" I rationalized, "The subjects get way harder as you go up in grades, so for one person to be able to know and teach them all...that's seriously crazy."

     "It is, and, yeah, all of our teachers are crazy intelligent like that. Who knows how accurate it is, but there's a rumor that floats around that Divi has an IQ of 135."

     "Dang." I gushed.

Mr. Divine left the room, and I grew curious about why we weren't heading towards the cafeteria or anything. Morning explained that the cafeteria wasn't in this building. The lunchroom was an entirely separate auxiliary building we had to take a shuttle to reach. All middle school students ate at the same time. The elementary had their lunch hour before us, and the high school went after us. We had to wait until Mr. Divine returned before we were allowed to filter outside, and that typically took a few minutes. Morning proceeded to then go about gathering her things, which prompted Gilly and I to stand. We went to look out the nearby windows to see more of the surrounding area, but almost as if waiting for us to be available the two albino girls sped towards our way.

     "You two are twins too?" the one with glasses asked.
     "Yeah." Gilly confirmed.
     "That's so great. It's nice to have another pair in class." she gushed.
     "And of course I have to ask, which is the older and younger of the two?" her sister requested with a little laugh.
     "I'm Gilly. I'm older."
     "I'm Dianthus, but you can call me Dia. I'm the younger one."
     "I'm Ethereal Chalcedony, and she's Ephemeral Chalcedony. I'm the older twin." the girl without glasses introduced them both.

Gilly and I looked at each other immediately with curious glances.

     "Ethereal?" Gilly repeated in surprise.
     "Uh-huh," Ethereal confirmed brightly, "Our parents named me after Ethereal Yonder, the one who was at the forefront of exposing all that corruption. My mom and dad hoped I would grow up strong like her."
     "And our parents gave me my name to match hers somewhat." Ephemeral explained in amusement.
     "You two look confused or something. Have you not heard of Ethereal Yonder?" Ethereal wondered as Gilly and I still stood there needing a moment to take it in.
     "Oh no, we've heard of her. We knew her quite well, actually. She was our grandmother. It's just a bit of a shock to hear of someone being named after her." I revealed.

Did that change the expression of almost everyone in the classroom. Quiet conversations previously between our peers signaled the majority were actually listening in on our conversation. While everyone appeared intrigued about my sister and I before, the way half of them immediately rushed over showed how enthralled they now were.

     "I thought your last name was just a coincidence," Ephemeral understood in awe, "You're related to Prism Vivid then?"
     "He's our uncle. Our dad is his younger brother." Gilly said to everyone's amazement.
     "Hmm...that would make your dad Coal then." Ethereal figured without too much effort, leaving me hesitant about the fact that people clearly knew more of our family structure than I'd ever imagined.

I did my best not to be too weirded out. Almost all of our family kept our addresses and phone numbers private due to the fact that we were attached to famous figures of both history and entertainment, but I knew at the very least that the names of Uncle Prism's siblings were included in his online encyclopedia page. Anyone with a decent memory who took a look at it could easily recall the name of Uncle Prism's only younger brother given that it was a unique name for a red man. The collection of logic wasn't too out there.

     "Are you staying with your uncle?"
     "What was your grandmother like?"
     "Are you moving to Tinseltown permanently?"
     "Can you get me an autograph?"

The questions started to come all at once when the brief pause presented the opportunity.

     "Uh, yes, she was wonderful, no, and possibly?" Gilly replied, entertained as I was overwhelmed.
     "Okay, okay, everyone, that's enough," Ethereal laughed, and by the way everyone listened fully it became apparent who the ringleader of the class was, "Would you two like to sit with us at lunch?"
     "Sure." I agreed.

No sooner did she say that than did Mr. Divine step back into the classroom. The shuttle had come a minute or two early, and being in the corner classroom got us on that one first. A second class filed into the back, and two more shuttles appeared to grab the other four seventh grade classrooms as ours took off. A minute down the road, and the smaller building came into sight. The empty space steadily filled as our classmates rushed to claim their usual spots, and I had to control my mouth not to drop open. Zenith Peak even did lunch fancy. A wide, rectangular counter space encapsulated a giant grill and various other cooking instruments while a host of chefs prepared delicious smelling food. Several students sat down right away with lunches from home. However, the majority stepped up to the counter to place an order from a menu. After taking that in, the elegant chairs and tables and the fact that there was two floors to the place hardly seemed impressive.

