The Serpent Queen

Back in Black | Part One

"Has this room ever been cleaned?" Phoebe voiced her thoughts aloud while trying not to choke on dust floating in the air. In fact, she opened a window.

"Probably not in years." The two family members stood in the modern office of their grandparents home with a few cleaning supplies. In reality, a few weeks worth of dust lay on the surfaces and books. "They're rich enough to hire a cleaner to clean in here So, why do we have to do this?"

"Because they're old and we're young and apparently have nothing to do over the summer."

Demetri sighed, "It better not take all summer."

"I second that. Or all weekend. I have karate, dates to go on, people and places to see. The list goes on."

"This is technically a job. They should be paying us." Stavros and Lillian had asked them to come over to spend time with them, but instead pawned the office onto them, which involved cleaning it and sorting a few papers out. He chuckled at the desk, "They don't even have a computer or a laptop in here."

"But they own good phones?"

"Not exactly the latest phones. But not the Nokia, the one you have to push the button a lot of times before you get a letter just to send one text."

"I think that is the Nokia. It's the brick."

"I'm pretty sure they have a landline or two in the house somewhere."

"It's weird. They rich but they don't throw money at our parents or us."

"They gave you a thousand dollars." Demetri pointed out.

"That was a collective amount for all sixteen of my birthdays." Phoebe argued while looking down discreetly. "That's $62.50 a year."

"Wow. That's some math skill there."

"I used my phone calculator, all right? Not all of us are complete genius's like you and Eli."

"Speaking of Eli..." Demetri said, not using his friend's preferred name. "Have you noticed that he's acting a little off?"

The girl was taken aback by that, "Off? What do you mean off?"

"He's changed."

"Of course, he's changed. Not just with the hair and the tattoo. He's more sure of himself, confident, happier. He's more himself and I couldn't be any happier or proud for him."

"I don't know. He's just different...."

Phoebe sighed, "You haven't joined Cobra Kai yet. Are you going to or was that all talk?"

"I'm still weighing my options."

"What options? It's the best dojo in the Valley. We won the tournament."

"Miguel won the tournament."

"I won third place. Two Cobras in the top three. That says something. You should make a reckless impulsive decision for once in your life. Try it."

Demetri scoffed, "I'm not giving into peer pressure about the dojo thing. I'll make my decision in my own time."

"Whatever."

"But I will make a reckless decision here and now." He sat down on the large spinning office chair. Demetri grabbed the small stack of papers on the desk. "I'm going to sort out these papers and I'm going to read them."

"Have fun reading the boring papers." She wiped down the bookcase and was about to start cleaning the massive glass windows. It would take her all day looking at the size of them. The office sat at the back of the bottom floor of the house so she could see the backyard with a pool and a large garden behind it.