Untouchable (Original Story)

I

The scent of October spice spread through the autumn air as Krystal strolled down the walkway. Her eyes caught along the near-bare trees and their browning leaves, the color reminiscent of her eyes. She smiled at the memory of her sister, Val, matching a fallen leaf to them, years ago. Val had been sweeter then.

Her eyes followed each of the familiar houses, each copied and colored as though she were trapped in a suburbian hellscape. She'd lived here all her life, the similar structure of each engraved in her brain. No, not that one. Not that house either. No-

Aha! Krystal stopped at the sight of the fifth house in the row. The blue-gray coloring and thin build something she could never forget. The sign in the front was a clear giveaway, too. It was a wooden carved palette reading "Parleit Painting."

Krystal stopped, adjusting her shaggy bangs and putting her hands in the pockets of her brown sweats. She padded her feet towards the door, before knocking.

A moment passed before a small brown haired man opened the door, blinking. It was Joon. He glanced Krystal up and down before turning to shout "Gemma!" towards the stairs.

"I'm coming!" A small frazzled girl exclaimed as she fumbled down the steps, a bag half strung across her shoulder. Krystal caught sight of her, noticing the hair messed over her face and the slight purple hue above her nose.

Gemma busted out the door like a wreck, before Joon bade her goodbye and closed the door. Gemma sighed, fixing herself. She pushed the out of place strand back into its correct position, not before tying it up into a low ponytail. She dressed quite nice for the outing, an oversized orange sweatshirt over a loose-fitting orange tank and white sweats.

A weird quirk about Gemma is that her favorite color was orange and she made that very well known. Every blanket and sheet in her room was a shade of orange, every stuffed animal orange, every piece of furniture repainted orange, and every piece of clothing in her wardrobe orange. It was quite crazy, but Krystal loved a bit of crazy.

"Sorry I'm late." Gemma shared. Krystal awkwardly laughed, "no it's okay." The two began to walk together and Gemma began to talk.

"You wanna know what's funny? So my parents decided on expanding the pantry right?" Krystal agreed audibly. "So they were discussing the prices and how they were going to do it, and then tried to figure out what to do when they break the wall when Johnny's around. Then they literally patch it all up and take down the wall, and then my parents decided to throw a spontaneous party."

Krystal giggled, "what!?"

"I know! So then they book me, Joon, and Johnny upstairs for me to watch, and Jin-Li takes my room to go on Discord with his friends so I'm single handedly stuck with Johnny when his YouTube Shorts stop entertaining him."

"I forgot Johnny is a YouTube shorts kid." Krystal giggled.

"I know too much about Garten of Banban and Rainbow Friends..."

The two continued downhill along the sidewalk towards the downtown area of their respective city.

"When's Syd coming out?" Gemma asked, and Krystal shrugged, "once she finishes homework she said."

"Stinky homework," Gemma commented and the two giggled.

Syd Stuts was commonly busy. As newfound valedictorian of Pioneer Historical School District, she had a full set of AP classes and classes at their local community college. She continued to maintain a 4.0 as well as balance all this with theater and volunteering at local Farmers Markets. She was almost the pinnacle of school dominion. So, in short, Syd would have a lot of homework