Then I saw the patio. Stepping through an exquisite glass door on the second floor into the glorious later summer weather to see a brilliant view of the outskirts of the city and wide open ocean stunned me fully. I could understand why Canary and Crescent liked Zenith Peak so much. Public school couldn't compare after this. Ethereal and Ephemeral sensed my stupor, and Ephemeral patted me on the back before leading my sister and I to one of the tables farthest away from the door. They placed us in the seats away from the lower wall so we could have the full view of the buildings and water.

Those two and two others sat with us, and I was surprised more students weren't bursting through the door to grab a seat here. Some took seats on the upper floor, yet only a few others followed to find spots at the other tables.

     "How are you holding up so far?" Ephemeral asked, "Any questions?"
     "Pretty well. Classes weren't too difficult. I gotta know though, it seems like those who are albino have different uniforms. How come?" Gilly put out a questions burning in my mind too.

When I saw Crescent take off in his uniform for the past week, I simply thought that was the uniform for the boys. Then I'd seen Merlot's colored outfit, and sitting in class all those hours made it clear what I'd heard that those who were albino got special treatment.

     "It's been like that ever since the school opened. The uniforms used to be all white, but some parents made a fuss a while back. The school added some gold then. Otherwise, it just is how it is. I don't care either way." Ethereal shrugged.

I wondered if she really didn't care, or if she just didn't mind having the privilege and would actually mind if she was forced to dress like everyone else. That thought I naturally kept to myself.

     "I really like Mr. Divine. He seems super nice, and he's pretty funny." Gilly kept the conversation going.
     "He's really cute as well." I let that slip without meaning to.

Thankfully, it didn't turn into a big thing like I expected. Ethereal, Ephemeral, and the lighter yellow girl, Cream, smiled and laughed a bit, but they didn't turn teasing.

     "It's safe to say most girls in our class think that. I'll let you know now though so it doesn't come as a shock later, but he's a lot older than he looks. I believe he's almost fifty." Ephemeral explained dramatically.
     "Woah, that's a crazy baby face he has then," I remarked, "He looks younger than our dad, who's in his thirties."
     "It's Tinseltown magic," Cream giggled, "Divi even has a son who attends Zenith Peak's college."
     "That's incredible." Gilly gushed.
     "Sort of speaking of Mr. Divine," I began, "How come he didn't say anything about the brown man who picked up that boy who sits on the other side of class? Was the brown man his father?"
     "Nah, that's Mr. Earthbound. He's Lupine's manager. The next season of Glassblown is filming, and Lupine plays the son of the main couple. He leaves class early most days to go to the shoots. A tutor finishes going over the rest of the day's materials with him when he has down moments on set. It was like this last year and the year before. Once the shoot is done, he'll be in class all day." Ethereal answered.

Glassblown. It was a popular television series I'd heard of but never really watched as, again, Gilly and I typically stuck to cartoons. I'd have to look it up.

Louder chatter from inside signaled the other shuttles dropping off the rest of the seventh graders, and I got a glimpse of more shuttles bringing the rest of the middle schoolers. A large handful of new bodies entered the patio, which had Cream and the brown boy, Forest, who'd been sitting with us take off to other seats. It took a minute more for me to understand why they'd left. The rumors were obviously true that Tinseltown was home to high percentage of those with albinism. The majority of those who came onto the patio were white, and even with there being empty seats still available outside the students inside gave passing glances before continuing on. Sitting on the patio was an exclusive right one had to earn. Sitting with the elite students, the albinos, was an even higher right.

     "Who are your new friends?" one of the girls who approached asked with enough of a judging tone to confirm this.
     "This is Gilly and Dia Vivid. They're Prism Vivid's nieces and Ethereal Yonder's granddaughters."

I shifted in my seat somewhat uncomfortably. I had to have my 'pedigree' presented as if I was a dog in order to have permission to sit my butt in a certain chair, and I didn't quite know how to handle that.

     "I'm Crystal." the new girl introduced with a much more opening smile now.
     "I'm Quartz."
     "I'm Stratus."
     "I'm Prism."

The three boys introduced themselves, and I ignored the fact that two of them had names that were the same as my uncle's. Quartz and Prism were popular names for albino boys to begin with, so I couldn't be sure they'd been named after my Prism Quartz Vivid.

The seats filled around us. A few stood up to go put in orders, a few revealed the chefs knew what they wanted to eat on Monday and would have it brought up to them, and only Stratus came with a home brought lunch like Gilly and I.

     "So, how come you moved to Tinseltown?" Quartz asked after several minutes passed.
     "We grew up in Berrybrook, but there's that big hurricane hitting it right now. It's also been raining there really badly all year, so it was about to start flooding even without the storm. With the storm...it's total chaos." Gilly explained.
     "Uncle Prism offered to take us in right away. We'll be staying with him until we can find a place of our own for the time being." I added.
     "How many of your family came? Don't you have some other siblings?" Crystal wondered, and I tried not to be weirded out again.
     "We came with mom, our older sister, our younger brother, and Blaze, our great-great uncle. Dad and grandpa stayed behind to help the city." Gilly answered.
     "Oh, weren't they on the news the other day?" Stratus spoke up excitedly, "I remember seeing two red men with the last name Vivid being interviewed."
     "That's them." Gilly confirmed.
     "And how do you like Zenith Peak?" Prism asked.
     "It's certainly an experience. Nothing like public school, but it's nice. I'm not sure if I'm sold on having to wear a uniform though." I smiled.

I received some unusual smiles back from that comment. It was like I was a child spurting out nonsense, and they were the patient adults just letting me babble on.

     "I can understand the difficulty of the change when you're used to wearing what you want," Ephemeral said as non-offensively as possible, "There are some nice perks to wearing the uniform though. They come mostly off campus, actually, which is why almost everyone wears their uniform all day long."
     "Yeah?" Gilly questioned.
     "Zenith Peak is really hard to get into. Almost impossible. There are plenty of rich kids wanting to get in, but the administration is super selective. The-"
     "But, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," I apologized as Ephemeral kept going when I thought she was done, "But when our mom called to ask about transferring us the person on the other end of the call sounded like he or she was willing to bend backwards to let us in."
     "That's why getting in is about who you know, and you knew the right people. Well, person," Ephemeral pointed out brightly, "Yet going back to the uniforms, since everyone in the city knows of how difficult it is to get in, they automatically assume you're impressive or the like if they see you in the school's outfit. People are a lot nicer, are a lot more accommodating, and shops have even offered us free stuff."
     "It happens to Solid and Mixed students too. It's not just because we're albino." Quartz pointed out, and I swore he was reading my mind as I had been about to offer up that other explanation.

I took a moment to think.

     "I guess that's kind of cool." I shrugged a little.
     "I can see the appeal," Gilly joined along, "I have to ask though, why is Uncle Prism so influential? He's a good director, but I don't see why that gives him this higher status I'm learning that he has."
     "It's because of the kind of director he is," Ethereal replied eagerly, gushing, "Have you noticed how unique his movies are?"
     "No, at least not in the way you're thinking of."
     "He's only done one movie based off a book or something like that. Otherwise, all he does is original ideas. Almost no one else does that anymore. He doesn't just direct either. He's heavily involved in the other aspects of the creation of his films, and that's why they come out so good. He's a serious artist. Any aspiring actor or actress knows if they want to be anybody, starring in a movie he directs is the best way to go."
     "That makes sense." I agreed.
     "Which is why I have a favor to ask."

Gilly and I glanced at each other again. There was no doubting what kind of favor would come out this new Ethereal.

     "Would it be alright if Ephie and I came over to your house today? Look, there's this really great idea we've had for a while, and it would mean the world if we could tell your uncle about it." she put it right out there.
     "What kind of idea?" Gilly prompted her along.
     "A movie about your grandmother's life. It's such an amazing story! We've studied about her a lot, and wouldn't we be the perfect ones to play her part? Having twins like us act is always so much better because we can get twice the work done. Our dad even knows an actor who would be perfect for Eden, and since we've grown up knowing him we're already close. Good chemistry is paramount for a touching tale."

Gilly and I struggled to answer. I knew that I didn't like the sound of that idea. Ethereal was talking about real people I knew and loved. They weren't just roles to be cast. It would be unsettling as well, seeing others pretend to be my family.

     "I'm not sure if Uncle Prism would be good with that idea," Gilly took the plunge to answer, "Grandma died pretty young, and the years leading up to that were rather heartbreaking for our aunts and uncles. It's still a sore subject. Uncle Prism is especially guilty over her death. He was always stuck here working, so he barely got to see her before she passed."
     "That makes sense. Perhaps though, could you two at least just ask him yourselves then? Just see what he says, and if he doesn't want to do the movie right now that's fine." Ethereal pleaded with big eyes and a perfect pout.
     "I...I guess." I promised hesitantly.

By the end of the day, I wasn't sure what to think about the whole experience. Zenith Peak in general as a school was fine, but navigating the waters with my classmates was something else. There were certain things I didn't like at all, but no one had really been mean or anything. It was also easy enough to see how some of my classmates were who they were given that the extravagant world of famous people and fancy privates schools was all they knew. I couldn't judge right away. Needless to say though, when my siblings and I arrived back home I was supremely glad. Uncle Prism being home also proved to be a nice surprise. He said he wouldn't be back until late again.

     "I really like the giant screens as blackboards. We had extra time at the end of class, so Mr. Divine played some funny videos for us." Gilly continued telling mom how our day had gone.
     "And what is this Mr. Divine like?" she wondered with a smile.
     "He's super nice and really smart. Dia thinks he's really cute too." my sister teased.
      "Gilly!" I whined.
     "Is that so?" mom laughed along, "I remember having a bit of a crush on my eighth grade History teacher. He was pretty attractive."
     "Oh, Mr. Tempest? I remember him from Ember's school Christmas performance. He's alright. I think Mr. Divine is way hotter though." Gilly revealed.

Laughter came from behind us, and Canary and Ember walked into the room.

     "You guys are talking about Mr. Divine? He is super hot. I was so disappointed I wasn't in his class." Canary sighed wistfully.
     "I know. You wouldn't stop complaining about it all throughout middle school," Uncle Prism piped up, and he rolled his eyes, "You do know the guy is 48 and his son is in college, right?"
     "You know him?" I asked.
     "Somewhat. He and Taffy knew each other growing up. They're the close ones."
     "I see."
     "Maybe we should get Aunt Taffy to invite him over for dinner for you." Gilly teased me, prodding my stomach with her elbow.
     "I think he's cute. Doesn't mean I do have a crush on him." I frowned.
     "Just like you also don't have a crush on Rain, huh?" she kept going.
     "Ugghh..."
     "Alright, alright," mom stopped that for me, thankfully, "Let me hear more about your day, huh?"

We would go on to tell her more later in the day as Ember delayed our stories.

     "Actually, Aunt Holly," she began, walking over, "I have something I want to ask you first. I made some new friends today, and one of them invited me over to her house. It's a little ways down the neighborhood. If you're busy, I don't mind walking. Can I go?"
     "How far down is it?"
     "It's on East Copper Street."
     "That's not overly far," Uncle Prism said, "It's by that field with the playground."
     "Hmm, alright. Give me the address though, and I'll pick you up at nine. You have to take some time to do your homework while you're there too. It has to be done by the time I come and get you."
     "That's fine," Ember beamed, "I didn't get much. It'll be done no problem. Promise!"
     "Okay. Go on ahead and get going then. I'll call you at five to check in."
     "Sure!"

Ember basically bolted out the door. I found her over-eagerness curious, but other matters came up that let me forget. The show Blaze and Uncle Prism watched ended, and so Blaze went into the kitchen to get a snack. Mom followed, and Canary sat down at the table to start her homework. Crescent and Merlot were upstairs playing video games, which presented Gilly and I the perfect opportunity to fulfill our promise by talking to our uncle.

     "Hey, so, Uncle Prism?" Gilly began tentatively.
     "Yeah?"
     "Some of our classmates had a question for you, and we told them we would ask."
     "Okay. What is it?"
     "You see, in our class there's this set of identical girls with albinism. They have this idea of doing a movie based off of grandma's life, and they think they'd be perfect to star in it. We said we didn't think you'd want to do it, but, again, we did say we would at least ask."
     "Those twins, they're the Chalcedony girls, right?" Uncle Prism sighed.
     "Yeah." I confirmed.
     "Their parents have already talked to me about that project multiple times, and I've told them multiple times that I never want to do anything like that. That's my mom they're trying to use as their basis for fame and fortune for their daughters. Not that I believe they don't want to honor mom's story, but they're just not getting why I'm against it. Mom even told me herself when I started getting into this business that she never wanted her life commercialized."
     "What should we tell them then if their parents have already asked multiple times?"

Uncle Prism gave us a smile.

     "Just tell them no, I'm not interested. I don't want to make such a movie, and if they want to star in one of my films I recommend them auditioning through the appropriate paths if a role they fit opens up."
     "And if they're pushy after that?" I said.
     "Then ignore them. Canary and Crescent have had to deal with people wanting to use them to get to me. As always, if something gets too out of hand let me know and I'll deal with it, but so far everyone's gotten the message to back off if it risks angering the kids of the person they're really trying to schmooze. Also, I would recommend trying not to let the perks of being connected to my name go too far to your head. Enjoy it a little, but stay the nice little girls you already are, huh?" he teased lightly.
     "Of course. I never want to be famous. It seems awful." I shook my head.
     "It has its downsides," Uncle Prism agreed before motioning around to the nice house in the beautiful neighborhood on the edge of a brilliant city, "But its perks are enough for me."